Hi Folks! I purchased the smartphone not so long ago from a brazilian e-store called Kabum!. It cost me R$3.988,70 (~$705.90) plus shipping fees and it took 4 days to come in the mail.
In the box, there's a SIM removal tool, a USB type C cable and a Quick User Guide. No power brick though (I was lucky enough to have one lying around). If you don't have a power brick capable of fast charging, click in the link below to buy one from Amazon.
Bixby and other apps
Well, there's no dedicated button to access Bixby anymore (thank you, Samsung), although Bixby is installed in the smartphone by default. Wanna know what Samsung and Google apps are pre-installed? Take a look at the screenshots below:
But what about the specs?
The SM-G950W rocks an Octa-core Samsung Exynos 2100 2.91 Ghz and a Mali-G78 MP14 GPU, because it's the international version (the north america version comes with a Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 5G and an Adreno 660 GPU). It has 8GB of LPDDR5 of memory. This android device is blazing fast!
It features a Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1300 nits (peak) with a pixel density of 421 ppi and screen resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels. The screen size is 6.22 inches, protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. It weighs only 169 grams. Product dimensions: 151.7 x 71.2 x 7.9 mm (5.97 x 2.80 x 0.31 in).
It comes with the Android 11 installed with a possibility of upgrading to Android 12 (no release date yet). It supports DUAL SIMs, but there's no memory card slot, so you are stuck with 128GB.
The S21 supports Wifi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0. Take a look at this internet speedtest by Ookla (connected to a Wifi 5 network).
The Galaxy S21 is IP68 rated, basically covered under water for around 1.5 meters deep and about 30 minutes.
CPU Benchmark
The app used to benchmark the CPU is the Geekbench 5. The S21 scored 1089 in the Single-Core tests and 2863 in the Multi-Core tests. For whatever reason, my device scored better in the Single-Core test in comparison to other S21s. The opposite happened with the Multi-Core test though, with my smartphone scoring less in comparison to other S21s. Go figure!
GPU Benchmark
The app used to benchmark the GPU is the 3dMark. The device scored 5084 in Wild Life with an average FPS of 30.40. According to the app, that score is better than 80% from all other devices.
In comparison to other smartphones, the S21 scored 100% better than the results of a Realme X7 Pro, 99% better than the results of a Xioami Mi 10T Pro G, 95% better than the results of an OnePlus 8T and 5% better than the results of an Iphone 12 Pro Max.
RIP Headphone Jack
Since the S20, the Headphone Jack is no longer available in the flagship smartphones, so you have to buy a wireless headset/earbuds or the type C to 3.5mm Headphone Jack adapter and couple with a wired headset/earbuds, if you want to listen to media in private. I decided to buy a pair of Xiaomi Redmi Airdots 2 for about R$79,80 in Brazil ($14,14). The smartphone has stereo speakers (so we got that going for us, which is nice).
Fingerprint Sensor and Facial Recognition
The S21 rocks a pretty fast under display, ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. Sometimes it's hard to hit the sensor, but it's something to get used to it (you can always double tap the screen, or click the power button, to reveal its position). And you can register multiple fingerprints.
And there's an option to unlock with face recognition, but you do it in 3 steps: first, you need to tap the screen 2 times (or click the power button) to activate the lock window, then when the smartphone recognizes you (it doesn't unlock your phone right away), you have to swipe the screen to enter the smartphone. Despite the steps, the time spent to unlock your phone with face recognition is faster than typing a password.
Face recognition doesn't work with face masks.
Battery Stress Test
The smartphone features a Li-Ion 4000 mAh battery and it was benchmarked by the Battery Benchmark - Individual Tests app. After running the CPU test 3 times, the time taken for the battery to go from 100% to 50% (the length of the test) was average 2 hours and 22 minutes. According to the app, the amount of time required to discharge the entire battery running the test is average 4 hours and 45 minutes.
On the other hand, the Multimedia test with the same length took an average of 4 hours and 28 minutes (running it 3 times again). According to the app, you can watch videos for about 8 hours and 52 minutes straight.
Now, the time required to charge the battery from 0% to 100% is average 1 hour and 28 minutes with the smartphone completely turned off (using a 18W fast charger). Now with the smartphone on, the average time was 2 hours and 9 minutes (on moderate use: listening to radio, Spotify, browsing YouTube and watching NetFlix). The smartphone supports wireless charging, but I don't have the dock to test it.
Now we talk cameras
The triple main camera set is composed by a wide camera 12MP, a telephoto 64MP and an ultrawide 12 MP, capable of recording 8K videos @ 24fps. The selfie camera is 10MP, capable of recording 4K videos @ 60fps.
64MP Pictures
There's an option to take 64MP pictures in the camera settings (file sizes are humongous, ranging from 14 to 28MB each). Take a look at the photos:
low-light pictures
So should I stay or should I go for it?
Despite not having the Snapdragon 888 SOC, I'd say I like this smartphone very much. I believe I made the right call on choosing it as my daily driver. As you can see in the battery benchmark, the duration is decent and the time to charge it up is reasonable (times may definitely improve with a 25W charger). The triple camera set does a superb job of capturing the moment, even in low light scenarios. So if you are looking for a smartphone in the mid-tier price range, look no further. Get a Samsung S21.
My reaction when I got my S21: