A compact flagship does everything well with some sacrifices.
The Galaxy S series has been evolving every year by providing some very noticeable upgrades over its predecessor. This year the Galaxy S21 series brings some quite good upgrades over the Galaxy S20 series. We have three smartphones namely, the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra is the biggest smartphone of these and packs in some very beefy specs like a massive 6.8 inches display, a 5000mAh battery, 108MP camera with two dedicated 3x and 10x telephoto lenses and makes up for a proper flagship with all the necessities you need. But there is also the regular Galaxy S21 lineup that has the Galaxy S21 and the Galaxy S21+.
These smartphones may not have such high-end specifications as that of the Galaxy S21 Ultra (Review) but do pack a lot of punch in a compact form factor. Here we are looking at the vanilla Galaxy S21 which does seem to be a good option for someone who likes compact smartphones thus providing all the flagship features.
Compared to the last year's Galaxy S20, it does have some compromises made. So should you consider the Galaxy S21 over the Galaxy S20 or would you spend some extra and go for the larger Galaxy S21 Ultra? Let's find out in the full review.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Design:
The Galaxy S21 has an attractive design at the back with a two tome color at the back when you look at the camera module that houses the triple camera setup and just outside the camera module there is a LED flash. The camera module is slightly longer and there is no hump like the Galaxy S20. The smartphone does not curve towards the sides like that of the Galaxy S20 much.
Instead, you have a flatter design at the front and the back is very slightly curved. The camera module slightly curves and looks good. On the back, Samsung has done some cross-cutting and has used a mixture of glass and plastic known as 'Glasstic' to keep costs low. This is what we first saw with the Galaxy S20 FE (Review) that was launched last year. There are metallic edges to the sides for better grip.
There is no Gorilla Glass at the back but it has a good matte finish that is resistant to fingerprints and smudges. The Galaxy S21+ also follows the same design pattern as the Galaxy S21, but if you are looking for a glass back, then you would need to consider the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Like the Galaxy S21 Ultra, the Galaxy S21 has Gorilla Glass Victus on the front for protection.
To the sides, there is an aluminum frame that has the volume buttons with a power button on the right whereas the left side remains clean and there is no Bixby button here. The Google Assistant can be launched when long pressing the power button though. To the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port, a primary microphone, a loudspeaker grill, and a dual SIM card slot.
There is no dedicated microSD card slot or a hybrid SIM card slot which is a bit of a letdown as its predecessor, the Galaxy S20 had it. Still, the base variant of the Galaxy S21 ships with 128GB storage which would be enough. The Phantom Violet color which is the most attractive of other colors does make the back shine when light strikes on it.
This Counter Cut design of the camera is quite appealing and gives a mature look to the smartphone. On the top of the smartphone, there are two holes where one of them is a microphone and the other being the loudspeaker for sound. Like the Galaxy S21 Ultra, there is an IP68 rating with support for wireless and reverse wireless charging at the back.
Overall, the design feels refreshing but the lack of a microSD card slot and the use of polycarbonate or what Samsung likes to call Glasstic back does let it down otherwise if you are someone who is not so crazy about glass backs, then this is the perfect compact smartphone as weighs just 179 grams making it quite light to hold.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Display:
The Galaxy S21 has a compact display at 6.2 inches Full HD+ (1080x2400 pixels) Dynamic AMOLED with a screen to body ratio of 20:9. The screen density is at 421ppi and the colors look punchier with good viewing angles on the display. However, the downgrade is that you are now getting a Full HD+ display when compared to Quad HD+ display on the Galaxy S20 series.
The display on its own is very good and is very bright as it can go as high as 1300nits which is slightly lower than the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and the Galaxy S21 Ultra that have 1500nits. Under direct sunlight, the display is very bright and under low-light or dark, the display can go very dim thus not hurting the eyes. There is also a Reading Mode and Eye Comfort Shield to reduce blue light.
However, this display though being lower in resolution gets an Adaptive Refresh rate which we first saw with the Galaxy S21 Ultra. The display refreshes at 120Hz and it has a variable refresh rate where for example while watching a video, the display refreshes at 40Hz but while scrolling through webpages or playing games, the display refreshes at 120Hz.
The Galaxy S20 series had one downside that the 120Hz refresh rate only used to work at Full HD+ resolution and for the Quad HD+ resolution, the display switches to standard 60Hz. But here both the Galaxy S21 and the Galaxy S21+ can refresh from 48Hz to 120Hz depending on the applications in use.
This display supports HDR content and there is also Widevine L1 onboard which makes streaming HD content from OTT platforms like Netflix, Prime, etc. much easier. Talking about security, there is an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner under the display which is now 70 percent times larger and is faster to unlock also.
There is also an Always-On display where you can customize with different designs and some new additions are present here with the Galaxy S21. Overall, though you sacrifice on the higher Quad HD resolution, the display does make up for the adaptive refresh rate to match screen content and the fingerprint scanner is fast also.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Performance:
The Galaxy S21 is either powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 or an Exynos 2100 chipset depending on which region you are present. In India and European countries, we have the Exynos 2100 chipset which is an octa-core chipset that has better performance and gaming capabilities compared to 2020's Exynos 990 chipset.
The Exynos 2100 has a 1x2.9 GHz Cortex-X1 core with 3x2.8 GHz Cortex A78 cores and another 4x2.2 GHz Cortex A55 cores coupled with a Mali G78 MP-14 GPU. This chipset brings a host of improvements over the older Exynos chipsets which had overheating issues. The Exynos 990 on the Galaxy S20 and the Note 20 series suffered from overheating.
This resulted in thermal throttling by showing some minor lags and also the frame drops were considerably noticed while playing games like Call Of Duty. But now Samsung claims that the Exynos 2100 brings 46 percent better-improved CPU and 25 percent better GPU performance compared to the older Exynos 990 chipset.
The general performance of the Exynos 2100 chipset is good as all tasks like scrolling through webpages, playing games like Call Of Duty, Asphalt 9 Legends, etc. played smoothly and also if you compare the performance with the Snapdragon 888, there will not be any difference as such.
With the graphics set to high and frame rate at maximum, the gameplay was smoother and with a 240Hz touch sampling rate provides faster touch response but the chipset does heat up slightly which is negligible, and still, if you see gaming, the Snapdragon 888 variant is slightly better as it runs games slightly cooler.
However, this was not the case with the earlier Exynos chipsets as there used to be a stark difference in performance between both the chipsets. If you see the benchmarks, the Exynos 2100 scored around 616669 in Anutu v8, in Geekbench 5.1, the smartphone scored 810 and 3300 in single and multi-core tests.
The Galaxy S21 ships with 8GB LPDDR5 RAM with 128/256GB storage with speeds of UFS 3.1. For more RAM, you need to look at the Galaxy S21 Ultra as it ships with a whopping 16GB RAM. But you are restricted with the internal storage as there is no support for microSD card for storage expansion.
Overall, the general performance and gaming feel smoother on the Galaxy S21.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Software:
The Galaxy S21 runs on OneUI 3.1 built on top of Android 11. It brings a lot of features like a Google Discover which is seen when swiping from the left of the home screen or you can also have the Samsung Free for news aggregation app, new video call effects that blur the background while taking a video call, you can also remove location data before sending an image, etc.
Other features like the naming of Blue Light filter to Eye Comfort Shield is seen and then you have all the Android 11 features like device controls and Bubbles that are almost like a floating app which we can have on our home screen where it shows the conversation and then minimize it when not needed similar to what first saw the messenger floating icon.
The notification shade has a more rounded look and covers the entire screen and now the volume control panel looks vertical instead of horizontal, some other changes include Samsung DeX where the smartphone acts like a computer that works wirelessly, and then there are the Edge Panels which displays shortcuts and some apps, Multi-Window but it does miss out on Wi-fi 6E support and UWB.
There are multiple Samsung applications pre-loaded that do consume memory and throw in a lot of notifications which makes the software experience a bit jarring but the omission of MST on the Samsung Pay is a bit of a letdown.
However, with a 120Hz refresh rate, multi-tasking feels smoother and there is very few amounts of third-party applications present. The software experience remains excellent but some spammy notifications do mess up sometimes.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Cameras:
The Galaxy S21 has a triple camera setup at the rear is similar to that was on the Galaxy S20. So you are having a 12MP f/1.8 main camera with OIS, another 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, and a 64MP f/2.0 telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom. On the front, there is a single 10MP f/2.2 camera.
The other camera features include Single Take 2.0 which not only allows you to select the duration for the image but also chooses the best images that you want to take, the Live Focus has been renamed to Portrait Mode, Pro mode can now be used for the ultrawide camera, etc.
Moving over to the main camera, the details and the dynamic range is good. The images look sharp and there is some oversaturation noticed where it tries to boost the colors thus keeping noise in check. The white balance is accurate and the presence of OIS means there is less noise but still the images from the 108MP camera of the Galaxy S21 Ultra have more natural colors and better dynamic range.
At night, the images have well-saturated colors but there is some oversharpening noticed but the noise is not at all present. The dynamic range is good and if you compare it with last year's Galaxy S20, the images have better contrast and for better images, the Night Mode is present.
The Night Mode does mask away all the noise thus improving the long exposure shots. It also retains highlights in shadows better and also improves the dynamic range further. The images do have a warmer tone and with OIS, there is no shutter lag and the darker areas have better lighting.
Coming to the ultrawide camera, it does a good job but the colors are not as good as on the main camera. The dynamic range is excellent but there is quite a bit of noise present. The colors do look oversaturated and there is slight distortion present to the edges. The 120-degree field of view ensures a wider aperture so it captures more detailed images.
At night, the ultrawide camera does a decent job and the images do have more noise and the colors do look slightly washed out which we did not expect from a flagship smartphone. The Night Mode on the ultrawide camera does turn things a bit on the positive side as the dynamic range gets better, noise is reduced and the color saturation becomes well balanced and softness is reduced to a larger extent.
1x optical zoom
The 64MP telephoto camera does a good job as it has 3x optical zoom and 30x digital zoom. The Galaxy S21 Ultra has two telephoto cameras and if you are very particular about the telephoto camera, then the Galaxy S21 Ultra is the one to go for. The 3x zoom images have excellent dynamic range and the color reproduction is very good though.
3x hybrid zoom
The noise is lesser and there is good contrast in the images. At 10x zoom, the images do have good details and average dynamic range with more amount of noise, and the sharpness gets hurt. The contrast is not so good also. Beyond 10x, the images are barely usable with poor contrast and dynamic range. There is a considerable amount of noise and a lot of distortion though.
At 10x digital zoom
At 30x digital zoom, the images do not look at all good, and it looks almost like the 100x zoom as we saw on the Galaxy S20 Ultra (Review) last year. The images look weird and washed out at that resolution. Similar is the case at night where the camera performs best at 3x and up to 10x, there is some noise noticed.
The inclusion of a dedicated Night Mode does improve the dynamic range and reduces noise to a larger margin. The results at 3x look really good with accurate colors and the contrast also looks good. Though at 10x, there is still a large amount of noise and the dynamic range is just above average.
The portraits come out with good details and the skin tones look natural. The dynamic range is good and here the edge detection works well. The 64MP telephoto camera results in much better portraits as you can zoom very closely and has excellent sharper details. You can also use the main camera for a wider portrait image with more natural colors and a better dynamic range.
The Live Focus Mode is known as Portrait Mode in OneUI 3.1 and here the portrait mode gets some additional features like High-key and Low-key mono where you can set the background blur before and after taking the portrait and also the background can be turned black and white accordingly. The portraits have a good background blur compared to last year's Galaxy S20.
Since there is no dedicated macro camera, the ultrawide camera takes some very close-up images and since it has autofocus, it can go as close as 2cm to the subject. As a result, the macro images have much better details and dynamic range. The color reproduction is good and the noise is also lower.
On the front, there is a single 10MP f/2.2 camera which is the similar one that we found on last year's Galaxy S20 series and the Galaxy S21 Ultra. The skin tones look natural but there is some oversharpening in the images and the dynamic range is excellent. Now there are two different modes- Natural and Bright where Natural has better colors and contrast.
Bright mode enables color saturation with skin smoothening. There is also a google to switch to wider selfies which come in handy when you are in a group and does capture more subjects. The front camera is excellent though being a smaller 10MP camera and is better than some of the 16MP and 32MP Sony sensors on many smartphones.
The portrait selfies also have a good amount of details with proper edge detection and have good dynamic range.
In terms of videos, the Galaxy S21 can record up to 8K at 24fps. The video footage is just average at 8K where the video footage does have accurate colors and the videos have a lot of noise though OIS present. Switching to 4K video at 60fps results in much better output with excellent dynamic range but the color seems to be oversaturated. OIS helps in better stabilization and reduces noise also.
Actually, the 8K video footage applies too much crop for better details. The ultrawide camera can also record 4K videos but here the output is not as good as the main camera. The dynamic range is above average with a lot more noise and the colors do not look punchier here. The telephoto camera shoots 4K videos with a good amount of details and up to 10x, the videos have good colors and lesser distortion.
There is the Director's View which we first saw with the Galaxy S21 Ultra where you can record a video using all the cameras both front as well back and also can switch between the main, ultrawide, and the telephoto cameras. The Single Take 2.0 is also much better now and can take multiple images with better results.
On the front, the 10MP camera can record 4K videos at 60fps which is a very good option. The skin tones look natural and the dynamic range is also good. The videos have less noise and there is EIS for much-stabilized videos. You can switch to the wider field of view for videos. The portrait videos have excellent details with good edge detection and background blur.
Overall, the cameras are excellent on the Galaxy S21 but for a much better camera experience, then the Galaxy S21 Ultra would be a good option.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Battery Life:
The Galaxy S21 packs in a smaller 4000mAh battery which can easily last for two single days with normal usage. This is due to the smaller 6.2 inches and the switch from Quad HD to Full HD display results in some extra battery life. With normal usage, it can last for two days with the display being set at 120Hz as OneUI 3.1 brings some battery optimizations.
With heavy usage that includes scrolling through webpages, playing games like Call Of Duty for two to three hours, streaming videos from Netflix, Prime, etc. the Galaxy S21 easily lasted for one single day and had some charge left. The standard screen-on time was around 6-7 hours which is due to the Exynos 2100 where Samsung has worked hard for better battery life.
The Exynos 990 had suffered very bad battery life on the Galaxy S20 and the Note 20 series as the chipset used to overheat when you compare with last year's Snapdragon 865, the battery life was better on the Snapdragon 865 was better and the difference was huge. But this time Samsung with the newer Exynos 2100 chipset has much-improved battery life.
However, like the Galaxy S21 Ultra, the Galaxy S21 does get a charger bundled inside the box. However, you can use any 25W fast charger of Samsung or any other fast charger you can get a quick top-up from 0 to 100 percent within an hour. However, Samsung has retained the wireless charging at 15W and also reverse wireless charging at 9.5W.
The wireless charging could have been faster as we saw with the Xiaomi Mi 10 (Review) and the OnePlus 8 Pro (Review) that do have 30W fast wireless charging. Another big disappointment that the Galaxy S21 does not support 45W fast charging like the previous Galaxy S20, S10, Note 10, and the Note 20 series in the past.
Overall, the battery feels quite impressive for its size but the inclusion of a charger would have been a sweet deal.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Audio Quality:
The Galaxy S21 has a stereo speaker setup where the earpiece on top and the loudspeaker at the bottom together produce good sound. The loudness levels are excellent and the sound does not feel muffled. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack as it has been common with flagships nowadays.
However, there is Dolby Atmos for enhanced sound and Samsung has a very good equalizer where you can adjust the bass and other levels for a richer sound effect. The audio quality is one of the best seen in a flagship.
Verdict:
The Galaxy S21 is a great compact flagship launched this year as brings everything just the right way. It has a good 120Hz display with an Adaptive refresh rate, the looks are good when compared to the earlier Samsung S models, a powerful and much more improved chipset providing great performance and gaming and a good-sized battery that easily lasts well.
The software experience is also great with OneUI 3.1 as it brings a lot of improvements and combined with a 120Hz display makes everything work smoother. However, talking about the cameras, they are one of the best when seen on a flagship but for a better camera experience, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is the one to go for.
With a good compact flagship, there are some downgrades that Samsung has kept in order to keep costs low. Instead of a glass back as we saw on the Galaxy S20 series, the Galaxy S21 has a polycarbonate back, then the display is now Full HD and not Quad HD, lack of Samsung MST which makes credit and debit card transactions easier and there is no fast charger provided inside the box.
All these features discussed above were present in the Galaxy S20. But would it make a difference? If you compare the Galaxy S20 with the Galaxy S21, there is no huge upgrade as you are getting the same camera setup and battery capacity as before.
What you are getting is a much-improved chipset Exynos 2100 compared to Exynos 990 that suffered from bad battery life and overheating issues, much better battery life (switch from Quad HD to Full HD and a 5nm process chipset) and an improved selfie camera experience with better 8K video footage.
So if you have a Galaxy S20, it is still a great flagship smartphone and if you need good looks and better performance and gaming, then only consider the Galaxy S21. The price of the Galaxy S20 is slightly lower than that of the Galaxy S21 now, so it would still make a great deal.
Now if you compare it with the Galaxy S21 Ultra, then you will get a different experience as it has all the high-end specs with larger internals while performance reminding the same. So overall, Samsung has made a perfect compact flagship and it is worth buying.
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