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Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra Specs
Specifications are top-notch including Snapdragon 888 chipset, 5G capability, up to 16gigs of RAM, and 512GB of storage.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra vs. S21 Ultra: Which one is the better deal?
You can see the full breakdown in the chart below, but there’s not a huge difference between the two phones, based on specs alone, which may come as a disappointment if you were you hoping for a radical new vision for the Galaxy S series in 2022. The biggest physical difference is the S22 Ultra’s addition of the S Pen stylus, something typically only seen on the now-retired Galaxy Note series.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G Specs
The S21 Ultra 5G also supports Wireless PowerShare, which allows you to wirelessly charge other Qi-wireless devices using the 5,000 mAh battery built into the phone.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
The sensors include Fingerprint (under display, ultrasonic), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, and barometer. For the latest phones and tablets, check out giztop.com and get the best deals, coupons, offers, comparisons, reviews, and more!
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
With a sleek design, hyper-fast processing and a battery that won’t give out on you when you need it most, Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G lets you get creative, stay connected and do it all your way. With a larger and enhanced fingerprint sensor that’s fast and more accurate, an ultra-secure memory chip and privacy controls that keep access to your stuff firmly in your hands, security is infused right into your phone — from hardware to software.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra Review
In addition, US wireless carriers have revealed C-band 5G plans that the S21 Ultra is well positioned to take advantage of, and the phone is now widely available for less than its high list price. It’s a solid and premium-feeling phone with a unique (for the US) superzoom camera, a gorgeous screen, and future-forward network chops. The S21 Ultra sets the bar for Android performance in 2021 and its superzoom camera will lead you to look at the world in new ways.
Samsung has three models in its 2021 flagship Galaxy S series: the small S21, the medium S21 Plus, and the large S21 Ultra. The S21 Ultra is $999.99 at both Amazon and Best Buy at this writing, and Samsung has an intense trade-in game. That makes the S21 Ultra effectively less expensive than the iPhone 12 Pro Max ($1,099), which is rarely discounted.
My review unit is a solid matte block that resists fingerprints much better than last year’s glossy models. Slots and ports in general are, alas, going the way of the dodo; not enough people use them, and built-in memory has faster performance.
It hasn’t scratched after a few days of testing, an improvement over the Galaxy S20+ screen, which scuffed up quickly. Samsung says that the screen is 25% brighter than the Galaxy S20 Ultra, at 1,500 nits maximum brightness. You can set the screen resolution to 1080p or quad HD to save battery and increase game frame rates, but the option to manually switch between 60Hz and 120Hz refresh rates is now gone; instead, the display automatically changes from 10Hz up to 120Hz depending on what you’re looking at. The Ultra is the only member of the S21 family that works with Samsung’s S Pen, the active, pressure-sensitive stylus previously reserved for the Note series.
The S21 has the same super-low 9ms latency as the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, updating the screen with its virtual ink at 120Hz. We’ve heard rumors that there may be no Galaxy Note phone this year because of a global processor shortage.
As always, there are a bunch of different sub-models of the Galaxy S21, noted by a letter at the end of the product number.
The U model has a single SIM slot, a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, disabled e-SIM functionality, and all the appropriate bands for all US 5G networks, including millimeter wave and the upcoming C-band.
The PCMark and AIMark benchmarks appear to be broken on the S21 Ultra, delivering scores that are obviously far too low. For instance, the 888’s image signal processor lets the S21 Ultra combine its two telephoto cameras for much better 10x–30x zoom than last year, and a new Director’s Mode video feature lets you smoothly switch between cameras on the fly. So even without reliable benchmark numbers to quantify speed and power, it’s clear that this is a big step up from last year’s models. The bloatware situation on the unlocked units isn’t bad at all, but you should expect the usual dozens of unwanted apps on carrier-locked models, especially on AT&T.
Samsung gets rid of its unloved Bixby Home screen and puts Google’s browser front and center. It’s worth pointing out that Samsung does its best to link to other Galaxy devices and Windows laptops, similar to how iPhones hook up to Macs. On Windows laptops, you can answer texts, check notifications, or mirror your phone screen. You can also put the S21 in multi-windowed Dex mode for presentations on a big screen or use an additional keyboard and mouse.
Samsung’s home screen design still won’t be mistaken for Google’s, with its own colors, icons, and dialer. In our standard test, where we run a YouTube video with full screen brightness over Wi-Fi, we managed 11 hours and 20 minutes; that’s on par with other leading large phones. There’s a third-party app called Samsung Band Selector that might let you force your phone to use 4G, but it’s unsupported and could be disabled at any time.
You can always opt to avoid the cable question altogether and get a Qi-compatible wireless charging pad.
Verizon says it’ll cover 100 million people with C-band access by next March, which will likely triple the carrier’s 5G speeds. Standalone 5G, which eschews 4G, gives you lower latency and less chance of overloaded networks in crowded conditions, but you end up with slower overall speeds because you’re losing the add-on 4G components.
By forcing the phone into non-standalone mode using a field test screen, speeds rose to 258Mbps down and 69Mbps up on average, with 26ms latency. This will become especially relevant when you’re hooking your phone up to multi-gigabit home internet service, when and if that appears in the next few years. Samsung’s phones used to work with older credit card swipe machines that didn’t have the Apple/Samsung Pay specs. I was very happy to see that Wi-Fi calling was finally available on my unlocked model on all three major US wireless carriers. The phone technically supports eSIM, but it’s been disabled on this model, and Samsung has shown no sign of intending to enable it. The S21 did much better at keeping different elements of a setup in focus, though its photos weren’t quite as sharp as those from the iPhone 12.
High-level zoom, which is really shaky on the S20 series, is now stabilized so it’s much easier to lock onto the part of the image you need. The big difference between this and the S20 generation is Night mode; the S21 has one, so you can finally take decent selfies in the dark. With good light, that front-facing camera is actually great, with more detail than the S20 Ultra, and better contrast than the iPhone 12.
It was big and heavy, the list price was high, and carriers hadn’t released their C-band plans.
And the more uses I find for the 10x zoom and games I play on the big, bright screen, the more I appreciate just how well this phone is put together. Samsung has some accessories to sell you, too: a watch, earbuds, and a smart tag locator. The Note 20 comes with an S Pen and a microSD memory card slot, but the S21 Ultra is more future-facing as a long-term investment. The iPhone has nothing like the S21 Ultra’s superzoom, but it has somewhat better night performance and, for serious photographers, a much better ecosystem of third-party camera apps and integration with Mac computers.
The OnePlus 9 Pro has speedy, elegant software and is also a great choice, but the S21 noses just ahead of it on radio performance and superzoom.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 4.5 Editors’ Choice See It $1,049.97 at Amazon MSRP $1,199.99 Pros Beautiful design and solid build
Equipped for next-gen C-band and Wi-Fi 6E connectivity Cons Heavy The Bottom Line The Galaxy S21 Ultra delivers a high-quality superzoom camera that truly works, supports Samsung’s excellent S Pen, and sets the bar for smartphone features in 2021.
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