Samsung - Galaxy S21+ 5G 256GB - Phantom Black (Verizon)

The Best Buy employee, I believe his name was Dylan(?) was very knowledgeable and extremely helpful in ordering the phone and setting up the phone with Verizon when I went to pick up the phone. He made the process painless and actually a pleasure. I love the new phone. It is so fast and I I have had a Samsung phone for years so I do like the familiarity. The camera is better than my old 8 and the fingerprint recognition is better than the 8 also. Although it is not perfect, sometimes it takes several tries to read my fingerprint. I did register 2 fingerprints. The battery life is excellent. I don't like that the auto rotation feature is back. I liked the 8 where I had to tap the rotation symbol on the face of the phone. I also like all the new features on the new Samsung Active watch. The battery life is great and I like that the watch band is changeable.

My initial thought is this is basically the same phone as the S20+5G I just traded in, however, it clearly is not. This phone lacks the ability to be expanded via micro SD card. If I had known this before committing to purchase, I would have waited for next years' model. Samsung has this ability to mess up a good thing every other phone...why is that? Why can't they expand on a good thing and make it better? No, instead, they take a step forward in the right direction and then 2 steps back. Hopefully they will bring back the SD card support in the next version and I will definitely read up on the next new phone before committing to anything.

The phone is definitely an upgrade from my S8+. I'm glad I got it on sale though, because I do not think it is worth paying the extra $300 I saved on it. I am still having some difficulties getting it to activate some of my apps and email accounts. But overall, it is much faster than my S8+.

Samsung S21plus is definite upgrade from prior Samsung S10plus. The resolution is sharp and video streams easily. The major change I really like is the volume and power buttons are now on right side of phone. Prior Samsung on left side always interfered with calls, with my hand hitting them during calls. Problem solved with S21 plus. Best Buy offers better deal than Verizon stores.

The phone is fine and all that good stuff. What the issue to me was that it only came with the charger cord. No wall charger plug. Why would Samsung do that!?!? I was made to feel like I had to buy one. When I arrived home I discovered that the wall chargers I have are still good for this phone because it is compatible with the Note9 charger cord. Also there is no headphone jack so you gotta buy wireless buds. What Samsung or Best Buy should do is offer a bundle. Phone, ear buds and charger plug or wireless charger stand.

Headphone jack hole not present. This phone can only be paired to Bluetooth devices. I'll have to get an adapter that will allow me to charge phone AND plug in a headset at the same time. Also, I still favor the S7 model with actual buttons (and fingerprint sensor) on the front bottom of the phone. Now all buttons are part of the screen for the newer phone models.

No problems with this phone that I've found. Great camera. Miss the expandable memory and the headphone jack but seems to be the trend for them to go away. I don't game on my phone but I've not noticed any screen lag. Does everything I've asked of it so far.

So far - so good! Too much redundant and predatory software. Of course you can not delete or eliminate it. Oh, what a wonderful world it would be if everyone didn't have a license to pick your pocket.