Samsung Galaxy S21 renders show it could be the ugliest phone of 2021
Oh dear
The Samsung Galaxy S21 might bring a cool new feature we haven't seen in a smartphone before: 'utter shame being seen in public with it'. That's because new renders show a startlingly ugly choice of colors.
These new images come from Ishan Agarwal, a reputable leaker - it's not clear if the images were created by Samsung itself then leaked, or created by the leaker based on information from the company, but they give us an idea as to the color options of the upcoming Galaxy S21 phone.
There are four colors shown, and three look okay if a bit boring - they are Phantom Pink (pink), Phantom Gray (black) and Phantom White (white). But the one that piqued our interest - and made us feel dirty to look at - was Phantom Violet.
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A Phantom Violet Menace
Samsung Galaxy S21 5G Phantom Violet, Phantom Pink, Phantom Grey & Phantom White Official High Quality Renders (Watermark-less)Beautiful IMO. Great way to use the camera bump and frame for a dual tone finish. #Samsung #GalaxyS21 #GalaxyS21 #GalaxyS21Series pic.twitter.com/wG18Y9uJvvDecember 17, 2020
The Phantom Violet phone has a two-tone back - for the most part it's a pale pastel purple, but the camera bump is a dazzling gold tone. And... they don't look good together.
'Pastel purple and gold' is now officially joining our list of things that shouldn't go together, just above 'pineapple and pizza' and below 'advocaat and lemonade'. It's a really bizarre combination that looks like the phone-design version of a typo, an obvious and painful error like someone selected the wrong color on photoshop when they were making it.
Could this be an actual accident, either by the leaker or by Samsung itself? Possibly. We hope so. We can't imagine anyone would want this color. Not even Samsung fans. To quote TechRadar Deputy Editor John McCann on the topic "It's a bit.. garish? Right?".
There is reason to believe these renders are wrong, though - the gold camera bump is identical to that of the Phantom Pink version of the Samsung Galaxy S21, on which it looks far more fitting. It's possible whoever created the renders just copy and pasted that bump over without changing the color, and didn't notice until it was too late.
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We hope that's the case, at least, because the alternative is that someone actually thought that looked okay.
At the very least, this likely isn't the full range of Samsung Galaxy S21 color options, because they're a little uninspiring. Hopefully when the range launches - likely in the first few weeks of 2021 - we'll see a better selection.
Tom Bedford was deputy phones editor on TechRadar until late 2022, having worked his way up from staff writer. Though he specialized in phones and tablets, he also took on other tech like electric scooters, smartwatches, fitness, mobile gaming and more. He is based in London, UK and now works for the entertainment site What To Watch.
He graduated in American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Prior to working on TechRadar, he freelanced in tech, gaming and entertainment, and also spent many years working as a mixologist.