The downgrade to the display is perhaps the most controversial change Samsung has made for the Galaxy S21, with the company switching to a lower-res Full HD+ screen than the Quad HD display available on 2020’s Galaxy S20. As mentioned, Samsung has done this to help keep the price of the new phone down, and unless you’ve used a phone with a QHD resolution we don’t believe you’ll be able to easily tell the difference– we found that all the videos we watched on the S21 looked suitably high-quality on the Full HD+ panel. What’s more, it’s made from Gorilla® Glass Victus® for a tough display that’ll shrug off drops and scrapes like they’re nothing. Love to dabble in photography? Then you’ll be over the moon with the 64MP triple lens rear camera, which snaps superb shots you’ll be proud to show off. Or, if you fancy filming, you can capture footage in absolutely stunning 8K quality. You’ll be on the red carpet in no time.

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G Smartphone SIM Free Android Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G Smartphone SIM Free Android

One thing missing is compatibility with Samsung’s 45W chargers that worked with the S20 series. Samsung told TechRadar that it’s made optimizations to the 25W charging capabilities of its new phones, so 45W charging wasn’t that significant a benefit. As expected, the Galaxy S21’s trio of cameras perform exceptionally, no matter what lighting conditions you’re snapping in. Images captured using the main camera in well-lit environments are astonishing, with impressive dynamic range, oodles of detail and rich, bold colours that look as if they’re going to leap straight off the screen. Or if you want a newer model there's now the Samsung Galaxy S22 line - but those phones will cost you more. It’s also worth noting that all of Samsung’s S21 phones are 5G-compatible, so you won’t be able to buy a 4G-only variant. Instead, Samsung had made its 5G-compatible smartphones more competitively priced, so you’ll be getting a future-proofed option even if you don’t intend to use next-gen connectivity in the near future. We’ve only had the chance to test the Exynos 2100 version of the S21, and it seems like a major improvement over previous generations of Samsung’s chipset. In the past, the Exynos variant tended to lag behind the Qualcomm-powered phones in some areas but here the gap seems to have narrowed.

Not the best of the best, but Samsung's S21 is fantastically put together

Benchmarking doesn't show everything, but we've found everyday tasks on the phone have been faster than previously with the handset more than capable at handling gaming, multi-tasking and having multiple apps open in split-screen view too. Has Samsung made the right decision here? Largely, we think, yes. It won’t be popular with everyone, but crucially it’s allowed Samsung to cut the price of its Galaxy S21 series, and it won’t be hugely detrimental to most people’s everyday experience with the phone. How does this translate in terms of performance? The good news is that the Samsung Galaxy S21 is the fastest Samsung smartphone to date, with 50% faster multi-core processing speeds when compared against last year’s Galaxy S20 in the Geekbench 5 benchmark. It lags slightly behind Apple’s A14 Bionic chip (I was unable to run our usual benchmarking tools with the Huawei Kirin 9000) but there’s no shame in that. Ready to take your mobile experience to the next level? This Samsung Galaxy S21+ smartphone has tons of top tech to do just that. The 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED screen gives you one of the sharpest, brightest views around – perfect for watching videos and playing games on the go. Speaking of which, they’ll also look and run smoother than ever thanks to its 120Hz refresh rate and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor. That’s a whole lot of power in your hand. The design is where Samsung has made the most obviously noticeable changes over the S20 (which we crowned 2020’s best smartphone), overhauling the materials used, the colors, and the overall look of the device.

Samsung Galaxy S21 review - TechRadar Samsung Galaxy S21 review - TechRadar

The one thing it doesn’t have is a microSD card slot, which means the 128GB or 256GB of onboard storage is all you get. That’s disappointing, although the supplied storage should be enough for most people. You’ve got four color choices at launch: Phantom Gray, Phantom White, Phantom Pink, and Phantom Violet (the shade you see pictured throughout this review) – we think Violet is the standout color here. As for the Galaxy S21’s telephoto capabilities, the results here are a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, I was impressed with the pictures taken on or below 10x zoom, with zero evidence of shaky hands and very little visual noise. On the other hand, pictures captured at 20x and 30x zoom proved pretty much useless.

It’s cheaper than last year, but is the Galaxy S21 worth the upgrade?

Samsung has opted for a lower-spec screen than the one on the S20, with a Full HD+ 6.2-inch display, but it offers a 120Hz refresh rate for super-smooth scrolling and graphics, plusfantastic colors, and strong brightness levels – and we didn’t notice the lower resolution in most of our testing. That’s only a marginal 2.5% increase on last year’s model but it is significantly better than the iPhone 12, which the Samsung Galaxy S21 outlasted by roughly two hours under identical conditions. Samsung Galaxy S21 review: Cameras If you already own a Samsung Galaxy S20, or if you can find that handset for a significant discount, you won’t want to opt for the Galaxy S21 – while the newer phone gains in some areas it loses in others, and overall there’s not much between the two phones – certainly not enough to justify paying a couple of hundred dollars or pounds more.

Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G Smartphone SIM Free Android Mobile

We’ve yet to test the Samsung Galaxy S21 with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset inside, but the Galaxy S21 Ultra performed well with this chipset inside so we’d expect similar results from the S21. One negative for some is the switch to a completely flat screen on the Galaxy S21. Samsung has used screens that curve attractively into the body at the left and right edges for a number of generations now, but this has been dropped for the Galaxy S21. All in all, the Samsung Galaxy S21 feels like a premium device, although it’s unlikely to feel as top-end as the Samsung Galaxy S20 if you own that handset, or the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

It’s cheaper than last year, but is the Galaxy S21 worth the upgrade?

The S21 runs Android 11 out of the box with Samsung’s One UI 3.0 skin, which is among our favorite software interfaces. The phone has since been updated to Android 12, and it will be getting Android 13 when that's available too. Could all this raw power negatively affect battery life? So far, I haven’t noticed any issues. In our video rundown test, which plays a looped video at a standard screen brightness of 170cd/m2 with flight mode engaged, the Samsung Galaxy S21 lasted 18hrs 56mins before requiring a top-up. In Geekbench 5, the Samsung Galaxy S21 returned a multi-core score of 3367. That's notably better than the Galaxy S20 (the one featuring the Exynos 990 chipset) that returned a score of 2699.

SIM Free Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G 128GB Phone - Graphite SIM Free Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G 128GB Phone - Graphite

In the S21 both chips are paired with 8GB of RAM – if you want more than that on an S21 series device, you’ll want to opt for the Galaxy S21 Ultra, which comes with either 12GB or 16GB. It’s even better news in the gaming department. In the demanding GFXBench GL Car Chase benchmark, the Galaxy S21’s integrated Mali-G78 GPU effectively doubled the frame rate in the on-screen test, reaching a blisteringly fast 54fps average. Battery life on the Samsung Galaxy S21 is solid, although it’s not a game-changing improvement over the S20, as the company may have led some to believe with its new Exynos 2100 chipset. Reverse wireless charging is also supported, so you can use your phone’s power to top up devices such as Qi-compatible wireless headphones, but we found that to be slow, and it’s a feature you’d likely only want to use in emergencies.

The Galaxy S21 camera hardware hasn’t changed from the previous year’s phone, as Samsung’s big sensor upgrade happened between the Galaxy S10 and S20 generation. With the S21 it’s all about the software, and Samsung finding a way to slim down the camera module. Samsung has fully embraced 5G for the S21 line too, as all variants of the Galaxy S21 are 5G-compatible. Even if you’re not in a 5G-ready area, it essentially means you’re futureproofed, ready for when 5G connectivity is more widely available. Samsung Galaxy S21: battery life The other thing to note here is that the Galaxy S21 doesn’t come with a charger in the box. Samsung has followed in Apple’s footsteps by not bundling a charger with its new phones as it seeks to cut down on e-waste. Glasstic is the company’s own name for the material, which as the name suggests is somewhere between plastic and glass. It doesn’t feel as premium as a glass rear, but the matte finish also means it doesn’t feel like cheap plastic either. The company is instead just offering internal storage, and again this seems to be a cost-saving measure from Samsung, but it’s likely to disappoint anyone who wants the most affordable handset but needs a lot of storage.