Samsung Galaxy S21 is $200 cheaper than the S20 — Here is what you give up | Laptop Mag
Samsung Milky way S21 is $200 cheaper than the S20 — Here is what you requite up
The Samsung Galaxy S21 announcement held few surprises for those who've been paying attention to our coverage of leaks and rumors. But one particular that remained uncertain heading into the launch was the toll.
There were a number of credible rumors suggesting that some kind of price drop was coming. However, it still came every bit a surprise when Samsung announced it was slashing Galaxy S21 prices by $200 across the board. While it would exist nice to assume that Samsung did that out of the kindness of its middle, that'south simply not reality.
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Here's a look at what Galaxy S21 buyers are giving up in commutation for that $200.
No charger in the box
Y'all'll notice the first change almost the Galaxy S21 before you fifty-fifty take out the telephone. That is, the charger is gone from the box (equally was rumored). Despite taking Apple to task for the aforementioned motility just a few months ago, Samsung has followed suit and includes just the phone and a USB Type-C-to-USB Blazon-C cable.
This isn't a surprise, particularly in lite of the steep price drib, but it's however a bit disappointing. While Android users are more likely to have a USB Type-C charger around, information technology'southward at present a given. If you want to take advantage of the full fast charging of the Galaxy S21, you lot'll need a 25W charger. Samsung is at present offering its ain 25W charger for $xx rather than its typical $35 which, coupled with the toll drop on the phones, definitely takes some sting out of the omission.
Plastic dorsum versus drinking glass
This applies to the standard Milky way S21 lonely, but the premium glass back of the Galaxy S20 has been traded in for a plastic back like the Galaxy S20 Iron. This is a modify that I imagine volition elicit responses ranging from "Who on earth cares?" to "I will never buy a plastic phone!" I fall closer to the former military camp, only I do understand the latter position.
At $799, you are however very much in the realm of flagships with the iPhone 12, then it's frustrating to feel corners were cutting on the build quality of your premium phone. My arguments for why it doesn't peculiarly matter is that yous are probably going to put a case on it anyway and that it is still both durable (perhaps more and so actually) and feels fine in your hand.
Ultimately, if you can't live with it, you tin can upgrade to the Galaxy S21 Plus, which will get you a glass back along with a much larger battery.
Lower brandish resolution
The Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Plus both lose the WQHD+ (1440 ten 3200) resolution of their predecessors and drop to FHD+ (1080 x 2400) resolution. Once over again, at that place is probable to be a serious divide on the responses to this conclusion with some users loving the high-resolution pixel peeping and others either not caring or preferring the lower resolution.
Samsung points to the majority of users sticking to FHD+ on the Galaxy S20 models last year (a requirement if yous wanted to enjoy the 120Hz refresh rate) as evidence that this isn't a big loss for most. I think Samsung is correct in this case. However, it's worth noting these phones were in development before Samsung could have actually had the data to dorsum that upward.
Information technology isn't all bad news on the brandish front end; you are no longer locked to a 120Hz refresh rate. Both the Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus now offer adaptive refresh rates from 48Hz up to 120Hz depending on the content on your screen. This should give a solid boost to battery life without sacrificing display performance.
No microSD carte du jour slot
I can't picture an argument in favor of this ane, and I'thou not sold on the notion that it can stand for a significant cost saving for Samsung, so this is the beginning merchandise-off that just feels similar a potential method to upsell users to a higher storage tier.
Samsung at least starts at 128GB versus 64GB for the iPhone 12, then that should be sufficient for the majority of users who don't take an abundance of photos and video, just the microSD menu slot was always a prissy option to take with Samsung. Particularly as microSD prices accept dropped in recent years, knowing y'all could give your smartphone a new charter on life past dropping in a 256GB or 512GB card for $30 to $60 was a comforting thought.
Reduced RAM
The Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Plus both feature 8GB of RAM, downwardly from 12GB in the Galaxy S20. Again, there'due south no way for Samsung to spin this every bit a positive; the all-time example yous could make is that 12GB was unnecessary and that Android is sufficiently optimized to get by on 8GB just fine.
There is probably some validity to that argument as nosotros've seen plenty of Android smartphones that performed well with 8GB and, of class, the standard iPhone 12 has only one-half of that. But backsliding on a spec is never going to feel great. The proof will come when we get our hands on the phone and seeing how information technology handles multitasking and other jobs that are dependent on available RAM.
No Magnetic Stripe Technology (MST) support
If you lot are wondering what on earth MST back up is, and then you probably won't miss this one, but for fans, it is a large loss. This was the feature that allowed Samsung Pay users to pay with their smartphones at whatever standard magnetic stripe payment terminal. Especially in the US where the adoption of NFC payment terminals has been boring and inconsistent, this feature offered peace of listen that your digital payment method would work virtually anywhere you went.
NFC adoption has picked up considerably over the last yr or two, but there's no mode to categorize this as annihilation other than a loss; information technology was a articulate-cut advantage over its competitors that is now gone.
Bottom line
So, taking all of these changes into consideration, take Galaxy S21 buyers given up too much in exchange for that $200 price driblet? I don't believe and then. Many of these sacrifices will non be felt in any meaningful way by the vast majority of Galaxy S21 buyers, and that'southward precisely what Samsung is banking on.
I have no doubt at that place are vocal Galaxy S fans that will disagree vehemently with that position, only the reality is that this smartphone is designed to entreatment to the broadest audition possible and none of these changes impact that audition. Near people don't utilise microSD card slots, make payments using MST, change their default resolution or care most their phone'southward construction beyond its durability. RAM is the one downgrade that could come back to bite them, but we don't know how much of a problem that volition exist.
If you autumn into the camp that hates all of these changes, you basically have two options. 1 is to pick upward 1 of the Galaxy S20 models, which are substantially discounted at this point. If you get the Milky way S20 and Milky way S20 Plus, with the exception of the redesign and the Snapdragon 888 processor, you lot are actually gaining features past purchasing the older models.
The second pick is to go with the Milky way S21 Ultra. You however lose microSD, MST support and a charger, merely you are gaining a dramatically improved camera system along with the Snapdragon 888 chipset while retaining the same RAM every bit last year and the durable Gorilla Drinking glass Victus.
In the end, I think Samsung made the right decision with the Galaxy S21 as the savings outweigh the losses for most buyers.
Source: https://www.laptopmag.com/news/samsung-galaxy-s21-is-dollar200-cheaper-than-the-s20-here-is-what-you-give-up
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