Samsung Galaxy M21 - best budget smartphone 200 dollars|Mobile Zone

Samsung Galaxy M21 – king of budget smartphones. for 200 it's better not to buy dollars. Big battery, excellent AMOLED display and good camera are impressive. You can pay with your phone in stores thanks to NFC, and it's great for listening to music, watching movies and using social networks.

Contents

PROS
MINUSES
Samsung Galaxy M21 – overview
Long battery life
The display is very good
Camera – photo and video quality
NFC, two SIM cards and microSD
Fingerprint reader
Sound quality – minijack 3,5 mm and one speaker
Non-waterproof plastic housing
Work speed and efficiency
Useful Features
Should I buy a smartphone Samsung Galaxy M21? view
Samsung Galaxy M21 – evaluation

PROS

long battery life 6000 mAh,
big, good AMOLED display,
good photo quality and 4K video recording,
useful night photo mode,
NFC for contactless payments,

MINUSES

plastic back is prone to scratches,
slow battery charging,

Samsung Galaxy M21 – overview

Samsung Galaxy M21 – a perfect example of that, how phones should be made costing up to 200 dollars . Powerful battery, large AMOLED display, good cameras, 4K video recording, NFC, two SIM-cards, classic headphone output 3,5 mm, fast android performance 10 . Quite seriously – for that kind of money no more.

While the new mid-range Samsung models can cost significantly more 500 dollars, and flagship smartphones – even 1000, manufacturer releases cheap Galaxy M21. Buy a Samsung phone in Kharkov Galaxy M21 is available for just 5 398 UAH. He is so good, that even in hostile territory, where Xiaomi dominates, can feel safe.

Let me start with a few of the most important benefits., which make this smartphone a strong competitor to other best budget phones.

Long battery life

In short, battery life is very good.

But…

I recently tested another phone with a big battery – Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite from online store Device Market. battery 5260 mAh worked 2 – 3 day and dialed SOT, ie. total display time, between full charges, at the level 6,5 – 9,5 o'clock.

meanwhile, The Samsung galaxy M21 has a noticeably larger battery at 6000 mAh, which usually works during 2 full days and reaches SOT in the range 7,5-8,5 hours. Undoubtedly, this is a very good result by standards 2020 g. but, looking at battery capacity, you can expect even better working hours.

It is not excluded, that this is due to the worst optimization of the system on the Exynos processor 9611 compared to Snapdragon 730G.

Working hours: 2 day
SOT: 7,5 – 8,5 hours
Battery capacity: 6000 mAh
Supplied charger: 9 In x 1,67 A = 15 W
Full charge time: about 3 o'clock
Easy battery replacement: not
Wireless charger: not

minus, certainly, is a long time to fully charge the battery – about 3 hours. This is a very bad result these days..

The display is very good

Large AMOLED Full HD panel + in the price class below 200 dollars has basically only pluses. Excellent contrast, very deep black (especially important in the evening), attractive rich colors and very good image detail.

Its size is 6,4 inch (or minus rounded corners 6,2 inch), it is large and good for watching videos, shooting (frame preview) and use of social media. The front is protected by Gorilla Glass 3.

display type: Super AMOLED 60 Hz
The size: 6,4 inch
Resolution: 1080 x 2340 pixels
Max. Brightness: approx. 460 cd / m2
HDR: not

The only weak point of the display – brightness in bright sunlight. Houses, in the office, at school, on the train, in the shade the brightness is just good. However, when the "bright sun" shines, feel a little dissatisfied. The image is visible and legible, but not perfect. Increasing brightness by 1/4 would give a very satisfactory effect..

Generally, but, compared to other smartphones in less than 200 dollars, I think, that the display is very good. Notch at the top may not be in fashion, but not worried at all. In this class of technology, this is not a drawback..

Camera – photo and video quality

Since I decided to start the review with the strengths of the tested phone, the camera must be among them. The Samsung Galaxy M21 has very good front and back cameras.

The sharpness and detail of the photos from the main camera is just excellent.. Top notch in its class. color quality, automatic scene recognition, HDR – all this also deserves recognition. Even the lens quality on an entry-level camera is pretty good..

Samsung Galaxy M21 proves, what the 5000 UAH. you can get a smartphone with a good camera.

An ultra-wide-angle camera is useful, because it covers a much larger frame and provides almost the same good color quality. However, the weak point is the quality of the optics.. Visible on the sides of the frame, that the image is blurry and out of focus. This is not a sensor problem., but a cheap lens.

Added a small depth of field sensor on the back, which comes in handy in portrait mode (Live Focus). The photographed character here is taken out of the blurred background..

There is even a pretty good night mode., which can also be used for indoor shooting. This allows you to get bright, clear photos without blur.

The front camera is fine too.. Sharpness and detail acceptable, color quality is good. You can enable portrait mode, which usually works fine. However, it is not always possible to correctly "crop the background".

In a sense, the video quality in this price category should also be praised.. Galaxy M21 rear camera records 4K video at speed 30 frames per second with a bit rate of about 27-28 Mbps / with. Image detail and sharpness are good. It's a pity, that HDR does not work in 4K, because without him the sky can burn (too bright). No optical stabilization either.. You can enable digital format, but not in 4K (maximum in Full HD).

In the case of the front camera, the maximum resolution is reduced to Full HD 30 FPS. There is no stabilization in Full HD, so the image is shaking. Also no HDR. However overall the colors are good., the image is sharp enough.

NFC, two SIM cards and microSD

Samsung Galaxy M21 has NFC, Therefore, in stores, you can pay by phone like a regular card.. This is another plus, what is it worth buy this smartphone in Kharkov. The Galaxy M21 also has dual SIM , so you can use two different phone numbers in it .

Important advantage – a separate place for a memory card. You can insert 2x nano SIM into Galaxy M21 at the same time + 1x microSD (to 512 GB).

Also has bluetooth 5.0, dual band wifi ac, USB Type-C и, of course, GPS.

Fingerprint reader

The reader is located on the back side of the case, not under the display surface. Works pretty fast, especially if the finger is not wet or damp. Minus – you need to enter the PIN code after, how the phone is inserted into the car mount.

Sound quality – minijack 3,5 mm and one speaker

As for the sound in the headphones, in my opinion, he is normal. Galaxy M21 copes like small ones without problems, as well as big headphones– I tested it with Degauss Twelve and Denon AH-D2000 drivers. The sound is dynamic, deep, bassy and clean enough. The main difference is in volume. – of course, headphones with higher impedance create a bigger problem for the smartphone and can play quieter.

Only one loudspeaker, quality at best I would call average . The sound is quite even and high, could the volume be turned up. Well for 5000 hryvnia cannot be perfect.

Non-waterproof plastic housing

Unlike the front, the back and sides of the case are made of plastic. They are quite resistant to light impacts and falls from a small height., but much less resistant to scratches and abrasion. However, plastic is still quite acceptable for smartphones priced under 6000 UAH.

Due to the large battery, the body is quite thick – about 9,3 mm. Advantage, but, in, that the rear camera almost does not protrude.

Galaxy M21 is not waterproof, but it's still the norm for the price up to 6000 UAH

dimensions (at / sh / g): 159,0 x 75,1 x 8,9 mm (measured thickness: 9,3 mm)
Weight: 188 g
materials: Gorilla Glass 3 (front side), plastic (back and side faces)
impermeability: not

Work speed and efficiency

Samsung Galaxy M21 is fast and comfortable to use. 4 GB of RAM and pretty good system optimization means, that when using popular applications and browsing the Internet, we will not complain about slow work. Although the storage is not very fast.

However, it should be clearly stated, that this is not a gaming smartphone. Yes, simple games work well on it, but for the most demanding games, the Exynos processor 9611 with a Mali-G72 MP3 graphics chip just doesn't fit.

Synthetic tests confirm, what in terms of performance Galaxy M21 – this is the middle shelf. Even the older and slightly cheaper Redmi Note 8 Pro gives much better results.

Useful Features

Galaxy M21 has Android 10 with One UI 2.0 overlay, which is one of the newer versions. For those, who is already familiar with this interface, switching to the M21 will be completely hassle-free. Ergonomics and partial functionality are very similar to other new smartphones in the Galaxy family. The difference is mainly in the speed of action..

One-handed mode and gestures – see advanced features. Once enabled, you can zoom out the interface, by moving the middle button on the bottom bar down or by quickly pressing it twice.

Other gestures are also available, such as double tap, to wake the phone from sleep mode, swipe, to save a screenshot, or finger touch gestures (swipe up or down, to show or hide the notification menu).

Dark Mode– Galaxy M21, like most other Samsung smartphones, has an AMOLED display, which consumes much less energy, eg, when system dark theme is installed (including app theme).

blue light filter– reduces eye strain when using the phone in the evening or in dark rooms. It can run automatically or on a schedule.

Sound effects. In the phone we find Dolby Atmos effects, which work well when watching movies, but, in my opinion, they reduce the quality when listening to music. Especially, if someone likes the most faithful, original sound.

Always-on display– function, which always displays clock and notification icons, even when the phone is locked. Clock style can be changed independently for lock screen and Always On Display.

Samsung Cloud and Microsoft OneDrive. Both companies work closely, and in some respects, Microsoft services even dominate. An example is the synchronization of data from a smartphone with the cloud. Some settings are still synced via Samsung Cloud account, but if you are a new user and want to automatically download photos and videos from the gallery, you will also need to create a Microsoft account. The data will be saved to your OneDrive. This change only appears in One UI 2.x on other smartphones, but in the end it, probably, will reach the majority of users.

Should I buy a smartphone Samsung Galaxy M21? view

If you have a phone worth no more than 200 dollars, and you want to buy something with a long battery life, good photos and videos and a large AMOLED display, it Samsung Galaxy M21 – great choice.

For all the above characteristics, this is one of the best smartphones in its price class.. It also has NFC for contactless payments in stores., two SIM-cards, a separate space for a microSD memory card, classic headphone output 3,5 mm and a good fingerprint scanner. Works pretty fast and has new android 10 с One UI 2.0.

properly, I found two annoying flaws – The plastic body scratches very easily., and the charger is too weak for such a large battery.

What do you think, this is also a good suggestion? Share your opinion about this phone. Have a good day!