Introduction
The Samsung Galaxy S22 series is about to make an impact while the Samsung Galaxy S21 series fights on. Of course, the message here is quite straightforward: the Galaxy S22 has only marginal improvements over its predecessor, and if you still find the Galaxy S21 for an attractive price, it is still highly recommended.
Samsung Galaxy's S series heads have always lied on the pinnacle of flagship phones, and it's no different with the new S21. While Samsung dared too much with its decision to streamline some of the features, the end result has been a spectacular Android phone that launched in the range of Dhs.630.00 to Dhs.1,569.00 cheaper than the Galaxy S20 at launch.
Which contains the Galaxy S21 with its triple rear snappers and 4,000 mAh battery. However, the main improvements surfaced with the redesigned camera module, new colorway, and the advanced provision of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888), in any case—although the Galaxy S21 does look closer to a refined vision rather than groundbreaking.
Respectable changes were accommodated on the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, which has since been replaced by the Galaxy S22 Ultra avaible at FoneZone.ae.
Design and Build
From a design perspective, from the front, the Galaxy S21 looks a lot like the Galaxy S20. It comes with a 6.2-inch display unit that features a very centrally placed punch-hole module for the selfie camera. But on closer inspection, it turns out that the S21 has picked up flat edges compared to the predecessor's display.
It'd be easy to discard this one as a backwards design choice, but for plenty of people, it improves the usability of the phone. Curved screens on phones smaller than 6.5 inches can sometimes feel slippery in hand, which makes the flat edges more practical for one-handed use.
The most prominent design change would have to be the new "Contour Cut" camera design, which sees the rear camera module merging seamlessly with the left-hand edge of the S21 phone.
Having a glass back, gone is the S20, now being replaced by the polycarbonate or, in other words, fancy plastic back of the S21. That probably is a fairly big reason why the Galaxy S21 costs less. The phone feels anything but cheap to hold, and the way it is designed to be less prone to fingerprints with the tactile finishing is quite good during usage.
The Galaxy S21, in Phantom Violet, portable, unique, and retro-futuristic with this soft color and copper accents that blend perfectly. Other colors include Phantom Gray, Phantom Pink, and Phantom White, but the standout has to be the violet variant.
The Galaxy S21 is slightly smaller, yet heavier, than the Galaxy S20, making it an ideal size for one-handed use but still big enough to provide plenty of screen real estate for content consumption. The new Qualcomm ultrasonic fingerprint reader is speedier and more responsive for even better user experience.
The only downside I see is that there really is no longer a microSD card slot in this phone, something which was always included in earlier models in the Galaxy series. This may actually force pretty much any user to have to purchase the 256GB model, but with plenty of cloud storage solutions out there, this isn't really a massive concern for most these days.
Display Quality
The company has also fine-tuned and stuck to simplicity for the 6.2-inch AMOLED display on the Galaxy S21 as opposed to what we had on the Galaxy S20. The S21 comes only with full HD+ resolution—compatibly tasteful and better, words to describe it—from having to make a choice between high refresh rates and higher resolutions.
While the screen can only go up to 1080p in resolution, the dynamic refresh rate of 48 and 120Hz works to enhance the user experience at all times based on the content's consumption. This becomes handy in terms of lowering the amount of battery that gets consumed in the times not requiring high refresh rates.
In a "natural" screen setting, though the Galaxy S21 is brilliant in color accuracy and saturation suited for video, browsing through social media, and gaming, if compared to other flagship devices, it saddened slightly. Still, the S21 display excels before the eyes in daily usage.
Camera performance
The Galaxy S21's camera hardware has not changed since the Galaxy S20, meaning that the triple setup includes a 12MP wide, 12MP ultra-wide, and 64MP telephoto sensor. However, Samsung still values the utilization of a software-driven computational photography chip to improve shot quality and camera performance.
The normal photo-taking mode of the Galaxy S21 takes shots of lively clarity as well as in its details, even though the color tuning slightly kicks a notch up due to its counterparts, like the Google Pixel 5. The telephoto captures, the delicacies of the details, so this is a really good pick for people who want to take more photos.
One of the most outstanding software features was the Scene Optimizer, which will automatically adjust camera settings based on a detected scene. Still, some users might prefer to switch it off in order to not over-process.
In low light, though, the Galaxy S21 is struggling a bit with the detection of edges and resolution of details. The dedicated Night mode made a huge difference in low lighting levels, with extremely bright and detail-rich pictures.
There is another feature in the S21 that really stands out: portrait mode. It really impresses in well-lit situations, but when you get in any sort of critical light situations, it stumbles, but the 10 MP front-facing camera does well even in portrait mode. In taking fairly sharp selfies, it turns out quite nice with just the proper background blur.
An even more impressive feature of the S21 is its Space Zoom, providing up to 30x digital zoom. The new Zoom Lock feature stabilizes shots at high zoom levels, enabling some surprisingly clear photos to be taken even when shooting handheld.
On the video front, 8K is supported on the Galaxy S21, with the ability to go up to 24 fps, while stepping back the resolution to 1080p allows 120 fps. Super Steady further hacks off the shakes thanks to AI, and then there's a Director's View, which may enable the user to toggle between various camera angles during video recording.
Overall, the Galaxy S21's camera setup doesn't dethrone the iPhone 12 Pro Max as the leader on the market; rather, it places it against any competition to the Pixel 5, providing a well-rounded camera experience with features aplenty to look into.
Performance
The Galaxy S21 is powered by the Snapdragon 888 in the UAE, reveling in these radical improvements in performance and AI levels in both the CPU and GPU. While a 12GB RAM option is not provided, the 8GB RAM in the S21 does a pretty good job of handling multitasking and demanding apps.
Benchmark tests show that, in real uses, the Snapdragon 888-equipped Galaxy S21 should outstrip the old processor-equipped Android devices, but is a bit back from the iPhone 12 in raw performance terms. In actual use, the S21 feels super smooth and responsive, whether you're gaming, browsing, or multitasking.
Overall, with its soon-to-be-released Exynos 2100 processor, Samsung ensures users won't really miss out on much in terms of performance compared to the Snapdragon 888. In fact, it does retain quite consistent performance with the S21, even under exertion, which is heavy, including some warming up that might be incurred as a result of long gaming sessions.
Battery Life and Charging
The S21 comes with a 4,000 mAh battery, which is not a substantial bump-up but serves such a capacity quite well. The adaptive refresh rate should also help in the exercise of the energy-efficient processor, which is the Snapdragon 888, in providing even more excellent battery life.
Under normal use, with a refresh rate native to 60 Hz, the Galaxy S21 manages a benchmark run of 9 hours and 53 minutes—moving past the iPhone 12. They do such in the adaptive refresh rate mode, with 6 hours and 31 minutes. This means that it's nothing special, but with the great display and high-refresh rate, tolerance is bearable.
The battery supports fast charging within the USB-C PD standard quite well, filling it with 55% in our tests after 30 minutes from the battery completely running out. Of course, users will have to buy a brick separately, since Samsung will sell anything inclusive of only a USB-C cable and its pricing controversies stemming from environmental motives. On the other hand, this reduces electricity waste and cuts expenses for the company.
Software and User Interface
With its each iteration, Samsung's user interface, One UI 3, based on Android 11, is becoming something sweeter. It's now more aesthetically pleasing, with a renovated Quick Panel and less clutter in the Notifications screen. To this, it has now added the ability to place widgets on the lock screen and to customize their transparency.
However, for enthusiasts who like it simple, One UI could come across as an overcomplicated process, and sorting the main app drawer could leave a person slightly irritated. Its strong integration with all possible services of Samsung may also be something not really preferred over the default apps and features created by Google by some of its users.
However, with these idiosyncrasies kept aside, Samsung DeX will not stop being an amazing capability by which a mobile phone, the Galaxy S21, connects to an external screen and becomes a desktop. For this reason, the Galaxy S21 might still be one good long-term investment, as far as a device that distinguishes itself by offering four years of platform updates and five years of security patches, all from Samsung.
Android 12 and One UI 4
Launched now with One UI 4 is the Galaxy S21 model, with updates available for Android 12, which consists of several enhancements. One of the new features includes the Color Palette for system-wide theming, with a newly added privacy dashboard feature for monitoring app permissions.
Being an incremental update, One UI 4.1 brought to the mix various new camera features for the Galaxy S22 series of phones, including Night portrait mode and telephoto portrait view—both furthering the camera capabilities of the S21.
Conclusion
The Galaxy S21 may appear underwhelming at first look, with features stripped down and a flat plastic back. But these have been translated into some of the best pricing for a flagship that includes the latest technology, an awesome display, and fierce cameras in a well-built frame.
Whether they own a slightly older Galaxy model or are just looking for an upgrade, the kind of offer the Galaxy S21 would be—many subscribers could find it hard to be disappointed. For people using last year's devices like the Samsung Galaxy S20, there might not be enough reason to upgrade, but the Galaxy S21 is a good entrant in this year's flagship battle.
FAQs
1. What is the price category of the Samsung Galaxy S21?
The price of Samsung Galaxy S21 on the website of FoneZone.ae lies between Dhs. 630.00 and can go as high as Dhs. 1,569.00. This large range provides choice for customers among different models, storage options, and maybe pre-owned or new devices to allow diversity in budgets.
At the low end of the price range, the products available will either be the cheaper versions of the devices or those low on memory, while at the high end, you can expect the premium variants, such as those with larger storage capacities or other enhanced features. The Galaxy S21 provides a premium experience at differentiated price points, making it accessible to a much broader audience.
2. Does the Galaxy S21 come with expandable storage?
The S21 doesn't have expandable storage because it lacks a microSD card slot. In principle, this design seems to echo a similar trend of the latest Samsung flagship products: the urge towards cloud storage solutions with better-promoted high volumes of relative internal capacity. Variants extend to as much as 256GB of internal storage, so a lack of expandable storage may not be a big concern for many users.
Be that as it may, this would be a kind of limitation for some users who love to have a flexible amount of storage, which they can expand using a microSD card. But, on the other hand, the internal storage on the Galaxy S21 will be adequate for most users who take a lot of photos, videos, and apps apart from pushing documents onto their devices.
3. What are specs of camera of Galaxy S21?
The Galaxy S21 is polarized in the photometry department with a triple camera set-up: it has a 12MP wide-angle lens, a 12MP ultra wide-angle lens, and a 64MP telephoto lens. With these imaging capabilities, users can photograph from wide scenic views using the ultra-wide lens down to the tiniest detail with its excellent telephoto lens. The 3x Hybrid Zoom adds to the value with digital capability to go up to 30x with crisp, clear imagery. This camera system comes with an even newly advanced set of features: Night Mode, Super Steady video, and 8K video recording, which makes this camera very unique and powerful for photo-making lovers.
4. How much does the Galaxy S21 battery power have, and what are the timings of the battery?
The home of the Galaxy S21 is a built-in 4,000 mAh battery that guarantees users reliable all-day performance. In normal use scenarios, the battery will stay up for a maximum of 9 hours and 53 minutes—especially if the device is under a 60Hz refresh rate to preserve the battery. Battery life varies based on display brightness, running apps in the background, and network usage. The Galaxy S21 also supports fast charging, enabling users to quickly recharge the battery when needed. Additionally, wireless charging and reverse wireless charging features add to the convenience, ensuring users stay connected throughout the day.
5. Galaxy S21 is compatible with Samsung DeX?
Yes, the Galaxy S21 is fully supported with Samsung DeX, giving users an opportunity to convert their smartphone into a desktop-like experience. Coupled with a supported external monitor or TV, either wireless or cable, the Galaxy S21 can allow you to have a desktop interface featuring multi-window support and drag-and-drop.
In fact, this feature will actually come in very handy for professionals who may need to do some document editing, video conferencing, or even presentations on a larger screen. Samsung DeX enhances productivity, providing a seamless transition between a mobile and desktop experience while using the Galaxy S20 as a versatile tool. Available only in FoneZone.ae, the Samsung Galaxy S21 still remains a quite fiercely competitive offer in the market.
