Samsung Galaxy Unpacked S21 - Recap

 

Samsung have revealed their brand-new collection of Samsung Galaxy phones and a number of new devices and features that are set to “push innovation even stronger”. From what we have seen, it does seem that way. Working with multiple partners like Google, Microsoft and other major brands and companies, the technology shown to us seem to have an extremely high quality and functionality.

Galaxy Buds Pro

The first thing we got to see from the unpacked event was the brand-new Galaxy Buds Pro, boasting some mighty features that are set to provide the “most immersive experience” in the earphone scene. Being available in three different colours: black, silver and violet for a price £219 from January 15th.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro are set to “transport us to a different world” with its collection of vast and top-of-the-line features. There are so many features to look at when it comes to these new earbuds. With sounds by AKG, these earphones will include a number of great features:

• Two-way speakers – the earbuds are designed with optimal space allowing for a new immersive built in two-way speaker. Inspired by the highest quality devices, these speakers will boost your audio quality to the next level.
• 360 audio – the audio within these earphones is built to make it feel like you are surrounded by noise. Also built with intelligent motion trackers that track head movement, and adjust audio based on how you are moving your head.
• Active noise cancelling – the outer and inner microphones on the ear buds detect noises and how loud they are, and then block out any noises fully. Also detects when you speak to block our noises compared to how loud you are speaking.
• High call quality – the ear buds have three microphones, two outer and one inner. The two outer microphones detect any noise from the outside and the inner microphone detects how loud you are speaking. This way it amplifies your voices and nullifies external sounds so that you will have the best call quality.
• Wind shield – the noise from the wind is removed when using these earbuds thanks to the inner and outer wind chambers. Wind enters the outer wind chamber and is expelled by the inner chamber.
• Easy fit – the Galaxy Buds Pro fit very easily and are extremely comfortable. The buds do not fall out and even have 2mm vents to make the earphones far more comfortable. They have a secure fit based on 3 major ear shape points.
• Auto switch – the ear buds switch audio to whatever device you are using without the issue of reconnecting or waiting for a connection.
• Great battery life – the Galaxy Buds Pro last up to 5 hours without the charging case, but last 18 hours with the case.

The new Galaxy Buds Pro is set to have the “richest sound of any Samsung device” and with features like these, it is understood why.

Smart Things

Samsung also announced a multitude of changes and additions to Smart Things. Announcing a new Smart Things Find and more. The Smart Things Find is a small portable device that allow you to track any of your belongings. Costing around £30 for a single device, or £50 for a double. The new Smart Things Find allow you to “find your favourite things where you left them”. Having the capability to be attached to anything and with a battery that lasts for months, you will be able to find anything you lost with ease. Once you are close or in contact with your item, you will receive a message informing you that you are close.

Samsung also announced a number of new features for Smart Things. Now being able to control parts of your home and car from your phone. You can check your car’s status, unlock your car or house with your own digital key and more. Which ties in with some of Samsung's new partners: Audi, BMW, Ford and Genesis. Now being able to control multiple features of your car from your phone, and multiple features of your home from your car. Samsung has also partnered with Google, making Smart Things compatible with Google Nest products.

Samsung Galaxy S21 and S21+

Now onto the main part of the unpacked event. The Samsung Galaxy S21 and S21+. Described as the “ultimate mobile experience” and “ground-breaking on all fronts” the S21 and S21+ certainly looks like a major and top tier release. Boasting multiple phenomenal features like “the fastest chip ever”, “most complete user experience” and an “epic camera”, it certainly looks like Samsung is showing off the greatest technology they can. Both are set to release on the 29th of January, with the S21 costing around £770 and the S21+ costing around £950.

Colours

Offering four different colours for the S21 in Phantom Violet, Phantom Grey, Phantom White and Phantom Pink. Only 3 colours are available for the S21+, Phantom Black, Phantom Silver and Phantom Violet. Samsung are offering two extra exclusive colours on their website for the S21+, those being Phantom Red and Phantom Gold.

Camera

The camera is one of the main and most exciting features of the S21 and S21+. Featuring 3 different lens, with a new design that combines the camera with the phone frame (this makes it more durable). The pro-grade camera’s three lenses consist of 12MP ultrawide, 12MP wide and 64MP telephoto. Which allow you to take photos that have a great range of quality and angles. The portrait option on the camera is also extremely strong, allowing you take studio quality portraits. Having a “natural bulky effect” and the ability to separate the foreground and the background, with the background being able to be blurred out to make the foreground stand out even more.

Selfies

Selfies are another major feature that is focused on with the front camera (which has a mighty 10MP). Allowing a high quality, whenever or wherever you take an image. With an enhanced auto white balance, you will get the best lighting that shows off the best skin tones. Upon that, Instagram and Snapchat will allow you to use the S21 camera on their apps, so that you can use the top tier camera online.

Videos

Videos and images taken with the camera are of the highest possible quality. The S21 and S21+ grant you the ability to view 8K video, being 4 times as sharper than 4K, making your videos the highest possible quality. With the brand new 8K video snap, you can pull pictures from videos at a great 33MP. Allowing you to obtain the highest quality images from your favourite videos. There are even more features to discuss, including single take and director's view. Single take allows you take images and recording at the same time, and once finished taking your images and videos you are given multiple options for you to share to your friends. Director’s view allows you to change the angles, zoom and view of the camera all while you are recording your video.

Chipsets

The Samsung S21 and S21+ have the fastest chipsets out of all galaxy devices. Being around twice as fast as the S20. With the CPU being 20% faster and the GPU being 35% faster than its predecessors, being capable of performing 20 tera operations per second.

Features

There are a few more features that you may find appealing. Including:

• An enhanced security system – the S21 and S21+ have the most secure processors around. Having physical, tamper resistant capabilities to ensure physical protection. Your data is fully protected thanks to the processor and the Samsung Knox Vault. Making sure any pins or passwords are secure. You can also remove location data from any images you take, making your location safe online.
• Private share – this gives you the ability to share images securely, and causes an image to expire after a set amount of time after sharing.
• Strong and fluent gameplay – you can play on numerous different games with strong and adaptive performance. Being partnered with companies like Unity and Microsoft, you can play many games without battery drainage.
• Object eraser – remove any unwanted objects from your images with the new simple object eraser. The S21 will erase the object for you, you just have to select the object.
• Photo remaster – obtain the images you love from previous devices, and the S21 will remaster them to the highest quality.

The Samsung S21 series have a new user interface in the One UI 3. With a completely redefined design and further enhanced customisation. Boasting a new dark mode and other features like lock screen widgets. On the topic of lock screens, the S21’s dynamic lock screens offer a new selection of customisation. Allowing you to have videos as your lock screen, or giving you the option where the lock screen changes whenever you open your phone. You will have an extraordinary experience. Your ability to customise is unyielding, giving you the option of more colours and styles to change to your preference. To optimise ease of use and tidiness, message notifications are grouped together.

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra

Samsung also announced the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, boasting all the features of the normal S21 and much, much more. The S21 Ultra offers two different colours, Phantom Black and Phantom Silver at the price of £1150. Samsung are offering three bonus colours exclusively on their website in Phantom Titanium, Phantom Navy and Phantom Brown, so you have a great choice of options.

The S21 Ultra has four highly developed and great quality lenses on its camera. With a 108MP wide camera, a 12MP ultrawide camera, 3x 10MP telephoto camera all of which have laser AF sensors. With double the number of pixels and ample lighting, the S21 ultra’s camera is extraordinary and even better than the S21s.

Along with Nona-binning technology (combines 9 pixels into 1) and 12-bit HDR, the quality of images taken are next level. One of the most exciting features of the S21 Ultra’s camera is the brand-new space zoom. Using a double folded lens, the space zoom lens allows you to take close-up pictures from even further away, using 3x and 10x optical zooms. To make sure these images are shot with the best quality, the S21 Ultra’s intelligent zoom lock also prevents shaking.

There are so many great features included with the S21 Ultra’s camera, offering many opportunities that would be a great benefit to anyone. The ability to record 4K videos at 60FPS and the macro feature that automatically switches between different lenses based upon how close the object is to the camera, are both extra features that are very difficult to beat and so should not be ignored.

The S21 Ultra is at the top-of-the-line in terms of mobile phones. Offering the most powerful processor in our time and an amazing display that will offer a brilliant next generation visual experience. Refreshing the display at 10Hz – 120Hz, the S21 Ultra will feel extremely smooth and fluent. Its compatibility with the S-pen also elevates your experience, offering a more precise and smooth method of interaction with your phone. The S-pen is not compatible with the S21 or S21+, but is compatible with the ultra. A new S-pen pro was announced, but this will not be available until later this year.

With the Samsung Galaxy S21 series releasing on the 29th of January, all of us are looking forward to getting our hands on this new device and seeing how well it performs. We will be sure to offer Samsung S21s when we can, but until then we have a number of Samsung phones (like the S10) available for great prices.