[OFFICIAL] Samsung GalaxyS21 MEGA-THREAD

[Samsung Dusty]

The all new Galaxy S21 family has arrived and we couldn't be more excited about our new flagship devices!

This is the *official* Galaxy S21 family reaction thread. What features do you like the most? Got any sneaky tips or tricks that might help out other users? Just want rave about the new device?

Drop all of your comments, reactions and speculations below! 

Some quick highlights...

Galaxy S21/S21+

• New, vibrant colors
• 12MP Rear Ultra-Wide Pro Camera System
• 8GB RAM
• Advanced chipset
• Super fast 120Hz refresh rate
• Up to 256 GB of internal storage
• Available for purchase NOW!

Galaxy S21 Ultra

• Upgraded Quad Camera System
• 108MP Camera Sensor
• Bold new design
• 5,000 mAh Battery Capacity
• 6.8" Quad HD+ screen w/Dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity O-Display
• 12GB RAM
• Available for purchase NOW!

More information: Galaxy S21/S21+, Galaxy S21 Ultra

-Samsung Team

[user751201tmO21]

Yea, stay with S10 for those features

[Jamprss]

I'm very disappointed that Samsung decided to remove it's SD card support.  Because of their decision I decided not to upgrade my S20 Ultra this year.  I just recently upgraded my SD card from 256gb to a brand new Samsung EVO 526gb SD card.  I'm certainly not going to upgrade without support for it.  I'd actually lose storage space.  

[user751201tmO21]

Use online storage ... or buy a phone with more internal storage. Or buy another phone that offers SD storage.

As a rule, once a manufacturer removes functionality, they will not re-introduce it

[Jamprss]

Samsung tried to remove SD support once before. Only to bring it back in the next model. I'm confident that they'll bring it back this time. As long as enough of us complain.
I'm certainly not paying for expensive online storage. I've been using SD cards since the HTC G1 was first introduced in 2008. I prefer local storage vs online or cloud :cloud: storage.

[userz5TjB9zKAn]

Hi,

My name is Ayobami and this is my first time on samsung community. 

I want to share a feedback on the new "no charger with new phones idea". Maybe someone has shared this before.

So, I am a forever samsung phone user and I recently got the S21plus. I was shocked that my phone did not come with a charger, and the only electronic that came with it was a USB C to C.  I contacted Samsung and the summary of the whole explanation was trying to limit waste electronics. Now the phone I traded-in was a Samsung S7 edge. I feel like this idea is not very pleasant because, even though some people don't need the charger, some customers still do. - At the checkout point of purchase, there should be an option to purchase phone with charger or without charger. 

- Or at least let the USB that came with the phone be the typical USB point on the other end, so that customers can use any charger head, rather than the total C to C ends.

So now, we have to specifically use some special charger or wireless charger and some of us were not even aware of that. If not because my husband uses samsung S11 plus, I wouldn't have been able to charge my phone for a while.

Samsung should please look into this.

Thanks.

[EyeStylist21]

I agree with this whole heartedly.

[EvanaShankar]

After doing the math on Samsung's preorder deals for the S21 lineup, I decided that getting an S21 Ultra was too good of a deal to pass up (with a bit of work, I got the 256gb model for $500 before taxes, without trading in my current phone).

I've had the phone for a few days now, and wanted to give my thoughts on how it compares to my current Pixel 4XL. For context, I owned a Galaxy S10 prior to my Pixel.

Things the S21 Ultra does well:

• Battery life: the battery life on this phone is genuinely amazing. I usually only charge my phone to 80%, and even then I'm couldn't kill it in a day. 5000mah with the newer, more efficient OLED screen really works.

• General hardware quality: other than a couple things, Samsung has significantly better hardware than my old Pixel. The screen is an upgrade in basically every aspect (120hz is definitely smoother than 90hz, and it doesn't suffer from any color shift at low brightness like my Pixel). The speakers are better, the overall tolerances are tighter. I still prefer Google's software experience, but man Samsung can really make a nice phone.

• Big phone features: Samsung has really useful big-phone features, especially compared to stock android. One hand operation plus is great, and there's just been generally more thought put into how split screen and multi-window should work. I also really missed edge panel when I originally switched to the Pixel, and enjoy having it back now.

Things the S21 Ultra doesn't do so well:

• Feel in hand: there's no way around how heavy and unwieldy the Ultra is. It's not much larger physically than my Pixel, but it's much heavier, with an enormous camera bump. These combine to make this a significantly less comfortable phone to use, with the camera bump (1) making the phone feel much more top heavy, and (2) constantly bumping into my finger when I'm holding the phone.

• The little things: I got this sense when I owned the S10, but I always felt like Samsung priotizes huge, flashy features when designing their phones, and often forgets or ignores the little things. This feeling is definitely still here with the S21 Ultra. From the past couple days:

  • The proximity sensor is broken. Samsung's proximity sensor implementation is essentially: "is there any skin touching the top portion of the phone?" Covering the top of the phone with a non-conductive material (e.g. clothing) does not trigger the proximity sensor, which results in the AOD not turning off when the phone is pocketed, and has caused multiple accidental pocket unlocks if I don't turn off double tap/lift to wake.

  • Samsung is missing a lot of small but useful software features that I constantly use on my Pixel, such as flip for DND, phone screening/hold for me, auto night mode in the camera, etc.

  • Samsung for some reason continues to insist on including duplicate system apps, many of which are objectively worse than the Google alternatives. I wish Samsung would focus more on things like Dex (genuinely useful and an actual differentiator!), rather than wasting time and storage space on things like the Galaxy Store, Bixby, and calendar/calculator clones.

  • Haptics: Samsung's haptic feedback is significantly more mushy/less precise than the Pixel's. This is especially clear when typing in Gboard with haptics enabled, where each keypress on the Pixel feels like a very well defined click, whereas on the S21 it feels more like a farty buzz. Also, Samsung has less haptic feedback scattered across the OS, which makes the holistic usage experience much less tactile and immersive.

  • Personal preference, but why are icons on the home screen cartoonishly large, with no option to change the sizing? I'm not blind Samsung...

Things that are a wash between the two:

• Cameras: the Galaxy has a much more versatile camera system, just due to the sheer number of lenses, but I still prefer the Pixel's overall look. This is personal preference as well, but I like the Pixel's more contrasty, natural look over Samsung's slight oversaturation and aversion to shadows. Also, while it has improved significantly from the S10, the S21 Ultra still has some slight shutter lag when taking photos.

• Biometric authentication: in a pandemic, the fingerprint sensor is more convenient, but I prefer face unlock more overall. Also personal preference however. The larger ultrasonic fingerprint sensor has basically fixed all my complaints with the gen 1 version on the S10 though.

Overall, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is a really, really good Samsung phone. It does well at all the things that Samsung phones do well, but has the same shortcomings that Samsung has always had as well. I still prefer the overall experience of the Pixel more (it just works™), but I'm still very tempted to fully switch over to the S21 Ultra just for the amazing display and battery life. I'll give it a few more weeks before making a final decision, but this is going to be a really tough choice.

Anyways, I have the phone on hand, so feel free to AMA.

[Sami30]

Hopefully these issues are solved by the time you're ready to switch over. I have the s20 ultra and I'm loving it. Haven't had any issues with it yet.

[dudetookmyname]

It's a beautiful device. I'm pretty annoyed with the Samsung apps though, like the camera being integrated with gallery instead of google photos. Managing a samsung account shouldn't be required for basic functions IMO but it's probably pretty seamless for past galaxy users

[crosley]

awesome phones