Update Sam S21 Ultra Price Review – Readers voted the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra the best phone of the year. There was stiff competition, especially from the Google Pixel 6 series, which was the editor’s best model in 2021. But we’re now a year away from the phone’s launch, so what will the Galaxy S21 Ultra look like in 2022?
Of course, this phone is a favorite among our readers, so we know how you feel. However, today we get to look at the Galaxy S21 Ultra through the lens of 2022. Not only do we have the Galaxy S22 series just around the corner, which we know from all the leaks will include an Ultra variant, there’s a version of the Note, but we also have some serious hitters from OnePlus, Google and Xiaomi to consider.
Update Sam S21 Ultra Price Review
With all that in mind, is this phone worth buying today? Let’s jump into our long-term Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review and find out.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5g Hands On Review: The Real New Samsung Flagship, With S Pen Support, Fresh Camera Design, 120 Hz Screen
In our original review of the phone in January 2021, we awarded the Galaxy S21 Ultra a 4.5/5 star rating, placing it among the best phones of the year. What was available on the phone in the main processing, display and camera departments set us up. Especially compared to the Galaxy S20 Ultra, which didn’t really impress us, especially in terms of its design.
Six months after the phone was released, we were still impressed. Even when compared to Samsung’s new line of foldable phones, the Galaxy S21 Ultra was still worth buying. Its $1,200 starting price hasn’t stopped us from continuing to recommend it.
Another six months have passed and it’s time to give the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra the long-term review it deserves.
Currently, the closest and newest Android 2022 competitor to the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra we’ve seen is the OnePlus 10 Pro, a phone you can’t even buy outside of China. Interestingly, most of the specifications of this phone match or are weaker than the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra Review: An Annoyingly Hit And Miss Phone
For example, the battery sizes are the same (5000 mAh). The displays are also very similar: huge WQHD AMOLED screens with an adaptive refresh rate of 120 Hz. At the same time, the Galaxy S21 Ultra has a larger maximum amount of RAM (up to 16 GB) and a larger maximum amount of internal memory (up to 512 GB). The Galaxy S21 Ultra’s camera performance is much higher than that of the OnePlus 10 Pro.
Except for two aspects, the specification of the Galaxy S21 Ultra is even better than that of the OnePlus 10 Pro.
In fact, the OnePlus 10 Pro outperforms the Galaxy S21 Ultra in only two areas: processor and charging speed. The processor in the 10 Pro is Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which is the flagship of 2022. By definition, the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s Snapdragon 888 and Exynos 2100 are no match for it. However, these chipsets are monsters, but not as big as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
In fact, the only thing Samsung can’t compete with is the 10 Pro’s charging speed. The 10 Pro is literally three times faster than the Galaxy S21 Ultra for both wired and wireless connections. This is unfortunate, and we sincerely hope that Samsung fixes this difference with the Galaxy S22 series.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra Review: Fixed Focus
Outside of the Android ecosystem, Apple’s iPhone 13 Pro Max was released in late 2021 and is a serious competitor to the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Again, Apple’s A15 Bionic processor is slightly more powerful, but not enough to make a significant difference in the day-to-day experience. Samsung phones are still competitive in the display, storage and charging departments. The Galaxy S21 Ultra offers a more flexible and robust camera setup than Apple’s latest premium iPhone.
Regardless, the point is that even in 2022, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is still a great phone when it comes to raw specs. Even after a year, the phone can compete with other premium flagships. On the software front, the phone has already been updated to Android 12 with Samsung’s own One UI 4 improvements. You can read more about the new products at the link below.
Great specs are key to making a great phone, but so is design. After all, a lackluster design can make a phone look dated in a year, just because it will stick out like a pain compared to its more modern counterparts.
Fortunately, while testing the phone for this long-term Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review, I never once felt that it didn’t look or feel great. That’s notable because that wasn’t the case with the 2020 model. It’s great that Samsung has moved away from the brutal — and dare I say it: ugly — design of the Galaxy S20 Ultra. The S21 Ultra’s understated camera built into the side of the device and curved (but not too curved) sides give it a minimalistic elegance that can still look modern five years from now.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra Review
Of course, it’s still a huge and heavy phone. Weighing up to 229g – depending on the model – the Galaxy S21 Ultra will be a brick in your pocket if it even fits there. Holding its massive frame will be a bit difficult if you don’t have big enough hands, and trying to use the device with one hand is essentially a fool’s errand.
However, people who want phones in this category already know and have accepted this. People like me wish there was a way to get all the specs and features of the Galaxy S21 Ultra in a smaller and lighter form factor, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon. As is, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is still a beauty.
One of the biggest issues with the Galaxy S20 Ultra was the camera. Despite the great hardware, the phone was not good at some basic tasks like autofocus. However, the Galaxy S21 Ultra has solved all the problems of its predecessor, making it one of the best smartphone cameras of 2021 or any year.
Galaxy S21 Ultra Camera vs: Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max | HUAWEI P40 Pro Plus | Google Pixel 6 Pro
Here’s Why The Galaxy S21 Ultra Beats Samsung’s Older Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
No wonder the camera is still great today. Not only does it take great photos, but its dual telephoto system, including a periscope lens, allows for great flexibility. Focusing is no longer a problem, and the latest One UI 4.0 software includes many shooting options, including classic portrait and night modes. Combined with the aforementioned Snapdragon 888 processor, photos and videos are lightning fast.
Speaking of video, the phone can shoot up to 8K at 24fps or 4K at 60fps, with the latter also available from the front-facing camera. All the rear cameras have solid stabilization, and Samsung also has some additional software tools to help with video. Director View mode lets you switch between wide-angle and zoom lenses as you shoot, or use Single Take to automatically create minute-long clips and different photos.
Below you can see some photos taken of the Galaxy S21 Ultra after receiving the One UI 4.0 update at the end of November 2021:
Of course, nothing is ever perfect, and the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s camera still has room for improvement. For example, Samsung can still oversaturate colors in some cases, and sometimes the software gets too excited about the sharpening process.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5g Will Be Available At Rs 81,999 For A Limited Period
If those two things make you laugh, you can always use Samsung’s new Expert Raw camera app. This app effectively takes Samsung’s computer systems out of the equation and gives you full access to the S21 Ultra’s camera hardware. We wouldn’t recommend it to the casual user, but if you feel like the general camera software is too time-consuming, you’re probably not a casual user anyway.
When Samsung came up with the “Ultra” moniker, it was clear that the company was leaving the name behind a phone that has everything you could want. In fact, some might even argue that the Ultra phones we’ve seen so far are overkill in some areas – for example, 16GB of RAM is completely unnecessary.
Unfortunately, the Galaxy S21 Ultra doesn’t quite live up to its name. This is where the phone is lacking.
Samsung’s other two Ultra phones so far, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, have had expandable storage. The Galaxy S21 Ultra is weird, and it’s disappointing.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra Review: A Few Things To Like But Wonky Design And Not Worth Crazy High Price
Of course, expandable memory is becoming a lot like the headphone jack, I mean it’s disappearing from the mainstream at an incredible rate. Samsung could be forgiven for buying into this trend, but I think we need to hold anything with the word “Ultra” in the name to a higher standard.
This is especially disappointing when you consider that the phone is capable of shooting 8K video, which records files at an average of 10MB per second. Of course, the 512GB version of the phone solves this problem, but a microSD card slot would be cheaper and easier to use.
Rumors suggest that the Galaxy S22 Ultra may also lack expandable memory, so that’s a no-brainer
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