Samsung Galaxy S21 Announced at 2021 Galaxy Unpacked Event

Despite being the oddest and most frightening of years, 2020 still managed to bring us the best smartphone technology yet. Therefore, we welcomed 2021 with even bigger tech expectations, and first to the stage was Samsung with their 2021 Galaxy Unpacked Event.

In the event, the tech giant unveiled its best devices of the year so far. This included the much awaited Samsung Galaxy S21 series smartphones, which has three devices; the Galaxy S21, S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra. These Galaxy S21 series proudly carry on Samsung’s Galaxy S series history and tradition and will become part of the S series legend. The company also announced the new Galaxy Buds Pro and the Galaxy SmartTag (a Bluetooth tracker). Let’s dig deeper into these new devices, starting with the simpler ones.

Galaxy Buds Pro

Thanks to their bean shaped design and ineffective active noise cancellation, Samsung’s previous attempt at wireless earbuds (Buds Live) left a disappointing memory. This year, Samsung announced their new $349 earbuds, and from the look of things, they are better than their predecessors.

Perhaps the most notable is the fresh design, which is a significant upgrade from the bean-shaped Galaxy Buds Live. The Buds Pro also enjoyed improved specs that translate to enhanced audio features, primarily when used alongside a Samsung Galaxy device. Here are the specs;

·         6.5mm tweeter and 11mm woofer for a more balanced sound

·         A Voice Pickup Unit, three microphones, and Wind Shield technology for clearer phone calls

·         More intelligent ANC with voice detection lets the buds automatically activate Samsung’s Ambient Sound mode when you are having a conversation. Therefore, you don’t have to take the buds off your ears.

·         360 Audio when watching Dolby Atmos content using an S21 device

Samsung also made a couple of promises when launching the ear pods. The Galaxy Buds Pro offers reduced latency in the S21’s Game Mode, which should result in better audio synchrony when gaming with the wireless headsets. Samsung also promises eight hours of playback with ANC turned off plus 20 hours in the wireless charging case. With ANC turned on, the buds will give you 5 hours of playback plus thirteen in the case.

The earbuds come in three colours; silver, black, and violet. They are already available for order from Samsung and will also be available as a bonus when you pre-order the S21 Ultra in Australia.

Galaxy SmartTag

Samsung also announced a rather surprising accessory- the Galaxy SmartTag. If you are one to lose track of your belongings every once in a while, Samsung just made it easy for you to find them. As long as this accessory is attached to your belongings, you can use the SmartThings Find feature on your Samsung phone to find them.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 series

The new S21 series was of course, the main reason why so many people were looking forward to this year’s Galaxy Unpacked event. There were so many rumours leading up to the event, and many of these were proven quite right. The devices featured an all-new design just like the leaks suggested, and in line with Samsung’s trend of trolling Apple just to copy them, there is no charger in the box.  You can view chargers, cases for the S21 and the Galaxy S21+ chargers and cases on our website. We have cases and accessories for other cases and accessories for Samsung devices as well.

But the biggest buzz came from the lower starting price; the S21 starts at $258 cheaper than the S20- going for $1,249 and thus, bringing it closer to the starting price of the iPhone 12. Overall, the series underwent the biggest overhaul that we have seen in any Samsung flagship device in the past five years. Here is a closer look at the devices and these new changes.

Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus

The standard S21 and its slight upgrade, the S21 Plus, give us an insight into everything new this year. First off was the design, which splits some opinion, with many people not quite sure what to make of the Contour Cut Camera and the new range of colours.

Going into the specs, there is not much separating the two devices. They both pack Qualcomm’s new 5mm Snapdragon 888 processor, integrating 5G rather than using a separate module. Therefore, the devices should use 5G without draining too much power. Both smartphones also spot the same triple camera module at the back; 64MP main cam, 12MP telephoto, and a 12MP ultra-wide lens, with many new features like Director’s view, vloggers view, and Single Take mode.

On the front, the S21 and S21 Plus both have a centre-mounted hole- punch 10MP selfie camera with flat displays. Both displays have an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, which helps conserve battery life. Nonetheless, the resolution dropped from 1440p to 1080p (QHD+ to full HD+), just one of a few surprising changes made to the devices.

Others include the base RAM and storage dropping to 8GB and 128GB, respectively. The S21 also has a polycarbonate back, which is essentially just plastic. These were met with mixed reactions, but one explanation may be that to achieve a lower starting price, Samsung had to cut a few corners.

The differences between the S21 and the S21+ are mainly in size. For instance, the S21 has a 6.2” display while the S21+ has a 6.7” display. The former also has a 4,000 mAh battery, while the other has a 4,800 mAh battery.

Galaxy S21 Ultra

Last and most definitely not least is the big dog, the Galaxy S21 Ultra. This is the best Samsung can offer for $1,849, and Samsung took the device as an opportunity to iron out any issues that the S20 Ultra had; starting with the camera. 

It has a quad-cam setup at the rear, retaining last year’s 108MP primary sensor, a 12Mp ultra-wide cam, and two 10MP telephoto lenses with 3x and 10x optical zoom. Samsung now claims that the zoom now works better, and there is a new laser autofocus sensor to deal with last year’s focusing issues. All the other camera features and modes are just like in the cheaper models.

The S21 Ultra spots the same 120HZ VRR display (but bigger at 6.8”) as its two counterparts, but with a wider range. Depending on what you are viewing on the screen, the refresh rate can drop to as slow as 10Hz compared to the minimum 48Hz of the S21 and the S21+.

Perhaps more exciting is the S pen support, which had been rumoured for a while. Nonetheless, you will have to buy the pen as a separate accessory, and it doesn’t support as many features as in the note. See all our Galaxy S21 Ultra accessories. Other relevant specs include a Gorilla Glass Victus body, Snapdragon 888 chipset; the base RAM starts higher at 12GB and a big 5000mAh battery.