Samsung Galaxy S21 series rumored specs

Sourav Sarkar

January 12, 2021

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra colors

Samsung the best brand of smartphones in the world. Samsung will introduce us to its new Galaxy S series this Thursday. Usually, Samsung released it in February but now there has a change on the schedule. With focus shifting towards foldable as the new top tier of the device, the company is shaking things up and not just the timing.

We already heard that the Samsung Galaxy S21 ultra will come with S-pen support. A Samsung executive officially hinted at the move in December and we’ve seen lots of leaks that paint a more detailed picture. This is exactly the rumor we want to talk about – here’s what to expect from Samsung’s upcoming flagships.

Now let’s see the specs of this flagship Galaxy S21 series.

Display

The S21 Ultra display is expected to have a 6.8” diagonal and curved. The S21 and S21+ will have flat displays with 6.2” and 6.7” diagonals, respectively. All three will be guarded by Gorilla Glass Victus.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra screen will be unique in the S21 series in another way – it will be the only panel to have 1440p+ resolution. Samsung has finally overcome the resolution limitation and the Ultra screen will be able to run at 120Hz at full resolution. The Galaxy S21 and S21+ are not so lucky. They will get the 120Hz refresh rate, but it seems that Samsung has decided to downgrade them to 1080p+ screens.

Chipset

The geographic split remains with some regions expecting Snapdragon 888 and others the Exynos 2100. This year the Samsung-designed chip may prove to be faster than the Qualcomm one. We’ll hear more about it tomorrow at the first dedicated Exynos event.

RAM & Storage

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra will have 16GB of RAM paired with 512GB storage, the base version will probably come with 12/128 GB. The Galaxy S21 and S21+ buyers will get 8GB of RAM as standard and will have 128GB and 256GB to choose from. And they’ll have to choose carefully as only the Ultra will have a MicroSD slot.

Camera

The S21 Ultra is getting a folded periscope for 10x optical magnification along with a new 3x telephoto camera. Rumor has it that the main 108MP sensor will be upgraded to an HM2 or even the yet to be announced HM3. Improvements to the ISOCELL technology will enable better light sensitivity at the same pixel size.

The Ultra will have a Laser AF module instead of a 3D ToF sensor while the DepthVision module from the S20+ will not make a comeback for the S21+.

The S21 and S21+ are sticking with the triple camera setup of their S20 predecessors. This means a 12MP main camera, 64MP zoom/8K video camera, and a 12MP ultrawide snapper. Perhaps there are new sensors hiding behind those lenses and the new chipsets (more on them in a second) will have more number-crunching power for image processing, but it’s not immediately obvious why you’d get an S21 over an S20.

Battery

The battery capacities will be 4,000 mAh for the S21 and 4,800 mAh for the S21+. Both phones will support 25W wired charging. The Galaxy S21 Ultra is getting a 5,000 mAh battery that could go up to 45W.

Colours

The vanilla S21 is expected to have a plastic back while the other two will likely stick with glass. There will be a total of 11 colorways eventually, though only some will be available at launch. Phantom Violet seems to be the new hero color, it and some of the other options go for a two-tone look. The camera bump (with its characteristic design) will pop against the different colored back.

Pre-orders

Finally, look at their prices. The Samsung Galaxy S21 trio will be upon pre-order either on Thursday or Friday this week, in-store sales will start on January 29. The Ultra pre-orders will reportedly net you a pair of the new Galaxy Buds Pro (now with ANC), €230 of value. The other two will get the new SmartTag Bluetooth tracker instead.