Samsung Galaxy A21s Android Smartphone, SIM Free Mobile Phone, White, (UK Version)

Product Information

The Galaxy A21s has a not-so-special PLS display at a low 720p resolution, but it is quite large at 6. The Galaxy A21s is powered by Samsung’s homebrew Exynos 980 chipset, with a maximum clock speed of 2GHz, backed by 3GB of RAM. A rear-mounted fingerprint sensor also sits in the centre, which can be used to unlock the phone and authorise contactless payments. You can change the aspect ratio from 16:9 to either 1:1 or full width, but the lack of any form of stabilisation makes for some pretty wobbly-looking footage. We recently reviewed the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9, which has a faster processor and Full HD screen for just a little bit more money.

This is the first time we’ve reviewed a phone with this processor, and from the looks of things, it’s mostly used in a handful of Vivo smartphones that don’t tend to make it to UK shores. The display reached a maximum luminance of 553cd/m² on the adaptive brightness setting, the contrast ratio is rather good at 1,267:1, and viewing angles aren’t too shabby, either. The macro mode is also a lot of fun, and I managed to capture some crisp closeups of flowers nearby.

You can record in either Full HD or 720p on both the front and back cameras, but there’s no option to bump up the frame rate to 60fps.

Vodafone Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for consumer credit lending and insurance distribution activity (Financial Services Register No. Somehow, Samsung has managed to squeeze in a total of five cameras, which is rather remarkable given how little it costs. It’s one of the cheapest of Samsung’s recent phone launches, shining an especially harsh light on how much we’re expected to pay for a Galaxy S20 Ultra.In our standard battery-rundown test, where we set the screen to 170cd/m², switch on flight mode and play a looped video, the Galaxy A21s lasted 22hrs 48mins.

I was particularly impressed with the Galaxy A21s’ Live Focus mode, which allows you to adjust the level of background blur either before, or after, you press the shutter button. This isn’t great by modern standards, especially since the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 and Realme 6 both benefit from pixel-packed Full HD screens.Due to current lockdown restrictions, I was unable to directly compare the two phones in the same scene, but the Galaxy A21s managed to take a pretty good picture, regardless. Discover our range of SIM free phones, spanning Apple, Samsung, and everything in between – all unlocked and contract-free for your convenience. It can take a while to boot up and sometimes lingers on the lock screen for too long after successfully unlocking, but that’s about it. The lower-resolution screen does help boost performance, however, and I didn’t notice any glaring issues in less demanding games such as Stardew Valley and Gris.