Affordable Samsung S21
ADVANCED: GOOD CAMERA SPECS MAKES IT THE DREAM MACHINE OF SMARTPHONES
The new Galaxy ranges mark a sudden halt to escalating prices.
What a difference a spec makes. The entry-level handset in the new Samsung Galaxy S21 range costs R16 999, R1 000 less than the equivalent phone in the S20 range released less than a year ago, marking a sudden halt to the ever-escalating prices of flagship phones.
The other phones in the new range, the S21+ and S21 Ultra, both cost a little more than last year’s equivalents, at R21 499 and R27 999, respectively, R500 and R1 000 higher than the previous pricetags.
For once, the exchange rate can’t be blamed for higher costs – a dollar cost around R15.15 at the time of the S20 launch, much the same as it has been over the past week.
Given that the price of the base model has fallen by $200 in the United States, one may have expected an even greater price drop, but the complexities of pandemic supply chains have conspired against bargains.
It was widely anticipated that Samsung would bring down the prices of all three models as a result of lukewarm sales last year. The question was, what would be sacrificed to this cause?
The S21 delivers the answer in its screen resolution: 1080 x 2400 pixels, more than a quarter off the S20’s 1440 x 3200 pixels.
However, the average user would find it a challenge telling the difference, usually relying on a spec sheet to tell them the numbers have changed.
Those ever-expanding spec sheets have, until now, been sacred to manufacturers, who use them both for bragging rights and marketing. Samsung’s willingness to downgrade this spec speaks volumes of the maturing of smartphone positioning.
For the rest, the specs are remarkably similar to the previous edition, aside from one significant jump: the processor powering the device.
For most markets outside the US, Samsung will use its own Exynos 2100 mobile processor, built using a 5nm fabrication process, meaning it is thinner than any chip previously made, yet integrates a 5G modem.
The S20 range ran on the older Exynos 990, built with a 7nm process. Such huge leaps in processor
technology are usually the justification for upping the price.
As Samsung puts it on its website – samsung.com/za – the 5nm processor packs “more speed, more power and more intelligence”. The new range runs on Android 11, overlaid by Samsung’s custom Android skin, One UI, upgraded from version 2.5 to 3.1.
The new version is simpler and more elegant, with better widget functionality on the lock screen. It is also available as a software upgrade for on the S20 range, meaning that it isn’t part of the price change equation. The phones are each targeted at specific markets or user profiles.
ABSURDLY GOOD CAMERA
The S21 Ultra, unsurprisingly, has just become the dream machine of smartphones. Primarily, that is thanks to absurdly good camera specs. Samsung calls it “our most advanced pro-grade camera system”, with a toolbox of new AI-powered features.
The quad rear camera features ultra-wide, wide and dual tele-lenses, headlined by a 108 megapixel pro sensor, from which one can capture photos with 64 times richer colour data and more than three times wider dynamic range than the S20 Ultra – which in itself had stunning camera specs.
For the first time on a Galaxy smartphone, says Samsung, one can shoot in 4K at 60fps across all lenses, including front and rear four lenses. The dual-tele lens system features one optical 3x zoom lens and one optical 10x lens, along with 100x digital zoom – equivalent to magnifying an image, and adding up to make this the most powerful zoom camera yet on a smartphone.
While the Huawei P40 Pro has similar camera specs, it is the technology underlying the cameras that puts it on a different level. An improved Bright Night sensor enhances low-light photography, with improved Night Mode, noise reduction and Nona-binning technology, which combines nine individual pixels into one pixel, allowing the light from nine pixels to be pulled into one pixel. The result, in dimly-lit conditions, seems like magic.
When science fiction visionary Arthur C Clarke once said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, he could easily have been forecasting the camera power of the S21 Ultra.
Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of
Follow him on Twitter and Instagram on @art2gee