galaxy s21 Samsung removes MST, Micro SD card from S21 line

[RedRound2]

I dont know why people are crying about MST. I get the appeal, but most PoS terminals have NFC built in, even if the retailer might not know about it (I see that US seems to be a bad example - but rest of the world has moved on)

 

MicroSD card, sure. I get why people are mad. It's not an option anymore to expand your storage. But do you really need more than 128 GB storage on your phone, when most people these days stream music and movies. And your photos and videos you take on your camera (if you do really care about) should never be stored on a single device and most people should have a physical or cloud backup of it.

 

The latter is a loss of feature (not denying it) but it affects so little people that Samsung figured out it was better to use the extra space gained for something else. All in all the S21 line looks good IMO. Now I just wish Samsung had a decent UI and decent tack record for updating their devices

[JoeCoke]

Let's just remove every feature until phones are just a screen and a back.

 

Built in speaker? Well that speaker is taking up sooo much room that could be used for more "innovation"! And then we could remove the DAC too!

 

Buttons? When's the last time you pressed a button, honestly?

 

Front facing cam? Fuck video calls, that camera is really ruining the clean look!

 

Still using a Galaxy s5, and it wouldn't be possible without an SD card. I don't understand this glorification of losing features. In the end, it's just a way to maximize profit margins, but people eat it up anyway. It's just so forward thinking!

[RedRound2]

3 minutes ago, 2Buck said:

Let's just remove every feature until phones are just a screen and a back.

 

Built in speaker? Well that speaker is taking up sooo much room that could be used for more "innovation"! And then we could remove the DAC too!

 

Buttons? When's the last time you pressed a button, honestly?

 

Front facing cam? Fuck video calls, that camera is really ruining the clean look!

 

Still using a Galaxy s5, and it wouldn't be possible without an SD card. I don't understand this glorification of losing features. In the end, it's just a way to maximize profit margins, but people eat it up anyway. It's just so forward thinking!

 

Ugh, I absolutely hate these sort of comments that just extrapolates something into meningless domains in attempt to try and give some false validity to the point

 

Samsung S series is a mass market phone. They've probaby done their research and realized not many people use microSDCard slots (I mean why even when you have minimum a 128GB phone). Also literally every other brand has no microSDCard slot and Samsung wasn't appreciably getting more sales just becasue they had one

[JoeCoke]

1 hour ago, RedRound2 said:

 

Ugh, I absolutely hate these sort of comments that just extrapolates something into meningless domains in attempt to try and give some false validity to the point

 

Samsung S series is a mass market phone. They've probaby done their research and realized not many people use microSDCard slots (I mean why even when you have minimum a 128GB phone). Also literally every other brand has no microSDCard slot and Samsung wasn't appreciably getting more sales just becasue they had one

What's "meningless" about it? We're seeing less and less features/options with rising prices. Tired of the trend. Sure, you don't need more than your built in storage now, but what about in a few years? Oh yeah, you'll have thrown out your current phone by then anyway, good point. Why should a device last? We can just dig more landfills.

[dizmo]

13 hours ago, AldiPrayogi said:

MicroSD card is a must have for me tbh but I don't know how many people think the same. It's kinda stupid to slash features, no?

It's not that stupid if it's used by an ever shrinking portion of the user base. Not only from a financial standing (sure, it's not much, but 0.10 over 9 million units still adds up), but also takes out a step in production, simplifies the board a bit, one less thing to potentially break, etc etc.

13 hours ago, Blademaster91 said:

So Samsung is cutting out even more features while still charging $800, thats disappointing. No micro SD slot, lower display resolution, no charger, no earphones, and a plastic back, plastic is better for drop resistance but a lot worse if you care about the back getting scratched, the S21 looks to be a downgrade compared to the S20.

I mean. It's $200 less than they charged last year. A 20% reduction in price is pretty substantial.

The lower resolution display but higher refresh rate is right in line with what polled users said they wanted. Smart move IMO. They still have the option for a 1440p, 120hz screen should you want it. You just have to pay a little more. Let's be real, the headphones for most users went right into the trash anyway.

12 hours ago, Dabombinable said:

@dizmoIts a PITA doing device backups over USB. It is always far simpler and easier to simply store everything on a card, and occasionally remove it and do manual backups.

Stock recovery on any consumer device BTW is always shit as you can't do actual full partition backups (or move files to external storage - TWRP allows for that)

WiFi is a thing, as are online back ups

10 hours ago, RejZoR said:

@dizmo

 

"plastic stands up to abuse far better than glass does"

 

No it just doesn't. It gets scratched if you just look funny at it. It gets horribly scratched if you just gently place it on desk constantly. It'll just wear off on all edges from placing of phone in a pocket and taking out of it. One may argue everyone use case, but a lot of people don't. And also, it's a freaking 799€ phone. For god damn 800€, give us a fucking glass back. We had them for years at this price point and suddenly we get god damn plastic? Come on, stop defending these greedy corporations selling you shit with excuse it's for your benefit. It's a cost saving to increase their margins, nothing else. And if you're so anal about cases, your phone won't shatter with one even if it's glass.

 

Like I said, plastic is good, but not at this price point. Realme 7 Pro with plastic back at 300€, perfectly acceptable. Samsung Galaxy S21 with plastic back at 800€, totally UNACCEPTABLE.

Like I said, depends on the type of plastic. You can't simply lump all plastics into the same group. Doesn't work that way. You're aware the plastic doesn't wrap around the edges right? There's still a metal frame. I'm not defending them, I'm simply stating facts. I really couldn't care less what you buy.

 

You're more than welcome to that opinion. I just don't agree with it, and find it completely acceptable.

10 hours ago, Mnky313 said:

Idk yet, it's not that I won't use Samsung because they removed these features, it's more that I only used Samsung because they had these/similar features. I vastly prefer the 'stock' android experience on something like a Pixel or Oneplus device but Samsung used to have so many more or just better features compared to other devices that I tolerated the not great software (and lack of support for updates).
I chose my Note9 over a long list of other devices because it had almost everything I was interested in, OLED display, large battery, support for all the LTE bands, Wireless charging, water resistance, expandable storage, etc. It was the only device with all of these features. (here's a picture of my long outdated phone spreadsheet)

Now I have no reason to chose Samsung over something from Oneplus/Google/etc., they all have similar hardware/features but the others better native support for AOSP/'stock android' ROMs. I really hate the way smartphones are going, removing features and charging more money to do so.
The only phone I had been looking at was the Note20 Ultra purely because I can make the trade off of the headphone jack for a high refresh rate display but now with the (probable) end of the Note line and the S21 dropping sd card support as well, it's just not something I'm interested in.

I have no Idea what my upgrade plan is, i'll probably hold out until the notches/hole-punches go away and see what's left or just keep installing custom up-to-date ROMs on my Note9.

Oh dear God. I've found someone that takes product comparisons to a whole new level (I too use extensive spreadsheets when comparing which product I'm going to buy, but mine aren't nearly that detailed...I'm a bit in awe).

 

Curious, what about the stock Android experience appeals to you? I've often heard this, never understood the appeal. I install Nova Launcher on every single Android phone I have.

 

To be fair, they lowered the price on the S21. The Note line, by most people's estimations, isn't going away. I wouldn't be surprised if they go back to having a single model though. I don't think sales of the lower end one did terribly well. Who knows though, we'll just have to wait a few months and see. I really hope they don't axe the Note line, it's probably going to be my go-to for Android devices.

 

I'm surprised the Pixel 4s didn't get red-lined with your clear disdain at the lack of a fingerprint reader

5 hours ago, D13H4RD said:

The removal of MST strikes me as odd, particularly because this one thing was the marquee feature of Samsung Pay; the fact that it can be used almost anywhere regardless if it used magstripe or one of the newer terminals which support contactless payments. While I don't think this will matter in any area where NFC-based payments is already prevalent, it might be a bummer for people who used the magstripe option more frequently.

 

As for the removal of the microSD card slot.....meh. It stung a bit on the S6 because the base storage was 32GB at the time, which wasn't a lot for some, but since the S21 line all start at 128GB, I really am not stung at all by this move. That's really more storage than I feel I'll realistically ever need.

 

That said, I am still going to the iPhone. Am not terribly impressed with the S21.

I agree that the capacities that they come with as base are probably fine with most of the population, but it'd be nice to see them offer more options on the whole line of colors; currently you can only get more if you pick black. At least they're only charging $50 to double your storage. Apple charges $100.

 

Apple is getting really close to the point I'd try them out. The only things really stopping me at this point are the lack of a fingerprint reader, 5G battery life growing pains, 60hz display, OS limitations (which I think I could probably overlook), and the annoyance of messaging issues should you choose to switch back to Android. Apparently a lot of those gripes should be remedied with the next one.

2 hours ago, 2Buck said:

What's "meningless" about it? We're seeing less and less features/options with rising prices. Tired of the trend. Sure, you don't need more than your built in storage now, but what about in a few years? Oh yeah, you'll have thrown out your current phone by then anyway, good point. Why should a device last? We can just dig more landfills.

Well. 20% price drop. But who's counting right? People saying you'll have to throw out your phone, and you'll fill up your storage in a few years are highly irrational. Sure, there are people where this will be a problem, but there are many options to deal with it. Back up your pictures somewhere else, thin out your video library. Most people use streaming services for music so that's no longer a huge issue. It's such a minuscule portion of people that will actually run into that issue, that it's really a nonissue. It's never been a problem en-masse before, why would it be now?

[Nowak]

First the removal of the headphone jack, then that honestly ugly camera bump, then the removal of the SD card and now removal of the only thing that made Samsung Pay more "worth it" than Google Pay. Oh, and also copying Apple and not including a charger so they can pretend to care about the environment.

 

Hey, how well did things go the last time Samsung removed a bunch of features?

[WaggishOhio383]

MST has never been a feature that interested me on Samsung's phones. I've always used Google Pay regardless. So I'm not terribly disappointed there. Removing the micro SD card slot is kind of annoying though.

[VanayadGaming]

what is MST? Mountain Standard Time? ...seriously...so many abbreviations.

[Dabombinable]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

WiFi is a thing, as are online back ups

And what if your upload speed is only 5MBps due to the internet? Wifi is also a bitch to get working for backups - especially with Android.

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

Wait WTF? i use samsung pay regularly, why the fuck would they remove that ?  i have linked my debit card to it, is it working under NFC or MST? idk can someone fill me in ?

EDIT  OP @Ethan.add this to the update, i can't live without it in India, i hope they continue to do so where i live as its so fucking convenient 

https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-pay-mst-galaxy-s21-1193199/
 

Quote

Update: January 15 2021 (6:55 AM ET): Well, it seems like some Galaxy S21 series phones do indeed have MST support. Samsung lists MST capabilities on their South African, Indian, and UK websites. Coincidentally, these above-mentioned regions all have the Exynos 2100 processor rather than the Snapdragon 888 chipset.

 

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

2 hours ago, WaggishOhio383 said:

MST has never been a feature that interested me on Samsung's phones. I've always used Google Pay regardless. So I'm not terribly disappointed there. Removing the micro SD card slot is kind of annoying though.

yeah but can it do transactions without the internet or sim? i've been in a situation when i was migrating my sim and had no sim and still made the payment as i had linked my debit card which i never carry to my phone. 

[Vishera]

Samsung are dead to me.

Once upon a time,smartphones were $500,

Ever since a price increase of at least $100 every year.

The lower price of the S21 doesn't make it cheap nor worth the money,

Each year removing features and accessories,what's next?,Phones with functionality locked behind a pay wall?

[Mnky313]

6 hours ago, dizmo said:

Oh dear God. I've found someone that takes product comparisons to a whole new level (I too use extensive spreadsheets when comparing which product I'm going to buy, but mine aren't nearly that detailed...I'm a bit in awe).

 

Curious, what about the stock Android experience appeals to you? I've often heard this, never understood the appeal. I install Nova Launcher on every single Android phone I have.

 

To be fair, they lowered the price on the S21. The Note line, by most people's estimations, isn't going away. I wouldn't be surprised if they go back to having a single model though. I don't think sales of the lower end one did terribly well. Who knows though, we'll just have to wait a few months and see. I really hope they don't axe the Note line, it's probably going to be my go-to for Android devices.

 

I'm surprised the Pixel 4s didn't get red-lined with your clear disdain at the lack of a fingerprint reader 

I prefer stock android because from my use of it, it just feels way snappier and has many more customizations like themes (from Swift/Substratum etc) and custom roms add their own interesting and useful features like partial screenshots/date in the status bar clock/lack of bloatware/etc. OneUI can do just about all of these either natively or with tools like FireFDS though so that's why I've been using it for now.
I also like Google's app design compared to Samsung because Samsung doesn't let you shrink the display scaling small enough for my liking and if you do it's basically useless. Here's an example of the Samsung messages app's wasted space vs Google's.

(screenshots from my S10+ that I don't use, that's why the only messages are alerts...)

I outlined in pink the actually useful area of the app, almost all of Samsung's apps have this wasted space with a title of the app, like no shit it's the messages app... that's what I opened...
You can replace most of the Samsung apps with Google or AOSP versions but some stuff like popup messages can't be replaced. I just really hate Samsung's design because of these little things. Look how they massacred my boi (I really liked my calculator edge panel but they changed the scaling and made it awful in the new Oneui 2.5 update, I don't have an image for it before but I found one on reddit so here) Also new is on top for some reason.

I usually use CPL now (Customized Pixel Launcher) but yeah, Nova and other launchers change the look of the home screen but not the notification area or apps, popups etc.

I don't really care about the 'lowered' price because I will never buy a device for full price, I'll always pick one up for MUCH cheaper off eBay a few months after release, I got my Note9 (pretty much brand new, still with the plastic protector on the screen) for under $300 before the Note10 was released and I picked up an S20 Ultra 5G for $550 (and sold it for more) back in like November, the launch price isn't really a consideration for me.

 

As for the pixel 4 not getting the red line, I wasn't really looking into one like I was the other devices that had a line. I was annoyed by the fact that those devices didn't have band 66. I probably could have given many more devices the red line if I really wanted as I wasn't actually considering those.

 

[Kisai]

On 1/15/2021 at 11:28 AM, Ethan. said:

Ah, the removal of MST support is limited to the US market. Removal of the microSD card is, as far as I can gather, worldwide.

The US Market was the only market that needed MST. The rest of the world used chip+pin more than 12 years ago. Meanwhile US still operates their card terminals like it's 1980. There has been no reason to continue using the magstripe except to kowtow to US tourists, and since US tourists are essentially banned from travelling until vaccinated, There's an entire two year period where they can drop the feature and nobody outside the US will miss it.

 

Soon payment terminals will have magstripes disabled, and the MST feature will be useless. Tap-to-pay, use the store/kiosk loyalty app, or go back to paying with filthy cloth/plastic money.

 

As it is, MST also meant anyone else with a MST device could record and playback the transaction. I don't know if anyone actually did that, but mag-stripe readers are no different than cassette tapes, when you swipe a card, it's effectively "playing" a short audio segment that wouldn't normally be audible. MST works by just playing this directly to the playback head in the card reader. It was even less safe than using the physical card, as anything nearby could pick it up, including people who were talking on their phones.

 

So that's basically what happened here, no US-specific models. They're the same as the EU/Asia model this time.

[RedRound2]

12 hours ago, 2Buck said:

What's "meningless" about it? We're seeing less and less features/options with rising prices. Tired of the trend. Sure, you don't need more than your built in storage now, but what about in a few years? Oh yeah, you'll have thrown out your current phone by then anyway, good point. Why should a device last? We can just dig more landfills.

What rising prices? The prices are falling compared to 1-2 years ago, for smartphones

 

It is meaningless. It was a feature used by very very few, so it makes sense to ax it. Doesn't mean that next gen they will remove the screen or battery, etc. As for chargers also, most people have a decent one. If they don't, I don't think spending another $30 for high quality multi port charger that can be used with many devices for years to come isn't such an earth shattering thing. In fact I've always preferred getting those as I don't have to carry around multiple charge bricks.

 

And no, having SDCard slot did not prevent anyone from throwing out their phones prematurely, especially not today when phone's come with a minimum of 64-128GB of onboard storage and we've basically moved onto a streaming world.

 

Again, all this is just over dramatic reaction to something everyone will forget in about 2 days