Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G review

25 January 2021


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Nick Tegrataker, 27 Jan 2021Nope, the ringings on photos from phone cameras are caused ... moreSince you're so confident of your theory, you could do this to photos from whatever camera you use, and upload them somewhere and share the link. Theoretically, this should apply to any camera. I would gladly agree with you, if I see the actual results.

    Hellfire, 27 Jan 2021I just run geekbench 5 on samsung s21 ultra and single core... moreWhy do you even care about benchmarks? In everyday tasks you think the phone is gonna be slow? When was the last time you used a Samsung phone?

    Benchmarks don't mean jack. I dunno why people even talk about them.

    The phone isn't even available. Where are you getting your benchmark data?!

      TheLastOracle, 27 Jan 2021The ringing artefacts are due to how much they resolve. Thi... moreNope, the ringings on photos from phone cameras are caused (or emphasised) by oversharpening most of the time and are nothing to do with how much details are being resolved. Samsung, as always, applies too much sharpening to its image resulting in this odd "whitening" of edges as well as some discolourations in finer textures. Pit it against Find X2 Pro and Mate 30 Pro and you'll see what I mean - they all capture comparable amount of details yet photos from both X2 Pro and Mate look softer, more natural (especially in small lines/texts) with less obvious edge enhancement artifacts.

      Here are some simple steps to create ringing around edges in your photos:
      1. Select any image (including RAW) and import it to Lightroom.
      2. Take the sharpening slider all the way up to the right and use the largest sharpening radius settings.
      3. You should see white borders on high contrast edges.

        Anonymous, 27 Jan 2021Go purchase a 50$ wired and wireless earphones and tell me ... moreWe do, we just don't care about the difference.

          AnonD-973296, 26 Jan 2021i tried the dual aperture system on the s10e, it was from f... moreIn daylight, the only notable difference you can see between those two apertures are natural bokeh and depth of field. But in lowlight, the larger f/1.5 definitely helps a lot since more light can enter into the sensor. f/2.4 in low light is not what I call 'ideal'.

          GSMArena did wrote a good explanation about the difference between the two aperture: https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s9-review-1734p7.php

            • H
            • Hellfire
            • v3J
            • 27 Jan 2021

            I just run geekbench 5 on samsung s21 ultra and single core results is nowhere near 1000

              Pattern like last boss, not many can win. Like the raw capability though, wonder if it can do 108mp for monochrome or it saves just 12mp...

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • sFg
                • 27 Jan 2021

                Anonymous, 26 Jan 2021trust me, the performance will feel slow in 2 years later :) Let me guess, your last Samsung was the galaxy S6?

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • n5a
                  • 27 Jan 2021

                  Anonymous, 26 Jan 2021Probably a different cooling solution and/or reduced max po... moreshould technically perform better but thus could be reasoning for 1080p display as a 1440p uses kite power which overheat faster especially in smaller devices as they is less room for the heat

                  also reports of snapdragon 888 running very hot
                  and exynos runs hot anyways but looking at reviews they seem to throttle devices at 40c compared to snapdragon 45 c

                    • Y
                    • YBahadir
                    • J2M
                    • 27 Jan 2021

                    Now S21 can open EIS and HDR during Ultra 4K @ 60 FPS video recording? Can it do this in all lenses or not?

                      Nick Tegrataker, 27 Jan 2021S21U seems to suffer from a ton of ringing artifacts from e... moreIPhone has tons of noise in their low light images. Simply unacceptable on a flagship as mid rangers with gcam are outperforming the iPhone in low light.

                        And I will add one more thing , to all things that I wrote.
                        You see , i was hater of Iphone bih time , because they used to use lcd screens.
                        I hate them , visibility on them is ugly.....
                        Colour , everything

                        Now when iphone uses samsungs display or AMOLED , I have to say , iphone is the best

                          You can all talk the talk , but there are plenty of reasons why is apple better , and trust me on this, there was no bigger fan than me for Samsung.
                          Had them all from note series , not the s seris , s series was always way worse , until note 20 ultra.
                          Why is iphone better , everyone says that its closed system and it is , but also , you instal on pc 3utools , or imazing , and you can do whatever.
                          All apps are available to buy eaven from my shity country.
                          There are far less bugs than android but never mind that.
                          Now I will quote the one of the best things for something that iPhone does.
                          SIMPLICITY.
                          What is his nature , what does he do...
                          That was silence of the lambs...

                          Iphone just works or it doesn't

                          I hate notch on iPhone yes , I hate speaker grill on iPhone , yes , I hate the wery big price but that is it.

                          On samsung
                          There are still two versions of the same phone exynos and snapdragon, why?
                          Why two versions????
                          Is there a reason?

                          Technology is now great , is there a need to make the phone with camera bump on side , that can kill a man , and phone is shaking on side because of uneaven camera bump.
                          Also , curved screen , I don't know.

                          Everything on side , why two chips , why?

                          So they can push us in Europe with shits?

                            Nick Tegrataker, 27 Jan 2021S21U seems to suffer from a ton of ringing artifacts from e... moreThe ringing artefacts are due to how much they resolve. This is moire and aliasing happen in patterns due to the Bayer Pattern, in every known pattern. It can be undone with post processing, but it reduces detail even further. I know how it can be removed even without post processing. But I want to only share it with Samsung (so they have the patent for this). Maybe even have ny name on th patent ;-)

                            If iPhone 12 Pro Max resolves around 12 MP, the Mate 40 Pro Maz resolves about 18, while the S21 Ultra resolves around 24MP. That's why the dining pattern is available only on the Samsung. The other two have way lesser details to begin with. Samsung could reduce the aliasing/moiré with algorithms optimization too, only for very close lines, especially perfect geometrical ones.

                              • ?
                              • Anonymous
                              • w1f
                              • 27 Jan 2021

                              Solun1, 27 Jan 2021To each his own. If you require certain features like SD ca... moreGo purchase a 50$ wired and wireless earphones and tell me you don't discern a difference between audio quality.

                              You must be partially deaf or you are comparing 50$ wired to 300$ wireless

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • w1f
                                • 27 Jan 2021

                                dazed1, 27 Jan 2021Charging speed is already fixed, you should STOP thinking a... moreYes

                                  There is just too much camera difference in S21 and S21 ultra. And that's why I prefer buying Apple. Not much significant difference in lower or higher versions.

                                    To each his own. If you require certain features like SD card or a 3.5mm jack, don't buy the phone. But please stop trashing it. Most buyers of this phone are not tech people and Samsung knows it. These people are willing to use wireless earphones or headphones because they don't care about a micro-difference in sound quality. You WON'T be able to hear the difference unless you are ripping your music from CDs or use Tidal Hi-Res subscription. And most people are fine with with only 512 GB memory (or they can buy a lower memory version if that's sufficient for them). Among my friends, I am considered a person who has an enormous amount of data on his phone but even I struggle to fill my 512 GB Galaxy Note 9 and I don't even have an SD card in my phone because there really is no point for me. If you need 2 TB storage on a phone, then you simply need to buy a different phone. Just don't trash this one for a reason that most real buyers won't even consider to be an issue.

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                                      • dazed1
                                      • 3bm
                                      • 27 Jan 2021

                                      ypcx, 26 Jan 2021okay they fixed the battery endurance, hopefully they'... moreCharging speed is already fixed, you should STOP thinking about numbers, and see the results. It gets 5000 mAh full in 1 hour or so, is that slow for you?

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • Fht
                                        • 27 Jan 2021

                                        Have not used a wired headset foy years and would not be foolish enough to add a crappy slow SD card even if it did support it.