The review on Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus

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.