Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G

Star power

PHONE ❘ £845 from Amazon www.snipca.com/37692

In Issue 599 we reviewed the Samsung Galaxy S21 ( www.snipca.com/37212), awarding it five stars thanks to its great screen, powerful performance and reasonable price. Here we’re testing the S21+, which is a step up in terms of price, but comes with a larger screen and longer battery life.

Inside is Samsung’s latest Exynos 2100 processor and a generous 8GB of memory. The screen has a resolution of 1080x2400 and a refresh rate of 120Hz, making it silky smooth to use. There are three cameras on the back of the phone: a 12-megapixel main sensor; a 64-megapixel telephoto camera; and a 12-megapixel ultrawide unit. It also offers 5G connectivity and runs Android 11.

At 6.7in across the diagonal, the Galaxy S21+’s AMOLED screen is roughly five per cent larger than the basic Galaxy S21, but it shares the same resolution. It has a small hole in the top centre of the screen, which houses the 10-megapixel selfie camera, and there’s an in-screen fingerprint reader.

In terms of quality, the screen is as good as we’d expect from a Samsung device. It covers 96 per cent of the SRGB colour standard in the phone’s default settings, and reached a dazzling maximum brightness of 1,099cd/ m2.

The phone comes with 128GB or 256GB of storage, depending on how much you’re willing to spend. However, as we

SPECIFICATIONS

Octa-core Samsung Exynos 2100 • 8GB memory • 6.7in 120Hz 1080x2400 resolution AMOLED screen • 128GB or 256GB storage • 64-megapixel rear camera • 10-megapixel front camera • Wi-fi 6 • Android

11 • 7.8x76x162mm (HXWXD) • 200g • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/37692

A powerful phone that’s smooth to use, lovely to look at and lasts for longer

were writing this review, both capacities were available for a similar price on Amazon. Note, there’s no opportunity to upgrade it later with a memory card.

When it comes to general performance, the Exynos 2100 chip is around 30 per cent faster than its predecessor, the Galaxy S20+, with similar performance levels to the Xiaomi Mi 11 (see our review, Issue 602). It also trounces its predecessor in graphics performance, doubling the benchmark test scores of the Galaxy 20+.

At 4,800mah, the S21+’s battery is 20 per cent larger than the one in the regular Galaxy S21 and this helped it last two hours longer in our video-playback test.

Photos taken on the devices are rich with detail, with excellent use of HDR and colours that look as if they’re going to leap right out of the screen. Our only complaint is that we found we often had to adjust the exposure slider down a notch or two, because the auto-exposure has a tendency to boost the brightness of an image a tad too much.

An astonishingly good smartphone, but we’re not sure the larger screen size and longer battery life is worth the extra you’ll pay over the Galaxy S21

VERDICT

Xiaomi Mi 11 £660 A cheaper phone with a similar specification that offers better value for money

ALTERNATIVE