Samsung Galaxy S21 vs Huawei P30 Pro
57
out of 100
VS
51
out of 100
Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.2-inch Samsung Galaxy S21 (with Exynos 2100) that was released on January 14, 2021, against the Huawei P30 Pro, which is powered by HiSilicon Kirin 980 and came out 1 year and 10 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.
Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S21
- Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
- 44% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1081K versus 751K)
- Delivers 41% higher peak brightness (861 against 610 nits)
- More recent OS version: Android 15 versus 10
- Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5 2750 MHz
- Compatible with Wi-Fi 6 wireless networks
- Stereo speakers
- Has 33% more RAM: 8GB versus 6GB
- The phone is 1 year and 10 months newer
- The front-facing camera can record video at 4K
- Ready for eSIM technology
Reasons to consider the Huawei P30 Pro
- The rear camera has a 5x optical zoom
- Shows 19% longer battery life (21:15 vs 17:54 hours)
- Supports higher wattage charging (40W versus 25W)
- Has a built-in infrared port
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
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
Value for money (Beta)
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| Type | Dynamic AMOLED | OLED |
| Size | 6.2 inches | 6.47 inches |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2400 pixels | 1080 x 2340 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 20:9 | 19.5:9 |
| PPI | 421 ppi | 398 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | Yes (48-120 Hz) | No |
| Max rated brightness | 800 nits | 570 nits |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10+ | Yes, HDR10 |
| Screen protection | Gorilla Glass Victus | Tempered glass |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 85.9% | 88.6% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display |
- DCI-P3 - Always-On Display - DC Dimming |
| RGB color space | 99.5% | 99% |
| PWM | 240 Hz | 231 Hz |
| Response time | 5 ms | 3.6 ms |
| Contrast | ∞ Infinity | ∞ Infinity |
Screen space comparison
P30 Pro
6.47″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 15.9 in2
Galaxy S21
6.2″ (20:9 ratio) = 14.4 in2
~10% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 151.7 mm (5.97 inches) | 158 mm (6.22 inches) |
| Width | 71.2 mm (2.8 inches) | 73.4 mm (2.89 inches) |
| Thickness | 7.9 mm (0.31 inches) | 8.4 mm (0.33 inches) |
| Weight | 169 g (5.96 oz) | 192 g (6.77 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | IP68 |
| Advanced cooling | - | Vapor chamber |
| Rear material | Plastic | Glass |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | White, Gray, Pink, Purple | White, Black, Blue, Orange |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | Yes, in-display |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | Samsung Exynos 2100 | HiSilicon Kirin 980 |
| Max clock | 2900 MHz | 2600 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (1 + 3 + 4) | 8 (2 + 2 + 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 - 2 cores at 1.92 GHz: Cortex-A76 - 2 cores at 2.6 GHz: Cortex-A76 |
| Manufacturing | Samsung | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 5 nanometers | 7 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Yes | Yes |
| Graphics | Mali-G78 MP14 | Mali G76 MP10 |
| GPU shading units | 448 | 240 |
| GPU clock | 854 MHz | 720 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~765.2 GFLOPS | ~345.6 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | 6754 | 3750 |
| Single-core score | 1484 | 927 |
| Multi-core score | 3767 | 2978 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 418023 | 323300 |
| GPU | 191872 | 106985 |
| Memory | 170606 | 153206 |
| UX | 301277 | 168335 |
| Total score | 1081778 | 751826 |
| Samples | [17 tests] | [12 tests] |
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Stability | 72% | - |
| Graphics test | 2 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 328 | - |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Stability | 64% | 49% |
| Graphics test | 10 FPS | 4 FPS |
| Graphics score | 1800 | 676 |
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 13238 | 7533 |
| Video editing | 7092 | 5711 |
| Photo editing | 29658 | 14148 |
| Data manipulation | 10433 | 7454 |
| Writing score | 15614 | 10838 |
Recent User Tests
Samsung Galaxy S21
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-07-10 (TechNova0627) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 1446 / 3772 |
| 📘 2026-07-10 (TechNova0627) | AnTuTu 11 | 1115971 |
| 📘 2026-07-05 (Luckyy) | AnTuTu 11 | 1086158 |
| 📘 2026-06-28 (forneusgang) | AnTuTu 11 | 1087003 |
| 📘 2026-05-28 (Sulurya) | AnTuTu 11 | 1099324 |
Huawei P30 Pro
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-08-14 (Adiit) | Geekbench 6 GPU | 4204 |
| 📘 2026-08-01 (Kiên 🐜) | AnTuTu 11 | 738484 |
| 📘 2026-05-16 (Absolute_Subzero) | AnTuTu 11 | 746551 |
| 📘 2026-05-01 (gay) | AnTuTu 11 | 756021 |
| 📘 2026-04-03 -> taotentoan5 | AnTuTu 11 | 731160 |
Memory
| RAM size | 8 GB | 6 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5 | LPDDR4X |
| Memory clock | 2750 MHz | 2133 MHz |
| Channels | 2 | 2 |
| Storage size | 128 GB | 128 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 3.1 | UFS 2.1 |
| Memory card | No | Nano Memory |
| Memory card max size | - | Up to 256 GB |
Software
| Operating system | Android 11 (Can be upgraded to Android 15) | Android 9.0 (Can be upgraded to Android 10) |
| ROM | One UI 7.0 | EMUI 12 |
| OS size | 28.1 GB | 13.4 GB |
| OS updates | 2 years | - |
| Security updates | 4 years | - |
Battery
| Capacity | 4000 mAh | 4200 mAh |
| Max charge power | 25 W | 40 W |
| Battery type | Li-Ion | Li-Po |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Wireless charging | Yes (15 W) | Yes (15 W) |
| Reverse charging | Yes, (wireless) | Yes, (wireless) |
| Bypass charging | No | - |
| Fast charging | Yes (55% in 30 min) | Yes, SuperCharge (70% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 1:13 hr | 1:05 hr |
| Web browsing | 06:01 hr | 08:25 hr |
| Watching video | 11:06 hr | 13:36 hr |
| Gaming | 04:21 hr | 05:24 hr |
| Standby | 95 hr | 99 hr |
General battery life
Main camera
| Matrix | 12 megapixels | 40 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 4000 x 3000 | 7360 x 4912 |
| Zoom | Optical, 1.1x | Optical, 5x |
| Flash | Dual LED | Dual 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) | 960 FPS (720p) |
| Angle of widest lens | 120° | 120° |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 12 MP 2) Telephoto: 64 MP 3) Ultrawide: 12 MP |
1) Standard: 40 MP 2) Telephoto: 8 MP 3) Ultrawide: 20 MP 4) Depth |
| Camera features | - Bokeh mode - Pro mode - RAW support |
- Bokeh mode - Pro mode - RAW support |
| Image resolution | 12 MP | 40 MP |
| Aperture | f/1.8 | f/1.6 |
| Focal length | 26 mm | 27 mm |
| Sensor | Sony IMX555 | Sony IMX650 |
| Sensor size | 1/1.76" (≈ 0.57 inch) | 1/1.7" (≈ 0.59 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1.8 micron | 1 micron |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) | Phase autofocus |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| Image resolution | 64 MP | 8 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.0 | f/3.4 |
| Focal length | 28 mm | 125 mm |
| Sensor | Samsung Bright S5KGW2 | - |
| Sensor size | 1/1.72" (≈ 0.58 inch) | 1/4" (≈ 0.25 inch) |
| Pixel size | 0.8 micron | - |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| Image resolution | 12 MP | 20 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/2.2 |
| Focal length | 13 mm | 16 mm |
| Sensor | Sony IMX563 | - |
| Sensor size | 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) | 1/2.7" (≈ 0.37 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1.4 micron | - |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
DxOMark main camera tests
Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
| Bokeh | 70 | - |
| Preview | 61 | - |
| Zoom | 114 | - |
| Samples | Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S21 from DxOMark | Photo samples of Huawei P30 Pro from DxOMark |
Selfie camera
| Megapixels | 10 megapixels | 32 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 3872 x 2592 | 6528 x 4896 |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/2.0 |
| Focal length | 26 mm | 29 mm |
| Sensor | Sony IMX374 | BSI CMOS |
| Sensor size | 1/3.24" (≈ 0.31 inch) | 1/2.8" (≈ 0.36 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1.22 micron | - |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) | No |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| Video resolution | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) at 30 FPS |
| Depth sensor (TOF 3D) | No | No |
DxOMark front camera
| Photo | - | 110 |
| Video | - | 130 |
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) | Wi-Fi 5 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac) |
| Wi-Fi features | - Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
- Dual Band - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot |
| Bluetooth version | 5 | 5 |
| Bluetooth features | LE, A2DP | LE, A2DP |
| USB type | USB Type-C | USB Type-C |
| USB version | 3.2 | 3.1 |
| USB features | - Charging - USB-Storage mode - USB-Host mode - OTG |
- Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo |
| NFC* | Yes | Yes |
| Infrared port | No | Yes |
| Number of SIM* | 2 | 2 |
| Type of SIM card | Nano | Nano |
| Multi SIM mode | Standby | Standby |
| eSIM support* | Yes | No |
| Hybrid slot | No | No |
| LTE Cat* | 24 | 21 |
| 5G support | Yes | No |
Sound
| Speakers | Stereo | Mono |
| Headphone audio jack | No | No |
| FM radio | No | No |
| Dolby Atmos | Yes | Yes |
Speakers test
Max loudness
Other
| Category | Flagship | Flagship |
| Announced | January 2021 | March 2019 |
| Release date | February 2021 | May 2019 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $800 | $1000 |
| Successor | - Samsung Galaxy S22 | - Huawei Pura 80 Pro |
| SAR (head) | 0.46 W/kg | 0.154 W/kg |
| SAR (body) | 1.51 W/kg | 0.63 W/kg |
| Sensors | - Hall-effect sensor - Barometer - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Hall-effect sensor - Barometer - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.
Conclusion
After analyzing all the data, we think that the Samsung Galaxy S21 is definitely a better buy.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 174