Samsung Galaxy S21 series: what we know about the first flagships of 2021

What do we know about the Galaxy S21?

Well, for starters, we know it’s called the Galaxy S21 – for a while, a lot of us expected Samsung to upgrade to the S30, but that’s definitely not what’s happening. this year.

As usual, the Galaxy S21 is Samsung’s smallest flagship phone, and it got a facelift this year. The changes are most noticeable when you look at the device from the back: the all-black camera bumps that debuted in last year’s S20 series have been replaced with sleeker housings that blend into the metal frame of the S21. (The phone nerd community quickly dubbed him The Phantom of the Opera design, and who are we to discuss?) As a result, some of the S21’s new color options look a lot cooler than others; the black and pink models have metal frames that match their body, while the white and purple models have eye-catching silver and bronze trims, respectively.

Meanwhile, the cameras themselves look pretty close to the ones we got in the non-Ultra Galaxy S20s from last year. Roland Quandt from WinFuture notes that the main 12-megapixel rear sensor offers an f / 1.8 aperture and a 79-degree field of view, like last time, and the phone’s 12-megapixel, 10-megapixel ultra-wide front camera also appears to be unchanged . The only difference that Quandt points out has to do with the S21’s 64-megapixel telephoto lens: Samsung’s chosen sensor appears to be a bit smaller than last year, but the light-capturing pixels would be the same size.

The front of the S21 is as sparse as ever, but there are a few interesting things to note about the 6.2-inch 120Hz Infinity-O display. For one thing, it uses an LTPS backplane. which – in short – allows lower power consumption or higher resolutions. Oddly enough, a detailed leak provided by AndroidPolice claims that the Galaxy S21’s display only works in Full HD +, which would make this year’s display a bit less pixel dense compared to what we got last year. If those reports hold up, then it’s clear that Samsung wanted to cut the 4,000mAh battery life reported by the S21 as much as possible.

Several reports also suggest that Samsung is finally abandoning its use of curved-edge displays, and we’re frankly happy to see them disappear. If you’ve accidentally launched an app or clicked a link with the side of your hand while stretching your thumb to reach for something, that’s good news for you.

Evan Blass / @ evleaks

In the past, we’ve sometimes seen Samsung use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipsets in all versions of a particular smartphone, like the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Don’t expect that here, though: while an FCC leak confirms that the US version of the S21 will be. use Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 888 chipset, some variants sold outside the US will pack Samsung’s Exynos 2100 instead.

In other years, this would be troubling news for some of the company’s biggest fans, as Exynos-powered devices are often overwhelmed by their Qualcomm variants, but some early testing suggests that Samsung may have actually turned it around this time around. -this. Granted, these types of tests don’t speak to the entire smartphone experience, but the results are at least promising. And beyond the different chips powering the S21, you can expect to see similar setups all over the place: we’d expect Samsung’s little flagship to come with 12GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of RAM. internal storage.

Oh, and one more thing: Samsung can give people the option of using Google’s Discover feed on their homescreens instead of the company’s doppelganger. Not everyone will find this change so interesting, but it’s great news for Google purists who prefer the search giant’s smart reminders and personalized content choices.

What about the Galaxy S21 Plus?