Samsung Galaxy M21 hands-on review

Software

The Galaxy M21 runs on Samsung One UI 2.0 on top of Android 10. Our review unit was on the February 1, 2020 security patch at the time of writing in June.

The software experience is largely identical to what we have seen on Samsung phones for the past several months. One UI 2.0 brought some design changes, such as a redesigned notifications UI, updated Camera app, more accessible design for stock apps that shifts everything down by default with large app titles on top, along with everything Android 10 introduced.

One UI 2.0

The new UI is largely user friendly and also comes with a fair number of features built-in, even on this budget device. There's not much to complain on the design front and although there's a bit of bloatware that comes pre-installed, at least on our Indian review sample, an experienced user should be able to get rid of most of it.

Stock apps

Novice users, however, might be tricked into installing even more bloatware through the app suggestions that popup while setting up the phone. We don't condone these practices but it has become the reality of buying a budget Android smartphone today, especially in markets like India.

From agreements that you can't decline to data-collecting app installers

Unfortunately, the performance on the M21 isn't very good. Our review unit was the 4/64GB model, and that did seem to make a difference compared to the 6/128GB M31 we reviewed earlier this year. The M21 felt noticeably slower, especially during multitasking. Everything happens with a short pause and it's especially noticeable in the Camera app, which has a hefty shutter lag and then a further delay in saving the processed image.

Part of the blame also goes to the Exynos 9611 but we have seen this chip perform better in Samsung's other models, so this largely comes down to the memory configuration. We would strongly recommend you avoid the 4GB variant and go for the 6GB instead. But then the 6GB variant is too close to the M31 in pricing, so there's a bit of dilemma there.

Gaming performance isn't as severely impacted by the memory size as apps and they run just as well as they did on the M31, which is to say well enough for a budget smartphone.

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
  1785
• Realme 6
  1726
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  1622
• Motorola Moto G8 Plus
  1385
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
  1339
• Samsung Galaxy M21
  1319
• Samsung Galaxy M31
  1315
• Realme C3
  1262

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
  570
• Realme 6
  548
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  493
• Samsung Galaxy M31
  349
• Realme C3
  347
• Samsung Galaxy M21
  346
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
  315
• Motorola Moto G8 Plus
  310

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Realme 6
  288931
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  279355
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
  254000
• Samsung Galaxy M31
  195284
• Realme C3
  192223
• Samsung Galaxy M21
  180711
• Motorola Moto G8 Plus
  168699
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
  161572

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme 6
  31
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
  30
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  29
• Samsung Galaxy M31
  16
• Samsung Galaxy M21
  16
• Realme C3
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
  13
• Motorola Moto G8 Plus
  13

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme 6
  27
• Realme C3
  27
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S
  26
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  24
• Samsung Galaxy M31
  14
• Samsung Galaxy M21
  14
• Motorola Moto G8 Plus
  12
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
  11