Like most Samsung phones, this one has a fantastic flat 6.2-inch AMOLED display. It gets very bright and is usable even in sunlight, and features blue light filters and other options.
You also get superb performance and top-notch cameras, plus Samsung’s One UI software. But you do lose some flagship-level features such as 8K video capture and curved edges.
Display
If you’re going to spend a lot of money on a flagship phone, you want it to look as good as possible. That’s why Samsung phones have some of the best displays on the market.
With the Galaxy S21, the company keeps that tradition alive with a flat AMOLED display that runs at a fluid 120Hz. It’s also covered by Gorilla Glass Victus. That’s a step down from the more premium Galaxy S21 Plus and the 6.7-inch screen in the Galaxy S21 Ultra, but it still is an impressive panel.
All three Galaxy S21 models can adjust their refresh rate dynamically based on what you’re doing to save battery life. However, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is more advanced and can even change its refresh rate to 48Hz when it’s not needed.
The two bigger models also have some unique camera features. The Galaxy S21 Plus and the Galaxy S21 Ultra both support 8K video recording, a 108-megapixel main sensor, and a dual telephoto camera that supports 3X and 10X optical zoom.
The FE model, on the other hand, doesn’t have any of those features and has a polycarbonate back instead of the more premium options found in its peers and predecessors. This may make it cheaper to manufacture and a little less premium, but it shouldn’t affect the performance or usability.
Camera
Samsung continues to differentiate its Galaxy phones with cameras and video. The Galaxy S21 is no exception. It has a 108-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and a 10-megapixel telephoto. There’s also a front camera that works through a hole at the top of the display, which Samsung calls “Infinity-O.”
The S21’s big sensor gives it a very strong super-wide photo and good telephoto performance. Its overall Camera score of 123 places it in the top half of our rankings. However, its zoom performance could be better, as could its low-light performance. Its Night mode does a great job of brightening shadows, though.
Those who like to shoot videos will appreciate the S21’s ability to record 4K at 60 fps and HDR footage. It can also take advantage of Samsung’s new Super Steady feature for smoother clips. Its video score of 78 is solid, but it leaves room for improvement in areas such as frameshift and residual motion.
The S21 supports dual-video recording, which lets you capture a clip with both the front and back cameras simultaneously. It has a Director’s View that displays the live images from both cameras in a split-screen view, or you can choose to record with only one of them. The S21 also offers a selfie mode with face detection and smart beauty features.
Performance
Samsung’s Galaxy S21 phones are among the best Android smartphones on the market right now. They’re loaded with the latest Snapdragon 888 CPU from Qualcomm, gorgeous displays with high refresh rates, and some of Samsung’s most sophisticated cameras.
The Galaxy S21 also adds some great new features to its cameras, like Director’s View for multi-cam video and Single Take mode for automatically combining clips into a single gif or video. Samsung has improved its face-unlocking feature as well, and there’s an updated version of its ultra-fast fingerprint sensor that works more reliably.
There’s also a new version of Samsung’s One UI software that looks and feels even more polished and appealing than before. It’s still a little bloated with animations and more software features than you may need, but that should be addressed with updates over time.
Its Exynos processor has also been upgraded to a new model that’s built on a 5-nanometre process node, so it should offer improved efficiency and performance over the old 7-nanometre chip. In our tests, the S21 was able to handle all of the demanding games we threw at it with ease and didn’t slow down or run hot.
Battery
The S21 Ultra’s battery life will largely be determined by the way you use your phone. The new display and improved power efficiency will definitely help here but if you prefer dim environments and lower brightness settings then you may not notice the benefits as much.
In our tests, we saw a great improvement in the S21’s performance over its predecessors. This is especially true for our Efficiency score, which considers charge and adapter energy consumption and residual current drain. This means a higher Efficiency score means longer autonomy and lower total power consumption.
It’s worth noting that Samsung’s S21 is not the first smartphone to employ a new type of screen that can dynamically change refresh rates depending on what you’re doing. Its competitors, including the iPhone 12 Pro Max and the Oppo Find X3 Pro, have this capability.
Having the option to disable adaptive refresh is useful if you want to maximize battery life. We found that the S21 Ultra could achieve nearly 10 hours of autonomy in our Tom’s Guide battery test with a 60Hz mode, but that dropped to around 6.5 hours when we enabled adaptive display.
Aside from changing the refresh rate, you can also optimize the S21’s power usage with Samsung’s built-in battery management tools. The ‘Battery and Device Care app can close unneeded background apps, reduce display brightness when idle, and detect and fix problems that may be consuming too much energy.
