Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos) camera review: S-series base model

Samsung's Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos) is the cheapest of the company's current high-end S21 series. It sports a 6.2-inch 120Hz AMOLED display with a hole

perforated

for the selfie camera, and has a lower resolution

There are three cameras on the back, with specs that will look very familiar to anyone with an S20. The main wide camera has a 12MP sensor behind a 26mm equivalent optically stabilized lens. The ultra-wide module is also 12MP and has a 13mm equivalent lens. The telecamera starts off wide (29mm equivalent) but ups the sensor resolution to 64MP, which is reduced to 12MP: the extra resolution should in theory retain higher detail when shooting.

cropping

to zoom.

The Galaxy S21 5G records video up to 8K resolution at 24 fps. However, the output is actually better overall at 4K and 60fps, which is what we used for testing. Lower resolutions and higher frame rates

are also available for idle fun.

Read on to find out how Samsung's cheapest high-end device fares in our tests.

Key camera specs:

Standard-wide: 12MP 1/1.76in sensor with 1.8μm pixels, 26mm-equivalent f/1.8 lens, dual-

pixel

PDF

,

OIS

Ultra-wide: 12MP sensor with 1.4m pixels, f/2.2 lens equivalent to 13mm

Tele: 64 MP 1/1.72-inch sensor with 0.8μm pixels, f/2.0 lens equivalent to 29mm

LED flash

8K@24fps, 4K@60fps (tested), HDR10+

About DXOMARK Camera Tests:

For scoring and analysis in our smartphone camera tests, DXOMARK engineers capture and evaluate over 3,000 test images and over 2.5 hours of video both in controlled lab environments and in indoor and outdoor natural scenes, using default camera settings. This article is designed to highlight the most important results of our testing. For more information on the DXOMARK camera test protocol,

Click here.

More details on how we rate smartphone cameras are available

here

.

Summary of the test

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos)

116

camera

123

photo

77

zoom

93

video

With a Camera score of 116, the Galaxy S21 5G performs well, but it's not a big step up from its predecessors: its photo score of 123 is equal to that of the Samsung Galaxy Note20 , for example. Some areas have improved, but these are offset by some slippage in

texture

and

noise

performance.

p>

The composite Zoom score of 77 lands in the top ten, which is quite impressive considering the price of the S21. TV performance is solid and comes with a very good ultra-wide display (a historic asset for Samsung).

The video score of 93, however, is a bit below expectations, falling behind the previous generation S20. -series devices we tested. This is largely due to improved handling of noise and textures.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos) exposes well and captures accurate colors in various lighting conditions.

The S21 5G exposes very accurately, although our testers noticed some jitter in exposures and

dynamic range

could be a little wider: the phone seems to be optimized for precise target exposures and saving

the shadows

at the expense of highlights, which often explode in backlit scenes.

Color performance in stills is among the best we've measured – just three points below the high category.

The white balance

is very accurate in different lighting conditions and a variety of skin tones are rendered well. The color management for the green foliage is also outstanding.

Detail levels are acceptable but low for a phone of this caliber, and portraits in particular show disappointing detail at times. Unfortunately, the noise is also higher than expected, with images showing more than most recent flagships.

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos)

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G, crop: low detail< /p>

Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Exynos)

Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Exynos), cropping: good detail

Huawei Mate 40 Pro

Autofocus is reasonably fast and accurate, with our testers noting only a few failures in low light.

Depth of field

is quite wide, so it's usually easy to bring most of the scene into focus.

Artifacts

aren't particularly well controlled (which we've seen in several other Samsung devices): the S21 takes penalties for color quantization,

the tint

the lag,

The ring

and fusion artifacts.< /p>

Color quantization artifacts are often visible, like here on the ceiling.

The color is accurate. with pleasing skin tones in a variety of lighting conditions.

The S21's ultra-wide camera is ultra-wide indeed, with a shorter measured focal length than most of the competition, so you can fit a lot of scenes into a single frame. The phone sits just outside the top five in our database for this subscore, and it's worth noting that three of those five are also Samsung. In contrast, the noise is visible in all but bright outdoor lighting.

Tele performance is pretty good, especially considering the S21 isn't a flagship device and doesn't come with the latter's long telephoto lenses. The TV's high native resolution ensures good detail at close-range zoom. However, some loss is noticeable at medium range and more so at longer settings.

Quite surprisingly given the specs, the S21 5G (Exynos) offers slightly better overall tele-zoom performance than the S21 Ultra 5G (Exynos). As you can see in this example, it is significantly better at close range. It's still slightly better at mid to long range, and the top-end Ultra model is the best choice only for very long range shots (around 10x and up).

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos), close zoom

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos), cropping: good details

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Exynos), close zoom

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Exynos), cropping: lack of detail

The S21 has a portrait mode capable of simulating shallow depth of field. It's tied for second place in this category, but to be fair, there are six phones above it tied for first place. The usual segmentation faults when the subject encounters the

background

are quite minor, and the effect of

vague

is strong, with a natural gradient as the

distance

of the focus point increases.

The ultra-wide camera offers great coverage, although noise is higher than ideal.

In portrait mode, the subject is quite precisely separated from the background and the blurring effect is convincing.

The video score of the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G places it in the lower regions of the database, on par with devices like the

Xiaomi Mi 10T 5G

and the

OnePlus North

. The main areas for improvement are noise and detail. The noise is quite noticeable in all shooting conditions, including bright outdoor light. Meanwhile, the texture remains weak even under bright light.

Exposure is accurate and highlights are well preserved, although sometimes at the expense of clipped shadows. White balance is generally accurate but colors are undersaturated. Light skin tones are rendered accurately, but dark skin tones are often inaccurate and can also suffer from loss of shadow detail. The autofocus is pretty quick and accurate though.

Stabilization leaves room for improvement. Video clips often show frame shift and residual motion. Ringtones and

ghost images

artifacts also appear.

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos), interior video

Conclusion p>

Samsung's dominance in the market means that the Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos) will be on the shortlist of many people considering a fairly high-end new Android phone. Most mobile photographers will likely be happy with the S21's beautiful colors and accurate exposures, despite above-ideal noise and occasional clipped highlights.

Advantages

Accurate photo exposure in all conditions

Neutral white balance and natural skin tones

Great depth of field for group shots

Accurate depth estimation and beautiful blur effect in portrait mode

Wide dynamic range in video

Accurate and stable exposure in video

Fast and reliable video autofocus

Disadvantages

Exposure instabilities when shooting still images

High noise in still images, especially in low light conditions

Sometimes poor still image detail, especially in portrait scenes

Low level of detail with long zoom ratios

High noise and low level of detail in videos

Video color often desaturated indoors and in low light< /p>

In low light, shadow detail lost in videos

Editor's Note: Firmware Versions

We started testing the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos) using the latest firmware version available at the time. However, Samsung released new firmware versions between the start of testing and the publication of this test article.

So we decided to compare our test results to the latest firmware versions available now to make sure there are no major differences. and that the results and scores remain valid.

To perform the checks, we partially retested the S21 5G (Exynos) using firmware version G991BXXU2AUBB. This was the latest version available on March 3, the day we started checking.

For the main camera, we observed a slightly improved texture but also an increase in noise, so overall the texture/noise trade-off is very similar between the firmware used in this test and the new firmware, and therefore has no impact on the score.

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos), 5 lux, firmware used in the test

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos), firmware used in test, cropping: some loss of detail, noise

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos), 5 lux, new firmware

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos), new firmware, cropping: some loss of detail, noise

We also checked the performance of Zoom and found no difference between the output of the two versions of the software.

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos), firmware used in test, cropping: strong loss of detail p>

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos), mid-range TV, 100 lux, new firmware

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Exynos), new firmware, cropping: strong loss of detail

Summary of the test

Conclusion