Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review
Our Verdict
The Galaxy S21 Ultra is the all-time Android phone yet with dual zoom lenses, a stellar brandish and excellent battery life. The Due south Pen is merely a bonus
For
- Dynamic 6.8-inch AMOLED display
- Dual telephoto lenses
- S Pen back up
- Great battery life
Against
- Pricey
- No charger or microSD card
- A bit bulky
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Galaxy S21 Ultra is the best Android telephone yet with dual zoom lenses, a stellar display and splendid bombardment life. The Due south Pen is just a bonus
Pros
- +
Dynamic 6.8-inch AMOLED display
- +
Dual telephoto lenses
- +
Southward Pen support
- +
Great battery life
Cons
- -
Pricey
- -
No charger or microSD card
- -
A bit bulky
The Samsung Milky way S21 Ultra led the charge for the best Android phones in 2021. It packs in all of the features you could possibly desire in a phone, especially if yous prefer big screens. While it lags backside some of other top contenders, it'due south nevertheless a very proficient device for whatsoever Android fan out there.
For $1,199 — or $100 more the iPhone thirteen Pro Max — you a get dynamic 6.8-inch display and dual telephoto lenses for crazy zoom power. Plus, the S21 Ultra supports the Southward Pen, a commencement for the Galaxy S series.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra specs
Display: half dozen.8 inches AMOLED (3200 10 1400); ten to 120Hz
CPU: Snapdragon 888
RAM: 12GB, 16GB
Storage: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
Rear cameras: 108MP broad (f/1.8), 12MP ultra wide (f/2.2), 10MP telephoto (3x zoom, f/2.4), 10MP telephoto (10x zoom, f/4.9), laser AF sensor
Front end camera: 40MP (f/2.ii)
Video: 8K 30 fps/4K lx fps
Battery: five,000 mAh
Battery life: eleven hours 25 min (60Hz), 10:07 (adaptive)
Wireless: 5G, Wi-Fi 6E, UWB
Size: half-dozen.five x 2.97 ten 0.35 inches
Weight: eight.08 ounces
The Milky way S21 Ultra comes in a sleeker pattern and offers faster operation from Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 bit. And, unlike the regular Galaxy S21, y'all don't have to make most as many trade-offs. You become a better primary 108MP camera, a glass back (instead of plastic), more than RAM and a higher-res brandish.
Of class, since we reviewed the Galaxy S21 Ultra, Samsung updated its phone lineup with the Milky way S22. The new summit-of-the-line Galaxy S22 Ultra is an improvement over this model — our Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra vs. Milky way S21 Ultra comparing details in what ways — and we'd recommend the new device instead of this ane.
Still, at the time of our Galaxy S21 Ultra review, this was one of the best phones money tin can purchase for those willing to pay a premium and one of the all-time Android phones overall.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review crook sheet
- The dynamic display on the Galaxy S21 Ultra delivers a shine 120Hz refresh rate and sharpest WQHD resolution at the same time. And it'due south amazingly vivid and colorful to boot.
- The dual telephoto lenses (3x and 10x optical zoom) get y'all very shut to your subject, and the new Zoom Lock characteristic keeps things steadier with digital Space Zoom.
- The Due south Pen support is nice to have, but y'all have to buy the stylus and a instance to hold it separately.
- At $i,199, the S21 Ultra isn't cheap, but it'southward $200 less than the S20 Ultra. However, y'all don't get a charger in the box or a microSD bill of fare slot.
- The larger fingerprint sensor is welcome, making the S21 Ultra easier to unlock.
- The 11.5 hours of battery life is excellent for a 5G phone.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra release engagement and price
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is harder to discover these days — Samsung doesn't even offering it anymore. You can nevertheless notice it from other retailers and wireless carriers, but make sure you're paying less than the $1,199 debut price, every bit that will get you a newer Milky way S22 Ultra.
The entry-level S21 Ultra includes 12GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. You can also upgrade to 256GB of storage and to a model with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The 256GB model used to toll $i,249 — basically an extra $50 — while yous'd pay $1,379 for a Galaxy S21 Ultra with 512GB of storage.
Over in the U.K, the Galaxy S21 Ultra debuted at £1,149 for the 12GB of RAM and 128GB of storage base model. That cost rose to £1,199 for the 256GB handset and topped out at £1,329 for the model with 16GB and 512GB of internal storage.
Samsung Milky way S21 Ultra review: Pattern and colors
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is a monolith of a phone. Aye, the profile cut camera pattern blends the photographic camera bump into the glass dorsum, just this is all the same a massive device you'll want to use with two hands. We've recognized as the all-time designed device in our Tom'due south Guide Awards 2021 for phones.
With its 0.35 inch profile and weight of viii.08 ounces, the S21 Ultra is thicker and heavier than the iPhone 12 Pro Max. The display is gently curved, unlike the fully apartment regular Milky way S21, merely non annoyingly and so. I never accidentally tapped something on screen as I did with last year's Ultra.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra comes in just 2 colors from carriers: Phantom Black and Phantom Silver. I might go with black because of its slimming effect. Samsung.com is offering exclusive S21 Ultra colors, though, including Phantom Navy, Phantom Titanium and Phantom Brown. Best Purchase has an exclusive Navy Bluish colorway, also.
One of my favorite pattern upgrades is the 1.7x larger fingerprint sensor. It makes it easier to unlock the phone, and I found that the S21 Ultra didn't ask me to press the sensor again like previous phones.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Display
The 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED display on the Galaxy S21 Ultra is only one of the best screens on a phone. It's bright, vibrant and doesn't make you lot choose betwixt the highest resolution and highest refresh charge per unit like its predecessor.
Aye, you lot'll exist mesmerized when watching videos on this phablet. The colors are equally rich as always, and the viewing angles nice and wide when bing watching on Netflix.
Only the Ultra surpasses the iPhone with its dynamic refresh rate. Not simply do y'all get super smooth scrolling and gameplay, you at present get 120Hz and quad Hard disk resolution at the same fourth dimension. So you don't take to choose betwixt the highest resolution and highest refresh rates.
The S21 Ultra is as well smart plenty to automatically dial the refresh rate all the way down to 10Hz to help save on power.
More good news, the S21 Ultra's display is easy to read outdoors, because it can achieve a superlative rated brightness of one,500 nits. In our testing, the S21 Ultra averaged 821 nits, which beats the iPhone 12 Pro Max'due south 654 nits.
The S21 Ultra'due south screen proved plenty colorful in our lab tests, with the console producing 81.iv% of the demanding DCI-P3 colour gamut, compared to 84.8% for the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
The colors on the iPhone were a scrap more than authentic, with its screen achieving a Delta-E score of 0.07, compared to 0.35 for the Milky way S21 Ultra.
Samsung says the S21 Ultra has a iii one thousand thousand:1 contrast ratio, which is 50% higher than the S20 Ultra. And at that place's an Eye Condolement Shield feature that'southward designed to reduce eye fatigue by limiting blue light.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Cameras
It'southward the cameras where the Galaxy S21 Ultra stands out the most against the S21 and S21 Plus. In that location's a main 108MP broad sensor and 12MP ultra-wide photographic camera, which is complemented by a laser motorcar focus sensor.
The Space Zoom is so good it should not fall in the wrong easily. #GalaxyS21Ultra pic.twitter.com/ONJPWtdUZYJanuary fifteen, 2021
The Galaxy S21 Ultra will make you experience like a secret amanuensis every bit yous zoom in. While the iPhone 12 Pro Max is stuck at ii.5x optical zoom, the S21 Ultra packs two telephoto lenses of 3x and 10x optical zoom.
I was amazed how shut I got to this sign well across a highway. At 100x the zoom does get shaky merely the new Zoom Lock feature can assist you become a steadier shot with just a tap.
The 108MP chief photographic camera can capture 12-chip HDR photos with 64 times richer colour data and more than than 3 times the dynamic range of the S20 Ultra. Plus, in that location'due south a 12-flake RAW file option in Pro manner.
I tested the camera out at a nearby shop to capture a shot of produce, and the green peppers in the foreground wait shiny and succulent. And y'all can brand out a pretty astonishing amount of item when you lot zoom in. All the same, by comparison, the iPhone 12 Pro Max'due south shot looks even more vibrant.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra is also a cracking partner to accept when you're outdoors. Take this photo of towering trees I took at a nearby park. Y'all can make out fine particular in the bark, and the telephone does a great job capturing the clouds confronting the blue heaven even while dealing with all of the shadows in the foreground. I slightly prefer the S21 Ultra's photo in this case to the iPhone 12 Pro Max, simply it'southward actually close.
Samsung says information technology has also improved the Portrait fashion on the S21 by leveraging AI to better divide the bailiwick from the background. The S21 Ultra delivers a great bokeh outcome here. My skin tone is warmer on the iPhone 12 pro Max, but overall the S21 shot looks great.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra also performs quite well in low light, thanks to a faster Brilliant Night sensor and 12MP nona-binning technology for reducing noise reduction. In this comparison y'all tin can make out more of the stones and bushes in the foreground in the S21 Ultra's photograph compared to the iPhone 12 Pro Max, although the iPhone's colors look more than natural.
The iPhone 12 Pro Max pulls alee in this photo of a golden retriever. The S21 Ultra's film is overly bright and a bit washed out, while his fur his more than golden and natural looking with the iPhone.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Video
On the video forepart, the Galaxy S21 Ultra can record 8K video up to 30 fps and all of its cameras tin capture 4K video at up to 60 fps. But the coolest video upgrade is Director's View.
At that place's a new vlogger mode that lets you lot utilize the front and back cameras as the aforementioned time for recording video. And yous can see live thumbnails of each photographic camera while you're recording video, then you can make a quick call if y'all want to switch.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra's footage looks stunning. As I swept around a river with the S21 Ultra, it delivered near picture show-quality results. The night blueish h2o, dock and puffy clouds all came through crystal clear.
And, yes, y'all tin feel gratis to move around a lot while shooting. With Super Steady way on the S21 Ultra engaged, I captured smooth footage fifty-fifty every bit I walked fast upwards a hill.
If yous want to take photos and stills at once, the Single Take 2.0 feature on the S21 Ultra is pretty fun. It managed to capture my endeavour at a opposite layup in wearisome mo and option a pretty skillful photo at the superlative of the spring. Even so, the music Samsung chooses sometimes for its car-generated video clips sounds cheesy.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Functioning
The Galaxy S21 Ultra is ane of the first phones powered past Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 bit, which is complemented past 12GB or 16GB of RAM.
And this is ane fast Android phone. The S21 Ultra didn't blanch every bit I sliced through multiple enemies in Grimvalor while delivering console-quality visuals.
This flagship backs upwards my experience with impressive benchmark scores. On Geekbench 5, the S21 Ultra notched 3,440 on the multi-core exam and 1,123 on unmarried-core. That'south behind the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which cleared 4,100 and 1,600, but it's however the best scores we've seen from an Android phone.
The S21 Ultra likewise fared well on the 3DMark Wild Life graphics benchmark, hitting 34 fps. The iPhone 12 Pro Max averaged 54 fps.
On our video editing test using the Adobe Premiere Rush app, the Galaxy S21 Ultra took 1 minute and 2 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p. That's faster than the Annotation xx Ultra'south 1:16 simply notwithstanding well behind the iPhone 12 Pro Max's 28 seconds.
Unfortunately, while you accept a range of storage options to choose from for the S21 Ultra — 128, 256 or 512GB — Samsung ditched the microSD card slot. So you tin can't expand.
Milky way S21 Ultra review: Bombardment life and charging
If you're looking for a phone that can terminal all twenty-four hour period, this is it. On our web surfing bombardment exam over 5G, the S21 Ultra's 5,000 mAh endured for 11 hours and 25 minutes. That beats the iPhone 12 Pro Max's ten:53 and lands the Ultra on our best phone bombardment life listing.
Notation that this fourth dimension is with the standard 60Hz display style turned on and that you lot'll come across less bombardment life with adaptive style (upwards to 120Hz) engaged. In this mode we saw a runtime of ten hours and seven minutes.
The biggest bummer is that you don't get a charger in the box. Aye, it's the green affair to do, only if you oasis't bought a phone in the final couple of years and don't have USB-C, it will mean more coin coming out of your pocket.
Using a 25-watt charger, the S21 Ultra reached 56% in 30 minutes and 31% in 15 minutes.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: S Pen
For the first time ever, a Galaxy S device supports the S Pen, the S21 Ultra makes that happen with a Wacom digitizer congenital into the display. The Due south Pen, which is optional, lets you lot draw, sketch and take notes, only as you can on the Galaxy Notation 20 and Note twenty Ultra. It as well comes in handy for quickly signing documents.
Simply keep in mind that the S Pen is sold separately, and you lot'll demand to bound for a uniform case if you want to store the stylus on the go when it'due south not in use. Samsung sells a Silicone Embrace with South Pen included for $69.99.
I tried out this example, and information technology adds bulk to already bulky phone. The South Pen functionality worked pretty well, and yous can savour features like Screen Off memo for rapidly jotting downward notes. However, because Bluetooth isn't built in, you can't utilize the pen as a remote control as you can with the Note 20 Ultra. So you can't skip tracks with a button press or control slideshows.
Samsung is developing a second stylus. The South Pen Pro ships later this year for an undisclosed price, which will include Bluetooth connectivity.
Samsung Milky way S21 Ultra review: 5G, Wi-Fi 6E and UWB
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra supports all of the latest wireless standards, starting with 5G. The Qualcomm X60 modem inside this device is capable of carrier aggregation, which should consequence in higher tiptop speeds while delivering better ability efficiency.
The functioning was pretty solid in my cervix of the woods on T-Mobile. I saw download speeds exceed 160 Mbps. It's not fantastic, but the iPhone 12 Pro Max mustered only 100 Mbps in the same location when I popped the same SIM card in that phone.
In addition, the Milky way S21 Ultra is i of the get-go phones to support Wi-Fi 6E, a new standard that delivers faster speeds and more than overall bandwidth when you lot have a compatible Wi-Fi 6E router.
Lastly, the S21 Ultra has UWB (ultra-wideband), which makes information technology easier to share files with other UWB devices, like the Milky way S21 Plus. And you'll be able to use this telephone every bit a digital key for select 2022 cars.
If you lot're constantly losing stuff — like me — you'll want to check out Samsung'due south new Galaxy SmartTags. You can utilise this tag in combination with the SmartThings Find app to rails downward everything from your keys to your bag. You tin can as well use the SmartThings Find app to locate other Samsung devices, including phones, smartwatches, tablets and earbuds.
Milky way S21 Ultra vs. Galaxy S21 vs Galaxy S21 Plus
Nosotros take a whole article dedicated to Galaxy S21 vs Galaxy S21 Plus vs Galaxy S21 Ultra, as there are many differences. Simply here are the primal things to know. The Galaxy S21 Ultra has the highest resolution main photographic camera (108MP vs 64MP for S21 and Plus), the most powerful zooms (100x vs 30x) and the sharpest display (QHD vs 1080p).
In improver, the screen on the Ultra is more dynamic, every bit it tin can scale from 120Hz all the way down to 10Hz, while the panels on the regular S21 and S21 Plus go down to 48Hz. This helps salvage on bombardment life. And the S21 Ultra has the largest bombardment at v,000 mAh, compared to the S21 (four,000 mAh) and S21 Plus (4,800 mAh).
Lastly, the S21 Ultra has the most RAM at 12GB to 16GB, while the S21 and S21 Plus brand due with 8GB. And just the S21 Ultra has a 512GB storage option. Come across our full Samsung Galaxy S21 review for more.
Milky way S21 Ultra vs. iPhone 13 Pro Max
The biggest competitor for the Galaxy S21 Ultra is the iPhone 13 Pro Max. Apple's phone delivers faster functioning from its A15 Bionic chip, and you get a stiff Ceramic Shield front brandish that's designed to be more than durable.
Apple really airtight the gap this year past offering vastly improved bombardment life, a dynamic 120Hz display, and blistering operation. It also starts at $100 less than Samsung while offering better cameras to kick. If yous're platform-agnostic, there are few reasons to pick the Galaxy S21 Ultra over the iPhone 13 Pro Max.
For more than, see our in-depth iPhone thirteen Pro Max vs. Galaxy S21 Ultra confront-off.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra vs. Galaxy Z Fold 3
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is Samsung's latest foldable, showcasing the company'due south prowess when it comes to display technology and hardware pattern. The Fold 3 is a big, powerful phone that Samsung has intended to succeed the venerable Galaxy Note line (RIP).
The Z Fold three also has Due south Pen support like the S21 Ultra, though it has fewer cameras. Photography aficionados who prefer Samsung phones will want to stick with the S21 Ultra this yr.
Our Milky way Z Fold 3 vs. Galaxy S21 Ultra face-off breaks down the differences. Just if you're tired of the old smartphone pattern, and then the Galaxy Z Fold 3 (or even Milky way Z Flip 3) is worth looking at — begetting in mind that it'due south quite expensive.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra Android 12 update
Samsung released One UI 4 for the Galaxy S21 Ultra in mid-Nov 2021. This update brings Android 12, which offers several key improvements to the UI and privacy elements. Yous can now choose your system accent colour with the Color Palette, or access the privacy dashboard to see which apps are using your mic, camera, and location.
While Samsung has modified something from what you'll find on a Pixel phone, y'all can read our Android 12 review to learn more than about what you can expect with the update.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Verdict
Samsung nearly perfected the large-screen phone with the Galaxy S21 Ultra. The brandish is best-in-class, the cameras are much improved and y'all tin can even use this affair as a Galaxy Note if yous want to.
Personally, I see the S Pen back up every bit more of a bonus because of the added cost. That's another reason to go the Galaxy S22 Ultra, as that telephone ships with an included S Pen.
There are some things I don't similar about this flagship. It'south a flake big and heavy, and the lack of a charger and microSD card slot both sting. And while the S21 Ultra is fast, it'due south still a step behind the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Then again, Samsung's phone lasts longer on accuse and lets you lot practise more with its cameras.
Overall, if you were looking for the pinnacle of Android phones, the S21 Ultra had been it. These days, though, the S21 Ultra has made way for the Galaxy S22 Ultra, and that's simply good news for Samsung fans.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/samsung-galaxy-s21-ultra-review-pros-and-cons
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