WEBVTT

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- For better and just a little bit worse,

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Samsung is entering a whole new
chapter with the galaxy S21.

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(upbeat music)

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The S21 lineup has a brand new design

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compared to its predecessors.

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Featuring a new contour cut camera module,

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which makes it really clear that Samsung

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is trying to make a clean break
from previous Galaxy phones.

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The S21 and S21 Plus sport completely flat

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Gorilla Glass 7 screens in front,

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with no curviness or rounded edges.

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On back, you get a polycarbonate,

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which is a fancy word
for plastic rear panel.

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Now, Samsung's use of plastic
might seem kind of silly

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on what's supposed to be a high-end phone,

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but between its new matte
texture, increased durability,

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and the lightness that
plastic has over glass,

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I actually think Samsung
did a really good job

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of making plastic feel
like a premium material.

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As for the Ultra, Samsung use

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the same Gorilla Glass
7 for it's back too,

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adding a tiny bit extra protection

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and a little bit of extra
cachet for its high spec model.

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In a somewhat surprising move,
both the S21 and S21 Plus

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have 2400 by 1080 full HD Plus displays,

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which actually have less pixels

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than the QHD panels on
last year's Galaxy S20.

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However in return,

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Samsung added new 120 hertz
variable refresh rate tech,

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which offers such a smooth
silky viewing experience,

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it's actually kind of easy to
forget the loss in resolution.

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Meanwhile, the S21 Ultra
takes things even further

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by stepping up to a full 3200
by 1440 QHD Plus resolution,

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with a variable refresh rate that goes

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from 120 hertz all the
way down to 10 hertz.

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It's more of everything
that's already great

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about the S21's display.

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And quite simply, the S21 Ultra

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has the nicest screen in the industry.

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When it comes to cameras,
Samsung is actually

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kinda borrowing a page
out of Google's playbook.

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That's because while the S21
and S21 Plus have basically

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the same 12 megapixel main,
12 megapixel ultra wide

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and 64 megapixel 3X telephoto cameras

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you got on last year's S20,
Samsung has used the past year

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to refine its camera algorithms
and image processing.

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So not only has white balance improved,

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Samsung's night mode has
gotten a big boost too.

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And that means the biggest surprise is

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that the S21 can actually
hang with something

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like the Google Pixel 5 in
terms of pure image quality,

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while also offering a 3X telephoto zoom

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the Pixel 5 just can't match.

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And by taking advantage of
this new Snapdragon 888 chip,

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the S21 can even do things
like film 8K videos,

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or snap up to 10 frames a second

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while using Samsung's
neat single take mode.

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Samsung even added an all
new portrait mode to replace

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last year's kind of
lackluster live focus feature.

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So even without changing out its sensors,

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the S21 is a markedly better
phone for taking photos.

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That said, the S21 Ultra still dunks

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on its less expensive siblings
with even bigger sensors,

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a dedicated laser auto focus system

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which actually works surprisingly well,

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and an extra telephoto lens
with a 10X optical zoom.

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Now, you can talk amongst yourselves about

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whether you think phones
really need 10X optical zooms,

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but for me, I absolutely love it.

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Even when you're taking shots
from huge distances away,

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photos still look really sharp.

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Meanwhile, Samsung's AI assisted zoom lock

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helps you keep your subject in frame,

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even if you're hand holding the phone.

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Honestly, it's the
closest thing you can get

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to a big telephoto lens attached
to a DSLR, but on a phone.

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In the US, the entire S20 line comes

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with Qualcomm's latest
Snapdragon 888 chip,

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which is definitely faster than before

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but it still can't quite
top the numbers we saw

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from an A14 chip in an iPhone 12.

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Then again, nothing I
threw at the Galaxy S21

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actually caused it to lag or
stutter, even momentarily.

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The slightly more concerning part is that

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while I was expecting big battery
life numbers from the S21,

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what I've seen is merely just
a bit above average, clocking

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in at just over 12 and a half
hours on a single charge.

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Unfortunately, I didn't get
my hands on an an S21 Plus,

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but with its larger 4800
milliamp power battery,

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I would expect significantly
better battery life numbers.

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On the flip side,

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the S21 Ultra boasted
incredible run times,

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coming in at 16 hours and 45
minutes on our battery test,

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which I think is partly due

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to the more energy efficient VRR display.

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And as you'd expect, the
entire S21 lineup comes

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with full 5G connectivity,

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along with a bunch of
other high-end features,

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including Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi
6E, IP68 water resistance,

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and both wireless and
reverse wireless charging.

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Samsung even added a new
in-display fingerprint sensor

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that's 1.7 times larger
and way faster than before.

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However, there are two big
things the S21 doesn't have.

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First is that after Apple
removed the power brick

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from the iPhone 12 box last year,

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Samsung is now following suit.

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That means the only thing
you get inside an S21 box,

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is a USB-C cable and the SIM
ejector tool, no power brick.

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But the bigger news is that for 2021,

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Samsung has finally given up

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on micro SD expandability on the S21.

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This might be a tough pill to swallow

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for people who like adding storage

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to their phone after they buy it.

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But sadly, this is kind of inevitable,

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it's just where the industry was heading.

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The one small upside is

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that for people who do want more storage,

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Samsung has reduced
the price of upgrading.

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Which means you can go from 128 gigs

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to 256 gigs for just $50.

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For the long time Galaxy fans,
Samsung ditching micro SD

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and removing the power brick
is definitely gonna sting.

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However, when you look at the
bigger Android phone market,

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the S21 doesn't really
have that much competition.

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Right now, it's just kinda hard

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to recommend any other phone over the S21,

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with Apple's iPhone 12 being
Samsung's only a real rival.

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And in the end, that means the S21

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is the default high-end android phone.

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(upbeat music)