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Phones · Samsung Galaxy S

Samsung Galaxy S21

16owners with an opinion
36%of verdicts positive
3/7positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for software and reliability; criticized for performance and noise.

What owners wrote

NeutralOwned 5 years
I'm not parent but a counter perspective - the only three motivations I have are: phone dies camera vastly improves (imo it's been on a decline since the Nexus 6) phone is too slow to use I'm on year 5 of my Samsung s21u that I can replace the Samsung ux slop with asop ports
Likes it
Personally, my recent and surprisingly greatest win was to set up my old phone (samsung S21) with the addictive apps, removing them completely from my iPhone. Quite literally "cold-turkey'ed" from 4.5-ish hours/day to 2 hours a day in a single day, consistent over the last few weeks. I set up my second phone with a custom homescreen, and installing the 'bad' apps on there (Instagram, Youtube, NYTimes in particular). I dont use it for other apps. Now if I want to scroll, which I still do sometimes, I have to walk to a specific chair next to which my 'addiction phone' is, I'll scroll for 10-15 minutes, and get back to the real world. I used to have particular issues with scrolling during vibe-coding sessions, and I'm genuinely surprised how well this approach worked for me.
Doesn’t like it
This is part of a broader pattern that's been bugging me. Every year Android devices get a little more locked down, and every year the justification is "security." But removing adb sideload for OTA updates doesn't protect users from malware, it protects Samsung from users who want to control their own update timeline. I had a Galaxy S21 that got stuck in a boot loop after an OTA went bad. The only fix was adb sideload a known-good firmware. Without that option I would've had to mail it to Samsung or buy a new phone. How is that better for anyone? The cynical read is that this is about pushing people toward Samsung's own update infrastructure so they can better control the rollout cadence and eventually tie it to Samsung accounts or subscriptions. The optimistic read is that they're simplifying recovery mode for less technical users. Either way the people who actually need these tools are losing them.
Doesn’t like it
As an oldtimer (Gen-X), I can't even with that mode of use. My thumb (is that what you use?) cramps up when trying to do that even a little.. I guess 30+ years of typing will do that.. The best I've done one-handed is type in my pin and launch an app and click an icon or two. As it is, I hold my S21 with left hand, type with index finger of right - it's abysmal in terms of performance, but it's all I got.. landscape with both thumbs is usually worse because of such little lookahead / lookbehind - I can barely read the line I'm typing on - and fat thumbs. My kids do it all the time, but, well, their little girlish fingers (they are female) seem to manage it and they're quite quick at it. My favorite phone (at least in terms of idea, execution wasn't perfect) was the Motorola Photon Q - full-size with slide-out keyboard. At least I could somewhat type quickly even if the keyboard wasn't great. Alas, 2012.. With a newish phone? I can probably type 10-20x as fast on my MS Natural keyboard (only one I can use for more than 30-40 minutes without RSI getting bad).. No wonder I don't "live on my phone" - I use it when necessary, and prefer my 40"+ 4K screen + real keyboard.
Likes it
For me it was "want camera", and I chose the top SKU (P8 Pro) because I wanted maximum camera. "Buy a camera" doesn't work because (a) I don't want to pocket two devices, (b) most point-and-shoot dedicated cameras that are actually better are more bulky, too, (c) even entry-level good digital cameras are >$500 (e.g. a ZV-1F or something), so even the combo with a midrange phone often comes out more expensive and (d) a seperate camera makes it really annoying to send photos anywhere on the go. That said: I came away fairly unhappy with the Pixel 8 Pro camera, which my book has a too editorialized post-processing look that I simply don't like. In retrospect, I think I should have gone for the Xperia in that generation, which appears to have been the last phone with high-end smartphone camera gear that took neutral-looking shots. My S21, despite having a worse sensor and optics, took subjectively nicer photos. I've now updated my definition of "maximum phone camera" to be more choosy ...
Doesn’t like it
It used to be better when Material Design came out. It was more rectangular, looked better. Take a look at Android 10. It was much more "expressive". Now, it's just round, as if they're trying to copy the trend set by Apple. I updated my Galaxy S21 to Android 15 and I hate it. The new design occupies TOO MUCH space, I could check almost all my notifications (I only have 3-4 apps that send me notifications) with a quick scroll from the top, but now a single notification occupies like 1/5th of the screen, making it much more difficult to take a look at all my notifications at once. The other stupid thing, they moved the media playback to the quick settings panel and made it a tiny widget on the lock screen, on the bottom, where you barely pay attention to it. I removed this widget thinking it would restore the old functionality, but I was wrong. Now, whenever I listen to music, I cannot control playback from the notifications panel or the lock screen, I must manually open Spotify and control it from there. I don't know what drugs UX designers are on but I can safely say this is not convenient for the user and we didn't ask for it.
Neutral
Easily ? I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy S21 as a backup and am posting from it right now (from Firefox). Never associated a Google account. The issue is that it's just a stop-gap solution : we ought to strive to remove our dependence on Android/iOS(/Xiaomi) entirely.
Likes it
I went from S20 to S21 to S24. Before that every Android phone I had was good but qc issues would pop up or some new phone would come out with much better features (eg camera quality is really important to me). Since I switched to Samsung have had 0 qc issues and every camera has been amazing. The only reason I upgrade is because it's free with my carrier so why not? Staying with Samsung if/until it changes.
Neutral
I bought a Motorola G73 5G a few months ago, paid $160 for the 256GB variant including 25% VAT. Compared to my primary phone, Samsung S21, it's a ridiculous amount of phone for the money. But I find the default Google apps to be quite limited compared to Samsungs offerings. Google's calculator app has no unit conversion and a very bare-bones "scientific" mode. Google's file app has no way to search for files containing special characters, while Samsung's can do that just fine by using \ to escape the character. I don't have a SIM in the Motorola as I just use it around the house, other is "work phone", so haven't tested the phone and messaging parts yet, but I recall Samsung were better there too several years ago when my SO had a Sony or something phone. But yeah, seriously considering getting something else next time around.
Recommends it
You got the nicer Androids. Most of the Androids on the market unfourtently aren't very good in terms of using modern hardware, using the latest Android OS (shops continue to sell Android phones running versions of Android several years out of date), receiving security updates, etc. My experience of Android had been incredibly poor until I got my S21. My S21 is the first Android phone I've owned (out of several from different manufacturers) that works on par with (if not better than) Apple in terms of keeping the OS up to date and porting back new features to older models. I now only recommend the Samsung S-series to people considering Android, anything else is just asking for trouble.
Likes it
*Phone:* Galaxy S21 that I got very recently. It's styled with KLWP and makes the interface look Cyberpunk-ish. *Laptop:* Macbook Pro that I use for work. Its touch bar is nice to have, but not necessary. *PC:* Windows PC that I built in 2017. The last time I upgraded it was last year, when I added another SSD and another HD. Unlike an old laptop that I used to use, I haven't noticed a decrease in performance at all. If there's been one, it's been minuscule. *Headphones:* The noise canceling and bluetooth Sony WH1000-XM3. Incredible to listen to and quite comfy. I used to use the XM2s (gave to SO) and although those were great the XM3 is better in every regard. *Mic:* Samson Q2U that's XLR and USB compatible. Even though I love the XM3s, its built in mic isn't the best and I wanted something better.