**** The Official Samsung Galaxy S21 Family Thread ****
- Thread starter n30_mkii
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Wow mine has just turned up S21 Ultra (512gb), no warning it was today as emails etc all say its tommorow delivery. Gives me something do now, before work tomorrow though- I have said a few times on here how bad i thought the s20+ was, from a long term samsung fan and user. It was mainly Exynos 990 related, heat and i thought battery life in particular was pretty bad so waited until i read reviews etc and have done a lot of reading this last few weeks. Everything that was coming out seemed to be a lot more positive about the S21 and the exynos 2100 so took the plunge on thursday before the samsung offer expired for freebies. Initial thoughts, from just opening the box is its a thing of beauty. Gonna make a start now setting it up. Fresh install, smart switch is a nightmare and caused loads of issues for me before.
Don't be alarmed if the phone feels warm when you're setting it up, its always quite a battery intensive process. Mine was running warm for a considerable part of the day but has settled nicely now. I only mention this as some people have been getting concerned about how warm it runs out of the box.
I think it's a big upgrade on the OP7 pro personally....Removed most of the samsung stuff, using Nova launcher and enjoying it so far. Camera is way better on limited testing so far for me
Soldato
It’s saying something about the progress OnePlus have made with their cameras that you see no appreciable upgrade from it to the Ultra.
What do you make of the curved display on the ultra vs the 8 Pro?
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Nova seems to be doing my battery over. Or so it seems that way.
Battery usage - 2.7%
Active - 19m
Background - 51m
No widgets
Battery usage - 2.7%
Active - 19m
Background - 51m
No widgets
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Custom launchers always seem to come with compromises, I find. On a Pixel phone, for example, if you swapped launchers, they generally ran much slower, took more battery, and broke some animations or lost some functionality.
The way I look at it though is they all perform the same sort of functions and are generally much of a muchness, it's usually just the aesthetic that differs. Personally I quite like it at the moment. Thats not to say there aren't things I wouldn't change, but with that Good Lock software a poster suggested earlier, I've tweaked it to my liking. The way I see it, I can put up with the likes of MS Windows, so it doesn't exactly take too much adjustment to get used to things.
Anyway, I'm going to have a few 'first world problem' moans:-
- Probably not the phones fault, but I notice if it's in dark mode and I perform a Google Search from the widget on the homescreen, it is still white (it was dark on the Pixel).
- The clock app lacks functions that the Google one has, such as adding an extra minute or multiple timers. However, that app has been getting unreliable of late, setting off alarms too late which isn't much good when you're cooking.
- I can't seem to copy text from the recent apps view like I could with my Pixel, that was a very handy feature
Otherwise, I am over the moon so far with this phone.
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Only thing I've found is the vibrations. When they're on max, and a notification drops.in, sometimes it sounds like there's a rattle there too?
Indeed.
The extra curve on the 8 Pro is fine for me, accidental touches occur when I don't have a case on which is hardly ever. Small things like the side front camera and the more matched top and bottom bezels I prefer on the OnePlus.
The UI like the quick settings, top status bar and phone app etc I just prefer on oneplus. Samsung also have a lot going on with apps and services which can't be disabled. And with nova Launcher installed, nav gestures are still a little janky.
The camera will be a big jump from the 7pro. That was using average hardware.
Soldato
No sign of my 512gb Titanium Ultra just yet, although the accessories were supposedly due to be shipped by 28th? Then again, don't need them until I have the phone (case, pen, headphones and tag)...... incidentally, great trade in price on my Z Flip at £560, so happy to just wait a little longer.....
I have the S21+ and wanted it over the ultra.
I wanted the bigger screen from my previous device and a decent camera/performance.
I don't need or wanted to pay the big jump in price for the ultra.
In loving the S21+ and everything I need is here and works perfectly
Good stuff - I just didn't personally see the point but maybe there is more too it than I noticed on first glance....Thanks
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Anyone here using the Adaptive eye custom shield? Or they just have it set to the default sunset to sunrise?
They gave a warning when ordering the Samsung Exclusive colours that it could take an extra 2-4 weeks to arrive, hopefully not the case for you, but that's why I went Phantom Black instead of Titanium, wasn't willing to wait potentially for the phone.
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On point 1, this has resolved itself!
I did a Google search earlier, and even though my phone was set to light mode, a popup appeared to tell me about dark mode, and a button to click into the settings. I did so but there was still no option for dark mode. Yet my phone has switched over and now when I search I'm getting dark mode on Google searches. That is nice!
On point 2 at least my timer went off when it was supposed to which is more than can be said for the Google clock.
Point 3 - still looking for a solution - one comment suggested switching the language of the device to US English but this did not work.
On the subject of accidental touches, I thought that would be a big problem, especially without a case (still waiting on my sammy leather case), but honestly Samsung seemed to have nailed this. I was getting accidental touches on my Pixel 5 without a case, and that is a much smaller phone, so I'm very impressed that I have seemingly had none at all here.
The fingerprint sensor is a revelation compared with the 2XL and 5 for me, both of those has a success rate in day to day use of about 80% I would say, at a guess, but the one on this is at least 99%. I think I've had it fail to read my print only once in the last 2 days of heavy use.
It's also nice to have an auto brightness that works properly, and that I don't have to constantly fiddle with; I'm looking at you Pixel 5 with your garbage under-display ambient light sensor.
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My s21 arrived a couple of days a go. Great phone with the exception of one issue. There appears to be a plastic film over the S21 screen which is disintergrating around the selfie camera cutout leaving bits of debris. The more you wipe the more debris appears. After contacting tech support it seems Samsung apply a screen protector in factory before shipping (not requested) which can be seen in the pic. Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this issue?
https://flic.kr/p/2kxnhUW
https://flic.kr/p/2kxnhUW
Soldato
Mate has just got one of these and whilst it looks like a great phone I can't understand how a phone that costs in excess of a grand doesn't have the ability to take a memory card. Yes it has dual sim slots, but so does my Realme and that can take a memory card too.
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Looks like it has two screen protectors.... They look as useless as covering your phone in wet toilet paper. https://youtu.be/Y4wrxLVs3eU
I'd say its just a dust trap. One reason I took mine off.