Samsung Galaxy S21 5G 128GB - Phantom Violet

I've had this phone for about 5 month. It is my first Samsung phone since the Galaxy S6. I've been a big fan of the Google Nexus/Pixels for years now, but didn't really like the Pixel 5 after trying it out for a week and wanted a change. This S21 5G is fast, has a great battery life, gorgeous 120hz display and can handle anything I throw it. I also appreciate the thought and effort the developers at Samsung have put into the refined version of One U 3.1... keep it up!That said, there is one MAJOR ISSUE with this phone that I have not experienced with any of my previous phones including the Galaxy S6. The issue is with the screen... it develops unsightly micro scratches EXTREMELEY easily. I am super careful with the screens on my phones and never put phones in my ... MoreI've had this phone for about 5 month. It is my first Samsung phone since the Galaxy S6. I've been a big fan of the Google Nexus/Pixels for years now, but didn't really like the Pixel 5 after trying it out for a week and wanted a change. This S21 5G is fast, has a great battery life, gorgeous 120hz display and can handle anything I throw it. I also appreciate the thought and effort the developers at Samsung have put into the refined version of One U 3.1... keep it up!That said, there is one MAJOR ISSUE with this phone that I have not experienced with any of my previous phones including the Galaxy S6. The issue is with the screen... it develops unsightly micro scratches EXTREMELEY easily. I am super careful with the screens on my phones and never put phones in my pockets with keys or other objects. I have a good case on my phone (Spigen Rugged Armour) that has a decent lip, so when I place the phone down it sits on the lip and not the screen. I use a high quality lint free microfiber cloth to wipe down the phone down every night and ensure it is always clean. Despite all of these precautions I am seeing more and more micro scratches appear on the glass. I thought at first it may be a screen protector that Samsung installed at the factory, but after further review I found out that Samsung was being cheap this year and the S21 5G did not ship with a protector... terrible for a $1200CAD phone... don't even get me started on the lack of a charger in the box! In any case these micro scratches are on the glass, and very annoying to see when tilting the phone in certain light conditions.Samsung is claims that this Corning Gorilla Glass Victus is the "toughest Gorilla Glass yet, with significantly improved scratch and drop performance". After reading a few reviews I actually believe there is a flaw in Samsung's manufacturing process here (it wouldn't be the first time). Based on the reviews I feel some customers (including myself) received a flawed version of the Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. Call it what you want; but based on the level of care that I've taken this is what I feel.

I just got the S21 FE about two months ago, so I will update this as I continue to evaluate. I did get it on sale. So far it is quite snappy and the Snapdragon 888 performs well. I feel this is a very stable phone so far. The Battery with adjustments made on my part gives me about 30%-40% of Battery usage Daily.As of 9/15/2022 (nine weeks later), I am pleased with the phone. It is very stable and the UI is so amazing. The audio quality via the AKG Earphones is awesome especially Dolby ATMOS enabled. The 6 GB of RAM with the Virtual RAM increased to 6 GB makes the phone super snappy! I do suggest a case and screen protector for long life. I will be able to get four Software/Firmware Updates to include up to Android 16.The Display and touch sensitivity, even with ... MoreI just got the S21 FE about two months ago, so I will update this as I continue to evaluate. I did get it on sale. So far it is quite snappy and the Snapdragon 888 performs well. I feel this is a very stable phone so far. The Battery with adjustments made on my part gives me about 30%-40% of Battery usage Daily.As of 9/15/2022 (nine weeks later), I am pleased with the phone. It is very stable and the UI is so amazing. The audio quality via the AKG Earphones is awesome especially Dolby ATMOS enabled. The 6 GB of RAM with the Virtual RAM increased to 6 GB makes the phone super snappy! I do suggest a case and screen protector for long life. I will be able to get four Software/Firmware Updates to include up to Android 16.The Display and touch sensitivity, even with a glass screen protector is excellent. I have the Vivid mode enabled and adjusted the white balance down a bit, it looks fantastic. I am very pleased with the phone.

The S21 5G has been great for the 5 months that I've used it. General stability and performance of the phone are its highlights - thanks to a year of regular software updates and a chipset that keeps up with the times (SD 888). The display on this phone looks stunning, and it boasts a fluid 120 Hz refresh rate that makes everything smooth and snappy. It gets bright enough such that it can be used outdoors for texting, paying and media control. The color profile of the display also switches under direct sunlight to enhance readability - it becomes more saturated. Haptics are tight and responsive, nothing to complain about there either.Battery life (!!) is one of the most important aspects of a mobile device. I am happy to say that the S21 5G has enough juice to ... MoreThe S21 5G has been great for the 5 months that I've used it. General stability and performance of the phone are its highlights - thanks to a year of regular software updates and a chipset that keeps up with the times (SD 888). The display on this phone looks stunning, and it boasts a fluid 120 Hz refresh rate that makes everything smooth and snappy. It gets bright enough such that it can be used outdoors for texting, paying and media control. The color profile of the display also switches under direct sunlight to enhance readability - it becomes more saturated. Haptics are tight and responsive, nothing to complain about there either.Battery life (!!) is one of the most important aspects of a mobile device. I am happy to say that the S21 5G has enough juice to last a day of medium to slightly heavy usage. Standby battery drain is also pretty consistent, never noticed an issue there. With the correct equipment, the phone will 'Super fast charge' at up to 25W, which will charge the battery from 0-100 in about an hour (or 0-50 in about 25 mins). It's nothing to write home about, but gets the job done. There is also support for wireless charging and reverse wireless charging, although both of these are slower and less efficient charging technologies that I would not recommend using (especially the latter, as it drains and heats up the phone battery).Cameras on the phone are generally impressive for photography. Under ideal conditions, the 12 MP main sensor is capable of some pretty sharp images thanks to post processing that sharpens images. The telephoto camera does a decent job upto around 8X, after which the image is pretty blurry. It can go up to 30X, but that is more of a gimmick than a feature. The only time I found 30X to be useful is while taking moon shots, the phone does those pretty well. Keep in mind it is not a real optical zoom but a crop in on a 64 MP sensor, so the algorithm is pretty impressive. Ultrawide shots are also detailed (12 MP) and look stunning with minimal distortion around borders. The selfie camera is alright, and only works great under good lighting. I don't shoot many videos, but the phone is capable of producing smooth 60 FPS videos with seamless transitions between the three cameras and good auto focus. HDR10+ videos look great, however there is oversaturation in those clips and they cannot be shared across platforms easily (not recommended).Finally, I'd like to talk about software. As mentioned earlier, the phone is generally very performant and stable. Besides, OneUI offers countless features that are pretty intelligent. For example, the gallery app is magical as photos can be remastered to correct some blur, noise, overexposure, etc. Furthermore, S21 features object eraser that can remove objects, shadows and reflections from an image! Personally, I think the reflection eraser is the most helpful, to remove glare and reflections from an image captured through a window (I often take images through car windows). OneUI 5 is generally heavily customizable, if that's something you treasure! However, I haven't really bought into the Material You design yet, I feel changing icon colors makes them harder to find and differentiate. Fortunately or unfortunately, OneUI has not gone through any major design overhauls, and OneUI 5 still looks very similar to older OneUI versions. It is a solid Android skin, and is genuinely helpful at times when navigating this big phone one-handed (menus are closer to the bottom of the screen, and buttons are generally larger and easier to click). With all that said, however, I am starting to feel quite bored after using OneUI for the last 3 years, maybe because Samsung doesn't change as much and add as many new and practical features as compared to the competition (like Google Pixel). The only new feature I've been genuinely impressed by has been the object eraser and remastering in the gallery app (since I bought the S21 5 months ago). And, unfortunately Samsung uses generic Qualcomm chipsets, which are very performant, but cannot be designed around new software features unlike in the case of Google and Apple. This will be more important in upcoming years, but as of now Samsung's S series is still a safe bet in terms of general stability, performance and connectivity. That reminds me, connectivity has been very good on this smartphone, with support for Wifi 6, 5G UW/mmWave and 5G sub-6 ("nationwide"). I believe the version of Bluetooth supported is 5.1, but regardless it has been pretty rock solid.Finally, as I conclude, I would like to comment on the overall design of the phone. I like the size, although I am a sucker for more compact phones and believe the S21 could have shaved yet another inch off as seen in the S22. I love the glastic back, and I believe it helps with that 5G mmWave action. The back design with the layout of the triple camera screams my name, and the camera frame is flush with the side aluminum frame of the phone. The curved design of the glass and glastic sandwich makes the phone feel comfortable with no sharp edges, however that also makes for a rather slippery phone (recommend using a phone case!). I prefer the boxier S22 which is also more compact and provides a more confident grip. Overall, the S21 has been a solid daily driver, although I yearn for some more fun and useful software additions as seen in the likes of the Google Pixel.