About the design: New look for familiar hardware
Here is the details:
Gorilla Glass Victus front and back
161.5 x 75.6 x 7.8mm
200g
In-display fingerprint scanner and facial recognition biometrics
Unique redesign and camera housing
Flat display
Aluminum frame
Phantom Black, Silver, and Violet. Pink, Gold, and Red (Samsung exclusive)
As for Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus , it flaunts a redesign that can’t help but turn heads. The new look is certainly bolder than Samsung’s previous designs and may not be to everyone’s taste. Even so, I’m quite a fan of the brash Phantom Violet colorway I’ve been using for the review, and there’s no doubting Samsung’s attention to detail and build quality. This is a very well-built smart mobile phone.
There is Gorilla Glass Victus on the front and back of the handset, offering solid protection from drops and cracks. Glass can be a little slippery, but that’s par for the course in the premium tier of the market. This sits in contrast to the regular Galaxy S21 with its “glasstic” rear cover. There’s also an IP68 rating for water and dust protection, which has been standard in Samsung’s flagships for generations currently.
Regarding the security, the phone boasts an in-display fingerprint reader that works pretty snappily. Facial recognition through the front-facing camera is also supported and this works a fraction faster than the fingerprint scanner. Although both are quick and accurate enough that I didn’t experience any problems unlocking the phone. It’s worth noting that the facial unlock is all software-based and not as secure as hardware-based alternatives.
Regarding the audio enthusiast crowd, there’s no return of the beloved headphone jack here. But the phone does support SBC, AAC, aptX, LDAC, and Samsung’s Scalable Bluetooth audio codecs for wireless headphones and the like. The phone’s stereo speaker setup sounds pretty good and serves up decent stereo separation. Just don’t expect to hear thumping basslines from these little tucked-away drivers. FM radio is also included too, if you’re still jamming to your tunes the old-fashioned way.
To sum up, the Galaxy S21 Plus provides a well rounded hardware package that remains a gold standard in the industry
About display: Familiar Samsung brilliance
The display on the Galaxy S21 Plus is excellent and not just in terms of quality. The essentially bezel-free design and selfie camera cutout are familiar attributes of Samsung’s recent premium design ethos.
Samsung has cut back its display resolution this generation, from QHD+ (3,200 x 1,440) down to FHD+ (2,400 x 1,080) to save on costs. However, this won’t make any difference to most buyers, as the slightly older Galaxy S handsets defaulted to an FHD+ software resolution out of the box anyway. With a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, HDR10+ content support, and bright AMOLED technology behind it, Samsung’s display prowess is as impressive as ever. Although unlike some rival handsets, you can’t force all apps to make use of the silky smooth 120Hz refresh rate. Instead, the refresh rate is perpetually locked in adaptive mode.
Performance: 5nm is fast and efficient
Qualcomm Snapdragon 888/Samsung Exynos 2100
Adreno 660/Arm Mali-G78 14 core
8GB RAM
128/256GB storage
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus is powered by the latest 5nm flagship silicon, just like the rest of the range. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 appears in the US and select Asian markets, while the rest of the world gets the Samsung Exynos 2100. Paired up with 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of fast UFS3.1 internal storage, you won’t be left wanting for performance here. Although unfortunately, Samsung has removed the microSD expansion slot from its entire Galaxy S21 range.
The Exynos 2100 powered Galaxy S21 Plus clocked in Speed Test G benchmark times as fast as 90 seconds, with an average of 101 seconds over 10 concurrent runs. This puts it in roughly the same ballpark as the Galaxy S21 Ultra model benchmarked below. Broadly speaking though, peak performance is much better than sustained performance with this chip.
Review on the battery: Time to read up on charging standards
4,800mAh battery
25W wired charging speed (compatible chargers only)
15W wireless charging speed with 4.5W reverse wireless
The Galaxy S21 Plus offers exceptional battery life, much like the rest of the Galaxy S21 family. The 4,800mAh battery easily lasts through a full day of heavy use, such as snapping pictures, shooting video, and a little gaming on the go. Many users could easily see two full days of lighter use, such as web browsing and checking email.
If you’re after numbers, the Exynos Galaxy S21 Plus lasted four hours 18 minutes running our extreme Speed Test G benchmark on loop. That’s a very good result. By comparison, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra lasted three hours and 39 minutes, and last year’s OnePlus 8T survived three hours 51 minutes.
Controversially, there’s no charger included with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus. While there are genuine environmental arguments in favor of this move, the complex USB-C charging situation will likely leave many consumers with a headache.
A P 
Jason 
Mike Lee-111 
microSD is a storage place for your Data. It’s like having a second SSD in your PC. You make your videos, photos, etc. And then you can move them to the big microSD, if you want. Depended what type of microSD you buy, you can get really high speed models (250MB/s or more).
Just because YOU personally don’t like it, it doesn’t mean that the whole smartphone industry has to stop supporting microSD. That’s such an arrogant way of thinking.
I love the camera setup… OMG, like a monster camera setup.. 108 MP (2nd gen), f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/1.33″, 0.8µm, PDAF, OIS
10 MP, (periscope telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 10x optical zoom
10 MP, (telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide), 1.4µm, Super Steady video
0.3 MP, TOF 3D, f/1.0, (depth)
Why do people care so much about headphone jacks? Just get an adapter or a bluetooth alternative. And the battery is big, I don’t see why you’re complaining about it.
I honestly don’t understand the argument with Headphone jack in 2020.
If they didn’t make flagships then where would they compete in the flagship market? They’d lose consumers and interest…
not yet buddy, wait for availability
Dude, the world is moving on from 3.5mm jacks. If you really need one, just get an adapter. They cost less than $10.
Nah
For those asking why can’t they put the JACK back. Simple!
1. For them to SELL Wireless Earphone.
2. Because of the CAMERA SETUP. The ULTRAWIDE Sensor is as big (1/2.55) as the MAIN Camera of previous flagship from different brands. The MAIN camera (108mp) is much bigger (1/1.33) and IMPORTANTLY becuase of the 2 Telephoto lens, which one of it is a PERISCOPE Camera, that takes a lot of Horizontal Space.
3. Becuase of the 5000mah Battery
4. To make it SLIM and LIGHT even if it is featured packed
People here complaining about no SD card despite it obviously not being official specifications.
3 year OS + 2 year security
so this phone up to android 14 then security until 2026
I just switched over to iPhone 12 pro max, been using the galaxy lineup for years, Samsung just removed a bunch of features that I like, no more reason to get another Samsung now.
Just because YOU don’t use these features doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be there. Why should spending more give you less? Mid rangers have a headset, charging brick, headphone jack, and microSD card. There seems to be no reason to spend for these ‘flagships’.
Agree. By eliminating the SD Card slot they’re forcing you to spend much more money for extra storage. Just like Apple does.
all people here talking about overheat, performance, camera like they already buy or try this $1200 phone.
For me i already use the S21 Ultra because i have business phone counter. And this phone already good enough, even You will not use its feature. What else you want, AI? autofocus? , super duper camera? genshin impact?
no slot for SD Card? 256 is already big enough, and in the future all brand like samsung and apple will wipe out SD Card, And you cant do anything
Gaming is struggling quite a bit. I tried heavy games like Genshin Impact, it was giving 30-35fps at certain stages which is unacceptable as last year’s chips like Snapdragon 865 give better performance. It shouldn’t struggle on a phone which costs 1250€.
Camera performance especially video is poor. I don’t know what is wrong. Samsung used to be the best at video recording. Maybe it’s the lack of Optimization for Exynos 2100.
Overall image quality wasn’t that impressive in low light compared to my wife’s mi 10 ultra.
Things I liked about the S21 Ultra were looks, battery life, screen.
For whatever reasons, it didn’t resonate with me, was expecting more from a 1250€ device.
I returned mine after using it for few days. Will wait for phones from other manufacturers.
I have been using S21 Ultra for 1 week and this phone is incredible man. What an amazing camera experience. You did your best Samsung. Also i didnt have any heating issue with the camera. All i can say is Fantastic Phone i have ever had.
Best cell phone among all models.
Why would I downgrade from Android to iOS?
For regular users, they’re both great. BUT, if you are a power user or you are into programming, you will instantly realize that iOS is nothing but a digital prison where the only customizable thing is the static wallpaper, while everything else is locked down.
Android, on the other hand gives you a lot of freedom, customizations etc, without even rooting the phone. If you root an android phone you get full control, while if you jailbreak the iPhone, it will go bananas and die in your hands, full of glitches and hiccups.
iOS is only for the masses, Android is for the masses, but also for the smart people as well.
Hope my answer will clear things up for you!