There's a lift in design for the Galaxy S21, resulting in a phone that looks fresh and exciting, and a great display, offering adaptive refresh rates. While there's plenty of power - and a flagship performance - the camera doesn't reach the highs that you get from the Galaxy S21 Ultra, leaving this feeling like the lesser device. Sadly, sitting so close to the cheaper S20 FE, that might see some opting for the cheaper phone instead.

Distinctive design; Waterproofing; Great display; Smooth and powerful performance; Decent battery life;

No microSD card slot; Camera performance could be better; Easily undercut by the S20 FE;

Samsung’s new flagships vastly improve on last year’s offerings, though many brand loyalists may not be happy at the thought of plastic-backed phones costing well over Php 40K being the norm now.

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G - Testing T-Mobile Sub-6 Connectivity Before we wrap-up, we felt it was a good idea to explore the primary functionality that all users require as a basic necessity from a smartphone, and that's call quality and good cellular network connectivity.

Excellent performance; Killer OLED 120Hz display; Great camera performance; Innovative and useful Samsung DeX; Very useful Director's View camera mode; Aggressively priced currently; Solid battery life

If you're a fan of Samsung devices and upgrading from an older phone, you'll likely enjoy a lot of what the S21 offers

Great display; Unique; fresh design; Decent battery life and performance

Unreliable camera software; One UI needs polish (and less ads); A bit pricey for what's on offer

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G is the mobile you should buy if you want the most value your money.

Good camera with creative possibilities. Razor-sharp and bright screen with adaptive 120 Hz refresh rate combined with nice design and extremely high performance. Best for the price in the Galaxy S21 series.

No charger is supplied, and although the screen is not the largest, we could still have wished for a higher screen resolution.

A reliable upgrade for Galaxy S10 owners, the Samsung Galaxy S21 is a very good smartphone, and a decent camera phone at $799 / £769, however, it’s too similar to its predecessor and last year’s Galaxy S20 FE to warrant an upgrade from either of those.

Lower launch price than S20; UI packed with features; Improved night photography

No optical zoom; No AF on ultrawide; Low on innovation

Part of Samsung's smartphone philosophy is to offer every user the device that is perfectly right for them. The Galaxy S21 series is no different. The Galaxy S21 serves the largest target group among Galaxy S fans.

bright AMOLED display running at 120 Hz; fast Exynos SoC; very good camera; 5G; dual SIM; and eSIM; Wi-Fi 6E; Bluetooth 5.0; NFC

plastic back; no power adapter included; storage not expandable; throttles under load; average battery life

The Samsung Galaxy S21 is one of the best value smartphones available for purchase today but may not be the upgrade some were hoping for.

Vibrant 120Hz AMOLED display; Refined and versatile cameras; Great hardware and software performance; Far more affordable

Little reason to upgrade over the Samsung Galaxy S20; No microSD card support; No supplied plug charger

The Samsung Galaxy S21 is in a tough spot. It’s the most affordable Galaxy S21 series phone, the entry point into this year’s flagship Android phones, from the house of Samsung. And that means the weight of the world is on its shoulders.

A flagship that has learned the right lessons