The last year highlights how important phones are in our lives. A great mobile isn’t a frivolous luxury. It’s how we keep in contact with friends we can’t see in person, how we crystallise that memory of a beautiful sunset walk that kept you going after a tough week.
And that’s why we are even more interested in Samsung’s new Galaxy S21 5G series.
This is a family of top-end phones; home to the Galaxy S21 5G, Galaxy S21+ 5G and Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G. They all have ultra-fast 5G, Samsung’s signature cutting-edge handset design, best ever cameras, and all are available from John Lewis & Partners with a reassuring two-year warranty. John Lewis will deliver them to your home, or you can Click & Collect.
But which is right for you? Let’s dig into the differences.
Meet the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G family
The standard Galaxy S21 5G is the most accessible of the trio. We love its pocket-friendly frame. At just 7.9mm thick and 71mm wide, it is not a stretch for pockets or palms. And as the most affordable of the three, starting at £769, you can keep more money in your future holiday fund.
It is not short of advanced features, though. The Samsung Galaxy S21 5G has IP68 water resistance, ready for an accidental dunk in the bath. And its Gorilla Glass Victus screen can withstand drops onto less forgiving surfaces.
All three Galaxy S21 5G phones use Samsung’s brand new Snapdragon 888 processor, which may well be more powerful than your laptop’s.
A triple camera array on the back is designed to let you take that perfect shot every time. As well as an amazing 12-megapixel main camera, you get a class-leading ultra-wide and a 3x hybrid zoom.
We love a quality wide camera for shots of looming buildings, while a zoom is a must for cute pics of dogs down at the local park. Samsung was also the first company to bring 8K video capture to phones. It’s back and improved in the Galaxy S21 5G, and its image quality is so good you can pull greats stills out of any 8K clips you shoot.
Samsung will even do all the hard work for you, if you like. The Galaxy S21 5G series’s Single Take mode captures a selection box of photos and social-media-ready video clips, and all you have to do is move the camera around. Samsung’s algorithms do the rest.
Galaxy S21+ 5G: Big-screen entertainment
Jump up to the Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G and you get two important upgrades, plus everything that makes the Galaxy S21 5G so great.
All S21-series phones have Dynamic AMOLED 2X displays with incredible contrast, dazzling brightness that keeps the screen clear even on the brightest days and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, for the smoothest scrolling. But the Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G has an extra-large 6.7-inch display, which you’ll appreciate every time you stream a video or play a game.
The Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G also has a glass back, for an extra touch of sophistication.
Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G: The best of the best
If only the very best phone around will do, you need the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G. This represents the most advanced technology Samsung has in its arsenal, and the results are quite incredible.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G has not just one zoom camera, but two. You get 3x and 10x optical zooms, for the sort of shooting flexibility that might require a giant 1kg lens in the world of DSLR cameras.
This duo, alongside the other two cameras, means there are dozens of interesting images to shoot from wherever you stand.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra is as good as it looks
TechRadar, January 2021
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G also has a curved glass front, for an even more striking look, and a higher-resolution screen. More than 4.5 million screen pixels make this phone just perfect for movie-watching on-the-go. Or in bed.
Buy Samsung's S-Pen and you can even turn the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G into a digital art canvas. It’s the only S21 phone that supports this brilliant pen, which senses 4,096 levels of pressure, letting advanced art apps emulate the sort of strokes you’d see from real pencils and paintbrushes.
If you really want to get creative in your downtime, you can’t get better than the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 5G starts at £769, the Galaxy S21+ 5G at £949 and the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G at £1149. All three are available to order from John Lewis & Partners today, and you can claim a free pair of Galaxy Buds Live in black and trade in up to the value of £440.
