Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra long-term review

15 July 2021


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  • DD
  • Q0y
  • 16 Jul 2021

Chackla, 16 Jul 2021Samsung even makes army tanks and weapons btw. Samsung rule... moreAll those tanks and armies, still can't reach the level of Apple. Lol

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    • Anonymous
    • asP
    • 16 Jul 2021

    Shui8, 16 Jul 2021So with DPAF its more advanced? Lol. Quality depends on ima... moreAwww Huawei boy got salty...
    Dual PD AF is a lot more closer to omni directional AF in focusing speeds in real world compared to regular AF on Huawei's 10x zoom.

    Even the images at 30x, Samsung blows Huawei out of the water.

    You talk about image processing is better on Samsung? Sure... Even if it wasn't, one can use gcam on S21 Ultra zoom lens and extract even better image quality. You can't do that with Huawei p40 pro.

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      • Anonymous
      • yZ6
      • 16 Jul 2021

      Hemedans, 15 Jul 2021samsung Ui has never been the fastest, but you choose Samsu... moreChinese skins are featured rich as a well, lot of features absent on one ui that are present on Chinese skins

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        • Anonymous
        • yZ6
        • 16 Jul 2021

        Hemedans, 15 Jul 2021most people don't talk about Samsung bloatware because... moreThe problem is that there are some people on this site who can't stop bashing Chinese skins like miui, but they'll praise OneUi instead.
        So many people blame miui for not working smoothly on some 50-100$ device, yet they become silent when oxygen OS or one ui struggle on 50-100$ devices

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          • Anonymous
          • yZ6
          • 16 Jul 2021

          AnonD-762416, 16 Jul 2021Harman Kardon is Samsung. Everything in your Xiaomi is Sam... moreSo what? S21 Ultra still failed to beat mi 11 Ultra for phone of the year despite them having all Samsung

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            • JT
            • dPU
            • 16 Jul 2021

            I love mine. Had it for 4 months already and no problems whatsoever and the looks of the phone still impress me like day one.

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              • Tarso
              • p37
              • 16 Jul 2021

              Well, nice review, I'm divided between him and Mi11 Ultra which I was more atracted, now my attraction increases but I gonna wait for the long term review of Xiaomi's device to finally buy

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                • LoLoL
                • ph{
                • 16 Jul 2021

                one month ago I had Mate 40 pro, lack of google services (yeah, I knew it before got it) i sold it.
                Now I got this one S21 Ultra so i can truly compare both flagships.
                somehow, browsing the phone doing daily stuff Huawei felt more comfortable, no stucks/lags on galaxy, but huawei felt a little bit more nicer, but its like 51% huawei and 49% samsung.
                Cameras setup and quality without questions Mate 40 pro wins. To be honest i was expecting more from samsung for daily taking pics and so on...
                also both are biggest flaghsips and both are amazing..
                oh yes, one more important topic, both having curved screens, but on samsung "curve" do not feel at all, this is so good!!
                If Huawei would have google services I think I would keep with it...
                but having samsung is also no problems. happy to have it :)

                  When people will learn to distinguish "good" and "best" which means enormous?

                  Five cameras is not good - this is best versatility which is enormous. Colors are most vivid but not close to real ones. 100x zoom is amazing but used only to impress for few times in life.
                  Screen is not good - it is best in class, but too big, useless curves, max brightness to use as lamp
                  Processor is best! But they can't use it properly to avoid lags of system
                  Removed all physical accessories: charger, memory slot, headphone port.
                  Updates of android are fastest! But lack some features.
                  And all this perfection add weight! It weights as a real brick, phones with 7000mah battery weight less

                  Best at everything, but not good at anything.

                    walkman8, 16 Jul 2021I'll look into the mentioned flaws as a 5-month s21 Ul... moreYou can change the default cropped selfie view.

                    Go to Camera settings > Settings to keep, and enable Selfie angle.

                    This will keep the angle you last used for the front camera instead of switching back to the cropped angle.

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                      • Chackla
                      • NsB
                      • 16 Jul 2021

                      Rkm, 16 Jul 2021Samsung bought Harman which owns AKG, Bang and Olufsen, JBL... moreSamsung even makes army tanks and weapons btw. Samsung rules the display market. apple iphone screens are made by Samsung

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                        • S21 Ultra Ned
                        • 0aA
                        • 16 Jul 2021

                        This phone is perfect in every way.

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                          • Rizal
                          • AWZ
                          • 16 Jul 2021

                          Even if it equipped with 5000 maH, the battery is still drain quite much. I am not sure why, perhaps I charged it with Huawei charging plug (40W).

                            I'll look into the mentioned flaws as a 5-month s21 Ultra user:
                            "but it's still an all-black phone and that's rather dull"-I disagree, this is the best looking phone I've ever owned, and I've owned several HTC smartphones back in the day. I actually hate the childish trend of rainbow-colored smartphones, plus they're more attractive for thieves.
                            "would've preferred it to be lighter if not also thinner, but the big issue with handling is that it's top heavy, and rather significantly so."-I agree about the first 2 points, disagree with the last one. I hadn't felt that, it's surprisingly well balanced considered the camera hardware.
                            "One thing we'd like to mention regarding design is the very unfortunate positioning of the microphone pinhole at the bottom"-that never occurred to me,like ever. Unless you're drunk and tired, but I'd never hold my $1000 phone in that state of mind.
                            "Finally, let's address the invisible elephant in the room, and that's the airiness of the box."-I agree 100% on that.
                            "A lot of its competitors use more curved screens and have zero accidental touch issues, whereas the S21 Ultra does get a lot of them."-I never had issues with that. Granted, most of the day it's in the case, but in the evening I use it "naked" and never had that issue. I was actually surprised and expected accidental touches.
                            "Despite being the fastest and smoothest Samsung ever, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is not the smoothest phone around."-that's true, they really need to work on that. But at least I never had to reset or hard reset my device, which was often the case in my older Samsungs.
                            "After the last update which took the security patch level to June 2021, with our use case, we've always hit 5 hours of screen-on-time in a day, and we even managed 6 a few times."-I've had 7-9 hours SOT constantly. Granted, with lighter use and more efficient settings. But I am very happy with the battery life, especially considering the fact Samsung designed the chips, which never is good news.
                            "It's time for the Korean company to really up its charging game."- maybe just a little bit. Like, make the 45 w chargers you used to provide able to charge the phone in 50 minutes and it's ok, I don't mind it.
                            "Duplicate apps"-surprisingly, I found Samsung's apps to be far better than Google's alternatives (Messages, Chrome,Calendar,Gallery), all except for keyboard and voice assistant.
                            "The ultrawide photos are good, but definitely not the best we've seen from ultrawides lately"-agreed, p40 pro and op9pro beat it out of the park easily
                            "The ultrawide produces barely decent photos at night, far from outstanding or wow-inducing."-agreed
                            ""default is cropped" situation"-I barely used the selfie cam, but I guess it can get annoying.
                            2 things you forgot to mention: video recording in 4k60fps, 8k and Hyperlapse mode are comically badly executed, even after the updated.
                            Secondly, again you forgot to mention the overheating issues, just like you did with mi11. You might not notice it in breezy seasons, but in summer days it's definitely not something you won't notice.

                            All in all, with all the flaws mentioned, this is still the most balanced smartphone of 2021. Mi 11 Ultra was very close, but Xiaomi hurried up too much with trying to beat Samsung by quickly releasing mi11u and that resulted with half-baked software.


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                              • S21U
                              • fFC
                              • 16 Jul 2021

                              AnonD-986036, 16 Jul 2021Much more advanced, yes. The autofocus and the sensor are l... moretf r u said? im using both S21U n iphone 12 pro(for ipad integration), and with latest update which is yesterday, the lowlight cam on S21U r far more superior. im dare to day its the best today.

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                                • AnonD-986036
                                • Kx9
                                • 16 Jul 2021

                                Anonymous, 15 Jul 2021Samsung sensor is much more advanced, equipped with dual pi... moreMuch more advanced, yes. The autofocus and the sensor are larger and more advanced then P40 Pro+ One. But, what matters is results. Not specs. And Samsung phones have bad lowlight photos and videos without night mode

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                                  • Rkm
                                  • DkZ
                                  • 16 Jul 2021

                                  AnonD-986036, 16 Jul 2021Oh i just know that. I thought only AKG was Samsung. But te... moreSamsung bought Harman which owns AKG, Bang and Olufsen, JBL, infinity. Samsung is huge. I've read that they make helicopters or own a company that makes helicopter or something along that line.

                                    Perfect smartphone. I am only not happy with the selfie camera, difficult to shot more than one person from the hand.

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                                      • Anonymous
                                      • 2@V
                                      • 16 Jul 2021

                                      Amand, 15 Jul 2021We know s21 ultra is the best in 2021. Xiaomi 11 ultra ... moreNo way I would be using Exynos S21 series. Laughable gaming performance and terrible oilpainting cameras, yet people across the world still buy them thinking they are getting the best phone coz they read US-based reviews where Snapdragon versions are featured. I would rather go for Sony or Asus or Chinese brands if I had to deal with Samsung's way of treating their customers.

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                                        • Anonymous
                                        • 803
                                        • 16 Jul 2021

                                        I'm a user of S21 ultra SD. I don't understand the hate from some people who might very well be broke and can't afford this phone. The phone overall is great and is on top of the chart of the best phones for this period. The camera is great, colors, dynamic range, night mode etc. The zoom is just outstanding, it's like a telescope ffs. Battery is great (so far). Easily 24h with heavy use. Regarding bloat, of course it has, like since the beginning of the galaxy lineup. Wtf are you complaining about? Use whatever you need, what's so hard to understand? The screen is awesome. Build quality is great. Is this the perfect phone? Of course not, you must be an idiot to think and/or complain about that. Are there better phones? For my personal usage, no! I was about to get the iPhone 12 pro max, but the screen was a deal breaker for me. Other than that, iPhone is at the same level, with its plus and minus things compared with S21 ultra. Yes the phone is expensive, yes it might not justify the money for some of you, so what? There are a load of products out there overpriced. If you don't like this phone, just f*ck off, no one is forcing you to buy it. Buy whatever suits your tastes best.