Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Strong overall package without major weaknesses

Last year the South Korean manufacturer presented that Galaxy s20 ultra, which was the almost perfect smartphone on paper. However, it quickly became apparent that huge numbers do not always lead to a better user experience in everyday life. Now a year has passed and the successor, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, should do everything better.

Although on paper there have been no major changes compared to its predecessor, the S21 Ultra is said to be significantly better and to have fewer teething issues in everyday use than the S20 Ultra. Especially with regard to the built-in Exynos processor, battery life and camera. In the following lines we will now answer the question of whether Samsung has been able to eliminate the weaknesses of its predecessor and whether the S21 Ultra is perhaps currently the best smartphone on the market.

Haptics, design and processing

Samsung's ultra smartphones have always been characterized by their enormous dimensions and were very difficult to operate with one hand. This is also the case with the Galaxy S21 Ultra. The smartphone measures an impressive 165,1 x 75,6 x 8,9 mm and weighs 227 grams, making it 5 grams heavier than its predecessor. Despite the slight difference in weight, the S21 Ultra somehow feels a little lighter and, above all, more balanced. With the S20 Ultra, I constantly have the feeling that the device would fall out of my hand due to the top-heavy weight distribution. Samsung has finally eliminated this criticism of the predecessor, which of course does not mean that the S21 Ultra is a light smartphone. I would advise everyone to hold the device in their hands before buying it. If you like big, heavy and thick smartphones, then you will get your money's worth here. Personally, it would be a bit too much for me and I often had problems operating the device well with one hand.

The front is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, the most robust glass currently used in a smartphone. Unfortunately, I cannot yet confirm whether this is actually the case, as I have used the device with the pre-installed screen protector. If you unlock the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, you are greeted by a huge display, which is only interrupted by a small, centrally located punch hole in which Samsung places the front camera. The edges around the panel are even a bit smaller than on the predecessor. At the moment only that can be done here Galaxy note 20 ultra and Huawei P40 Pro + keep up. Many should be pleased that the manufacturer has extremely reduced the rounding of both sides of the panel in this year's Ultra, which means that there were no incorrect entries in my everyday use.

Next, let's take a closer look at the frame. This consists of metal with a high-gloss finish and is therefore extremely susceptible to fingerprints and scratches. While the left side of the frame is kept completely blank, the South Korean manufacturer has installed the buttons for louder and quieter on the right side. The on / off button is located directly below it. Despite the huge form factor, all keys are still easy to reach. The USB-C port, a microphone and one of two speakers are located on the bottom. The second was integrated into the earpiece. Of course, we'll take a closer look at the quality of the speakers later. Samsung then installs two more microphones on the top.

If we turn the smartphone around, the silver color we tested immediately catches the eye. It is matt, which means that it is not susceptible to fingerprints and always looks a little different depending on the incidence of light. If this color is too colorful for you, Samsung has four other, more subtle colors on offer: black, gray, blue and brown.

In addition to the color, you should immediately notice the new camera design in the upper left corner. Samsung has come up with something new here that I haven't seen in any other smartphone in this form. The camera hill extends from the frame of the device to the rear. I'm a big fan of it and I'm always speechless when I compare the design of the S20 Ultra with that of the S21 Ultra. Samsung has taken a big step forward here. Unfortunately, the camera bump protrudes quite a bit from the housing, which means that the S21 Ultra wobbles a bit when it is used on the table.

There is absolutely no reason to criticize the workmanship. Nothing creaks here, nothing wobbles here and in general it makes an extremely stable impression. The keys sit tight in the case and have a good pressure point.

Display - the best (almost) everywhere

One of the highlights is the built-in OLED display on the front. This measures an impressive 6,8 inches and has a razor-sharp resolution of 3.200 x 1.440 pixels. Individual pixels cannot be recognized in everyday life. In addition, the panel supports a smooth refresh rate of 120Hz and this year it can finally be used with the WQHD + resolution at the same time. Furthermore, it is a so-called LTPO display, which was introduced with the Note 20 Ultra. LTPO technology enables the smartphone to switch between different refresh rates.

I can say almost only positive things about the quality. Starting with the excellent and realistic color reproduction, the really good black level that is typical for OLED, the white level, and the fantastic brightness. No other display gets as bright in automatic mode. As a result, even on sunny days there are no problems with readability. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with the viewing angle stability, which by no means means that it is bad, but compared to the competition and considering the high price, I would have expected a little more. Samsung could improve this a little in future smartphones.

Software - One UI

The in-house user interface One UI in version 3.1, based on Android 11, is used as software. One UI is a highly customized interface that has little to do with stock Android. Nevertheless, I like it relatively well, because the idea of ​​One UI is to be able to operate the smartphones reasonably well with one hand despite the huge displays. There are also some additional functions, such as an eye protection mode, an ingenious gesture control, a very good always-on display and double tap to switch on and off. In addition, Samsung promises to provide the device with updates for four years.

Performance - fast and fluid

Under the hood here in Europe is the new Exynos 2100, with either 12 or 16 GB of RAM and 128, 256 or 512 GB of internal storage that cannot be expanded. I tested the top version with 16 GB of RAM.

Over the last two to three years, the company's own Exynos processors have been heavily criticized, especially in terms of efficiency. On paper, they were also slightly worse in terms of performance than the Qualcomm processors, but that is negligible because everyday performance is excellent. Apps start and close extremely quickly, there are practically no stutters or delays and overall the operating speed is very high. The only thing that could be improved is the processing of photos. This sometimes takes a really long time.

Heatprostated problems?

Another point of criticism of last year’s Exynos processors was the heat development, which also caught our editor Kenneth with the Note 20 Ultra. First of all, I would like to give a slight all-clear when using the Galaxy S21 Ultra on a daily basis. I haven't noticed anything negative here, but things change when gaming, taking photos or running a benchmark. Only then does the smartphone become noticeably warm, but by no means worryingly so. It might only become a problem in the summer when temperatures are higher.

Battery - good, but not perfect

Samsung has equipped the S21 Ultra with a 5.000 mAh battery that can be charged quickly with up to 25 watts. However, you have to buy the required power supply separately if necessary. I think that's just ridiculous for such a high price, especially because at the beginning they made fun of Apple publicly.

I always got through a day well and often 1,5 days were no problem at all. The screen-on time with 120Hz activated was usually between 8 and 9 hours. With mainly WLAN use, almost 10 hours were possible. If you deactivate the smooth 120Hz refresh rate and use the device at 60Hz, the battery lasts a good hour longer. In themselves, these are really excellent values, but for 5.000 mAh you can expect a little more, especially because other smartphones with 120 Hertz and significantly smaller batteries, such as the OnePlus 8T or Sony Xperia 5II, offer similarly long battery life. Nevertheless, the battery life is very good and no one should have problems getting through a day without charging.

Standby consumption

One of the biggest problems with last year's Exynos processors was the enormous standby consumption, especially when on the mobile network. Samsung wants to get this problem under control with the new Exynos 2100 and has certainly succeeded.

Standby test in the WLAN

To test the standby consumption exclusively in WLAN, I took three other smartphones, charged them all to 100 percent overnight and left them in standby mode for 15 hours the next day. OnePlus 8 Pro, Live Y70 and I live X51 5G against the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. All were on the same WiFi and did not have a SIM card. Furthermore, Bluetooth, GPS, manual brightness and the always-on display were all activated. So all devices were in the same state. The results after 15 hours actually surprised me in a positive way. Both the Galaxy S21 Ultra and the Y70 from Vivo only lost 16 percent, the Vivo X51 5G lost 23 percent and the OnePlus 8 Pro even lost a full 24 percent.

Standby test in the cellular network

Next, I wanted to test the standby consumption in the mobile network, where I also activated the WiFi every now and then. For this comparison, I chose the Y70 because it lost the same amount of battery as the S21 Ultra in the previous test. The same conditions applied again in this test, i.e. Bluetooth, GPS, etc. were activated and both had a SIM card from the same provider. After 7 hours in standby, the S21 Ultra lost 8 percent of battery and the Y70 only 5 percent, which means that the standby consumption in the mobile network is slightly worse than in WiFi. Overall, I was quite satisfied here, although Samsung could still improve a bit here.

camera

When it comes to cameras, Samsung is throwing numbers around again. They install a total of four sensors on the back, which are arranged in the upper left corner. The main camera has a resolution of 108 megapixels like its predecessor, although this is a better, newer sensor. There is also an ultra-wide-angle camera with 12 megapixels and a field of view of 120 degrees. Thanks to the new laser autofocus technology, macro shots are also possible. The manufacturer also installs two telephoto lenses, each with a resolution of 10 megapixels. One of the two enables a 3x optical zoom and the other even allows 10x optical zoom recordings. Digital can be zoomed up to 100 times. The front camera on the front has a resolution of 40 megapixels.

Four cameras? Or maybe five cameras? No, there are four cameras and a laser autofocus. (Picture: TechnikNews)

Starting with the main camera. In good lighting conditions, this takes excellent pictures, which are characterized above all by an excellent dynamic range and good sharpness. As is typical for Samsung, colors are rendered a bit stronger, but still sufficiently realistic. Compared to last year's Galaxy smartphones, Samsung has improved a lot here. As soon as the lighting conditions become more difficult, you should activate the night mode, in which the images are exposed for around 2 to 6 seconds, depending on the situation. This makes the images significantly brighter and sharper. Overall, I was very satisfied with the lowlight performance, even if Huawei is still a bit better, especially when it comes to sharpness. Nevertheless, I can see visible improvements compared to the predecessor. The night mode is much more reliable on the S21 Ultra and no longer overdoes the contrast values ​​so much.

The ultra-wide-angle camera is definitely one of the best on the market. It takes sharp photos with a good dynamic range and here too, colors are reproduced a little more strongly than in reality. There are some blurred areas at the edges here and there, but this problem is noticeable with almost all ultra-wide-angle cameras. In poor lighting conditions, the quality visibly decreases, despite night mode. Occasionally, quite usable results are still achieved, but often the images are too dark and quickly start to become noisy. Here, too, Huawei is still a little ahead. In addition, the ultra-wide-angle camera automatically switches to macro mode as soon as the distance between the sensor and the object is between 2 and 30 centimeters. The resulting images impress with great sharpness and good bokeh. Dear manufacturers, you don't need a dedicated macro camera.

The biggest improvements, however, are in the zoom. The 3x magnification is perfect for everything close up and the 10x magnification is extremely useful if you want to photograph objects from a distance. For a smartphone, the quality is simply impressive. The images are sharp and impress with very good and realistic color reproduction. I even like it visibly better than my Huawei P40 Pro+. However, the latter has a slight edge in terms of sharpness and in more difficult lighting conditions. But where Samsung outclasses all the competition is in stabilization. While Huawei usually needs five attempts to hit the right object, the S21 Ultra usually only needs one attempt. In conclusion, it can be said that the S21 Ultra, together with the P40 Pro+, has the best zoom camera in a smartphone. Big praise Samsung.

Videos in 4K at 30 or 60 FPS look really good in daylight. As soon as it gets dark, however, they are no longer usable and 8K videos are still a gimmick. With the front camera, you can take quite passable selfies, even if faces are always drawn a little too soft for my taste.

Test photos

Let's take a look at a few test photos. The following images are unprocessed, but compressed without loss in order to keep the loading times and memory consumption of the website low.

Comparison with the Huawei P40 Pro+

Let's compare the camera in different situations with the Huawei P40 Pro+. Both devices have a 3x optical, 10x optical and 100x digital zoom.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra scores with significantly better macro shots, a slightly better dynamic range and more realistic color reproduction from 3x magnification. The P40 Pro+ impresses with better low-light performance and slightly higher sharpness from 10x magnification.

Comparison with the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra

In this comparison, we mainly want to see whether Samsung has got the weaknesses of last year's predecessor under control with the S21 Ultra.

Samsung has definitely got the weaknesses of the predecessor under control. Thanks to a new autofocus system, the S21 Ultra focuses much more precisely and reliably. Furthermore, the night mode has become noticeably more reliable and delivers visibly better results. When it comes to zooming, the S20 Ultra can no longer keep up with a 10x magnification at the latest. So Samsung has improved a lot here in a year.

Other - great speakers, good fingerprint sensor, etc.

As already mentioned at the beginning, Samsung uses the earpiece as a second speaker, which creates a stereo sound. They sound really good and get louder than any other speaker I've ever tested. The built-in vibration motor was also able to convince me across the board. It gives an extremely high quality feeling and does not sound annoyingly loud.

The smartphone can be unlocked using the fingerprint sensor integrated into the display, which is easy to reach. Compared to its predecessor, it is almost twice as large, which makes it easier to hit it with your finger. It reacts extremely quickly and often just a quick tap on the area is enough to unlock the device. There is nothing to complain about when it comes to reliability, but others can keep up very well. For me, the fingerprint sensor on the Samsung Galaxy 21 Ultra is currently one of the best on the market.

In addition, the S21 Ultra supports the S-Pen, which, unlike the Galaxy Note series, cannot be accommodated in the device. You can optionally buy it from Amazon for currently 40 euros. Depending on your needs, a silicone cover or a Smart Clear View cover can also be purchased, in which the pen can be integrated on the side. Compared to the current Note, the S-Pen of the S21 Ultra unfortunately lacks Bluetooth, which means that there are no remote control functions.

Furthermore, the smartphone is protected against the ingress of water and dust according to IP-68.

Conclusion

I really liked the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra because it doesn't have any major weaknesses. Unfortunately, the memory expansion was crushed, the battery life could be a little better for the size of the battery and the lack of a power supply is completely incomprehensible to me. But in all other points, such as the display, the performance, the camera, the equipment and the speakers, it is one of the best, if not the best, on the market. The battery life is also really good, but as already mentioned it could be a bit better for the size of the battery.

I also find it extremely impressive what the South Korean manufacturer has improved in one year compared to the S20 Ultra: starting with the feel and design, through to the processor, battery life and of course the camera. While the predecessor was not really fully developed in some areas, the S21 Ultra seems like a finished product of the S20 Ultra.

In principle, I can recommend the S21 Ultra to anyone looking for a large smartphone that places particular emphasis on the display, the camera and powerful features. Unfortunately, the price has not yet fallen significantly, which is why I would wait a few more weeks before buying the smartphone until the smartphone is offered for around 1.000 euros. Then you can definitely access it and get a smartphone with a strong overall package without major weaknesses.

Buy Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra

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