Above:Samsung’s new S21 cameras offer a Director’s view suitable for video blogging or live streaming. Photos courtesy Samsung.

“This is the first time we have done an early launch,” Regional Product Manager Gianmarco Leri said of the release in February of Samsung’s follow up to the Galaxy S20, which fell into an unfortunate marketing chasm that followed the onset of Covid-19 restrictions.

The company regained market ground with its release of the Note20 in September 2020, but pushed to create some new buzz around the flagship S series devices.

“All the devices are 5G capable, but operate on 4G with no problems,” Leri said of a launch he described as being more about the customer and their needs as assessed by the company during the pandemic.

“Everyone is using a phone more often than ever, and the emphasis is now on the camera.”
“The camera is being used more than ever, and the new lens options are meant to give the user the tools of a director.”
“In 2020, more people were blogging and streaming and we wanted to connect those dots and attract those clients to consider the phones.”

One new addition to the Samsung camera software is Director’s View, which allows a user to insert a live video of themselves as a postage stamp window from the selfie camera in the main video feed. It’s now possible to switch between capture lenses more easily.

Gianmarco Leri

“The s21 ultra is killing the market,” Leri said.
“It’s the best response we’ve had for a phone. The Ultra model is getting all the attention and it has all the features that draw early adopters. [We said] let’s manufacture more of the Ultra to meet that demand.”

“The ultra has four cameras [the other two models ship with three], an image stabilizer and a larger battery.”
“The [case of the] S21 ultra is metal the other two models use polycarbonate.”

The new devices are also compatible with XBox Pass, a feature introduced with the Note 20 that allows gaming over the cloud using Samsung’s flagship smartphones and the new S21 series ships with special offers for Netflix and YouTube subscriptions.
“We are really pleased with the response to the phone,” Leri said.