Samsung Galaxy M21 hands-on review

Introduction

The Galaxy M21 is yet another mid-range smartphone from Samsung. If you're wondering if we have reviewed this before, then you are mostly correct. The Galaxy M21 is essentially a variant of the Galaxy M31, which itself was a variant of the Galaxy M30s, both of which we have reviewed. So yes, we have all been here before.

The differences with the Galaxy M21 are minimal and the three phones are borderline identical. The M21 shares the body, display, chipset, and battery with the other two phones. It also shares the memory, storage, and rear cameras with the M30s.

Samsung Galaxy M21 specs

• Body: Glass front, polycarbonate back and side frame
• Screen: 6.4-inch, 19.5:9, FHD+ (1080 x 2340px), Super AMOLED
• Rear camera: Primary 48MP, f/2.0 aperture; Ultra wide-angle: 8MP, f/2.2 aperture; 5MP depth sensor; LED flash; 2160p@30fps video recording
• Front camera: 20MP, f/2.2 aperture
• Chipset: Exynos 9611: octa-core CPU (4x2.3 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4x1.7 GHz Cortex-A53), Mali-G72 MP3 GPU
• Memory: 4/64GB or 6/128GB UFS 2.1; dedicated microSD slot for up to 1TB expansion
• OS: Android 10; Samsung One UI 2
• Battery: 6,000mAh, 15W charging
• Connectivity: Dual SIM (4G), Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, USB-C; 3.5mm audio jack
• Misc: Rear-mounted fingerprint reader, FM radio

The Galaxy M31, being the most expensive one of the three, has a slightly fancier rear camera setup with a macro lens. All three have different front cameras. You can find the differences between the three phones here.

So, not that much different, then. But let's hop on the next pages to see if there is anything that sets the Galaxy M21 apart.