Samsung Galaxy S21 review: specs, battery & used prices

Summary

The Galaxy S21 was the compact flagship of its year: a 6.2-inch 120 Hz OLED, Exynos 2100, IP68 sealing and 169 g — at a $800 launch price that Samsung trimmed to keep the line competitive. Our compactness score of 98/100 and everyday score of 61/100 frame it as the sensible-size S21. The software runway is spent, and the used market has priced both facts in.

Display and design

The 6.2-inch OLED at 120 Hz with an 800-nit rating is flagship panel quality in the smallest chassis of the S21 family; the 61/100 screen score reads well for 2021. At 169 g with IP68, it is what "small flagship" used to mean before the class disappeared — genuinely one-handed for most grips.

Performance

The Exynos 2100 was Samsung's return to competitiveness after the 990: everyday 61/100, gaming 21/100 — flagship-tier responsiveness in 2021, aging respectably since. Thermals are the known Exynos caveat under sustained load, but ordinary use never exposes it.

Camera

A 12 MP main with OIS, a 64 MP hybrid-zoom telephoto and a 12 MP ultrawide, with 8K24 video. The 42/100 score is the era's honest flagship-middle: strong main camera, useful zoom range, ultrawide that did not embarrass itself.

Battery and charging

The 4,000 mAh cell scores 20/100 with 25 W charging — a day of moderate use in a small body, with the size of the phone doing the chip no favors. Heavy users charge twice; light users forget to.

Verdict

Used supply is liquid and cheap: 8/128 units cluster around $140 (nine listings) — an IP68, 120 Hz OLED flagship for the price of a budget phone. The spent software window is the real cost: buy it as hardware, not as a platform. The S21 Plus and S21 Ultra scale up the same generation; the S22 is the Snapdragon-powered successor at a modest used-price step.