MARCH 2021 PCWorld 81upgrade to one of the other models (S21+ or
S21 Ultra) to get that on the S21. As was the
case last year, the iPhone 12 has 3D facial
recognition, while the S21 has an ultrasonic
in-display fingerprint sensor, which is improved
but still not as secure or speedy as Face ID.
My pick: iPhone 12.
CAMERA
Somewhat surprisingly, both Samsung and
Apple opted to stick with similar camera
hardware compared to their respective
predecessors. In the S21’s case, the triple-
camera system is identical to the S20’s, while
Apple only slightly upgraded the wide-angle
sensor on the iPhone 12 with a wider aperture
(f/1.6 versus f/1.8).
Instead, the improvements are mostly
behind the scenes, and like Google, Apple
has more than proven its ability to process
stellar photos. Time after time, the iPhone 12
produced photos with crisper details, better
color, and sharper contrast, where the S21
often overexposed shots and missed some
elements. Photo quality is definitely a
subjective judgment, and both phones will
snap reliably good photos, but I preferred
the iPhone 12’s results in just about every
instance, from bright to low light.
However, the iPhone 12 doesn’t have
anywhere near the power of 30X zoom. In
fact, it doesn’t have a zoom lens at all, so
you’ll need to get very close to your subject.
A zoom is not something you’re going to
need all that often, but when you do, the
S21’s telephoto abilities blow away those of
the iPhone 12, which maxes out at 5X. But
unless you’re planning on taking numerousIn dark photos, the S21 tended to overly brighten photos so they lost some detail, as seen in this shot. All
three phones did extremely well at capturing a very dark scene, but the S21 (left) missed a bit of the detail
that the iPhone 12 (center) and Pixel 5 (right) grabbed.