The Samsung Galaxy S21: all of the rumors and news as it happens – The Verge

Where to buy the Samsung Galaxy S21, S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra

2021-01-29T08:47:32-05:00

Samsung Galaxy S21 line | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

Samsung's new line of smartphones the S21 line - the Galaxy S21, S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra are now available for purchase at various retailers. Below, we tell you where you can order them and what deals you can get from each retailer. As a reminder, their prices range from $999.99 to upward of $1,379.99.

If you want to check out our thoughts before you buy, we reviewed the Galaxy S21 and the Galaxy S21 Ultra. If you want more information on the Galaxy S21 Plus, The Verge's Chaim Gartenberg did a hands-on earlier this month for all three phones.

Where to buy the Samsung Galaxy S21

You can order the Samsung Galaxy S21 directly through Samsung's …

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Samsung will gradually remove chargers and earbuds from future phones

2021-01-14T20:41:45-05:00

Samsung's future phones will also not come with charging bricks, the company has revealed, but it's leaving itself some wiggle room. In a Q&A about why it's no longer including headphones and a charging brick in the box, Samsung says it believes gradually removing the accessories from its phones could help make them more sustainable.

This answer implies that, while the next generations of its phones may not come with the included accessories, some may. Samsung has other lines that it brands as Galaxy, from its folding phones to its more budget options, and it's left itself room to keep including a charger in some of them for a little while …

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Samsung put the final nail in the box that used to contain a charger

2021-01-14T15:27:38-05:00

What Samsung used to advertise, but not anymore. | Photo: Samsung (via 9to5Google)

There was a time I would have railed against a gadget maker for daring to ship a phone without a charger.

That time was yesterday. Then, Apple was the poster boy for the idea - Apple with its goody-two-shoes rhetoric about saving the environment while continuing to produce an array of proprietary cables and wireless chargers, one of which requires you to buy a new power brick anyhow.

Now, Samsung won't ship a charger with its new Galaxy S21 phones either. But Samsung doesn't have the same problems.

It's been all-in on USB-C and the Qi wireless standard for years, and you can use any such cable and any charger from any reputable manufact …

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You’ll never believe it, Samsung made a black phone

2021-01-14T12:52:44-05:00

Samsung's just announced a ton of new products: the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G is the company's latest flagship and SmartTags are a Tile and (maybe) Apple AirTags competitor. But the real innovation, the thing that Samsung spent almost three minutes waxing poetically about during its 2021 Unpacked presentation, was the color black.

Specifically, "phantom black," the company's "new" version of black for the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G. A black that Samsung describes as "strong, fluid, and modern," and also "unapologetic," "resonant," and "unforgettable," despite looking more or less like the black phones Samsung's rolled out almost every year. Call it Sams …

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Samsung partners with Audi, BMW, Ford, and Genesis to turn your phone into a car key

2021-01-14T12:12:38-05:00

The dream of using your phone to unlock your car door (instead of carrying around a bulging key fob) may be one step closer today: Samsung has announced partnerships with Audi, BMW, Ford, and Genesis to do just that, saying the feature may be available as soon as August 2021. And excitingly, those digital car keys should work with Apple iPhones and across other Android brands, too.

That's because Samsung is part of multiple standards bodies that are working on the tech, including the the FiRa Consortium and the Car Connectivity Consortium, of which Apple is also a leading member. "You'll even be able to share your digital key across smartph …

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Samsung’s object eraser will let you remove people from the background of your photos

2021-01-14T12:10:51-05:00

Samsung revealed new One UI 3 details at today's Unpacked event, including an interesting new photo trick called object eraser, which lets you delete people from the backgrounds of your images. After a photo is taken, you can simply tap on the people you want to remove, and AI will (in theory) do the rest.

If it works well - and that's a big if - this is no small feat. Removing an element from a photo and intelligently filling in the background to replace it would be similar to what Adobe does with its Content-Aware Fill tool. We wouldn't expect this feature to perform quite on that level, but it's a tricky problem usually left to sophistic …

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Samsung’s Galaxy S21 phones don’t include microSD card support

2021-01-14T11:04:50-05:00

It's official: Samsung is ditching the microSD card on all three of its Galaxy S21 models.

We asked Samsung about this, and the company's rationale seemed to be that it doesn't think it's necessary. A spokesperson told us that it only costs $50 to upgrade from 128GB to 256GB and that this is cheaper than what competitors are charging to step up storage. They also noted that cloud storage is an option.

That's all well and good, but it's still likely that this change will be a bummer for some potential customers. It means the maximum amount of storage you'll be able to get on the S21 phones (without wrangling up additional cloud storage) is …

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Samsung’s Galaxy S21 phones come with plenty of features — but not a charger

2021-01-14T10:00:00-05:00

It's official: Samsung's new flagship phones will ship without a charging brick in the box. The phones will include a USB-C to USB-C cable, but no way to plug it in to the wall. If it helps take the sting out of it at all, Samsung has dropped the price on its 25W charger from $35 to $19.99. If you don't have a USB-C charging brick, or don't have a high-powered one and want fast charging, you'll have to add $20 to the price of the phone.

The fact that it's a standard cable means that many techy people will have something kicking around that can charge it - but it's not hard to imagine a buyer who doesn't. While last year's Galaxy came with a …

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How to watch Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2021

2021-01-14T08:34:54-05:00

Samsung will be presenting its latest flagship phone, the Galaxy S21, today at the streaming event titled Galaxy Unpacked 2021. The company is so confident that people will want the new device that it is inviting people to get in line to preorder before the phone is actually introduced.

Samsung hasn't been shy about the specs of the upcoming S21. As reported by The Verge's Chaim Gartenberg and Sean Hollister, the company is widely expected to announce three new smartphones at the event, including a pair of matching S21 and S21 Plus phones (that are expected to be largely similar, except for size), and a higher-end S21 Ultra that will offer …

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With the Samsung Galaxy S21, it’s time for Bixby to put up or shut up

2021-01-14T07:00:00-05:00

Today, Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus, and Galaxy S21 Ultra (I'll take the Zune-inspired brown one thanks). It's happening a couple months earlier than usual for the S line of phones, but otherwise the script will remain the same.

Here's the script. Samsung will be the first major Android maker out of the gate with Qualcomm's newest chips, this time with the Snapdragon 888. Samsung will use its unseemingly immense marketing budget and longstanding carrier relationships to ensure it will be seen as the default option if you want a premium Android phone - especially if you are making that purchase in a US carrier store.

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