The Galaxy S21 Ultra represents the best of Samsung’s mobile expertise, including design, performance, camera, and more.
Should I Buy the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra?
Pros
- Best camera phone to date
- Outstanding performance
- It is lighter than we expected
- Battery life is amazing
- Beautiful display
Cons
- Some may find a charger irritating.
- MicroSD Slot Loss
- It is huge
- Price
Our Verdict
The Galaxy S21 Ultra is an all-out uber-flagship that has large dimensions and a price to match. But for your money, you get the best smartphone on the market today.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra full review
There are many concessions you can make to your phone, depending on its price and position within a brand’s portfolio. However, when it comes to the Pro Maxes or Ultras of this world, there is far less room for error.
As hypercars are now considered a class above supercars, flagship phones such as the S21 Ultra have emerged – billed as uncompromising devices capable of handling any task a user throws at them without breaking a sweat, although for a premium.
Last year’s Galaxy S20 Ultra promised much, primarily due to its impressive-sounding camera specs, but it was disappointing as a final product. We are hopeful that Samsung will rectify the mistakes of last year’s S21 Ultra and create a smartphone truly worthy of the “Ultra” moniker.
Design and construction
It’s obvious that 2020 was an unattractive year for Samsung’s Galaxy S smartphones. The S20 Ultra was perhaps the worst offender, with its glossy design rendered in flat colours and laden with a dark rounded rectangle camera arrangement.
Nearly one year later, the S21 range has seen a significant improvement in its design. However, the S21 range brings a sharper aesthetic to the table.
While the Galaxy S21 or S21+ might be a hit with their signature Phantom Violet colourway, the Ultra is far more subtle and draws the eye to the phone’s form first.
The new defining design element in this year’s Galaxy S range is the ‘contour-cut’ camera module. The Ultra’s interpretation of it is boldest and most impressive. It spans almost half the width of the phone. (It’s so large that the phone actually has less severe wobble if placed back-down on a smooth surface than the smaller camera arrangements of its launch siblings).
The Ultra was going to be massive. It had four imaging sensors, including a 108Mp primary, as well as a periscopic zoom and laser autofocus systems.
Contrasting colours are not what give the S21 Ultra its sophisticated look and feel. The phone has a gloss-coloured metal frame and a satin-finished back and front that combine to imbue it with subtle confidence. They also repel fingerprints and smudges.
Something about the alternative Phantom Silver colourway evokes the stylings of vintage 80s Japanese tech and grant the phone a distinctly retro feel as a result, while the two-tone carbon-fibre-toting Samsung. com-exclusive finishes seem poorly considered and executed by comparison – particularly the Phantom Brown option.
The S21 Ultra’s rounded edges and slightly curved Gorilla Glass Victus back and front ensure that it is comfortable to hold. The 6.8in handset is light and slim, despite weighing in at 228g.
Samsung’s flagship phone is known for its high-quality fit and build. There are no headphone jacks and IP68 dust, while the phone remains waterproof.
Display and S Pen
Although it is 0.1in smaller than the last year’s entry, you still get a 6.8in panel to use. It uses WQHD+ resolution, 20/9 aspect ratio, and HDR10+ compliant ‘Dynamic AMLED 2X’ technology.
The screen of the Ultra last year was excellent. While the large size and rounded edges may not be to everyone’s liking, the S21 Ultra’s screen is a delight to use. It boasts stunning contrast, vivid colours, a wide dynamic range, pin-sharp clarity, and pin-sharp resolution that no other display can match.
A slight improvement in peak brightness is 1500nits, up from 1400. However, both last year’s and this year’s phones provide excellent visibility regardless of bright surroundings.
The S21 Ultra’s display is a step ahead of the rest with its ability to display content simultaneously at its native resolution as well as at its maximum refresh rate of 120Hz. The Galaxy S and Note smartphones last year required you to choose between super-smooth or full resolution. With the S21 Ultra, this is no longer an option.
You can lock resolution, but the refresh rate (under ‘Motion Smoothness” setting) cannot be changed from ‘Standard (60Hz) to ‘Adaptive’. This means that the Ultra does not run at 120Hz continuously but instead scales automatically from 10Hz to 120Hz, depending on the application. Samsung’s devices have this dynamic adjustment, which is essential for ensuring respectable battery life and still providing high refresh rates viewing.
The screen offers a superior visual experience and an upgraded ultrasonic fingerprint scanner. This sensor is now more competitive with older capacitive sensors (like those found at the back of the Pixel 5). It has a faster read speed and is more reliable.
S Pen
Another major move for the S21 Ultra is the inclusion of the Samsung’s S Pen stylus – this is the first time it has been included on a Galaxy S smartphone. Samsung launched two new styli with the S21 Ultra: a traditional S Pen and the S Pen Pro.
The standard S Pen is sufficient for most users who want Note-like functionality. If you already have a Note device, your S Pens will also work. The Note 20 Ultra’s S Pen has excellent latency, with a 9ms response, or very close (like the Note 20 Ultra), which is likely due to its use of an LTPO panel instead of the S21/S21+ LTPS panel.
The S Pen Pro experience is different from the standard S Pen experience. It offers additional Bluetooth functionality that Note 20 users are already familiar with. This allows you to control the camera and navigate around the user interface with simple air gestures. You can use the Wacom technology at play to access additional functions and features by hovering the nib over the display.
The S21 Ultra is a niche device, and there is a smaller subset of people who will consider pairing it with an S Pen. However, it is nice to see Samsung bringing as much of its established features to a product that had previously nothing to do with the stylus.
Software and other features
Samsung’s latest user experience, One UI 3.1, is now available on the Galaxy S21 range.
This iteration of One UI is similar to the one before but does not rewrite the rules. Instead, it focuses on improving notification clarity and adding a few new adornments like animated call screens.
If you are coming from Android devices with a more stock experience (Google, Motorola, or Nokia’s), it will take some time to get used to the one UI. However, it will be easier than switching from a clunkier skin such as Oppo’s ColorOS or Xiaomi’s MIUI.
The platform features a distinctive squircle iconography, a reworked notification/quick settings panel (compared to stock), and One UI has its own app store in Galaxy Store, alongside the Google Play Store. It also features standout features such as Edge Screen – which was created to improve productivity on the Ultra’s large display.
While One UI is distinctive, it doesn’t abandon the fundamental improvements and tweaks made in Android 11. Notifications are grouped by app categories and active media playback control controls within a dedicated carousel located in the notifications shade. Samsung Free, Samsung’s news and experiences feed, is optional. You can display it or replace it with Google Discover.
The Ultra is also unique in another area: it has the S21+’s latest WiFi 6E and shares in the UWB (ultrawideband) support. The Ultra has also supported NFC and Bluetooth 5.
Performance
The S21 range is part of an exclusive group of phones that are powered by Qualcomm’s new flagship Snapdragon888 SoC. In other markets, they serve as the debut devices of the company’s Exynos2100 chipset .
Exynos-toting users have been frustrated in the past because models that rely on Samsung’s silicon have consistently failed to meet the standards of their Snapdragon-based counterparts in terms of performance and efficiency.
Samsung and early benchmarks indicated that the Exynos 2100 would be the first chip to compete with Qualcomm’s 888.
The Ultra’s top-tier silicon is accompanied by the most (LPDDR5) RAM of all the S21 models. It has a base of 12GB and a top-tier of 16GB if you go for the highest storage capacity model (512GB).
Although UFS 3.1 storage speeds are appreciated, the loss of microSD expansion across the S21 range feels like an injustice, especially for the Ultra, which is feature-packed. This is a disappointing change for the Galaxy S series, which has been a long-standing flagship phone family that usually offers such flexibility.
If you are looking to buy the S21 Ultra with competitive mobile gaming in your mind, you might consider dropping the resolution to Full HD+. Graphical tests placed it on par with its launch siblings. All of these scores are the highest we have ever tested on any smartphone.
If performance is your primary concern, then the S21 range and the entire S21 series are the best choices. The Ultra’s extra RAM will allow the phone to multitask more easily and be more responsive over the long term.
Battery life
The battery capacity is still consistent with last year’s S20 Ultra at a respectable 5000mAh. The S21 Ultra is the Galaxy’s first device to provide 120Hz high refresh rates at WQHD+ resolution. This device was tested with both of these display features enabled.
Despite the strain that full tilting the display causes, the S21 Ultra’s endurance is remarkable. It can last for almost six hours each charge, with nearly six hours of screen-on.
Real-world testing showed that 56% charging after 30 minutes was acceptable and should last most users until the end of the day.
The main problem with the Ultra’s charging speed is not the charger but the charger itself. There isn’t one in-box. Samsung has also abandoned in-box power adapters. The Ultra is smaller and lighter than Apple’s, but it will charge at a slower rate unless you have the Samsung 25W charger.
The official Samsung charger refills the battery much faster than the PD charger (which only charges the cell up to 33%). This is in contrast to the base Galaxy S21, which gave almost identical results with charging with a generic 27W PD Charge and an official Samsung fast charger.
While an official Samsung charger is not worth the cost if you have a fast PD charger for the Galaxy S21 or S21+, it can make a significant difference when paired up with the S21 Ultra.
Camera
As we mentioned earlier, the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s greatest stumbling block was its bold camera setup. In practice, it under-delivered, mainly due to some problematic focusing issues and zoom capabilities that weren’t quite as impressive as Samsung claimed.
The company has completely reworked the S21 Ultra. The results speak for themselves. The autofocus-capable 12Mp ultrawide is just as you’d find it on the S21 and S21+, ad there’s new a dual telephoto zoom system that features dedicated 3x and 10x optically-magnified lenses (the latter using a periscope setup). At 40Mp, the front-facer has the highest resolution of the S21 range (up from 10Mp).
Software-led improvements were the most notable in the S21’s camera. The S21 Ultra is undoubtedly an improvement on last year’s hardware. The most noticeable improvements in snapping are dynamic range and autofocus. While there is still a slight difference between the main sensor and the 10x telephoto sensor, the HDR algorithm has clearly been improved across the board.
The S21 Ultra’s focusing is much faster than the S20 Ultra. This is due to both the S21 Ultra’s laser system and the ‘Super-PD Plus” tech that enables it to find and hold focus in low light.
The phone’s extraordinary zoom capabilities are unmatched. The dedicated 3x and 10-x lenses result in superior quality results. Although the 100x ‘Space Zoom” is still a joke, zooming beyond 30x adds a Zoom Lock, which locks a subject in frame at extreme magnifications for easier use.
Verdict
This review’s ‘pros & cons’ list should have served as an indicator of our inability to find any faults with the Galaxy S21 Ultra. These aspects of the Ultra should not surprise anyone if you are already familiar with the Galaxy line’s reputation of big screens and high prices.
The S21 Ultra is a great example of how a company listens to customers and responds with the same care that a phone this price requires. The phone’s performance, display, battery life, and camera versatility are all exceptional. This makes the Ultra a truly remarkable smartphone.
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