Samsung - Galaxy S21 5G 256GB (Unlocked) - Phantom Gray

I have had this phone for around 6 months now as a replacement for a Samsung S8 and it connects faster to my vehicles Bluetooth and now works with my Samsung Level wireless headphones without freezing my phone which happened with the old S8. It takes such bright and clear pictures that I never use my Canon cameras anymore. I decided to get my $1,300 Canon EOS 7D with the attached $500 Canon 17-40 L Series Wide Angle Zoom out of the safe yesterday to compare the images. The polarized lens cover produced poor pictures so I replaced that with just a clear lens cover. Today in bright sunlight I took several pictures with the Canon and the Samsung S21 5G. The results convinced me to just put the Canon EOS 7D back into the safe since the Samsung S21 5G pictures were far superior as far as brightness and clarity. See the attached comparison pictures for yourself.

I like this phone, i had to retunr it unfortunately because it had a factory problem.

This device is gold. I sprung for the 256G option because there is no MicroSD support but the cost increase isn't great. In summary, the device is perfect fit for the hand, looks great, performs like a beast and makes minimal compromise. Unboxing / setup: There is minimal in the box, a USB-C to USB-C cable, documentation, a SIM tool and the phone. Setup takes some time if you are porting from another phone but the Samsung Smart Switch app makes it pretty easy where all you have to do is transfer all software, log in to Google and Samsung and it will do the rest, it just takes time to do so. Use: Battery life was lacking in the first few days but once it learned my habits after three or so days, I finish the day with 20% battery and 4-5 hours screen on time with 5G T-Mobile service in my area. I watch a lot of YouTube, read books, message, social media and game though out the day. What I was most impressed with is how well this phone fits in the hand. It is near perfect for small/medium hands. Most of the screen is reachable and one-handed texting is easy. The plastic back is a non-issue for me since it still feels premium and I use a case anyway. The Phantom Grey looks much better in person than in the product photos. The lack of Micro SD is a good move even if it is hard to swallow in my opinion. The reason I say this is the performance increase. Most faster Micro SD cards only read at 90 MBps whereas the UFS 3.0 built in provides 1748 MBps read, 756 MBps write which is outstanding! The price increase for the 128 GB is only $50 extra which is only a tiny bit more than a 128GB microSD card. I do understand the pain if you need more than 256GB though. Performance was a little choppy the first day or two as I assume the phone was indexing the filesystem and cleaning up after smart switch, but in the week since, zero issues. Performance on benchmarks is not on PAR with iPhones but you wouldn't notice in day to day use as apps open even faster. Camera: There is a bit of shutter lag, but if you can live with that, photos area AMAZING! I must disclose that the 3x camera is not optical in nature. It is a cropped 64MP sensor. Side by side to an S21 Ultra with an optical 10MP 3X, the difference is almost unnoticeable. The phone allows digital zoom up to 30x but I wouldn't go higher than 10x as it is unusable after that. There is no macro ability but if yo use the 3x, it gives you pretty close photos. Sound: Speaker quality is great! I can easily hear it playing music or podcasts while showering and it gets loud and clear. The phone supports all the big codecs via bluetooth and I recommend Samsung buds of any type as it supports a Samsung Scalable Codec. Display: I was worried about the 1080p display being too low, but it is an extremely good screen! It is bright, vibrant and detailed as the screen size is low. Connectivity: Calls are clear especially on HD calls. I have a Wifi 6 network and connection stays strong anywhere in my house. Switching from an iPhone 12 Pro, I noticed cellular signal on 4G LTE and 5G is stronger anywhere I am in comparison. I have got up to 650mbps via 5G midband as there is no mmwave in my area.

The good: -This phone does have a very nice feel and good size to it (don't listen to people misrepresenting it as "plastic", the finish and material feel to me exactly like my last phone, the iPhone 11 Pro) -It is very fast with a great screen, 120 Hz is snappy, 5G seems a little faster than LTE but not that much honestly. -Battery life seems good so far. -Software works well, UI is just as intuitive as apple in my opinion. With more customization options. The bad: -No charger in the box, this is honestly an insult to someone who just switched from iPhone and needed a charger. What on Earth were the clueless Samsung folks thinking with this decision I'll never know. (Other than "oh let's do it if apple is doing it") -No headphone port. That was one of the reasons I was excited to switch back to Samsung, my old S8 had a headphone port which I was missing. Another insult to the consumer...how many people were actually giving feedback that they didn't want the port? Clearly they were just copying apple's anti-consumer behavior. -Why not have a black color option for all models? This gray is not bad but you'd have so many more people switching over if you had a proper black option in the entry model. Not everyone wants a huge phone (which is the only reason I didn't opt for the plus or ultra...this is a huge wasted opportunity for Samsung to capture a larger audience) -limited to just 256GB if I want a phone I can use with one hand? Either offer a 512GB option or give the ability to put a microSD card in. This was also a very sloppy decision by Samsung too. In general Samsung continues to throw away big opportunities to win over former iPhone customers. Get your act together Samsung, you have a chance to be better than Apple. I hesitated a lot before trying this phone...over things you could have easily fixed with minimal impact to your costs. And they would go a long way towards winning over hearts of consumers.

This is a very good device. Performs well for almost three years. good camera.