Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus review: Jam-packed with features that matter

Like the previous year, Samsung unveiled three new Galaxy S in three variants-- S21, S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra with prices ranging between Rs 69,999 and Rs 1,16,999.

. Samsung has beefed up the S21 Ultra with all the top-of-the-line features and the main differentiator being the 108MP with 100x Space Zoom. But, the S21 Plus too comes packed with good hardware with balanced pricing. I tested the latter for a little over a week and here are my thoughts.

. Design, build quality, and display The S21 Plus looks identical to the S21 Ultra except for the lack of a couple of camera sensors on the back. It flaunts a beautifully crafted glass and metal body. What makes the design unique and gorgeous is the camera module cascades from the device's metal rail as a single piece, while the rest is artfully chiseled off the shell.

. Add to that, the dual-tone violet cover and gold-hued camera module and rim further enhance the visual appeal.

. Also, the company notes that it uses AL7S10 aluminium rail, which is said to be one of the sturdiest metal used on a phone. I couldn't test the toughness of the frame, but it does exude premium hand-feel.

. The flagship Samsung phone also boasts an IP68 rating and it can survive underwater for close to 1.5meters (around five feet) for up to 30 minutes.

. On the front, the display is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus, which is touted to the sturdiest shield on an Android phone. Additionally, Samsung pre-fits an extra layer of screen guard on the phone out-of-the-box. This is a welcome move, as it will enhance the durability of the Galaxy S21 Plus and protect the display from daily wear-and-tear scratches from keys, coins when kept in the pocket.

. Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus flaunts a 6.7-inch flat full HD+ (2400 x 1080p) Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a pixel density of 394 ppi (pixels per inch), offer peak brightness of 1300 nits, and support HDR10+ content. Though it is a bit tall (161.5 mm) for people with small hands, the narrow width (75.6 mm)offers a good grip for the fingers and also the on-screen short-cut panel offers handy access to most-used apps.

. As far as the display quality is concerned, it is the best in the market. Period. I had a wonderful time watching videos and with 120Hz refresh rate, the Galaxy S21 Plus takes a notch up in terms of gaming experience.

. Also, the in-screen fingerprint works like charm, very fast in terms of response to the touch, and has a very low False Rejection Rate (FRR). The 10MP front camera can detect the owner's face fine in the natural bright light and even during low-lit conditions, but I just prefer the fingerprint sensor most of the time.

Performance Under-the-hood, the Galaxy S21 Plus , like the Ultra model, houses the same powerful Samsung Exynos 2100 series chipset and can clock an impressive 2.95Ghz CPU speed. It also comes coupled with Arm Mali-G78 Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).

. The company claims, the chipset can deliver a top-notch 40% performance boost while doing power-intense tasks such as Augmented Reality(AR), Virtual Reality (VR), or Mixed Reality (MR) related games and applications over the predecessor.

. Samsung Exynos 2100 chipset backed by 8GB RAM, 128GB/256GB storage, runs Android 11-based OneUI 3.1 OS.

. In our testing, the S21 Plus did fare really well while playing Asphalt 9 series. Also, the phone's AR Doodle feature worked smoothly without any fuzz.

. On the Geekbench 5.0, it scored an impressive 843 and 3,319 points on single-core and multi-core tests, respectively.

. Also, the interesting thing about the Galaxy S21 Plus (& Ultra) is that it comes with an UltraWideBand feature to track articles such as a house or a car key attached to the Samsung SmartTag.

. Furthermore, it supports 5G. Whenever the proper infrastructure gets ready, the Galaxy S21 users can experience super-fast internet and download speed up to 100Mbps initially. But, with stronger network coverage, it can easily touch 1Gbps if not more.

. The Galaxy S21 Plus houses a 4,800mAh battery and supports 25W fast wired charging and 15W wireless charging in addition to wireless reverse charging PowerShare feature. The Samsung flagship easily lasts a full day with normal usage, which includes hours of internet browsing, messaging, attending video/audio phone calls, playing a small session of gaming, and watching a couple of episodes of TV series on the multimedia streaming device.

. It should be noted that Samsung has removed the power adaptor and the earphones from the retail box. This has now become a trend among top brands such as Apple too, as they try to cut down the carbon footprint in manufacturing and packaging phones, thereby lessening the burden on the environment in terms of mining.

. Camera: Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus comes with a triple-camera module-- telephoto 64MP (f/2.0, 29mm lens, 1/1.72-inch sensor, 0.8µm, PDAF, OIS, 1.1x optical zoom, 3x hybrid zoom) is backed by 12 MP ( f/1.8, 26mm, 1/1.76-inch, 1.8µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS) and a 12 MP (f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚ (ultrawide), 1/2.55-inch 1.4µm, Super Steady video) with LED flash, auto-HDR, panorama.

. With such hardware, we expected Galaxy S21 Plus to perform pretty well in light conditions. Well, it did marvelously. The sample pictures say it all. The photos retain most of the information with an added dose of colour warmness. Though the flowers under continuous heat of the Sun, get wilted and lose colour, Samsung's software is able to bring life to it.

. The portrait mode pictures are lovely too. For instance, the colourful spider above with eight hairy legs is captured beautifully with good edge demarcation in its web in the foreground and the background.

. The night mode pictures too came out really good. They are sharp and colours look natural under the moon-lit sky.

. Unlike the S21 Ultra, which boasts 100x Space Zoom, the S21 Plus is limited to 30X digital zoom. The resultant picture offers discernible details of the objects in the far-off location or building, but there is a bit of noise. The best is 10X digital zoom, where the subject is clear and sharp thanks to the Samsung software. Beyond that, noise begins to creep in 20X and 30X zoom. On the compact screen of the phone, it is negligible but gets more noticeable while viewing on the PC monitor.

. However, the 3X optical zoom comes off really good with very less loss of image quality. In the wide-angle shot (0.5x), the phone captures quite a lot of information of the landscape in the front.

. It is capable of capturing 8K video at 24fps, 4K video at 30/60fps, full HD 1080p video at 30/60/240fps, HD 720p at 960fps and is supports stereo sound recording and gyro-EIS (Electronic Image Stabilisation).

. On the front, the Galaxy S21 Plus features 10MP wide-angle sensor ( f/2.2, 26mm, 1/3.24-inch, 1.22µm, Dual Pixel PDAF). It also supports 4K and full HD 1080p video recording.

. Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus takes fantastic selfies and with a stable internet connection, the video calling quality is just top-notch.

. As mentioned earlier, Samsung's new premium phone has an AR Doodle feature and offers a plethora of tools to liven up the photography session. This is more likely to find traction among youths, while others will just be happy doing point and shoot pictures.

. Final thoughts: Samsung has done a good job of balancing key features in the S21 Plus with the right price.

. It shares several traits of the top-end S21 Ultra including design language, System on Chip (SoC), but differs in a few aspects such as display, camera and battery capacity. But having said that, If given a choice, I would pick this among three S21 series models.

. You won't really miss the S21 Ultra's 100X Zoom on the S21 Plus, as the latter captures really good images in all lighting conditions. Add to that, the battery lasts a full under normal usage and the display is just good if not better than phones that cost close to a lakh.

. Must read | Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G review: Gorgeous and powerful

. Samsung Galaxy S21+ comes in two storages-- 128GB and 256GB-- for Rs 81,999 and Rs 85,999, respectively. It is available in three colours--Phantom Violet, Silver, Black.