Finally, there's a reason to call this phone not just S 21, but also Ultra.
Bringing the Ultra in Samsung Galaxy S21
When it comes to Samsung, its Ultra product line consists of the best phones the brand has to offer. S21 is the third Ultra in line, following the S20 Ultra and the Note 20 Ultra respectively.
Starting at $1,199.99, it's not as outrageously expensive as its other Ultra phones, and telling you the truth, it's much better a deal than those others, considering the technology, too.
Typical Samsung: they had something (sam-sung) in mind that they couldn't quite pull off at first, but they kept on trying, and, at the third attempt, they finally got there.
With the first S20 Ultra, Samsung bit more than it could chew. Then the Note 20 Ultra was merely more than a bugfix edition.
Taking the above as a baseline, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is a huge leap for the brand's flagship phone line.
This is the Best Phone Out There Right Now. But is it the Best Phone for You?
Let's face it: the S21 is for a very special niche. The phone is vast in size, and still very expensive. But if you can live with those, then the S21 Ultra is easily the best Android phone you can get right now.
At 6.8 inches in size, the S21's screen is more a tablet than a smartphone. It's even 0.1 inches bigger than the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which seems like no coincidence.
Size, however, is just one thing - Samsung also made sure that the look and feel of the phone is that of a well-made device.
Well, they nailed it.
Exquisite design
The design choice of removing the camera bump was an excellent one. Camera bumps can often feel like a necessary evil on contemporary phones, and it's just great to have a device proving they are not.
The five holes of the cameras (plus one for the laser-focusing) are overwhelming enough, anyway.
While the size is massive, the phone is relatively comfortable to hold, as it's pretty narrow - but boy, it is heavy, too!
Well of course it is, it has all of Samsung's phone-building experience and expertise built in there - which is a lot.
Glass front, Gorilla Victus Glass back, and the signature Samsung phantom black finish. True, it's not as sensitive to fingerprints as many other glass-built phones.
Scratches and durability might easily be a different story, though.
Adaptive Refresh Rate is Now Default
The screen has an adaptive refresh rate up to 120Hz at its native 3200 x 1440 resolution, which, well, makes it the best smartphone screen out there by far.
The default color balance is very Samsung-ish, with vivid, soap-opera-like colors, but it can be customized, set to natural, and even fine-tuned within its own pre-set.
It also has an eye-comfort setting for low-light ambience, which will turn down blue lights.
A Real Powerhouse with Real Power
Under the hood of the S21 is Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 888 processor. In this case, the after-burner is mostly used to beef up image quality and to feed the variable refresh rate between 10Hz and 120Hz.
In a lab environment, the IPhone's A14 Bionic chip is more powerful, but when it comes to other Android phones, The Snapdragon 888 leads the way.
In everyday use, the phone feels extremely fast, without any lag or hiccup.
Considering its 5,000mAh battery, the phone also seems to be optimized for battery efficiency quite well.
During the extremely heavy use of our test, it easily lasted a day, so it's safe to assume that under normal conditions, it would even last two.
Accessories and their absence
When you're paying this much for a phone, you will want to spend some extra for the extra storage you can get. An additional $50 will get you 256GB instead of the default 128GB, but if you're ready to top up $180, you will not only get 512GB but also 16GB RAM instead of the built-in 12.
You will want to think about storage because there is no microSD card slot on the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Not exactly shocking, but an unwelcome development, definitely. Especially for a phone that allows you to take 8K video footage, and 108-megapixel photos.
A word about Samsung's S Pen stylus: the S21 Ultra is the first phone in the S-series that supports S Pen, although by default it is sold separately. It aims to merge the S and the Note phone lines, although it will hardly be a revolution for S21 Ultra users.
At least it won't be nearly as big an improvement as the new Qualcomm fingerprint sensor, which is substantially faster and more accurate than its predecessors.
Considering how many times we unlock our phones day in, day out, this will easily be the S21 Ultra's most frequently used, and most popular upgrade.
Another pro for a fingerprint sensor in COVID-times is, that it also works while wearing a mask.
The Best Phone Camera You Can Get
Now on to the phone's camera system, which is one of the features Samsung is extremely proud of.
The figures are there: 108MP photos and 8K videos have all the specs you would ever need. But is the camera system any good?
(If you remember, last year's Galaxy S20 Ultra wasn't, exactly, brilliant)
In fact, with the S 20 Ultra and the Note 20 Ultra, Samsung has fallen behind its competition. It needed some big changes in order to keep up.
It did change very, very big.
The camera system of the S21 Ultra is easily the best Android camera, and it is on par with the iPhone 12 Pro Max. In some aspects (like the telephoto), it even beats the iPhone.
The system comprises five image sensors. Which is boosted by a laser autofocus sensor to make up for the serious focusing issues found in S 20 and Note 20.
No, Really There's no Better Camera Phone on the Market Right Now
The 108-megapixel sensor will convert its images into the default 12MP pics via a process called remosaicing.
And this time - regardless of all the shiny and spectacular technical specifications - the actual images that result are convincing enough for anyone to call it a great camera.
Pictures look great, there is no substantial shutter lag, focusing is spot on, and fast.
The night mode results in much less noise than ever before, and it turns on automatically whenever the lighting conditions require it.
Of course, it still has the Samsung preset of tunings, that you either like or don't. Colors are vivid, things are bright - all in all much less realistic than many other camera phones, including the iPhone.
But when it comes to sharpness and detail, this is easily the best you can get from a camera. And now to the main feat: zoom in! The camera system has two lenses, and it did convince me it needed both.
Optical zoom allows you to go 3x, while data from the complex camera system lets you go up to 10x.
(And then, of course, you, again, have the 100x Space Zoom, but that's more of a toy than an actual camera accessory.)
If you are happy with the photo, you will be even happier with the video capabilities. Dynamic range, and adjusting exposure on the go are both working very well. There's a tangible improvement in stabilization as well.
Big words: it's better than the Pixel 5.
It is more or less equal to the iPhone Pro Max.
Save the telephoto option, which gives Samsung the win.
Top Notch Video and Pro Features
You can shoot in 8K, and then take a photo out of the footage. This can be a very useful option in certain scenarios.
All in all, the S21 Ultra's camera system does an amazing job both with photos and with videos.
It has a bunch of Pro options, including switching lenses on the fly while shooting 8K videos, or shooting in RAW format. Most people are very unlikely to use these features on an everyday basis.
The downside of this system is, of course, complexity. If you don't need all the bells and whistles, you might find this whole thing a bit overwhelming - which it is.
Rest assured: if you will take photos just by pushing (or rather: tapping) the button (or rather: screen), you'll end up with great photos, too.
And yeah, the nice skin option that I wholeheartedly hated in other Samsung cameras is now optional. Which means it can be switched off, completely.
Streamlined and Great User Experience
When it comes to general usability: the phone is less streamlined and intuitive than an iPhone would be, but given the big screen, it still can be managed relatively easily. But there's a lot of room for improvement in terms of simplifying things. There are loads of options that could simply be omitted or moved to an advanced section instead of using all the real estate in the quick settings.
Samsung's digital assistant, Bixby is still around, and I wasn't blown away
The Google Assistant does a way better job, and it's also available with the S 21 Ultra.
While the initial user experience is better at an iPhone, Samsung is much better at letting users customize the interface.
So if you're into Android, or simply have the patience and resilience, you can make the S 21 Ultra truly yours - and you can make it a great phone.
You will have to go through a lot of complexity to achieve this, but in the end, it will be well worth it.
Yes, it is.
Considering the features it offers, the quality of the basic services, including the best screen on the market, the best Android camera system on the market, and the relatively modest overhead in price, we can confidently say that the S21 Ultra is the best Ultra phone yet.
As well as the very best Android smartphone you can get right now.