Samsung’s Galaxy S21 5G and S21+ 5G Get The Most Powerful Exynos Chip Yet

Korean juggernaut Samsung is announcing its new S21 series of phones hot on the heels of CES. The company usually announces its first flagship of the year after the tradeshow’s lights have faded, but this year is a little different.

There’s a trio of Galaxy S21’s to choose from: you get the standard S21, the S21+, and the S21 Ultra, which is the headline flagship for this year.

Let’s talk about the Galaxy S21 5G and S21+ 5G. Both phones have a similar FHD Dynamic Super AMOLED display running at 120Hz, which is par for the course for most flagship phones nowadays. Both also have HDR10+ capability as well as insanely bright screens topping at 1300 nits.

Both displays use flat panels with a punch-hole notch at the top, protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus. The main difference between the two phones is screen size: the Galaxy S21 has a 6.2-inch display, while the Galaxy S21+ has a 6.7-inch display. Both use 20:9 aspect ratios.

Both devices use aluminum frames that extend out to the camera module, though the Galaxy S21 uses “glasstic” for its back, which is Samsung’s fancy way of saying it has a plastic rear. To be fair to Samsung the plastic rear of the S21 will fool anyone not looking too close, but it’s still plastic. The Galaxy S21+ though has a glass rear.

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G

Smaller of the two phones, sporting a 6.2-inch Dynamic OLED display, protected by Gorilla Glass Victus
Back is “glasstic”, with an aluminum frame
IP68 protection
Triple camera setup: 12-megapixel wide with Dual Pixel PDAF and OIS, 64-megapixel telephoto with 3x hybrid
zoom and OIS, 12-megapixel f/2.2 wide-angle camera
Wireless charging
Exynos 2100 built on a 5nm EUV process
Has a 4000mAh battery, 25W fast charging capability, and 15W Wireless fast charging
Does not come with a charger

Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G

Has a bigger 6.7-inch Dynamic OLED display, protected by Gorilla Glass Victus
Back is glass
IP68 protection
Triple camera setup: 12-megapixel wide with Dual Pixel PDAF and OIS, 64-megapixel telephoto with 3x hybrid
zoom and OIS, 12-megapixel f/2.2 wide-angle camera
Wireless charging
Exynos 2100 built on a 5nm EUV process
Has a 4800mAh battery, 25W fast charging capability, and 15W Wireless fast charging
Does not come with a charger

The two phones also use similar camera setups as well, with Samsung sticking with just three camera modules for the two flagships: the main wide shooter is a 12-megapixel deal with an f/1.8 aperture lens, Dual Pixel PDAF and OIS paired with a 64-megapixel f/2.0 aperture telephoto lens that does 3x hybrid zoom with OIS and a 12-megapixel f/2.2 aperture ultra-wide camera.

Samsung’s taken a lot of flak for their previous Exynos processors on their flagships, especially since there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon equivalent in other countries that are used to compare it against.

This time around Samsung has made sure to create a processor that gives it parity against Qualcomm’s own offering, in the form of the Exynos 2100.

The Exynos 2100 is built on Samsung’s own 5nm EUV process, the same as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 chip. On paper, it looks superior, as it has a higher clocked speed for its prime, big and little cores (2.9GHz, 2.8GHz, and 2.2GHz) VS Qualcomm’s offering. It also sports a Mali-G78 MP14 GPU, as well as a 5G modem that supports both mmWave and sub-6 5G.

As far as RAM and storage go, both variants will ship with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, with no option for expandable memory. Both phones will also come with Android 11, along with Samsung’s One UI 3.1.

Battery-wise, the Galaxy S21 comes with a 4000mAh battery while the Galaxy S21+ comes with a slightly larger 4800 cell. Both phones have their charging speeds topping out at 25W, with wireless fast charging topping out at 15W. And no, Samsung will no longer be including chargers in the packaging when you buy it.

Samsung is throwing in a LOT of freebies when customers pre-order the new phones from January 15 to 28. You’re getting a pair of Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Live with every pre-order, as well as a Galaxy Tab A 8.0 tablet, Galaxy SmartTag, and a 25W Wall Charger.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 is priced at Php 49,990, while the Galaxy S21+ is priced at Php 57,990.