Just in time for today’s start of sales of the Samsung Galaxy S21 in several new markets, iFixit specialists published a video of a smartphone teardown. Considering that the back panel of the Galaxy S21 is plastic, it was not difficult to assume that it is easy enough to open it, which means that the maintainability rating will be at least not below average. Alas, it turned out not quite so.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Teardown: Easy to open but easy to break
Indeed, it is not difficult to open the Galaxy S21. Inside, everything is held by standard screws, and the components are connected to each other by loops that can be easily disconnected. A small board with a USB-C connector and a SIM card slot deserves special attention – if the port is damaged, it can be easily and inexpensively replaced.
The battery is firmly glued, so you have to work hard to remove it. But the screen is worse – it is fragile. Specifically, in the case of iFixit, the screen broke during extraction. Therefore, the final result is only 4 points for maintainability. Experts explain this by the fact that the battery and display are the most frequently replaced components of a smartphone, and in this case, it will not be easy with either one.
Samsung does not expect record sales for the Galaxy S21 series
The Samsung Galaxy S20 5G series, last year’s flagship smartphones from the South Korean company, did not see strong sales. This is believed to be one of the reasons the South Korean giant launched its successor, the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G, a few weeks earlier than usual.
Nevertheless, the company is rather modest about the potential sales of the Galaxy S21 5G. According to the latest data, Samsung plans to ship about 26 million units of the Galaxy S21 series this year, which is in line with the number of Galaxy S20 5G units sold. That is, the forecast is very, very restrained.
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The company expects to sell about 10 million Galaxy S21 smartphones, eight million Galaxy S21 + and about the same Galaxy S21 Ultra. As for the Galaxy S20 line, Samsung initially planned to sell 35 million units, but managed to sell only 26 million of them.
Samsung may adjust the estimated shipments of the Galaxy S21 series smartphones in the first quarter. Analysts believe the company will eventually be able to sell over 30 million new smartphones.
Samsung Galaxy S21 5G and Galaxy S21+ 5G specifications
- S21 — 6.2-inch (2400 x 1080 pixels) FHD+ Infinity-O Dynamic AMOLED Display, 421 PPI, Adaptive 120Hz refresh rate (48 – 120Hz), up to 1300 nits brightness, Gorilla Glass Victus protection
- S21+ — 6.7-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels) FHD+ Infinity-O Dynamic AMOLED Display; 394 PPI, Adaptive 120Hz refresh rate (48 – 120Hz), up to 1300 nits brightness, Gorilla Glass Victus protection
- Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5nm Mobile Platform / Octa-Core Samsung Exynos 2100 processor
- 8GB LPDDR5 RAM with 128GB/256GB storage
- Android 11 with One UI 3.1
- Single / Dual SIM
- 12MP rear camera with LED Flash, f/1.8 aperture, OIS; 12MP Ultra Wide sensor, f/2.2 aperture; 64MP Telephoto lens with f/2.0 aperture, 3x hybrid zoom, 30X space zoom, OIS, 4K 60 fps, 8K 30fps
- 10MP front camera with f/2.2 aperture
- Water resistant (IP68)
- S21 Dimensions: 151.7 x 71.2 x 7.9mm; Weight: 171g (mmWave), 169g (sub6)
- S21+ Dimensions: 161.4 x 75.6 x 7.8mm; Weight: 202g(mmWave), 200g(sub6)
- 5G SA/NSA, 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax (2.4/5GHz), Bluetooth 5.1, UWB (S21+), GPS + GLONASS, USB 3.1, NFC, MST
- 4000mAh (S21) / 4800mAh (S21+) battery with 25W fast charging, 15W Qi wireless charging
