Images captured using the main camera in well-lit environments are astonishing, with impressive dynamic range, oodles of detail and rich, bold colours that look as if they’re going to leap straight off the screen. There are cutbacks, of course, but despite what Samsung would have you believe, I’d argue you can live without most of those anyway. The one thing it doesn’t have is a microSD card slot, which means the 128GB or 256GB of onboard storage is all you get.

As expected, the Galaxy S21’s trio of cameras perform exceptionally, no matter what lighting conditions you’re snapping in. the Galaxy S21’s screen is the same size as the previous model and it uses the same FHD+ (2,400 x 1,080) resolution. It lags slightly behind Apple’s A14 Bionic chip (I was unable to run our usual benchmarking tools with the Huawei Kirin 9000) but there’s no shame in that. The Galaxy S21 is also IP68 rated for dust and water-resistance, which allows it to be submerged in water at a depth of 1. It’s also the first phone to use Samsung’s Exynos 2100 processor, which promises faster speeds and improved efficiency over the previous flagship chip.This is a complete U-turn from the company that mocked Apple’s decision to remove its own charger just three months ago, during the launch of the Note 20. The decision to remove the microSD slot and bundled charger are the only blots on the landscape; otherwise, the Galaxy S21 represents another sublime flagship offering from Samsung. If you can live without both these things there’s no doubt the Galaxy S21 will be a brilliant sidekick for whatever 2021 decides to throw at you. You’ll take some amazing pics too thanks to the 64MP rear camera, which can also capture videos in absolutely stunning 8K.

Merely four weeks into the new year and we already have our first look at what to expect from 2021’s top-shelf handsets, with promising news from the starting line. Eagle-eyed readers might have spotted that the Galaxy S21’s camera hardware is pretty much identical to the phone that came before it, not that this is necessarily a bad thing. Like the Note 20, it supports 5G connections as standard (you no longer need to pay extra), as well as Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5. The good news is that the Samsung Galaxy S21 is the fastest Samsung smartphone to date, with 50% faster multi-core processing speeds when compared against last year’s Galaxy S20 in the Geekbench 5 benchmark.

Pay monthly plans with some of the UK’s leading networks help spread the cost, while SIM-free deals let you pay in full upfront and use your existing plan. Of the three Galaxy S21 phones launched at the beginning of the year, this is the “entry-level” model; it’s really nothing of the sort and it actually shares many of the same high-end features as the other two phones in the range.