This story was originally published and last updated .
There is no denying that the Galaxy S21 series got a lot of inspiration from the current Note devices – both in form and function. Unlike last year, there is a stronger gap between the three Galaxy S21 models, and it turns out. The dubious choices Samsung has made this time around make S21 phones in some cases feel even worse than the outgoing S20 – and that can’t be stressed enough for the two cheaper options. Among these downgrades, there are a few that are just too eager to go over.
No charger
Honestly, we saw it come a mile away when Apple took the plunge and dropped the standard in-box charger with its latest iPhones. For the new Galaxy S21 series, Samsung only offers a USB-C cable, which gives you the option to reuse an adapter you already own or buy a new one. While this is going to be an additional purchase, at least we are not going to deal with Samsung’s headache of having its own charging port.
As for the charging technology itself, the S21 Ultra has dropped its support for faster 45W charging and is set at the same modest 25W speed as the S21 and S21 +. With last year’s S20 Ultra, you could optionally pick up a 45W adapter, but even the 25W brick was quite capable at the time.
1080p screens
The ideal resolution for displaying a phone has long been a polarizing topic, and it is becoming increasingly intense with Samsung’s decision to swap QHD panels for FHD screens on the S21 and S21 +. The company’s flagships (including the S21 Ultra) are standard at 1080p anyway, and none of them (except the latest Ultra) can handle high refresh rates at their highest QHD resolutions – this is a strong argument for the lower FHD resolution.
Displays has long been an exhibit on Samsung phones, so this lower resolution on its latest flagships could launch a disturbing new trend – one where we draw the lines between the budget flagships and real flagships are becoming increasingly vague.
Lower RAM capacity
Samsung probably realized that the call to make 12 GB the basic RAM size for its entire Galaxy S20 line was a bit too much, and has since fallen back to limit it to 8 GB this time. Once again, the S21 Ultra gets the preferential treatment and can retain its wider 12GB and 16GB options, and this change only applies to the two cheaper models.
Although a big drop on paper, the lower RAM capacity should probably still be sufficient, as international S20 models are standard 8 GB without any noticeable bottleneck – our in-depth review of the S21 and S21 + should give you a more complete picture to give.
Plastic back
Okay, so plastic backpacks are another polarizing topic, even for us here at Android Police, possibly even more than 1080p screens. Although we actually liked the implementation on the standard Note20, it still felt as if Samsung had just pinned a penny on its $ 1000, so-called premium phone. With a page from its own book, Samsung hit a plastic back on the non-Plus S21, while the other two models still use glass. The frame was at least still carved out of metal, so durability did not have a hit.
Whether you prefer a plastic back (Samsung uses a fairly high quality, for what it’s worth) can be very subjective, but what the switch definitely says is that the Galaxy S21 is now one step closer to the S20 is FE.
No storage extension or MST
Aside from all the big card changes, Samsung has also sneakily excluded the microSD card slot from the entire S21 line. Galaxy phones have so far been one of the last few flagships that still let you flip a card to add even a terabyte of extra storage – but no more. With all these new phones, you are limited to just their built-in storage: for the S21 and S21 +, this means 128 GB and 256 GB options, while the Ultra lets you choose between 256 GB and 512 GB.
Samsung also dropped MST, which helped define Samsung Pay by supporting existing payment terminals that had explicit NFC support by tracing the magnetic line on a physical credit card. With the increasing ubiquity of NFC-equipped payment infrastructure, MST may be obsolete. However, this change does not apply to all markets, and some international S21 models still retain MST features.
Separately, we learned that the base S21 does not support UWB for future applications such as Digital Key, while the other two phones do. While probably not such a big deal, it does make the cheapest Galaxy S model feel like a second-class burger in Samsung’s 2021 series.
Many of you should be prepared to point out that these so-called downgrades do not really matter as much when you consider the lower entry price and all the other new features we get this year – I hear you loud and clear. While it is true that these regressions do play a role in lowering the price, some of them appear as Samsung’s way of enforcing buyers’ will, as Apple is also criticized. With these choices, Samsung takes away the options you already had or pushes you to upgrade to the Ultra.