Samsung Galaxy M21 Review

Samsung introduced the Galaxy M series as an online-only lineup to compete with Chinese companies like Xiaomi and Realme. The smartphones in this series gained a lot of popularity due to their aggressive pricing and good features compared to other Samsung products. Due to this popularity, these smartphones are now also available on offline channels. Samsung has recently added another new model in this series named Samsung Galaxy M21. This new smartphone comes equipped with the same specifications as some of its previous models, but will it be able to create a different identity compared to them? We have reviewed the Galaxy M21 to find out.

Samsung Galaxy M21 design

Samsung has used plastic in the new Galaxy M21 to keep costs down. The back panel of the Galaxy M21 is made of plastic and has a glossy finish. It catches fingerprints very easily. Samsung does not come with any kind of case or cover in the box, so you will have to wipe it off unless you buy a case for it yourself.

The Samsung Galaxy M21 is an upgrade to the Galaxy M20, but it looks similar to the Galaxy M30s, which was launched in mid-2019. However, it does not come in many attractive colours. Instead, the company has launched it only in Blue and Black colours.

The Galaxy M21 has a large display, measuring 6.4-inches, and it has thin bezels on the top and sides. The chin is quite thick though. There is a waterdrop notch at the top centre and a small earpiece right above it. If you have big hands, you can easily reach the top with your thumb, otherwise you will have to adjust the phone a bit. However, this phone is not as big as the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max, which we recently reviewed.

The volume buttons are also a bit hard to reach as they are placed a bit higher than we would have liked. The power button and rear-mounted fingerprint scanner are well-placed, however. The Galaxy M21 measures 8.9mm thick. Surprisingly, the device doesn’t feel too heavy in the hand, given the curves on both sides. It weighs 188 grams, which is much lighter than the Redmi Note 9 Pro.

Samsung has provided a USB Type-C port in this phone, which is set at the bottom of the smartphone. The company provides a 15 watt charger in the box. The 3.5mm headphone jack is also set at the bottom along with the microphone and speaker in the smartphone.

Samsung Galaxy M21 specifications and software

The Galaxy M21 comes with a 6.4-inch AMOLED display with full-HD+ resolution. It is not very common to find an AMOLED panel at this price, but Samsung is constantly changing this perception with its Galaxy M series. This panel is vivid and has very good viewing angles. It also performs well in sunlight.

Samsung has opted for the Exynos 9611 chipset for the smartphone. This is an octa-core processor that comes with four ARM Cortex-A73 cores and four Cortex-A53 cores. It comes with a Mali-G72 graphics unit. The Galaxy M21 is offered in two variants, one with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage and the other with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. For this review, we had the base variant, which is priced at Rs 12,699 on Amazon and Rs 13,199 offline and on Samsung’s website. Similarly, the top-end model is priced at Rs 14,999 on Amazon and Rs 15,499 elsewhere.

The Galaxy M21 is a dual-SIM device and has two Nano-SIM slots. It also has a dedicated microSD card slot for expanding storage. It has support for dual 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5, dual-band Wi-Fi and four satellite navigation systems. It comes equipped with a 6,000mAh battery.

The Galaxy M21 runs One UI 2.0 based on Android 10. It was still running the February security patch, which is a bit outdated by today’s times. The UI is similar to the Galaxy M31 that we reviewed earlier this year. We found some bloatware pre-installed on the device, including Amazon Shopping, Netflix, Prime Video, Helo, and Dailyhunt. We found that Helo and Dailyhunt send spam notifications, so we would recommend you uninstall them if you don’t use them. We also noticed notifications from the stock My Galaxy app throughout the day.

The phone gets an always-on display mode, and Dolby Atmos is available for earphones and Bluetooth headsets. You also have the option to switch to gesture-based navigation instead of the traditional three-button layout. Other Android 10 features include a dark mode, which takes full advantage of the Super AMOLED panel included on the Galaxy M21. Samsung has also added a Game Booster feature that can block notifications and give quick shortcuts to apps of your choice.

Samsung Galaxy M21 performance

Samsung’s own Exynos 9611 processor is a capable processor and can handle basic apps comfortably without any signs of slowing down. However, we did notice that heavy apps took a little time to load. Multitasking was smooth and we were able to switch between multiple apps without any hassle.

The fingerprint scanner at the back of the device is fast and accurate to unlock the device. Similarly, face detection also does its job well. The AMOLED display is the best part of the Galaxy M21 and we enjoyed watching videos on this smartphone. We found the speaker to be a bit small, which slightly diminished the content experience.

We also tried playing PUBG Mobile on the Galaxy M21. The game ran on high settings with graphics set to HD and the frame rate set to high. We noticed some lag in the gameplay, which forced us to lower the graphics quality. After playing the game for 15 minutes, we noticed that the device got a little warm, and the battery dropped by 3 percent.

Battery life on the Galaxy M21 is excellent. The phone managed to last two days with regular use, thanks to its large 6,000mAh battery. In our HD video loop test, the device managed to last 21 hours and 48 minutes, but the phone’s brightness reduces when the battery drops below a certain level. Also, the large battery takes two hours to charge. Using the 15W charger included in the box, the device charged to 21 percent in 30 minutes and 42 percent in an hour.

Samsung Galaxy M21 cameras

Samsung Galaxy M21 has a triple rear camera setup. The primary camera comes with a 48-megapixel sensor with f/2.0 aperture. Its second camera is an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.2 aperture and the third camera is an 8-megapixel depth sensor. The camera UI is easy to use. It has a scene optimizer, which can detect what the camera is pointing at and set the camera settings accordingly. Apart from the regular photo and video modes, it also has features like Live Focus, Pro, Night, Food, Super Slow-mo and more.

The Samsung Galaxy M21 is quick to lock focus and meter light, but the scene optimizer is not that fast. In photo mode, the Galaxy M21 captures 12-megapixel shots by default. In daylight, we found the camera performance to be good and the Galaxy M21 managed to bring out good detail in photos. However, a little more sharpness in the output would have been nice.

The wide-angle camera has a lower resolution, which is clearly felt in the photos. It does not capture as much detail in the photo as the primary sensor. It captures a fairly large area, but like most smartphones, distortion is visible in the pictures taken with it.

The camera performance in low light is not as good as we have seen in some other phones in this price range. The Galaxy M21 managed to keep noise under control, but the output had a watercolor effect. The quality drops further if you use the wide-angle camera in low light. The Night mode on the Galaxy M21 does help in delivering slightly better output, but the phone does crop the frame a bit to reduce shake.

Selfies taken in daylight came out with good detail. The camera UI gives you a cropped view by default, but you also have the option to change it to a wide frame. The selfie camera produces 12-megapixel photos by default, but if you change the aspect ratio, you can also take photos at the full 20-megapixel resolution. In low light, there was no noise in selfies, but grain was visible on zooming in.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy M21 looks similar to the Galaxy M30s. It shares many key specifications with the older device. The big differences here are Android 10 and a higher resolution selfie camera, but since the Galaxy M30s (Review) recently received the One UI 2.0 update, its selfie camera has improved. Surprisingly, Samsung has priced the Galaxy M21 lower than the Galaxy M30. The Galaxy M21’s lower price and better chance of it getting the Android 11 update take it a step ahead of the Galaxy M30s.
However, the Galaxy M21 itself is just an average device at this price. Competitors like the Realme 6 (Review) and Redmi Note 9 Pro (Review) offer much more impressive performance and better cameras and are sold at around the same price.