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There is no denying that the Galaxy S21 series was inspired by current Note devices – both in form and function. Unlike last year, there is a stricter division between the three models of the Galaxy S21, and this is evident. The questionable choices that Samsung made this time resulted in the S21 phones feeling even worse than the old S20 in some cases – and that cannot be emphasized enough for the two cheaper options. Among these downgrades, there are some that are too obvious to be ignored.
Without charger
Frankly, we saw this coming a mile away, when Apple took a chance and abandoned the standard case charger with its latest iPhones. For the new Galaxy S21 series, all Samsung offers is a USB-C cable, leaving you with the option of reusing an adapter you already own or buying a new one. Even if it’s an additional purchase, at least with Samsung, we’re not dealing with the headache of a proprietary charging port.
As for the charging technology itself, the S21 Ultra abandoned its support for faster 45W charging and conforms to the same modest 25W speed as the S21 and S21 +. With last year’s S20 Ultra, you could optionally pick up a 45W adapter separately, but honestly even the included 25W block proved quite capable at that time.
1080p screens
The ideal resolution for a phone’s screen has long been a polarizing issue, and it’s getting more intense here with Samsung’s decision to replace the QHD panels with FHD panels on the S21 and S21 +. The company’s flagships (including the S21 Ultra) default to 1080p anyway, and none of them (except the latest Ultra) can handle high refresh rates at their peak QHD resolutions – making a strong case for the resolution Lower FHD.
Monitors have long been a hallmark feature of Samsung phones, so this lower resolution on their latest flagships may set off a disturbing new trend – where we’ll see the lines between budget flags and real increasingly confused flagships.
Lower RAM capacity
Samsung probably realized that making 12 GB the basic RAM size for its entire Galaxy S20 line was a bit of a stretch and has since stepped back to limit it to 8 GB this time. Once again, the S21 Ultra receives preferential treatment and is able to maintain its more spacious options of 12 GB and 16 GB, with this change applying only to the two cheapest models.
Although it is a big drop in paper, the smaller RAM capacity should probably still be adequate, considering the international S20 models standardized for 8 GB without any noticeable bottleneck – our in-depth analysis of the S21 and S21 + should give you a more complete picture.
Plastic back
Okay, so the plastic back is another polarizing topic even for us here at Android Police, possibly even more than 1080p screens. Although we liked the implementation on the standard Note20, it still looked like Samsung was just making money on its supposedly $ 1000 premium phone. Taking a page out of its own book, Samsung put a plastic back on the non-Plus S21, while the two other models still use glass. At least the structure is still carved from metal, so durability has not been impaired.
Whether or not you prefer a plastic rear (Samsung uses a high quality one, for that matter) can be very subjective, but what the key says for sure is that the Galaxy S21 is now one step closer to the S20 FE.
No storage expansion or MST
In addition to all these important changes, Samsung also sneaked the microSD card slot from the entire S21 line. Until now, Galaxy phones were among the latest flagships that still allow you to insert a card to add even a terabyte of additional storage – but no more. With all these new phones, you are limited only to the built-in storage: for the S21 and S21 +, it means 128 GB and 256 GB options, while the Ultra allows you to choose between 256 GB and 512 GB.
Samsung also abandoned the MST, which helped define Samsung Pay by supporting existing payment terminals that lacked explicit NFC support, emulating the magnetic stripe on a physical credit card. With the increasing ubiquity of the payment infrastructure equipped with NFC, this threatens to make the MST obsolete. However, this change does not apply to all markets, and some international S21 models still retain MST functionality.
Separately, we learned that the basic S21 does not support UWB for future applications as a digital key, while the other two phones do. While it’s probably not a big deal, it makes the cheapest Galaxy S model look like a second-class citizen on Samsung’s first-rate 2021 line.
Many of you must be willing to point out that these so-called downgrades do not matter much when you consider the lowest entry price and all the other new features we have received this year – I am listening very loud and clear. While it is true that these regressions do, in fact, have a role to play in lowering the price, some of them appear as Samsung’s way of imposing its will on buyers, as Apple is also criticized. With these options, Samsung is withdrawing the options you already had or pressing you to upgrade to Ultra.