Samsung will release Galaxy S21, S21+ and S21 Ultra at the end of January from 849 euros

Samsung has announced the Galaxy S21 and S21+. The phones have 5G and three cameras that are concealed in a separate island that merges into the housing. The company also releases the S21 Ultra with two telephoto cameras. The cheapest model, the regular S21, costs 849 euros.

S21 and S21+

The Galaxy S21 5G has a 6.2″ screen with a resolution of 2400×1080 pixels with 421ppi. The OLED screen supports HDR10+ and has a variable refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The screen of the S21+ 5G is slightly larger at 6.7 inches and has same resolution, leading to a lower ppi of 394.

The devices both use an undisclosed octacore processor that is made on a 5nm process. That is almost certainly the Exynos 2100-soc recently presented by Samsung. Samsung says that the soc in the S21 devices uses cores at 2.9GHz, 2.8GHz and 2.2GHz. That corresponds entirely with the specifications of the Exynos 2100. With this soc, Samsung no longer uses its own Mongoose cores, as was still the case with the Exynos 990 in the S20 series.

Both models have 8GB Lpddr5 ram on board. As is usual with the Galaxy S devices, there is a clear difference in the battery capacity: with the S21 it is 4000mAh and with the S21+ 4800mAh. Both phones support fast charging based on the Quick Charge 2.0 standard. The maximum charging power with ‘wired’ charging is not shown by Samsung, but that will probably be 25W.

The phone has three cameras that are tucked into an island that sits in the metal back of the housing, which contrast against a matte-finished back. The primary camera takes 12-megapixel photos with an angle of view of 79 degrees, has pixels of 1.8 microns and has a lens with an aperture of f/1.8. The ultra-wide lens has a 120-degree angle of view and a lens with an aperture of f/2.2. There is also a telephoto camera with a resolution of 64 megapixels, which has a hybrid optical zoom of three times. The ‘Space Zoom’ function, mentioned by Samsung, is also present, with which users can zoom in up to thirty times.

With the camera, it is possible to record videos in 8k, where users can also take a snapshot of 33 megapixels. It is not clear whether this only applies to the regular camera. It is also possible to turn on both the front and rear camera at the same time. The camera has Super Steady image stabilization when shooting videos in 1080p. As with the S20 series, the front camera is present through a hole in the screen. It has an eighty-degree angle of view, takes 10-megapixel photos and the lens has an aperture of f/2.2.

The Galaxy S21 devices will be on sale from January 29. The normal S21 with 128GB storage costs 849 euros and with 256GB that becomes 899 euros. The S21+ with 128GB and 256GB costs 1049 and 1099 euros respectively. The phones are available in pink, silver and black.

Galaxy S21 Ultra

Samsung has also released the Galaxy S21 Ultra. It has a slightly larger screen and an extra camera. The 6.8″ screen has an OLED screen with a higher resolution than the other two S21 devices, namely 3200×1440 pixels. The pixel density is 515ppi and this device also supports HDR10+. The phone has slightly better specifications to honor its Ultra name to do: there is 12GB Lpddr5 memory in combination with 128GB or 256GB storage space, or 16GB Lpddr5 with 512GB storage.The battery is also slightly larger with 5000mAh, just like the S20 series.

The biggest change is that the S21 Ultra has not three but four cameras. It is a 108-megapixel camera with an f/1.8 aperture lens. There is also an ultra-wide-angle camera with the same 12-megapixel sensor as that of the S21 and S21+. The Ultra also has two telephoto cameras with a resolution of ten megapixels, one of which has a triple optical zoom with an f/2.4 aperture and the other ten times optical zoom with an f/4.9 aperture. Also here is a ‘Space Zoom’ function, but of a hundred times. With the 108-megapixel sensor it is possible to film in 4K at 60fps.

The S21 Ultra can also use the S-Pen. It is not stored in the housing, as in Note models, for example, but must be taken along separately. The S-Pen is also not included as standard, but can be purchased separately. The phone itself costs 1249 euros for the version with 12GB ram and 128GB storage, or 1299 euros for the 256GB version. The version with 512GB storage and 16GB ram costs 1429 euros. The Ultra devices are, like the other S21 versions, for sale from January 29.