UPDATE - May 15, 9AM ET: Samsung has now announced the Galaxy A21s officially for the UK market. This article has been updated to reflect this.
If even the $400 iPhone SE feels like a bit too much to spend on a phone, Samsung has something for you on the way: the Galaxy A21s. And excitingly, it's going to have an enormous battery.
Roland Quandt of WinFuture (via TechRadar) first revealed these details and the manufacturer renders you see here, with Samsung later confirming the information and images as correct via its own press release. The headline feature is that the A21s will come with a 5,000 mAh battery, but will only cost €199 or £175 ($215 converted) when it goes on sale in June, although we don't yet where the phone will be sold beyond the UK and Europe.
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Other key features of the Galaxy A21s are its large 6.5-inch HD+ display, 3GB of RAM, a choice of 32GB or 64GB of storage and Samsung's new Exynos 850 processor. But it's the battery that's bound to get the most attention. By comparison, the iPhone SE has a 1821 mAh battery, which is a far cry from the 5,000 mAh pack in the Galaxy A21s.
The Samsung phone also has a charging advantage. The A21s will ship with a 15W charger, which will be much faster than the 5W charger that comes with the iPhone SE. That said, the iPhone can charge at up to 18W if you buy one of Apple's fast chargers, but that will cost you extra while the Samsung charger is included in the box.
Starting price: £179 ($217 converted)
Display (resolution): 6.5-inch HD+ (720 x 1600)
Rear cameras: 48MP main (f2.0), 8MP ultrawide (f2.2), 2MP macro (f2.4), 2MP depth sensor (f2.4)
Front camera: 13MP (f2.2)
Processor: Octa Core (Quad 2.0GHz + Quad 2.0GHz)
RAM: 3GB
Storage: 32GB
Micro SD: Yes, up to 512GB
Battery: 5000 mAh
Charging: 15W
Security: Rear Fingerprint Scanner, Face Recognition
Colors: Black, White, Blue
Size: 75.3 x 163.6 x 8.9mm (2.96 x 6.44 x 0.35 inches)
On our web surfing battery test, the iPhone SE lasted for 9 hours and 18 minutes. That's not terrible, but it's well behind the handsets on our best phone battery life list, all of which last over 11 hours on a charge. By comparison, the $249 Moto G Power's 5,000 mAh battery lasted over 16 hours on our test.
The back of the Galaxy A21s has four cameras: a 48MP main camera, an 8MP ultrawide camera, a 2MP macro camera and a 2MP depth sensor. That's three more cameras than the iPhone SE has got, and will hopefully help the A21s take better photos of large and small objects, as well as give images more accurate photo effects such as bokeh.
The back is also home to the fingerprint sensor for unlocking the phone and other related functions. On the front of the Galaxy A21s there is a 13MP camera embedded in a punch-hole in the top-left corner. This can be used for facial recognition unlocking, although without additional sensors such as the infrared projector/reader combination in Apple's Face ID system, the fingerprint scanner will be the more secure method for locking your phone.
For the exterior color, you have the choice of silver, black or blue. On the body you'll also find a slot for a microSD card if you need more than the tiny default storage on the phone, and a headphone jack incase you haven't upgraded to wireless headphones yet.
The A21s will launch in the UK on June 19, with a sticker price of £179 for the 32GB storage version. We look forward to testing it out to see just how much phone you're getting for under $300.
