In the last couple of years, Samsung’s flagship smartphone game has been shown up by upstarts like OnePlus, Huawei and nowadays even Xiaomi. The trend continues even this year.

For instance, the improved Galaxy S21 Ultra was shown up by Xiaomi’s Mi 11 Ultra, which for reasons beyond the company’s control, hasn’t landed in India. Similarly, the OnePlus 9 Pro remains an excellent choice and probably the best mainstream premium Android device these days.

But the one phone that has mostly gone under the radar is the Galaxy S21+, which has undergone a small price cut recently. This, I believe is the best phone Samsung makes.

It remains expensive even when compared to Xiaomi and OnePlus’s offerings in India. But it is also the most refined phone Samsung phone. It will catch the fancy of people who want the haloed South Korean brand, its rock-solid reliability and its chic design language.

Stylistically, this is the most distinct phone that Samsung makes. But weirdly, it is also the most ergonomic phone it makes. This phone gets a flat panel, unlike the Ultra which gets a curved screen. On the back and side rails, you’re looking at a plastic and glass sandwich, which in terms of feel is almost indistinguishable from the tank-like S21+ and is even lighter than the Mi 11 Ultra. The matte finish is done in such a way that it feels nice to hold and yet doesn’t attract a lot of smudges. The colours of course add that tinge of zest which makes this phone chic. You get a delectable purple on the back finessed with gold on the rails in a package that gets the lovely swooping camera bump that melts into the frame of the phone.

Credit: Sahil Gupta

While all this is great, it remains a pretty large phone. It gets a massive 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED panel. And the size of the screen means that it is also quite heavy at 200 grams. But Samsung has done well to keep the phone below the 8 mm mark at 7.8 mm despite packing in technologies like wireless charging, IP68 water and dust resistance, stereo speakers and a very impressive haptic motor, which is the best you can find on a smartphone right now. It strikes a good balance between giving you all the features, practicality, and ergonomics of daily use.

The screen, of course, like all Samsung products, dazzles. However, it is a downgrade from S21 Ultra, though most people will not notice the difference. It gets a full HD+ resolution instead of a 2K resolution, which I am fine with as that’s the peak for what’s needed on a phone. Things like its contrast ratio, brightness levels, and colour reproduction delight me.

It feels imperious for watching HDR10+ content as the brightness scales 1300 nits. It also helps that it gets a 120 Hz refresh rate, which can ramp down to lower than 5 Hz if there is no need.

And then the panel is covered up with Gorilla Glass Victus on the front and back, making the phone secure. This screen also embeds an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner that works accurately and quickly.

As a phone that costs more than Rs 70,000 even after a price cut, it has an expectation to be the best in the business. This is where Samsung rears its ugliness. It struggles to keep up with the bullet trains that are the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 powered beasts that come from OnePlus and Xiaomi. The new Exynos 2100 represents a redemption moment for Samsung’s chipset division, which embarrassed itself in 2020 almost as shambolically as Ferrari’s F1 engine. Like Ferrari, Samsung has made an impressive step to correct the wrongs of 2020, but its follies aren’t behind it yet.

In other words, the Exynos 2100, 8GB DDR5 RAM and UFS 3,1 storage is fast, fast, but not the fastest. For some that will be not good enough considering the Rs 70,000 price tag.

It is further held back a bit by the multiple layers of duplication in its software. You have a Samsung app for every Google app and if that wasn’t bad enough you also have Microsoft’s productivity apps tied on a system level. Usually, some of these things are a combination of good and bad. I’d take all the Microsoft stuff, but I’d love it if I could remove all the Samsung apps including its useless Bixby assistant.

I like features like DEX that Samsung brings to the table, differentiating its offering from the rather generic “throw the kitchen sink” approach of OnePlus and Xiaomi.

But what I would most love is a straightforward clean UX above all that OneUI 3.0 isn’t, especially when compared to Oxygen OS.

The one thing that’s improved a lot, more so than even what OnePlus is known for, is the software support. It is excellent — you keep getting the security updates and even feature updates that have made this phone excellent. Samsung also commits to 3 years of software support and is usually amongst the first out of the gate to give to a taste of the latest versions of Android.

The overall experience of using the phone has generally been delightful. I replaced the stock Samsung launcher with something called the Niagra launcher (I recommend it to users who seek more simplicity in their Android experience). It makes a world of difference to the navigation of the user interface daily.

As for doing heavy-duty tasks, the phone handled games like Call of Duty Mobile well on the highest settings though the phone did heat up. It even managed to record 4K video at 30 frames per second for over 20 minutes without getting too warm. Generally, the sustained performance was excellent and close enough to phones running the latest Qualcomm chipset.

Normal tasks like typing for long periods is enhanced by the supple haptics, further elevated by the excellent Samsung software keyboard, which I now believe is the best on Android.

Credit: Sahil Gupta

In the camera department, the S21+ remains understated yet reliable, more so than other phones. It doesn’t have the glitzy marketing to back up huge camera numbers but has something more robust and reliable for day-to-day usage.

Samsung uses a conventional 12-megapixel primary camera that’s optically stabilised with an f/1.8 aperture big boy 1.8-micron subpixels and a dual pixel PDAF. It takes excellent shots in all kinds of conditions. It tends to take oversaturated photos that have great detail. It shines through in all conditions and is generally in the same league as the OnePlus 9 Pro camera system.

Samsung has improved its night mode, though it remains slower than the competition, resulting in blurry photos at times. Samsung supplements this camera with a 64-megapixel telephoto camera that does 3x hybrid zoom, which does an excellent job in its limited zoom capacity.

Samsung takes a cautious approach to the ultra-wide-angle camera that has a 12-megapixel resolution and a 120-degree field of view. It also supports the night mode and generally takes excellent landscape shots. All the cameras also take decent portrait photos.

Samsung has given the S21+ an excellent camera system, but to be fair to the competition, I’d say on balance the iPhone 12 or the Mi 11 Ultra have better systems.

In the video department, the phone pulls ahead of the competition. It has the ability to take usable 4K video from most flanks and even 8K video. It can also take stable video thanks to the stabilisation system coupled with crisp audio, which is not true for other Android phones. Selfies are also quite decent due to the 10-megapixel front-facing snapper.

Samsung also excels at doing other stuff well. For instance, it is one of the first phones to support ultra-wideband technology. It will also be able to unlock some cars wirelessly using the Android Car key in the coming months, hopefully even in India.

It has packed stereo speakers, tuned by AKG — they sound sublime and double up well with its glorious screen. The phone supports the latest WiFi standards and also supports a litany of global positioning standards.

It even gets Samsung Pay, but Samsung has removed the MSFT technology that made it work with traditional point of sales (POS) machines in India. It even features USB Type C 3.2 and USB on the go.

Credit: Sahil Gupta

Battery life on the S21+ is also excellent. Its 4,800 mAh battery lasts a long time. It will get through a 12-hour workday with about 25 per cent battery life still in the tank. It is not the fastest charging phone as the charging happens via a 25-watt charger, not part of the sales package.

Since it supports the USB PD standard, it can get charged at 45-watt speeds as well. Though generally outside of the iPhone 12, it is amongst the slowest charging flagship phones around. Wireless charging is also slower than the competition at 15 watts and can support 4.5 watts for reverse charging. Generally, battery life will not be an issue on this phone.

At around Rs 70,000 bucks, the Samsung Galaxy S21+ is perhaps the most understated phone instead of being the hyped one, considering its capability and looks. This phone deserves more attention than it gets because it is in the same league as the OnePlus 9 Pro, iPhone 12 and the Mi 11 Ultra.

In many ways, it is better than the three and that’s something to look into. It is elegant, competitively priced, with robust all-around capability and it has the stamp of the Samsung brand. The S21+ is a winner even though it may not represent the best value for money.