At a digital press conference on Thursday, entitled “Welcome to the Everyday Epic”, the company unveiled its three new Galaxy S21 smartphones in different sizes – a 6.2-inch Galaxy S21, a 6.7-inch S21 + and a 6.8-inch S21 Ultra. Samsung boasts its faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, advanced AI-powered cameras, new colors in a matte finish and premium earbuds you can buy to go with it. All models have built-in 5G features.
The S21 Ultra is clearly Samsung’s striking product. While the Galaxy S21 and 21+ feature a new flat high-definition screen (2400 x 1080), the S21 Ultra model takes it a step further with a super-resolution screen (3200 x 1400). The S21 Ultra has four rear cameras, compared to the three rear cameras on the other two devices. The S21 Ultra’s four cameras are a 12-megapixel ultra-wide lens for capturing landscapes or group shots, a 108-megapixel wide-angle lens for brightness and color accuracy and two 10-megapixel telephoto lenses that work together to zoom even more in photos.
The Galaxy S21 ($ 799) and S21 + ($ 999) are $ 200 cheaper than the models they replace, and the S21 Ultra ($ 1199) is $ 300 less than its predecessor. These prices are the same as Apple’s iPhone series, although the S21 Ultra costs $ 100 more than the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
The S21 and S21 + (available in purple, black, gray, white and pink) and the S21 Ultra (available in black, silver, brown, titanium and navy blue) are available for pre-order on Thursday. All devices start on January 29th.
The three models support the S Pen stylus used in its Note phones, but all three models come without a charger, which according to Samsung is for sustainability reasons. Apple made a similar movie with the iPhone last year.
The upgrades are indeed improvements to the Galaxy series, especially the camera technology, but Samsung’s ‘epic’ motto feels out of place, as the changes are evolutionary as well as revolutionary and due to the background for the announcements. Life feels anything but epic: more people are sitting inside, the news cycle is extensive and the unemployment rate remains high. Let’s be honest, the day is a victory if we go out in sweatpants.
In a nod to our new normal, Samsung is to put in some features that better fit life at home during the pandemic. It includes a standard blue light filter that can help reduce eye strain when browsing dooms. The phones also offer deeper integration into home automation products.
In addition to the phones, Samsung has introduced a premium version of its wireless earbuds, called Galaxy Buds Pro, with improved noise cancellation and a surround sound feature. Prior to the event, a Samsung CEO was in a product demo work from home compared to a construction site – dogs barking, a toddler running around and devices humming in the background. The new wireless earbuds has three built-in microphones that separate the user’s voice from the background noise so that sound can be clear during a call, even if it’s a chaotic background.
Meanwhile, with the surrounding sound, you leave the world around you above and beyond what you are listening to. If you use it on Zoom call, you can still hear your child in the background. The two functions also work together intelligently. If your child inevitably comes to talk to you during your meeting, Galaxy Buds Pro will see them talking, turn down the volume and automatically switch to ambient noise so you can hear him better.
The set, which comes in purple, black and silver, costs $ 199- $ 50 less than the rival Apple AirPods Pro. The company claims that it plays 5 hours and gets 13 hours of reserved power when fully charged.
Samsung’s annual Galaxy event usually coincides with the Mobile World Congress in February in Barcelona – the first major technology event canceled last year due to the pandemic – but the company announced it on the last day of this year’s digital all to country moved. CES Consumer Technology Conference.
Following a long string of rumors, Samsung also unveiled a Bluetooth location tag called Galaxy SmartTag, which allows you to locate unconnected devices with a physical tag attached to keys, a pocket or a collar of a pet attached.