Samsung Galaxy S21 vs A36 5G
65 out of 100
VS
68 out of 100
Here we compared two smartphones: the 6.2-inch Samsung Galaxy S21 (with Exynos 2100) that was released on January 14, 2021, against the Samsung Galaxy A36 5G, which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 and came out 4 years and 2 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S21
- 43% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (902K versus 631K)
- Handles wireless charging up to 15W
- The rear camera has a 1.1x optical zoom
- Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
- Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
- Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5 2750 MHz
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy A36 5G
- Comes with 1000 mAh larger battery capacity: 5000 vs 4000 mAh
- Shows 34% longer battery life (23:59 vs 17:54 hours)
- Delivers 44% higher peak brightness (1228 against 855 nits)
- Has 50% more RAM: 12GB versus 8GB
- Newer Bluetooth version (v5.4)
- Has a 0.5 inch larger screen size
- The phone is 4 years and 2 months newer
- More recent OS version: Android 15 versus 14
- Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 25W)
Review
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
Choose the importance of each parameter to more accurately identify the smartphone that best meets your particular needs.
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| Type | Dynamic AMOLED | Super AMOLED |
| Size | 6.2 inches | 6.7 inches |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2400 pixels | 1080 x 2340 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 20:9 | 19.5:9 |
| PPI | 421 ppi | 385 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 120 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | Yes (48-120 Hz) | Yes (60-120 Hz) |
| Max rated brightness | 800 nits | 1200 nits |
| Max rated brightness in HDR | - | 1900 nits |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10+ | Yes, HDR10+ |
| Screen protection | Gorilla Glass Victus | Gorilla Glass Victus Plus |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 85.9% | 86.5% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display |
| RGB color space | 99.5% | - |
| PWM | 240 Hz | - |
| Response time | 5 ms | - |
| Contrast | ∞ Infinity | - |
Screen space comparison
Galaxy A36 5G
6.7″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 17.1 in2
Galaxy S21
6.2″ (20:9 ratio) = 14.4 in2
~18% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 151.7 mm (5.97 inches) | 162.9 mm (6.41 inches) |
| Width | 71.2 mm (2.8 inches) | 78.2 mm (3.08 inches) |
| Thickness | 7.9 mm (0.31 inches) | 7.4 mm (0.29 inches) |
| Weight | 169 g (5.96 oz) | 195 g (6.88 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | IP67 |
| Advanced cooling | - | Vapor chamber |
| Rear material | Plastic | Glass |
| Frame material | Metal | Plastic |
| Colors | White, Gray, Pink, Purple | White, Black, Green, Purple |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | Yes, in-display |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | Samsung Exynos 2100 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 |
| Max clock | 2900 MHz | 2400 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (1 + 3 + 4) | 8 (4 + 4) |
| Architecture | - 4 cores at 2.2 GHz: Cortex-A55 - 3 cores at 2.81 GHz: Cortex-A78 - 1 core at 2.91 GHz: Cortex-X1 | - 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Cortex-A55 - 4 cores at 2.4 GHz: Cortex-A78 |
| Manufacturing | Samsung | Samsung |
| Lithography process | 5 nanometers | 4 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Yes | Hexagon |
| Graphics | Mali-G78 MP14 | Adreno 710 |
| GPU shading units | 448 | 256 |
| GPU clock | 854 MHz | 940 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~765.2 GFLOPS | ~481.3 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
| Geekbench Compute (GPU) | - | 3504 |
| Single-core score | 1331 | 1020 |
| Multi-core score | 3593 | 2975 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 10
| CPU | 240303 | 199319 |
| GPU | 320897 | 153309 |
| Memory | 141005 | 127116 |
| UX | 200200 | 151308 |
| Total score | 902405 | 631052 |
| Samples | [25 tests] | Less than 3 |
3DMark Wild Life Performance
| Max surface temperature | 38.9 °C | - |
| Stability | 66% | - |
| Graphics test | 34 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 5715 | - |
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 11964 | - |
| Video editing | 7095 | - |
| Photo editing | 29126 | - |
| Data manipulation | 10175 | - |
| Writing score | 16162 | - |
Memory
| RAM size | 8 GB | 6, 8, 12 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5 | LPDDR4X |
| Memory clock | 2750 MHz | 2133 MHz |
| Channels | 2 | 2 |
| Storage size | 128, 256 GB | 128, 256 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 3.1 | UFS 2.2 |
| Memory card | No | No |
Software
| Operating system | Android 11 (Can be upgraded to Android 14) | Android 15 |
| ROM | One UI 6.0 | One UI 7.0 |
| OS size | 28.1 GB | 22.6 GB |
Battery
| Capacity | 4000 mAh | 5000 mAh |
| Max charge power | 25 W | 45 W |
| Battery type | Li-Ion | Li-Ion |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Wireless charging | Yes (15 W) | No |
| Reverse charging | Yes, (wireless) | No |
| Fast charging | Yes (55% in 50 min) | Yes (60% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 1:35 hr | 1:14 hr |
| Web browsing | 06:01 hr | 09:40 hr |
| Watching video | 11:06 hr | 14:19 hr |
| Gaming | 04:21 hr | 04:57 hr |
| Standby | 95 hr | 118 hr |
General battery life
Main camera
| Matrix | 12 megapixels | 50 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 4000 x 3000 | 8192 x 6144 |
| Zoom | Optical, 1.1x | Digital |
| Flash | Dual LED | LED |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| 8K video recording | Up to 24FPS | No |
| 4K video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 30FPS |
| 1080p video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| Slow motion | 960 FPS (720p) | 240 FPS (720p) |
| Angle of widest lens | 120° | 123° |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 12 MP 2) Telephoto: 64 MP 3) Ultrawide: 12 MP | 1) Standard: 50 MP 2) Ultrawide: 8 MP 3) Macro: 5 MP |
| Camera features | - Bokeh mode - Pro mode - RAW support | - Bokeh mode - Pro mode |
| Image resolution | 12 MP | 50 MP |
| Aperture | f/1.8 | f/1.8 |
| Focal length | 26 mm | - |
| Sensor | Sony IMX555 | Sony IMX882 |
| Sensor size | 1/1.76" | 1/1.96" |
| Pixel size | 1.8 micron | 0.8 micron |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) | Phase autofocus |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| Image resolution | 64 MP | - |
| Aperture | f/2.0 | - |
| Focal length | 28 mm | - |
| Sensor | Samsung Bright S5KGW2 | - |
| Sensor size | 1/1.72" | - |
| Pixel size | 0.8 micron | - |
| Stabilization | Optical | - |
| Image resolution | 12 MP | 8 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/2.2 |
| Focal length | 13 mm | - |
| Sensor | Sony IMX563 | GalaxyCore GC08A3 |
| Sensor size | 1/2.55" | 1/4.0" |
| Pixel size | 1.4 micron | 1.12 micron |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| Image resolution | - | 5 MP |
| Aperture | - | f/2.4 |
| Sensor | - | GalaxyCore GC05A3 |
| Stabilization | - | Digital |
DxOMark main camera tests
Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
| Bokeh | 70 | - |
| Preview | 72 | - |
| Zoom | 126 | - |
| Samples | Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S21 from DxOMark | - |
Selfie camera
| Megapixels | 10 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 3872 x 2592 | 3184 x 2388 |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/2.2 |
| Focal length | 26 mm | - |
| Sensor | Sony IMX374 | GalaxyCore GC12A2 |
| Sensor size | 1/3.24" | - |
| Pixel size | 1.22 micron | - |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) | No |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| Video resolution | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS | 2160p (4K) at 30 FPS |
| Depth sensor (TOF 3D) | No | No |
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) |
| Wi-Fi features | - Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display | - Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
| Bluetooth version | 5 | 5.4 |
| Bluetooth features | LE, A2DP | LE |
| USB type | USB Type-C | USB Type-C |
| USB version | 3.2 | 2 |
| USB features | - Charging - USB-Storage mode - USB-Host mode - OTG | - Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
| DisplayPort | - | No |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS |
| NFC* | Yes | Yes |
| Infrared port | No | No |
| Number of SIM* | 2 | 2 |
| Type of SIM card | Nano | Nano |
| Multi SIM mode | Standby | Standby |
| eSIM support* | Yes | Yes |
| Hybrid slot | No | No |
| LTE Cat* | 24 | - |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
Sound
| Speakers | Stereo | Stereo |
| Headphone audio jack | No | No |
| FM radio | No | No |
| Dolby Atmos | Yes | Yes |
Speakers test
Max loudness
Other
| Category | Flagship | Mid-range |
| Announced | January 2021 | March 2025 |
| Release date | February 2021 | March 2025 |
| Launch price | $800 | $399 |
| Configurations | - 8 / 128 GB - 8 / 256 GB | - 6 / 128 GB - 6 / 256 GB - 8 / 128 GB - 8 / 256 GB - 12 / 256 GB |
| SAR (head) | 0.46 W/kg | 0.53 W/kg |
| SAR (body) | 1.51 W/kg | 1.29 W/kg |
| Sensors | - Hall-effect sensor - Barometer - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint | - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
| Bundled charger | - | Not included |
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.
