What do we know about the Galaxy S21?
Well, for starters, we know it’s called the Galaxy S21 – for a while, many of us expected Samsung to jump to the S30, but that’s definitely not what is happening this year.
As usual, the Galaxy S21 is Samsung’s smallest flagship phone and has had a slight makeover this year. The changes are most noticeable when you see the device from behind: the all-black camera spines that debuted in last year’s S20 series have been replaced by more elegant cases that blend with the metal structure of the S21. (The phone geek community quickly dubbed it Phantom of the Opera design, and who are we to discuss?) As a result, some of the new color options on the S21 look much nicer than others; the black and pink models have metal frames that match their bodies, while the white and purple models have flashy silver and bronze ornaments, respectively.
Meanwhile, the cameras themselves look very close to the ones we got on non-Ultra Galaxy S20 models from last year. Roland Quandt from WinFuture notes that the main rear 12-megapixel sensor offers a f / 1.8 aperture and a 79-degree field of view, just like the last time, and the phone’s ultra-wide, 10-megapixel front camera looks similarly unchanged. The only difference Quandt points to has to do with the S21’s 64-megapixel telephoto camera: Samsung’s chosen sensor appears to be slightly smaller than last year, but the light-capturing pixels on it are supposedly the same size.
The front of the S21 is as sparse as ever, but there are some interesting things to note about the 120 Hz, 6.2 inch Infinity-O screen. On the one hand, it uses an LTPS backplane that – summing up the long history – allows for lower power consumption or higher resolutions. Interestingly, a detailed leak provided by AndroidPolice claims that the Galaxy S21’s screen only works in Full HD +, which would make this year’s screen a little less pixel dense compared to the ones we got last year. If these reports continue, then it is clear that Samsung wanted to extract as much life as possible from the S21’s 4,000 mAh battery.
Several reports also suggest that Samsung is finally giving up on its use of curved edge screens, and we are frankly happy to see them go. If you’ve ever accidentally opened an app or clicked on a link with the side of your hand while reaching out to get something, this is good news for you.
Evan Blass / @ evleaks
In the past, we’ve occasionally seen Samsung use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipsets on all versions of a specific smartphone, such as the Galaxy Z Fold 2. But don’t expect this here: although an FCC leak confirms the American version of the S21, use the new Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 chipset, some variants sold outside the United States will include Samsung’s Exynos 2100.
In other years, this would come as worrying news for some of the company’s biggest fans, as devices with Exynos are often outperformed by their Qualcomm variants, but some early benchmarks suggest that Samsung may have really turned the tide this time around. It is true that these types of tests do not speak about the entire smartphone experience, but the results are promising, at least. And in addition to the different chips that power the S21, you can expect to see similar configurations almost everywhere: we expect Samsung’s small flagship to come with 12 GB of RAM and 128 GB or 256 GB of internal storage.
Oh, and one more thing: Samsung can give people the option of using Google’s Discover feed on their home screens, instead of using the company’s feed. 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.