Galaxy S21 is a great phone, but sometimes I miss using a Pixel

Source: Jerry Hildenbrand / Android Central

In 2021, I decided to make a change and got a Samsung Galaxy S21 instead of a Pixel 5. I used Pixel 4 for a year and yet I think it was one of the best Android phones ever, except for one problem. – battery life. No matter how good a phone is, it ceases to be good when you need to charge it instead of using it, and the Pixel 4 has been a problem in the battery department. If it weren’t for that, I’d probably use it again.

The Galaxy S21 is without a doubt one of the best phones I have ever used.

The S21 is an amazing phone. No article about this, opinion or anything else, can begin without saying it right in front of you. It really is a modern engineering marvel and there are so many things it does better than any other phone I’ve ever used, even the Pixel 4, which is dead in a drawer somewhere.

The display is the absolute best you’ll ever find, it’s fast as everyone comes out, the signal strength is great (I’ve even learned to love 5G since T-Mobile dropped some mid-band in my area) and it feels rock-solid while holding it. These are the things I want to see when I use a phone, and the S21 does them better than anything else.

But then there are the little things. No, I will not discuss Samsung software as a whole, because I like how it has evolved. You’re free to go all-in with Samsung and use a gazillion app from the Galaxy Store, but for the most part, you can turn things off if you prefer not to have Samsung Calendar or Samsung Messages or Samsung Contacts, or, well, you have the idea . Even the clown-old colors have been reduced, so the apps don’t look like a black poster from the 1970s. Bravo, Samsung.

Many of my “problems” – and let me be clear, are kind of trivial and may not even matter to many people – probable come from using Google Fi or are simply something I did that could be fixed. But I have not found any way to fix them, and things that work for others simply do not work as intended here. You know that before you yell at me 😎.

Source: Jerry Hildenbrand / Android Central

Anyway, let’s move on to nitty-gritty here. After all, this is what you probably want to read. There are a few things about S21 that block me on bejeezus. Little things I have to be sure of, but I’m a stubborn guy, who gets in his way and likes things to be a certain way. First, Samsung is damn managing spam calls. Or maybe Google is very good at it, but I hate them anyway and somehow find a way to get through.

I tried everything. I tried all the settings in the Samsung dialing app. I tried the Pixel caller in Play Store and tried its settings. Nothing seems to help and I see my phone turn on and ring while it tells me the caller is spam or suspected of spam, then it rings until I touch it or get tired of making noise. That’s not a problem for everyone, but my number seems to be recycled from an Anthony and a Sharon, both of whom hit hard times and lagged behind in their bills. Shady credit bureaus hit me every day and are smart enough to rotate numbers, so it’s hard to block them.

Even worse, the spam goes unnoticed and I get robots from Arizona trying to sell me extended warranties or someone pretending to be the IRS or Microsoft trying to get some money out of me. It’s kind of satisfying to tell them where to stick it, but I’d rather it not be able to connect at all. With the same phone number using the same SIM card, I didn’t have these issues with the Pixel 4. I could see a lot of incoming calls, but my phone never rang. I like it this way.

Source: Jerry Hildenbrand / Android Central

Notifications follow for things we haven’t set up. My phone is not my main gaming machine and I don’t spend much time on social media. I use my phone to stay in touch, so notifications are important. I don’t want Samsung to constantly remind me to change data from a service I’ve never been used to with one I’ll never do, so don’t remember to move all my shit to Microsoft OneDrive . I’ve locked you up several times, just stop.

The same goes for Samsung Weather. I won’t use it because it’s a vector for Samsung to track my location (no, it doesn’t help because Samsung is still tracking my location, but it’s a symbolic gesture) and place ads on a very expensive phone, so stay out of my notifications panel. Again, blocking notifications works for a while, but it’s like a friend who wants to borrow money and keep coming back.

I know how you can stop them. I closed them. I don’t stay close it. I don’t think my phone is broken and I assume that when those apps are updated, the notification settings return to their default values. All that. I like things to be my way. He continues and yells at me and tells me that I don’t know how to use my phone, but know that I will try whatever you say I should try.

Stop doing the same updates (but don’t stop sending them!)

I also hate the way Samsung updates. I love that the company brings them to me quickly and they are not the kind of updates that break things. I just hate that installing the actual update takes so long and you can’t do anything during the process. I usually don’t want to do anything special in a few minutes to update my S21, but the updates don’t have to be that way anymore. Why won’t Samsung get the program and make things a little easier?

Last but not least is the camera. The Samsung camera on the S21 is pretty great and has a lot of features that I used and actually played. On this front, it embarrasses anything built by Google. But most of the time, I want to take out my phone and take a picture before anything interesting that I see disappears and I have a great picture. Only Google can do this consistently.

I know why – Samsung uses better camera hardware and gives you the image you make (for the most part) while Google uses magic software to give you the image you make wanted to take. Google is stingy and does not share this magic, and Samsung has not yet arrived from the computer department. This is Google’s fault for not sharing basic photo technology as part of the operating system and leaving each manufacturer to fend for themselves. We you shouldn’t know or care about anything and get great pictures almost every time.

None of these small issues are worth going back to the battery life of the Pixel 4.

None of these issues are worth going back to the Pixel 4 pig battery or it shouldn’t offer anyone any remorse to the buyer. In fact, if these are the only types of problems that a person like me can find, which is difficult when it comes to a phone, it is a proof of how good the Galaxy S21 is. If you’re a “never Samsung” zealot, you should try it next time you buy a phone. We can compare lists.

I nitpick because it’s my job to nitpick. If you were to ask me, “Is the Galaxy S21 a great phone?” I tell you yes, it is one of the best phones you can buy. And finally, the display compensates for all my problems, except for spam calls. I can ignore Samsung Weather and OneDrive in exchange for the best screen I’ve ever used.

Will I go back? Maybe when Android 12 is finally available, but not soon. I just decided to share my little list of dissatisfaction without consequences, because I thought it was an interesting comparison. Whether you got an S21 or a Pixel 4a or Pixel 5, you got a great phone. Use it and have fun!