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Samsung·phone

Galaxy S21

Marketing claims50
Community reality69

Based on 61 credible posts from Bluesky, the forum & Hacker News. 40 filtered out as bot-like or off-topic.

High confidenceA large sample of owners; this score is stable. How we score

Scored November 11, 2026

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Owner reviews

Overall owner mood

49% positive (28)23% mixed (13)28% negative (16)

Owners are split: 46% of 61 reviews are positive, 28% negative, and the rest mixed or neutral. Praise centers on camera and controls & input. The most common complaint is price & value (4 owners). Owners are divided on battery & charging and display. Owners with 6+ months of use feel about the same (38% positive).

What owners like

  • Camera praised by 5 owners (1 disagree)

    “Since I switched to Samsung have had 0 qc issues and every camera has been amazing.”

  • Controls & input praised by 3 owners

    “My favorite phone (alas, discontinued way too soon) was the Photon Q (work gave us phones way back) with slide-out physical keyboard.”

What owners complain about

  • Price & value raised by 4 owners (2 disagree)

    “They're just too fucking expensive and they're barely any better than the previous models if not actually worse.”

  • Software & AI raised by 4 owners (1 disagree)

    “Some kind of thermal failure, I was able to recover my data by keeping the phone in the freezer while I copied.”

  • Build & durability raised by 2 owners (1 disagree)

Owners are split on

  • Battery & charging 3 like it · 5 don't
  • Display 2 like it · 2 don't

Worth reading the reviews on these if they matter to you.

What owners talk about

  • Battery & charging3 praise · 5 complain
  • Price & value2 praise · 4 complain
  • Camera5 praise · 1 complain
  • Software & AI1 praise · 4 complain
  • Display2 praise · 2 complain
  • Controls & input3 praise · 0 complain
  • Build & durability1 praise · 2 complain

Built from the reviews themselves — every quote links to the owner who wrote it.

Galaxy S21 long-term: how it holds up

When problems show up

  • Battery & chargingtypically around 4.5 years · 2 reports

The claims, and the evidence

What the brand claims

No published claims on file for this product yet.

What owners report

  • “[...] I bought it a couple of months from when it was newly released and it just will not die. I've traveled with it, played all the games, thousands of photos, used it for nearly a year while I was doing gig driving (so plugged in and screen on for hours at a time), dropped countless times, and the screen has no cracks and the battery still lasts more than a day with regular use. For the past few years every new Samsung smartphone has piqued my interest, and the second my S21 dies I will buy whatever Samsung flagship happens to be the latest, but it just will not die.”

  • “I've been using this phone for a few weeks now, switching from a galaxy s21. [...] Don't expect flagship performance, but it's fine for daily use. Ah maybe just one thing: lots of accidental screenshots due to the placement of the volume buttons.”

  • “Plus, saved just shy of $500 on the price of the new phone vs T-Mobile's price. Have to get new phone; my trusty Galaxy S21+ I've had for over 5 years now is starting to have charging issues. Figured might as well change carriers, too, I guess 😅 Here's hoping the S26 Ultra also lasts me 5yrs”

    after 5 yearsView on Bluesky
  • “[...] As it is, I hold my S21 with left hand, type with index finger of right - it's abysmal in terms of performance, but it's all I got.. [...] My favorite phone (at least in terms of idea, execution wasn't perfect) was the Motorola Photon Q - full-size with slide-out keyboard. At least I could somewhat type quickly even if the keyboard wasn't great. [...] I can probably type 10-20x as fast on my MS Natural keyboard (only one I can use for more than 30-40 minutes without RSI getting bad).. No wonder I don't "live on my phone" - I use it when necessary, and prefer my 40"+ 4K screen + real keyboard.”

Read all 57 owner reviews

Common Galaxy S21 problems

Problems most owners who mention them agree on, plus ones owners are split on.

  • Software & AI4 owners report this (1 disagree)

    “I updated my Galaxy S21 to Android 15 and I hate it.”

    View on Hacker News
  • Battery & chargingOwners split: 5 complain, 3 happy

    “I lose more battery overnight with my phone doing nothing than I do during the day when I'm using it.”

    View on Bluesky
  • Price & value4 owners report this (2 disagree)

    “I bought Samsung S21 from some shady reseller because original Samsung store was trying to steal my data by a promotion where I need to give them my bank account number and they will send my 20% of phone price back, then when I returned with phone to home and turned on phone I saw a message saying "this phone is a property of Polkomtel (on of carriers operating in Poland), it will be locked if you stop paying the bills", shady reseller agreed to replace my phone with another one not fucked up by a greedy carrier who is making incomes private (selling expensive phone in subscription model for people with no credit rank, often abusing this subscription model as low rate credit (they are goi g from carrier straight to lombard) and making loses public (they will lock my phone if someone dont pay)”

    View on Hacker News
  • Build & durability2 owners report this (1 disagree)

    “so idk what happened with the bsky mobile app today but it took out an extra 7 or 8% of my phone battery, even though I used it around the same amount of time yesterday it got to the point where my phone DIED, I may yap on the Internet a LOT, but this thing (Samsung Galaxy S21+) friggin NEVER dies”

    View on Bluesky
  • DisplayOwners split: 2 complain, 2 happy

Compare

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