Samsung today launched new flagship devices Samsung Galaxy S21, S21+, and S21 Ultra. The first two smartphones target a less expensive flagship experience while the S21 Ultra offers a superior experience and costs the most.
The Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus are direct successors to the S20 series smartphones launched last year but they are launched at a lesser price than the S20 series. That is because Samsung had made some compromises on the way. While the S21 Ultra is supposed to give you the most extreme performance experience, with Samsung throwing all the premium specs and also the price is premium.
Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus
Both the S21 and S21 Plus are almost identical in design, the major difference being the size. Samsung has taken a different approach here with these devices, something similar to what Apple did with the iPhone. Samsung is offering these smartphones at a reduced price with some minor tradeoffs but still providing a flagship experience.
Major downgrades from last year that Samsung made in these devices include the display, which is now 1080p+ reduced from 1440p in S20. RAM has been reduced to 8GB from 12GB. Both phones still offer 120Hz refresh rates, although it is dynamically adjusted now.
Also, Samsung has also decided to not include the charger and headphones in the box, justifying it for environmental reasons.
Respective displays of S21 and S21+ are 6.2 inches and 6.7 inches, and they start at $799 and $999 respectively.
Apart from the downgrades, some improvements that Samsung included is the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, which provides a big improvement in overall performance. 5G is supported in both devices now. The in-display fingerprint sensor is also bigger.
Now, something that is mostly unchanged is the camera system, which is almost similar to the S20 series. Both the S21 and S21 Plus offer a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera, and a 64-megapixel telephoto lens, along with a 10-megapixel selfie camera. There have been some improvements in the software side, it now offers 30x “Space Zoom” mode, a new “Director’s View” mode for a video that makes it easy to swap between lenses while filming, and additions to Samsung’s “Single Take” mode.
Galaxy S21 Ultra
Galaxy S21 Ultra offers the best flagship smartphone experience if money is not a problem for you. It starts at a price of $1,199 and is a more refined version of the last year’s S20 Ultra.
S21 Ultra offers a massive 6.8-inch 3200×1440 OLED display with a refresh rate of 12Hz even at full resolution. There’s 12GB of RAM, a 5,000mAh battery, up to 512GB of storage, and Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 888 processor.
This year the S21 Ultra also supports S-Pen Stylus, something that was only possible in Galaxy Note devices till now. But the stylus will not come in the box, it would cost an additional $40.
Apart from this Samsung has considerably improved the camera system on this device. It does feature a 108 MP with 100x Zoom mode. Then there is a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera and two separate 10-megapixel telephoto cameras: one with a 3X zoom and one with 10X zoom, which Samsung says is designed to give users more flexibility in how they approach shots.
Let us know what do you think about the new Samsung lineup. This year Samsung made a very wise move with the pricing, the phones are priced as per customer requirements and do offer different requirements for different customers. The recently released Galaxy Note series was priced strangely and created confusion among buyers to choose between models.
All three models are available for preorder now and will launch on January 29th. Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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