The Samsung Galaxy A21s is one of the Samsung A series phones. It was officially announced on May 15, 2020, and made available to the public on June 2, 2020. This device is packed with a lot of amazing features that I will be sharing with you.
If you are very familiar with the Samsung A series lineup, you will see that the S series comes out after the regular A series, and it usually an upgrade of the latter. But the Samsung Galaxy A21s was announced before the A21. Why did Samsung announce the A21s first? Well, to be honest, I don’t know. Here is the Samsung Galaxy A21s Review.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Good design
- Great battery life
- Decent cameras
Cons
- Performance score are not quite impressive
Is this mid-range phone worth buying or upgrading to? I will leave that to you to answer after reading this review. But before that, let’s take a look at what this device has to offer.
Samsung Galaxy A21s Key Specifications
- Released date – May 15, 2020
- Network – 2G/3G/4G
- Display – 6.5” PLS IPS
- Resolution – 720 x 1600 pixels
- CPU Octa-core – Exynos 850 (8nm)
- GPU – Mali-G52
- OS – Android 10, One UI 2.0
- Memory – 2/3/4/6GB 32/64/128GB
- Main Camera – Quad 48MP+8MP+2MP+2MP
- Selfie Camera – Single 13MP
- Sound – 3.5mm Jack, loudspeaker
- Battery – Li-Po 5000 mAh
The Samsung Galaxy A21s is good-looking and has an amazing specs sheet. So, what does this entering level smartphone has other than the specs sheet above? Let get to the full review, starting with the price.
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Samsung Galaxy A21s Price and Released date
The Samsung Galaxy A21s is available in Nigeria for 76,000 (around $200), KSh 20,599 in Kenya, and GH₵ 997 in Ghana. This device was announced on May 15, 2020, and another version of the phone with less price and features called Samsung Galaxy A21 was later released on June 26, 2020.
Both phones can be bought directly from Samsung or through a third-party website like Amazon. The Galaxy A21 is not available in some countries like Nigeria and generally Africa. But the Samsung Galaxy A21s can be bought from third-party websites like Jumia.
Samsung Galaxy A21s Review
The Samsung A21s is a decent entering level phone with all the basics you could want in a phone and with a decent camera for its price. You get a decent high definition LCD, a 5000mAh battery, a four-camera system, NFC, fingerprint scanner, and lots more from this phone.
Unboxing
The Samsung A21s comes in a nice-looking white box, as seen in the image above. Sliding off the box sleeve, you will find the usual Samsung logo printed on a little package on the box. Inside the package are some paper works and a quick start guide in two different languages.
Next is the phone itself, which is available in red, white, blue, and black depending on the one you get. Digging a little deeper in the box, you find the sim ejector tool, a pair of Samsung wired earbuds and a USB Type-A cable with a USB Type-C port and Samsung 15W charger.
Unlike other A series phones, the Samsung Galaxy A21s does not ship with any case included in the phone. But you could get that on reputable online stores like Amazon, Jumia, and Konga.
Design
The Samsung Galaxy A21s is a huge screen device of 6.5 inches, the same screen size as the A51 but feels a little bulky in hand. This is an excellent value phone at this price, especially for those who love big-screen phones.
Just because the phone is cheap does not make the look and features cheap. The Samsung Galaxy A21s body is made of plastic. Although the body is plastic, Samsung knows how to design plastic to look very nice, and it looks like glass which is an advantage since plastic is more durable than glass.
Looking at the front of the device, we get an infinity punch hole off-center front camera towards the top left corner of the screen. The front camera mimics what we actually saw in the Galaxy A11. The bezel around the screen is decently thin, although the bottom is slightly larger. This is a sleek-looking phone.
The sim tray can be found on the left side, and it houses two nano sim cards and a micro memory card of up to 2TB. At the bottom of the device, you get a 3.5mm headphone jack, a USB Type-C port, a mic, and loudspeakers. Nothing is at the top of this device. You will find the volume and power button on the right.
At the back of the device, the galaxy A21s packs a quad-camera set-up and a fingerprint scanner.
Display
Taking a closer look at the screen, it is a 6.5 inches PLS TFT (Samsung version of the LCD) screen with 720p resolution and a 20:9 aspect ratio. This isn’t the best screen on a smartphone, but you can’t really complain about the price range. Holding the phone off-axis, you are going to mess up the view a bit. But how many times do you view your phone off-axis?
Viewing the Samsung Galaxy A21s at a normal angle and distance, you still get a sharp and crisp display. The display of this device is very decent. The 20:9 aspect ratio gives you plenty of room to view all your content.
Comparing the display of this smartphone with the 1080p of the Galaxy A31, the Samsung Galaxy A21s resolution is still pretty decent and solid. For a vast majority of people, the 720p is still fine. But what you should note is that the Samsung Galaxy A21 is a massive phone with a big screen and you don’t have to pay much to get that.
If you are very concerned about the quality of the image and how detailed they are, you should go for the A31 and note that you also need extra cash to get it.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy A21s sports a quad-camera set-up with a primary camera of 48MP, 8Mp ultra-wide, 2Mp macro, and 2Mp depth sensor. These pictures from this smartphone are amazing; they are detailed, good dynamic range, low noise, and accurate in color.
The only problem with the camera is a proper night mode. Pictures taken at night are not quite detailed.
Going further to the selfie camera, the Samsung Galaxy A21s comes with a 13Mp selfie camera. Pictures taken with the front cameras look detailed but not quite detailed, and colors watch out a bit. The selfie portrait is, however, impressive. I think this is still one of the improvements from previous versions.
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy A21s is powered by Samsung’s Exynos 850 chipset, up to 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage. Its performance scores are not quite impressive despite been an Octa-core chipset. Playing games on this device is not ideal, but it is possible.
Testing the fingerprint sensor, the response is slightly low; it takes around 1 second to respond, but it’s reliable and consistent. The phone also comes with a face unlock feature that enables you to have two ways of unlocking the device. The face unlocks fast.
Testing the Samsung Galaxy A21s on Geekbench, it scores 184 on single-core and 1103 multicore tests. Looking at the performance score, it is decent but not quite fast.
Testing the Samsung Galaxy A21s on Antutu, the performance score is 130855. Loading apps does feel pretty quick.
Software
The Samsung Galaxy A21s runs on Android 10 and Samsung’s one UI 2.0. The One UI 2.0 that runs on Android is pretty, and the design looks simple, customizable, and well organized. It comes with all the latest Android 10 features, including the Night gesture.
Battery
Speaking of battery, this is what a lot of people will like about this smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy A21s sports a 5000mAh battery which results in exceptional battery life. Watching movies for 3 hours and playing PUBG for one 1hour drain the battery to only 64%.
With the inclusion of a 15W charger, the phones take 2 hours to charge to 84%. Charging is a bit slow, but the endurance time makes up for that.
Why should I Buy the Samsung Galaxy A21s?
Buy it if;
- You want a phone with a big screen
- You want a long-lasting phone
Don’t buy it if;
- You want a gaming phone
- You care a lot about resolution