Samsung Galaxy M21 Review: Buy This For The Battery and Vivid AMOLED Display

( Image credits : amazon )

Samsung continues to feature new models to its Galaxy M-series of smartphones that made its debut at the start of 2019, as a competitor to Chinese brands Xiaomi and Realme. one among the newest additions is that the Galaxy M21, a successor to the M20 that comes at a starting price point of Rs 14,499. We took it for a fast spin to ascertain if the phone is deserve its price and the way it fares against the competition.

Design

Samsung has clearly saved on costs when it involves design and build. it's tons just like the Galaxy M30s, and features a plastic construction all around including the frame. The glossy finish at the rear attracts tons of fingerprints and smudges. On top of that, the rear doesn’t have any protective coating which suggests you're sure to get scratches in only a couple of days of usage, unless you employ a case. Speaking of which, there's no protective case within the box, something that tons of manufacturers are offering during this price range.

The handset features a dated design with a waterdrop style notch above the display and a reasonably large bezel at rock bottom . The one thing that's good though, is that the incontrovertible fact that it doesn’t feel very heavy within the hand, despite housing a 6,000mAh battery. Additionally, I found the handset to be quite handy and straightforward to use with one hand for many tasks.

The handset comes with the quality USB-C port at rock bottom , along side the speaker and three .5mm headphone jack, a SIM and microSD card tray on the left and therefore the volume and power buttons on the proper . Samsung is offering the Galaxy M21 in two colour options- Blue and Black.

( Image credits : amazon )

Display

The handset rocks a 6.4-inch AMOLED display with full-HD+ 2340 x 1080 pixel resolution. It also comes with a claimed brightness of 420 nits and Gorilla Glass 3 protection. this is often probably one among the key selling points of there are hardly any phones on the market with an AMOLED panel at this price. The display is punchy and even at 50-percent brightness, i used to be quite satisfied with the performance of the panel. You get good viewing angles too and it seems to urge bright enough so you'll use it outdoors under the daylight . You get some basic display settings on the phone including a Vivid colour profile, which is perhaps what most of the people are getting to use.

Performance

I mentioned how the Galaxy M21 seems like the Galaxy M30s and therefore the story continues when it involves the innards. Samsung is using the Exynos 9611 chipset, which is that the same chipset powering the Galaxy M31 and therefore the Galaxy M30s. The processor comes with 8-cores with four ARM Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.3GHz and 4 Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.7GHz while the graphics are handled by the Mali-G72 chip. Essentially you'll get the phone in two memory and storage options - 4GB of RAM + 64GB of storage and 6GB of RAM + 128GB of storage. The handset runs on Android 10 with Samsung’s One UI 2.0.

The handset does accompany bloatware including apps like Amazon Shopping, Netflix, Prime Video, Helo, Snapchat and Dailyhunt. the great thing is that nearly all of those are often uninstalled. The UI is pretty simple to use and is analogous to most Samsung devices we’ve seen under Rs 20,000-Rs 25,000 price range.

Now coming to the performance, we were sent the 4GB variant to check and it felt snappy for the foremost part. Apps and games load fast, but it isn’t consistent. as an example , the camera app takes a second or two to truly stir up . Compared to devices just like the Redmi Note 9 Pro or the Realme 6 Pro, the performance isn't entirely at par, but certainly good for the worth you pay. Just to truly compare, I ran a couple of benchmark tests also and located that the Galaxy M21 does fall behind the competition.

Camera

There is a triple camera on the Galaxy M21 which is again similar to the Galaxy M30s. The camera includes a 48-megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 aperture lens, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with an f/2.2 aperture, and a 5-megapixel depth sensor. The front selfie camera features a 20-megapixel camera with an f/2.0 aperture lens. The camera app is fairly simple to use and offers various modes including Live Focus, Pro, Night, Panorama, Food, Super Slow-Mo and more.

The camera shoots 12-megapixel shots by default and while performance in daylight conditions is good, it isn’t entirely impressive. Certain photos lack sharpness, while the scene optimiser isn’t really accurate all the time. What I did like about the camera is that it offers a nice natural looking depth of field. Like most smartphones, the ultra-wide-angle camera comes with a lower resolution sensor and the quality is not as good as the primary camera. Photos taken indoors and in low light lack details and sharpness which was expected. The camera can shoot 4K video at 30fps, but there is a 10-minute limit and you obviously don’t get any stabilisation. There is an ultra-stable mode which is available only at 1080p resolution.

( Image credits : amazon )

Battery

Now the 6000mAh battery unit already implies that the phone is going to have a solid backup. The phone lasted two days with regular usage which is great. Heavy usage can affect your mileage but I always ended up have a decent amount of charge left at the end of my day. Samsung also offers a 15W charger which takes almost two hours to fully charge the battery from 0 to 100 percent.

Verdict

The Galaxy M21 is a solid offering from Samsung. However, it mostly feels like a rebranded M30s since it shares exactly the same set of specifications. The smartphone is recommended if your priorities include a big battery and a good punchy display. The camera performance is not as impressive, while the overall performance of the phone is good for your everydays tasks. You could look out for the Redmi Note 9 series from Xiaomi as well as devices from its sister brand Poco. There is also the Realme 6 series that offers really good value.