Samsung Galaxy S21 5G 256GB Prices & Plans

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G 256GB Review

The baseline Galaxy S21 is an unusual change of pace for Samsung. While the manufacturer's flagship range has typically attempted to tick every box and more in pursuit of being the best of the best, that isn't the case with the Galaxy S21. It no longer has the curved display that's become synonymous with Samsung. Some of the hardware is a step back from last year. The back is plastic, rather than glass. Of course, this also makes it more affordable.

At $1,249 outright, the Galaxy S21 certainly isn't cheap, but it's a step back in the right direction when compared to last year's prices. The Galaxy S20 started at $1,349 outright, and the 5G model was even pricier at $1,499. This time around, even the baseline Galaxy S21 has 5G out of the box.

More affordable technology is always a good thing, but there's also the question of whether Samsung made the right compromises in bringing costs down.

Before we start, here's a look at how the three S21s stack up in terms of hardware:

Plastic hair and plastic eyes

Let's get the superficial concerns out of the way first. Yes, the Galaxy S21's back is made out of plastic. No, it doesn't matter. The finish is almost identical to the matte glass Samsung uses on the Galaxy S21+ and Galaxy S21 Ultra, but has the excellent quality of being less shatterable. There's no flex to it, it doesn't feel cheap, and it barely picks up fingerprints. 

Given the durability benefits of plastic backs, I genuinely wouldn't mind if more manufactures made a return to them - especially if they feel as nice as the Galaxy S21. And hey, most of us are still going to slap a case on our phones anyway, in which case whatever the back is made of barely matters.

Then there's the case of the rather unusual camera bump. Instead of floating as on past Samsung devices, the Galaxy S21 camera bump spills over the edge into the phone's frame. It's a rather unique look, but one that's grown on me. Especially in the two-tone violet and gold finish. It helps that the Galaxy S21's camera bump is much smaller than the Galaxy S21 Ultra's, which is somewhat monstrous.

On the front, Samsung's returned to a flat display. Curved screens are divisive at best, so I'm here for the change. It might not look as fancy, but I'd much prefer practicality when it comes to phone screens. 

The other display related downgrade is resolution. The Galaxy S21 display only runs at 1080p+, as opposed to Quad HD+ like last year's Galaxy S20. On paper, this means the Galaxy S21 display isn't as sharp. Of course, the Galaxy S20 display was still set to 1080p+ out of the box, to help conserve battery life, as has been the case with Samsung flagships for a while. While you lose the option of running the screen at a higher resolution if you'd like to, the Galaxy S21 screen is still gorgeous. Samsung sure knows how to make a display. I'm also a big fan of the 6.2-inch form-factor. It's just a really nice size.

Notably, the in-screen fingerprint embedded in the Galaxy S21's display is Samsung's best to date. While not quite as reliable as a traditional fingerprint reader, it's the fastest in-screen model I've tried and the most accurate. It was able to unlock my phone on the first attempt the vast majority of the time, which isn't something I was able to say about previous models.

Samsung's also decided to kill off expandable storage this year, nixing the microSD card slot. Given Samsung was one of the longest lasting proponents of expandable storage, it's a shame to see and might necessitate springing for a pricier storage configuration. The baseline Galaxy S21 has 128GB of storage, but spending an extra $100 will take you to 256GB. That's a pretty reasonable upgrade price, but it might be frustrating for those who already have their own microSD cards they were hoping to reuse.

Gone shootin'

For the most part, the Galaxy S21 offers a great experience. While the camera setup is identical to what you'd find in last year's Galaxy S20 - a 12MP primary lens, a 64MP 3x telephoto lens, and 12MP ultra-wide lens - you still get some improvements thanks to newer software and a better processor.

When it comes to daytime photography, all three lenses are reliable performers. Samsung phones still have a slight tendency to oversaturate colours, but you can rein this in by turning off the scene optimiser. The 3x zoom lens still does alright when pushed as much as 10x, but you don't really want to go any further. The 30x threshold is a mess. 

Here's a look at how the phone performs at different magnifications: 

The benefit of the two secondary lenses falls off rapidly in lowlight. You can still get an alright shot, but the darker the environment, the more insurmountable the challenge. Fortunately, the S21 primary camera tends to do a very good job in lowlight. It can get a great shot even without relying on night mode, which is for the best, as I'm not the biggest fan of Samsung's night mode. It tends to brighten an entire photo uniformly, which robs it of contrast. 

Here's a shot with night mode off:

And here's the same shot with night mode on:

There are also occasions where night mode can introduce noticeable artifacts into an image, but fortunately this isn't as much of an issue as it was on last year's Note 20 Ultra.

The iPhone 12 Pro Max is easily still the phone to beat when it comes to lowlight photography thanks to the sheer clarity of its images, but the Galaxy S21 fares well against the standard iPhone 12 - even if the images can be a little darker. While I tend to prefer the contrast and warmth of the iPhone 12's lowlight images, there were times where the Galaxy S21 edged out the iPhone in terms of sharpness. That being said, the iPhone 12 is better if you're trying to shoot a moving subject in lowlight.

Here's a very lowlight night mode shot from the Galaxy S21:

And here's a night mode shot from the iPhone 12:

Always a catch

The biggest issue with the Galaxy S21 is battery life. Out of the box, quite frankly, it's rubbish. I was struggling to hit even four hours of screen time initially. The phone would hit around 3.5 hours of screen time with just 5% battery left. I found myself having to top up at 4pm one day, which is rather embarrassing for a flagship smartphone. Turning off the Galaxy S21's 120Hz display did make a noticeable improvement, however. With the feature nixed, I found I was able to achieve about five hours of screen time. That's not incredible, but it's a lot easier to live with. You'll actually get through the day without needing to top up, for the most part.

Of course, you shouldn't have to turn off key features to get usable battery life. A 120Hz display is one of the S21's defining components, and part of the reason for a premium price-tag. If you have to disable it just to achieve a full day per charge, why is it there in the first place?

In the interest of science, I also tested turning off 5G, but this made very little impact to battery performance. This is a welcome development, given last year's Samsung flagships all had their own battery woes when 5G was switched on.

The culprit behind the Galaxy S21's subpar battery appears to the Exynos processor you'll find inside. While Samsung's flagship smartphones are powered by Snapdragon processors in the US, the rest of the world gets phones with Samsung's in-house chips. This wouldn't be a problem if they were on par with Snapdragon models, but they're simply not. Slightly slower performance is a much of a muchness - the Galaxy S21 is still a blazingly fast phone - but Exynos processor also appears to be responsible for worse battery life. No US Galaxy S21 reviews detail the same kind of battery issues as we've experienced locally. In addition, the Exynos processor also seems to cause the Galaxy S21 to get warm rather quickly, which is again a concern absent from US coverage.

As with Apple, Samsung has decided to stop bundling wall chargers and headphones with the Galaxy S21 series (even if it did make fun of the iPhone 12 in a now deleted tweet). Given the cheaper price, it's not the end of the world. Even if you need a new wall charger, you'll still be paying less than you would have for a Galaxy S20 last year. It feels inevitable that most manufacturers will go down this path, but it's still something to be aware of.

Samsung Galaxy S21 - Final Thoughts

The Galaxy S21 is a rare show of restraint from Samsung, a device that mostly focuses on the essentials rather than adding features for the sake of a new selling point. Sadly there's one essential Samsung seems to have forgotten about: battery life.

Other than battery life, the Galaxy S21 is fairly easy to recommend. It has a lovely screen, a stylish design, a capable camera, and speedy performance. Better yet, the $1,249 price-tag makes it more affordable than last year's wave of flagship devices, even if four figures isn't exactly cheap.

The Galaxy S21's subpar battery life does however undermine the overall experience. A $1,249 smartphone shouldn't leave you searching for a charger by 4pm. While you can remedy this by switching off the 120Hz display, it's not exactly an ideal fix, even if it doesn't undermine the overall experience. It's more just the principle. If you can live without the 120Hz display, the Galaxy S21 becomes a lot more reliable, and is a solid value buy.

Samsung Galaxy S21 camera samples

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