Samsung Galaxy S21 vs iPhone 12 Comparison - Specs, Camera, Design & Price By TechZG

The first flagship release of the years from Samsung is coming. On January, the 14th we have the s21, the s21 plus and the s21 ultra. So in this one I want to compare everything we know about the galaxy s21 and the iPhone 12. Before we get into the comparison, make sure to check out NordVPN, they're running a 68 discount and three months of free VPN service. When you sign up with them, I use a VPN every day. It's a great service and a great discount make sure to check those out in the link below these.

Two phones are actually perfect to compare because they are so, so similar, and it's obvious this year that Samsung really have made the s21 base model, so not the plus or the ultra, but the vanilla s21, really as a head-to-head competitor with the iPhone 12. So, starting with the design, the biggest differences here are going to come with the back materials, so the iPhone 12 actually having a shiny finish on the back, the 12 pro the 12 pro max having matte finishes well, the s21 is going to have matte finishes on most of its colors this year, the s21 series bringing a brand-new camera array design. I really like the design this year, mostly because it's just unique and different and kind of new it just comes in from the left edge there. So the actual chassis and the bezel itself comes right around into the camera array, and these are official designs that we're looking at. I think it looks perfect.

I, like the three camera design. Furthermore, I think the lens openings are looking huge symmetrical and I think that works. One of the biggest differences you can see, of course, is that the iPhone 12 has a dual camera. The s21 actually has a triple camera, we'll get onto the camera hardware and all the specs in a second, but talking about the design and the back design. The big differences there coming to the front, the other big difference is, of course, really the notch versus the very tiny hole punch that Samsung using Samsung.

Of course, double up the earpiece speaker right there at the top of the phone. But of course it's not as big, so you should be getting better audio quality from the iPhone 12, but the screen design overall in terms of the screen to body ratio and having a system up there getting in the way of the phone. Of course, that goes to the s21. The displays on them in terms of the physical size are really similar as well. You've got a 6.1 inch on the iPhone 12 and a 6.2 inch on the s21. Both screens, though, are OLED displays and, of course, they're.

Both the highest quality Samsung actually make both of the displays for both of the phones, so they're going to be almost impossible to really distinguish in terms of the color accuracy and of course, there are both OLED as well. So you're going to get very good contrast ratios on both one massive area where the s21 is just leading the iPhone 12. Those in screen refresh rate, so actually the s21 this year isn't getting any high resolutions. You're going to have to go for the ultra. If you want that, so it's going to be a full HD display, but you do have that 120 hertz refresh rate, which is just super great.

So if you're gaming you're going to notice the smoothness, do I really notice the difference between the 120 hertz on Samsung phones and 60 hertz on iPhones uh, not as much as you would think, but you can notice. The s39 phones definitely are smoother. They offer a smoother scrolling experience and, of course, in gaming as well. You just can't deny that 120hz does give a smoother better experience overall. Both of the displays are flat, though, and that's really a difference with the s21 than we got last year, is that last year there was a small curve on the display this year.

It is completely flat. We've already seen some hands-on leaks, and we've got the official renders. So we know that the screen is completely flat. That is the same as the iPhone 12. Cameras are also somewhere, where the s21 ultra does have a hardware advantage over the iPhone 12.

So comparing the main cameras, you have two 12 megapixel image, sensors. So in terms of the hardware not too much to distinguish between them now Apple did add a better wider aperture lens on the iPhones this year, so they do have some better low-light performance and also do you have some more natural background blur if you do get close to objects. Overall, I thought the upgrade on the main image sensor on the iPhone 12. This year was pretty good. Actually, both phones also have a 12 megapixel ultrawide.

So again, here, 12 megapixels is going to be a very similar experience. Now the biggest difference that you're going to see between the iPhone and the s21 really is just uh colors, and also the contrast that they put on the image when you're actually taking it from the camera app. The iPhone in my experience takes more yellowish photos and the Samsung usually takes bluer photos and photos with slightly more contrast. Now this comes down to personal preference, whether you prefer one or the other, but you can go into the photos, app of each of the phones and change the white balance and the contrast quite easily. So I think overall, really comparisons here, don't matter too much because they're both very high quality somewhere, where the s21 pulls ahead, though, is in the zoom camera, because well, the iPhone 12 doesn't have one.

When you are zooming on the iPhone 12, it's all going to be a digital crop into the main image sensor. Now, that's an issue because when you crop into a sensor it's going to introduce some noise into the image so zooming on the iPhone 12 isn't going to be as good as the s21 ultra, which has a dedicated zoom lens with three times: optical zoom. Not only that, though, but the camera sensor under the optical zoom on the s21 is high resolution. It's 64 megapixels, which means, essentially, you have more resolution to play with. So you can actually crop into that sensor.

Maybe five x or six seven x, zoom, and you're still going to be getting pretty good results by the time that you've got to seven times zoom on the iPhone 12 things are breaking up, and it just doesn't look that great. The s21 ultra also supports 8k video recording from that three times, zoom lens, because it has a high resolution. It can support 8k. So the s21 series will, this year support 8k video recording at 24 and 30 frames. A second, then you have 4k at 60 frames, a second and then 1080p up to 240 frames, a second on the spec sheet for sure the s21 takes it here.

It has a zoom camera and the iPhone 12 doesn't. If you want a zoom camera, then you'll have to go up to the iPhone 12 Pro, and you get LIDAR as well, and that lighter sensor is something that the s21 doesn't have. Of course, you do have the plus version as well of the s21, but it actually doesn't change any of the camera hardware at all. The plus version this year of the s21 really is just a bigger phone. There are no hardware upgrades except for a bigger screen, a bigger battery because of the bigger screen and apparently the addition of an ultra-wide band chip in that phone, but sticking with the s21 and the iPhone 12 for sure you get an extra camera 8k video recording for me isn't a massive spec that you should really be hanging on, because there are some issues with dynamic range and stabilization.

So really for me, it's just about the zoom and yeah. The s21 takes it with the zoom, but in terms of the ultrawide and the main image sensor, it's going to come down to personal preference here. For me, there are very few differences between these two flagships. When you look at the battery sizes, you think well, the s21 ultra is gonna, have a much better battery life, four thousand William hours versus 28 15 William hours on the iPhone 12. But as we know, years and years now, iOS is different to android very, very different hardware, setups different processors as well.

The iPhone 12 I for me, it lasts about a day and then the morning, the next day, if I'm using it a lot, then you know you're going to have to charge it probably overnight, comparing the physical battery size kind of irrelevant, because it's just so different, but even though android maybe isn't as efficient overall in terms of its processes, a much bigger battery overall is just going to perform better. You do get wireless charging on both to get the fast wireless charging on the iPhone, though you have to use MagSafe or a MagSafe compatible charger. If you use a QI charger, then the charging speed is reduced on the s21. That doesn't happen. It's just going to be QI compatible, although you don't get that MagSafe and the magnet on there.

So there's a lot of accessories. You can get with the iPhone, of course, you're not going to be able to get with the s21. You do get reverse charging on the s21, though, and that is something that you don't get on the iPhone 12. So if you're getting, maybe some new Galaxy Buds pro that should be releasing with ds21, or you have some previous versions already. Then, of course you can charge those off your phone, something you can't do with the iPhone chipset's another area of the difference.

Really you get the a14 chipset in the iPhone. It's a five nanometer chipset. You do get five nanometer chipsets in the s21, depending on your region, you'll get the snapdragon 888 or the Enos 2100 benchmarks for right now show that actually the 888 and the Enos 2100 are much more similar than in previous years. The Enos 2100 improving a lot. It's changed a lot of the CPU designs, and so the performance of that chipset is much closer to the snapdragon.

That's a perfect bit of news for Enos markets benchmark results, though of the snapdragon and the Enos still not quite up to the performance of the a14. So it looks like the a14 is keeping its crown as the highest performer when it comes to flagship socs in terms of prices, though it looks like the s21 is going to start at around 800 us dollars. It's going to be slightly more expensive than that in Europe. I think about 850 euros that includes 20 tax, so just check the price in your region on the launch date, of course, but with the iPhone 12, also starting at 800. It is clear that Samsung have really made an iPhone 12 competitor, a very similar price overall, but you do get some hardware upgrades as you would expect, with Samsung a zoom camera, a higher spec out screen overall, slightly better charging specs as well, but the overall performance of these phones are going to be very similar apple, possibly taking it just with the performance of the chipset and, of course, iOS versus android, whichever one you prefer, you probably just go for one over the other anyway, be sure to check out NordVPN's 68 off three months, free check them out by the link in the description below also, let me know which one you will go for in the comments.

That's it for this one though. Thank you so much for watching subscribe. If you haven't done already, and I'll see you in the next one.

Source : TechZG