Samsung Galaxy S21 vs Pixel 5 | Camera, Gaming, Battery & Beyond By Tech Spurt

So Samsung's fresh new galaxy, s21 flagship phone isn't anywhere near as premium as that plus or ultra model Samsung's definitely held back quite a lot of the billy big specs and features for those top-end versions, at least as a result, the galaxy s21 isn't either horrendously expensive, unlike that ultra model. Although it's 769 quid in ain't, exactly super affordable either and one worthy alternative to the s21 is google's pixel 5 again it doesn't boast the most premium, specs and features around, but at 599 quid it is one of the most affordable flagships out there. So I'm going to compare them side by side for camera performance battery life, all that good stuff to see which one might be best for you and from all the latest greatest tech. Please do poke subscribe and ding that notifications bell cheers now. Stick these two smartphones side by side like this and Samsung's galaxy s21 looks like a bit of a unit in comparison to the pixel 5, whereas actually it's refreshingly compacted just 6.2 inches, but the pixel is even more pleasing in the hand, so to speak at a perfect six inches great used for stub-fingered buggers like me, as you can see both these flagship phones that sport pretty skinny bezels surrounding those displays the only other really distinctive feature. Besides the size is the fact that uh, you got the selfie cut out right in the middle here on the galaxy s21, the infinity your display, as Samsung dramatically, turns it uh, whereas it's kind of wedged away in the corner here on the pixel 5 and a little fatter as well.

Now, let's flip these bad boys over and check out that ass end now. Both of these flagship phones support a matte back rather than a glossy one. That means they're perfect at hiding greasy prints when you're having to pick them up. These phones are actually constructed from very different materials. The pixel 5 is made from aluminum, although you wouldn't know what to feel it.

It's got quite a rough texture to it. Certainly it doesn't feel metallic. It actually to be perfectly honest, feels more like cardboard and meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy s21 uses a hybrid blend of glass and plastic, which Samsung has rather charmingly titled plastic, and this has a much smoother texture compared with the pixel.5, definitely feels rather nice against the palm, and both the pixel 5 and the galaxy s21 are proper hard nuts as well on the pixel 5 you've got a gorilla glass 6 caution for that display. That proves perfectly hardy, nice and scratch resistant, but that actually gets an upgrade here on the galaxy s21 to gorilla, glass, Vitus and that's just as scratch resistant, but it's also more drop proof as well. It can handle drops of up to two meters in lab conditions according to corning, and both phones are fully water resistant as well.

You've got an ipx8 written here on the pixel 5, which means it's not dust resistant, just water resistant in the case of the s21, it's ip68, so it's dust resistant as well as water resistant. Basically, both can be submerged in water for around half an hour or so as for your color choices, well on the pixel 5, it's sadly rather limited. You've got this boring black, otherwise, there's also google's sage green model, which, to be honest, looks a bit like the inside of my toilet bowl after I down a couple dozen apple sours the night before. As for the galaxy s21 well, this is the new hero color, the phantom violet, which is kind of purple kind of blue, depending on how the light is striking it, and it is rather easy on the eye. Otherwise, you don't like that.

You've also got the option of pink white or black, so a bit more choice compared with the pixel 5. Now, when you want to unlock your smartphone against the galaxy s21, you've actually got this scanner built into that display. It's an ultrasonic scanner, so it takes a 3d image of your print and so from the s31 touch board, seems nice and reliable and nice and accurate and pretty swift as well on the pixel 5. It's actually a physical fingerprint sensor built into the back here, and I've got to say I do prefer a physical fingerprint sensor to an in-display one. I just find them more reliable in general, again on the pixel 5, it's nice and quick.

You think it just naturally falls onto that sensor when you pick up the phone so again, nice and comfortable, easy to use and to back up the fingerprint sensor here on the galaxy s21. You also have face recognition. If you just tap that power button or lift to wake, then it will scan for your mug and hopefully recognize you as well. I've had some issues with the s21, occasionally not recognize me if the lighting isn't particularly great, but on the whole, it's nice to have it as an alternative, and that's a feature that you do not get on the Google Pixel 5. Now, even though both of these phones are android blows, it's a very different software setup on both you get stock version of android 11 here on the Google Pixel phone, whereas on the Samsung Galaxy s21 Samsung has slathered its own one, UI version 3.1 over the top one of the advantages of born with the Google Pixel 5 is that Google guarantees three years of OS updates and security updates with its flagship smartphones, the galaxy s.21 should be well-supported in that area as well. You'd expect at least a couple of years of OS and security updates, and certainly here on the galaxy s21 you get lots of bonus features that you do not get on the standard pixel.

For instance, you get a lot more customization. You've also got a proper, dedicated, one-handed mode, which is quite helpful if you're, using an app with lots of stuff up towards the top and cause these stretch up to reach uh, that's something you don't get on the Pixar, though the pixel and the s21 also both allow you to drag down. The notifications bar like, so you've also got the likes of Samsung decks here on the s21 as well, which allows you to basically turn your smartphone into a makeshift computer when you're on the road. But the problem with Samsung Galaxy smartphones is that you also get a massive duplication of tons of features that you already get in android. So, for instance, you've got the Bixby uh assistant here on the Samsung, as well as the Google Assistant, which, of course, you already have in android.

If you dive on into the apps you've got tons of Samsung apps like a web browser on top of Google Chrome. You've got Samsung pay on top of Google Pay. You've got the galaxy shop on top of the player store. So while I really like some of the extra features you get in one UI, I do prefer just the leanness of stock android and as you'd expect, both google and Samsung take security very seriously indeed so, for instance, on the pixel 5 smartphones you've got that separate titan m chip, where all of your important data is encrypted and securely stored in the case of the galaxy s21, of course, Samsung with its galaxy smartphones always brings that Knox security suite, which once again offers top level encryption for all of your privates for storage. Well, the pixel 5 comes with 128 gigabytes.

That's your only choice here on the galaxy s21 you've got 128 gigs based. Otherwise, if you throw a bit more cash at Samsung, you can upgrade to gigs. However, neither phone offers micro SD memory card support. In the case, the pixel 5 you've only got a single sim slot as well, compared with the dual sim slot on the galaxy s 21, although both also offer the option of installing an e sim right. So, let's move on to the screen tech and, as I mentioned before, not much difference between the screen sizes.

Here you got the six-inch pixel five versus the six point, two-inch galaxy s21, both with a selfie cut out, although it's slightly more intrusive in the s21, I think, despite the fact it's a smaller cutout, it is centrally positioned instead of shunted away into a corner and as these are premium flagship phones, you get an OLED display with both, and you've got customizable color output as well. So you can have bold vivid hues or go for more natural, looking visuals, no matter your choice. That said: Samsung's galaxy, s21 sports, a dynamic AMOLED screen, which boasts more accurate, color, reproduction and sharper contrast compared with that pixel 5. That said, the visuals on the pixel is still absolutely gorgeous for better Netflix Disney plus whatever you want. You got a full HD plus resolution on both of these phones as well.

So a nice crisp detail, and naturally you do have that HDR support on both these smartphones as well in the likes of Netflix, as you can get a bit on the go, and before we leave the displays as well. As I mentioned before, you've got lots of customization. You can do with either of these uh small phones. You want the lights, the night lights, the eye, comfort shield as Samsung calls it with its one. UI.

We've also got motion smoothness on the galaxy s21 as well, and smooth display here on the pixel 5. , and this feature basically does the same on both. It boosts the refresh rate up from the standard 60 hertz to 120 hertz in the case of the s21 and 90 hertz, in the case, the pixel 5 just to make everything nice and smooth when you're flicking about and, of course, in supported apps as well, and I absolutely adore that fast refresh action on smartphone displays just that. Silky smoothness gives you the impression that the performance is just so, so good, and it's on pretty much every smartphone now, borrowing like other, really expensive, iPhones still for some reason and yeah. The pixels display is technically inferior to the s21s and that's a 90 hertz refresher instead of 120 hertz, but to my eyes they looked just the same smoother as a baby's butt covered in marmalade or something that's a bit weird.

Actually, as for the audio, it's a stereo speaker setup here on the galaxy s21 that top earpiece is used for the audio as well as the bottom mounted speaker. Let's just pump up the volume now first up, I have to say the design here is kind of hit-and-miss. And now, let's, okay, you guys didn't see nothing right, um. So that's the s21 pretty good. It's a little tinny on those top volumes, but absolutely fine for just watching video or whatever.

Now the pixel 5 is technically a stereo speaker setup as well, but to be perfectly frank that earpiece speaker has about as much puff as an asthmatic guppy. So, let's just pump that up as well works really well as well, even in quite dark environments, so definitely even more tinny, noticeably on that top volume. And if you actually cover this bottom speaker, you'll notice that the output is really muffled. It's like watching YouTube, underwater or something and even more annoying is the fact that you don't get a headphone jack on either the pixel 5 or the Samsung Galaxy s 21. So it's Bluetooth or dongles all the way.

Thankfully, the Bluetooth connectivity has been absolutely fine connecting to speakers headphones whatever so now onto the subject of performance and Samsung has stuffed its very own fresh new five nanometer snapdragons Enos 2100 chipsets into the galaxy s21, whereas google decided to go with the more modest snapdragon, 765 g chipset, a mid-range Qualcomm soc and both cases that's backed by eight gigs of ram. Now the galaxy s, 21 is actually the first time we've had a chance to test out that Enos, 2100, chipset and so far doesn't seem to be quite as strong as the snapdragon 88, according to the early benchmarking of Qualcomm's chipset, but it's definitely beaten the 765g. In all of my tests, as you can see here in Goodall geek bench, it is routinely beaten in the single core and the multi-core results. So if your equipment of Maidan user, who wants a smartphone to see them through the long haul, then the s21 is probably going to turn you on a lot more than the pixel 5. That said, I've found that the everyday use here on the Google Pixel 5 is absolutely fine.

It runs buttery smooth at all times, helped along by the fact that it's that stock version of android you got like 8 gigs of ram in backup as well, so your apps load up basically instantly everything's, nice and smooth. I haven't seen any judders or anything going on, and, yes, you can happily get German on the pixel 5 as well, with the likes of Call of Duty PUBG, whatever you're into likes of Call of Duty. Please super, super smooth, perfect frame rate again on this top detail. Settings no worries that say here on the galaxy s21. You do have that game booster feature which you can call up onto the screen at any point with a quick tap in that notifications bar, and this has got the likes of the priority mode, which can basically block all your notifications and all that bad stuff.

So you can actually stay focused on the game and that's a feature that you do not have with stock androids here on the Google Pixel 5. That's for the screen response, free and everything. That's all perfect for gaming on both of these handsets as well. You've got that nice flat finish as well, no curvy edges or anything to get in the way of those touch, controls and with both of those smartphones. You've got an integrated, 5g modem.

It's actually built into that soc as a full 5g support, just sub 6, of course, here in the UK, unlike most flagship phones. These days, you've also got a tasty bit of Wi-Fi 6 support if you've already updated your router. Now, we've got to talk about the battery tech, and it's a 4 000 William battery. In both of these flagships, not the biggest capacity cells in the world, of course, that's more forgivable with the pixel 5, because it is quite a dinky handset, but even though it's the same size of battery in both of these blowers, I did find that the galaxy s21 did struggle a little more than the pixel 5. To actually keep me going all day.

Long generally, I was running out of battery around sort of the 10 pm mark of each evening compared with the pixel, which generally lasted me until I was all tucked up nice and cozy in my jimmy jams, and to further emphasize this, I decided to run a side-by-side battery test streaming. The same video on both of these smartphones same screen, brightness and everything I already ripped out the sim card from the s21 just to make sure it wasn't also burning extra juice connecting to mobile data. Anything and sure enough. The results were different. I found that the galaxy s21 tended to lose about 10 battery every hour, so it would go for about 10 full hours of video streaming on a full charge.

The pixel 5 did perform better in this test, although not a huge amount, better drained at around the rate of 9 battery per hour, so it offers about an extra hour and a half is overall. Unfortunately, when it comes to recharging, neither of these flagship phones particularly impresses they're, about as swift as me. After 10 pints and a dollar and chips, you've got 18 watt charging on the pixel 5 and that's slightly improved by the galaxy s21, which offers 25 watt wide charging. They don't actually get the charge of bundled in the box anymore. They've done a full-on apple with that one tight gets, but the good news is that both the pixel 5 and the galaxy s 21 do support wireless charging.

So you get a bit of that on the go if you've got a wireless charging pad, and you've also got reverse wireless charging support as well. If you need to power up one of your accessories like a smartwatch or a pair of true wireless earbuds, for instance, that they run out of battery while you're on the go. Now, let's finish up this mighty Samsung Galaxy s21 versus google, pixel 5 comparison with a squint and that rear camera tech and what you get here on the galaxy s.21 is a triple n setup compared with the dual end setup on the pixel and that primary sensor on both the s21 and the pixel is a 12 megapixel effect with optical image. Stabilization built in and both produce great looking photos. Whatever the conditions the pixel did tend to capture finer details.

Up close, however, and google also offers dual level brightness controls for HDR shots, so it's definitely more flexible when shooting against bright skies and the like. Color capture is ever so slightly more natural on the pixel, but the galaxy s21 is super close, while also delivering an option to boost those colors with the scene optimizer feature and in low light conditions. The s21 consistently performed better in the auto mods, but switched to the night mode on both of these phones, and it is a lot closer, but the pixel 5, often capturing more accurate tones now Samsung's flagship also sets up a 12 megapixel ultra-wide angle lens, while the pixel 5 boosts that megapixel count to 16, but the results are very similar with both, and it's good to have that extra flexibility when needed. Now the pixel 5 ends there with the lenses, but the galaxy s21 also has a 64 megapixel telephoto lens that doesn't actually offer much in the way of actual optical zoom. It mostly just crops into a high megapixel image.

All the same, the pixel tops off at six times digital zoom, which looks frankly crap, while the s21 only starts to struggle once you get to around the sort of the eight to ten times level, but it can go all the way up to 30 times zoom. If you want a photo that looks about as appealing as a brussels sprout sandwich now, you do also get an ass load of extra bonus camera modes on both of these smartphones. Some of them I've already touched on the likes of the night mode, uh and, of course, you've got a portrait mode there for adding that both style background effect, as well here on the pixel you're a lot more limited compared with the galaxy, though, which goes absolutely crazy with this additional features. Certainly, if you know your way around the camera- and you want full-on professional controls, then the pro mode is definitely going to baste your turkey rather well. You've got like the white balance, controls ISO level, shutter speed and using this mode you can shoot in full-on raw format and everything good stuff, and if you find that you're always indecisive about whether you should be shooting photos or videos at any given moment.

Well, Samsung's exclusive single take feature is definitely an absolute winner, you'll, probably adore it. What this does are captures lots of little clips and photos all at the same time, so you can basically take your pick on what you want to keep my favorite of the pair when it comes to shooting horde movies as well is definitely the galaxy s21. The pixel 5 does a perfectly fine job. You can shoot 4k resolution footage all the way up to 60 frames per second and on the galaxy s21. You can also shoot 4k at 30 or 60 frames per second.

Otherwise, you should all the way up to 8k resolution at 24 fps as well, and then you can take screenshots basically from that AK. Video, really nice high-res photos. After the fact, you've also got the auto mode on full HD resolution, which then basically dynamically changes from 30 to 60 fps. Based on how much motion is going on in the scene. You've also got a poor video mode similar to the pro photo mode.

If you want to be tweaking exact elements, while you're actually shooting and the fresh new director's view as well, which allows you to capture images with both the selfie camera and all three rear cameras, you can switch between those three rears so to get exactly the kind of shot that you really need. Let's finish up this comparison with a look at the selfie cam tech, because you've got a 10, megapixel selfie snapper here on the galaxy s21 stuck right there in the center and that's downgraded slightly to an eight megapixel effect on the pixel five. You know both are absolutely fine again for fairly detailed snaps, no matter what kind of conditions you're shooting in you've got the usual portrait mode, smart, all of that good stuff and yeah. If you're an Instagram fan either will definitely do you nicely so that, in a nutshell, is how Samsung's galaxy s21 stacks up against Google's pixel 5, two very different flagship smartphones. Even though they're both android 11.

, the performance, the battery life, the camera tech they're different in pretty much every way. To be honest, it'll be great to hear from you guys, which one is your own personal pick which one's your own favorite be great to hear from you down below in the comments, please do poke, subscribe and dig that notifications bell for more. On that, it's great to see my full pixel 5 review is live right now. My s21 will be following very shortly. Indeed, and have yourselves a lovely rest of the week, cheers everyone loves you, you.

Source : Tech Spurt