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Going all the way from the ultra-wide camera at 0.6x to the digitally zoomed-in 30x with usable photos each step of the way is how Samsung stands apart from Apple and its cameras on the iPhone 12 Pro Max (capped at 2.5x optical / 12x digital), and Google’s Pixel 5 (no telephoto). No one (except Huawei) is doing zoom on a smartphone like this in 2021, and your Apple phone-owning friends will have telephoto envy. This is still Samsung’s best screen, but for many other reasons. We found the 6.8-inch body to be easier to grasp than the 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max, and that’s in large part thanks to the curved display and overall narrowness of Samsung's device. The curved edges are subtle on the S21 Ultra, and not quite as pronounced as on past Samsung devices, and that means fewer errant presses. It should come as no surprise that the quality of the images that the Galaxy S21 Ultra is capable of capturing are nothing short of exceptional. As with other high-megapixel-count flagships, the S21 Ultra doesn’t capture 108MP images by default – although this can be enabled in the settings – instead taking 12MP pictures in the auto mode.
Keep in mind that there’s no microSD card slot for expandable storage, so if you’re keen on taking lots of 4K 60fps or 8K 24fps video, you may want to look into the pricier 256GB or 512GB storage sizes – and the latter of those sizes also bumps up the RAM to 16GB. The big differentiator between the S21 (and S21 Plus) and the S21 Ultra is their camera systems. While Apple and Google attempted to squeeze as much as they could from 12-megapixel sensors last year using clever software optimisations, Samsung is going all-in with pixels. Of course, with all non-essential shops currently closed in the UK, you’ll only be able to get these phones online right now. A choice you don’t have to make, however, is whether or not to pay extra for a 5G model. All three phones come with 5G at no additional cost this year and the Galaxy S21 Ultra even supports Wi-Fi 6E connections (the first smartphone to do so), although the number of people likely to have a new 6GHz router at home is vanishingly small right now.Samsung says this new AMOLED 2X Infinity-O display is the most intelligent it has ever shipped on a smartphone. It has an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, which changes based on what you are doing on the device, so you'll always get silky smooth scrolling ...without a battery life hit. This panel also includes a technology called Eye Comfort Shield, which automatically adjusts blue light levels to make it more comfortable to view for long periods.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra has the biggest screen of the three new S21 phones, stretching out across 6.8in. It’s one of Samsung’s “Dynamic AMOLED 2x” panels and it now supports 120Hz at the native WQHD+ resolution (1,440 x 3,200) of the panel.The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the S21 of choice for those wanting the “best” of everything. Even more so than last year, Samsung is pushing this handset as the true flagship we’ve all been waiting for. Model Proximity Sensor, Hall Effect Sensor, Light Sensor, Gyroscope Sensor, Accelerometer (G-Sensor), Fingerprint Sensor Overall, though, the S21 Ultra lags slightly behind the Snapdragon 888 (tested in the Xiaomi Mi 11) and is no match for the as-yet-unbeatable processing speeds of the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Samsung says the phone is capable of capturing high-resolution footage from multiple cameras at the same time in what it calls Director’s View. You can also capture 12-bit files, which are better for professional editing. Samsung’s also claiming the Single Take feature, which takes photos and videos simultaneously, is far smarter thanks to the increased AI prowess of the phones new chipset.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra has the same Exynos 2100 chipset (it’s the Snapdragon 888 in the US) as the rest of the lineup. Unlike the other phones, however, you also get the option to upgrade from 12GB of RAM to a whopping 16GB, along with a choice of either 128GB, 256GB or 512GB of non-expandable storage. In my experience, 16GB of RAM is pretty much overkill for any smartphone – my MacBook Pro “only” has 8GB of RAM.This is bad news for consumers who are looking to make the switch from iPhone to Samsung, since the Galaxy S21 Ultra charges via USB-C and thus doesn’t support Apple’s Lightning cable. Perhaps a more consumer-friendly tactic would be to provide a choice as to whether or not the charger was included, instead of removing it entirely. Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Display
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