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The S21 ultra and S21+ in this article, anyone know which colours these are? I'm guessing it's the silver just picking up a very colourful background?
**** The Official Samsung Galaxy S21 Family Thread ****
- Thread starter n30_mkii
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What was the cashback?
I thought I'd try out the S Pen, so ordered the official Silicon Case plus S Pen. It's just been delivered. Whether I stick with it remains to be seen - I usually have a flip case that covers the screen, in addition to a screen protector, plus it also holds cards. Not sure I can live without another line of defence.
Work discount and also gave me £80 cashback which I cashed out after 2 days for Amazon vouchers.
Just checked myself in the settings and was surprised it didn't support AptX HD.
A side note...
sd cards are very useful 7 for bulk storage, not so much for app running.
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Received silver by mistake, which ee are sorting out and I should receive black in around a week.
First thoughts on the phone. It's a bit of an oaf, which maybe is just how it looks in silver as the rounded silver edges look like the original iPhone. It's fairly heavy too. Camera bump makes the top corner sides look massive.
Phone isn't actually that big. It's tall rather than wide, so similar to my pixel 2 XL in width.
Samsung's OS looks cartoony with massive icons, which presumably I can customise. It also seems to have various non Google apps which will and hopefully can be replaced.
I feel a bit meh about it. I'm sure black will look loads better and I'll be able to customise the setup but tbh I just feel spoiled with a pixel device and not having to think about that anymore.
First thoughts on the phone. It's a bit of an oaf, which maybe is just how it looks in silver as the rounded silver edges look like the original iPhone. It's fairly heavy too. Camera bump makes the top corner sides look massive.
Phone isn't actually that big. It's tall rather than wide, so similar to my pixel 2 XL in width.
Samsung's OS looks cartoony with massive icons, which presumably I can customise. It also seems to have various non Google apps which will and hopefully can be replaced.
I feel a bit meh about it. I'm sure black will look loads better and I'll be able to customise the setup but tbh I just feel spoiled with a pixel device and not having to think about that anymore.
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Set up was a breeze as usual and had nearly a full day with it now. Initial impressions are great. Screen is an improvement, especially as you can now have wqhd and adaptive refresh on together.
Things seem a touch snappier over the s20 even, which I wasnt expecting that to be noticeable.
I can tell already this thing is a massive improvement over the s20+ on battery. I'm currently on 4hr 30mins screen on time with 48% battery.
Ever since day one of the 20+ was poor and the best I managed was 6hrs before it died. Averaged about 5 usually. That always was poor to me for any device.
I know the s21U has 500mah more battery and the adaptive refresh, but I'm guessing some is down to eyxnos 2100 too. The exynos 990 should never have made it out to the public lol.
Things seem a touch snappier over the s20 even, which I wasnt expecting that to be noticeable.
I can tell already this thing is a massive improvement over the s20+ on battery. I'm currently on 4hr 30mins screen on time with 48% battery.
Ever since day one of the 20+ was poor and the best I managed was 6hrs before it died. Averaged about 5 usually. That always was poor to me for any device.
I know the s21U has 500mah more battery and the adaptive refresh, but I'm guessing some is down to eyxnos 2100 too. The exynos 990 should never have made it out to the public lol.
My employer uses SD Worx and when I ordered my S21 Ultra they were offering 10% off and 2x WOW Points. They're not showing yet, but then I'm still waiting for my Titanium version, so I'm hoping it's just a matter of time. I don't qualify to be able to turn it into cash (via BACS), only convert to vouchers.
Somewhat annoyingly, the discount being offered is now 15% and 5x WOW Points. * Not on S21, so don't feel quite so bad now.
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Oh yes, he's a chunky boi alright. Feels quite top heavy, presumably owing to camera hardware. Pleased I've got a case on it now. Definitely feels MUCH heavier than the Pixel 5 I was using before, and feels noticeably heavier than my 2XL did. That said, I find the hardware feels more premium than the Pixels (especially the Pixel 5). I am getting used to the size and weight now, I seem to be gravitating toward bigger, heavier tech at the minute, with a 15.6" gaming laptop replacing an iPad 12.9, that thing is a brick.
I agree that it doesn't look quite as big as I thought it would, if anything, the 2XL is marginally wider. However, it is one hell of an impressive screen.
I know what you mean about the Pixel UI v's the Samsung, but all is not lost, with about 20 minutes of your time you can improve it dramatically. You can theme the icons, although most of the themes look a bit rubbish and actually cost you money! You could try a custom launcher but I always find they come with their own compromises.
What I have found that has helped me to improve the UI coming from a Pixel: 1. Grab a nice high resolution wallpaper of your choice (built in ones are OK but not much choice), 2. Settings > Display options > Font size and style = SamsungOne and BOLD on, size is one notch below the default setting (2nd from bottom). 3. Settings > Display Options > Screen Zoom on the lowest setting. 4. Turn on gesture nav 5. Grab Good Lock from the Galaxy Store and then get the NavStar and HomeUp addons. In Navstar enable the transparent navbar background. HomeUp will allow some customisation of the home screen. I've set the grid size to fit the most icons possible up to a width of 5, and popup folders.
Having done all of the above, I now actually prefer the Samsung system to the Pixel UI, by quite a distance, I especially like the transparency and design on the notification panel. The thing with a Samsung is, they do have bloat, but they do have lots and lots of options.
As for the apps, the beauty with Android is you can use whatever you want on it, so go ahead and replace the Samsung apps with Googles equivalents, but I'm giving Samsung Internet a go, and think that I actually prefer it considerably over Chrome. I've seen some reports that it is far easier on the battery too.
Overall, I'd have to say it makes my Pixel 5 feel mediocre. It feels much faster and more responsive, has a much better screen, much better finger print sensor, the UI looks better (after the above tweaks), seems to have less issues, the camera is far more versatile, and it looks and feels so much more expensive. I'm definitely not regretting it and I honestly thought I would never spend as much on a phone, but the fact I have and I don't regret it says a lot. As a side note, I was quite surprised to find that I can tell the difference in 120Hz v's 90Hz on the Pixel 5, and even funnier, I've got a work iPhone XR with a 60Hz screen, and despite it being a phone I always found very snappy, it looked like it was actually broken in comparison with the Sammy!
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Thanks, I appreciate the detailed insight! Particular from a pixel 2xl owner which is still my benchmark.
Sounds like I should be able to get it to how I like it. Which in all honesty I do enjoy the customisation and tinkering but it has been nice to not think about it for a few years.
I've also been wanting bigger devices and was hoping for something considerably bigger than the pixel 2xl, which actually feels kinda small to me now...
Anyway, I'll wait for the new phone to arrive before properly playing with it. Don't want to get stuck with a giant iPhone 1 with a Borg eye, because I've scratched it.
We use a system with WoW points. I was able to buy £80 of WoW points before it was even despatched. Took like 2 days before they we're available.
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Nice. Looking forward to the photos. When did you order?Got my Phantom Navy Ultra 256GB arriving tomorrow
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Fab. Haven't seen a single one other than the marketing photos. Expecting it to be stunning.About 6pm the day they went live mate
Will get some pics up once it is here
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Don’t want to burst your bubble mate but over on XDA they are saying it’s just the free gifts that are shipping and not the phones?
I have the phantom black but have a blue on order so will send the black back one the blue arrives. Will also return my iPhone 12 Pro Max.
edit, this is the first real photo I’ve seen. Looks stunning. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EtGWRCWUwAEJKYL?format=jpg&name=large
Bubble sufficiently burst. Cheers
Better today than when the parcel arrives tomorrow and there's no phone haha.I checked tracking on the website and you're right, phone still says "customising" but free gifts have moved to "preparing dispatch"
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Bubble sufficiently burst. Cheers
I checked tracking on the website and you're right, phone still says "customising" but free gifts have moved to "preparing dispatch"
Sorry buddy. I feel terrible now. I am following a UK Pre-Order thread over there for the custom colours - when I saw your post I quickly went and checked the thread and read that people have had the gifts dispatched but no phone
Ha no worries honestly!Sorry buddy. I feel terrible now. I am following a UK Pre-Order thread over there for the custom colours - when I saw your post I quickly went and checked the thread and read that people have had the gifts dispatched but no phone
The tracker said free gifts ship by 28th Jan, but they didn't so figured they were waiting for phone to be ready too - so when I saw DPD email and text, got excited thinking it must be the whole lot coming but nope lol
Samsung email just came through after saying its just the gifts
Ah well... the wait continues