Samsung Galaxy S21+ comes with a glass sandwich design.
Samsung recently announced its much-awaited Samsung Galaxy S21. Like last year, there are three variants, namely the S21, S21+ and the S21 Ultra. While the S21 Ultra is the top of the line no-compromise phone with features you didn’t know you needed, the S21+ is more economical for the masses. But is it good enough for the price the Samsung S-series commands?
Samsung Galaxy S21+ Review: Specifications
Samsung Galaxy S21+ sports a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with an aspect ratio of 20:9. It is powered by the all-new 5mm Exynos 2100 processor or the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor depending on where you live. It is paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB/256GB of onboard storage. There is a dual sim card slot, but no expandable storage. It runs on Android 11 based OneUI 3.1 out of the box. All of this is backed by a 4,800mAh battery.
On the optics front, the S21+ features a triple rear camera setup including a 64-megapixel primary camera, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens and a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens. Upfront, there is a 10-megapixel selfie snapper.
Samsung Galaxy S21+ Review: Design and Display
The Samsung Galaxy S21 series has a unique design. With the side melting in to form the metal camera lens cover, instead of the traditional glass looks nothing like anything else on the market. Looking at it from the back, you can easily catch on the fact that this is an S21 series smartphone. The stylish and unique design is further helped with the assortment of colours Samsung has put out. Our Review unit in the Phantom Silver looks breathtaking, especially in sunlight.
On the front, the S21+ sports a 6.7-inch panel with a punch-hole camera in the centre. It has thin top and bottom bezels offering a seamless display experience even with the punch hole camera. Samsung has decided this year to completely ditch the curved front glass panels. Although the curved glass looked great, the flat display is much more usable in real life.
As for the placements, S21+ sports a USB Type-C port on the bottom edge surrounded by the speaker grille and the primary microphone, and a sim card tray. The right edge houses the power button and volume buttons. The left edge is completely cleaned, apart from the 5G antenna bands. The top edge has two secondary microphones. Overall, the ergonomics of the phone are really good and it feels premium in hand.
It sports a high refresh rate AMOLED display.
Coming back to the display, it is a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel with a resolution of 2400x1080 pixels. The flat display comes with an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ looks really good whether you are playing games or watching a movie on Netflix. The adaptive refresh rate panel helps it to dynamically adjust the refresh rate to save battery life when the higher 120Hz refresh rate is not needed. Overall, the display is one of the best in the segment. Whether you want to watch movies or play games, the panel performs really good. The Fluid display of the Samsung Galaxy S21+ makes you appreciate the modern display technology.
Samsung Galaxy S21+ Review: Performance, Software and UI
Samsung Galaxy S21+ is powered by the all-new Exynos 2100 for the Indian Market. This is paired with 8GB RAM and 128Gb storage on our review unit. With the phone being priced at around Rs. 80,000, we expected no less than the provided specs. However, a 12GB RAM standard would be nicer.
During the review period, the phone ran without any issue. The 120Hz refresh rate of the display makes the smartphone feel faster than it is. During heavy gaming, the smartphone runs perfectly without any hiccup, however, the phone does get a bit warm during extended gaming sessions. Generally, the Exynos chips are less powerful than their Qualcomm counterparts, but it looks like Samsung has really caught up to Qualcomm this time. Modern flagships have become so powerful that they can really do it all.
The S21+ runs on Android 11 based OneUI 3.1 out of the box. The software is well built, to take advantage of all that power to provide a smooth experience. Coming from OneUI 2.0 there is a host of upgrades under the hood. The new animations and transitions are some of the UI related changes you will see. The Edge lighting and Edge panels still work fine on the flat display. The other host of OneUI 3.1 features including Samsung’s call and text on other devices and inbuilt Windows Companion support really helps sweeten the deal. And if you don’t like the icons and colour theme, there is always Samsung Themes app to change every aspect you want. Overall, the UI experience is smooth.
Samsung Galaxy S21+ Review: Cameras
Samsung Galaxy S21+ sports a triple-camera setup at the back. The setup comprises a 64-megapixel primary camera, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens and a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens. Upfront, there is a 10-megapixel selfie snapper.
It features a triple rear camera setup.
The camera app is straightforward and offers a good amount of features. It's easy to navigate through and is the same as other Samsung phones. It brings in a host of features including Single Take, Night mode and Super slow-mo along with the all-new Director's View.
During our tests, the S21+ managed to click some great shots. The smartphone manages to lock focus quickly. The Details are great and however, the colours are a bit bright as in usual Samsung fashion. The 3x or 10x zoom was good, but beyond that, it was basically useless. If you need the higher zoom, go for the S21 Ultra. The In build Scene Optimizer turns the shot into night mode most of the time.
The selfie camera was good enough. You can notice a lot of smoothening in the image with the beauty mode turned on by default and cannot be fully toggled off. Most people will like the results that the software tuned photos provide.
Samsung Galaxy S21+ Review: Battery
The Galaxy S21+ comes with a massive 4,800mAh battery. During my time with the device, medium to heavy usage got me more than a day of battery life. This was with an adaptive refresh rate and always on display. If you are the kind of person who doesn't spend most of their time scrolling through social media with music blasting through a Bluetooth headphone, you can easily get around a day and a half of battery life. You can always set it on 60Hz and turn off the always-on display to get more battery life.
The smartphone also supports 25W fast charging. It is sad to see just a 25W capability when the competition is including 65W even at half the price. Samsung also pulled an Apple and removed the wall adapter from the box. This means you will have to shell out extra for the 25W wall adapter. I managed to find a 25W charger from a Note 20 and it takes a little less than 2 hours to fully charge the phone at that speed.
Samsung Galaxy S21+ Review: Verdict
The camera bump is quite significant.
Samsung Galaxy S21+ feels like a true flagship in hand and in performance. Priced at Rs 81,999 for 128GB and Rs 85,999 for the 256GB storage variant. it truly comes in the flagship price bracket as well. The camera is great, the design is unique, the performance is amazing and the software is well-optimized. The smartphone also comes 5G ready which is a good thing as there is hope that 5G will be rolling out in a couple of months here in India.
In a nutshell, the Galaxy S21+ is a great phone, but the price is a bit on the higher side. Generally, with Samsung, the price usually comes down within a few months of the launch. If you can grab the phone for Rs 75,000 or less, it would be a great deal. Overall, ignoring a bit of a high price, the Samsung Galaxy S21+ is a great phone that you won’t regret for years to come.
