Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G MORE PICTURES

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G

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Current device. Good so far

Moderate charging speed (1hr 35mins max), good processor and camera.

Can't update to One UI 6 yet but fairs I guess. Wanted to get this bad in '21 but couldn't


Played games with bitches and a few video editing apps as well.

Still good enough for use in '24

    This phone is well over 3 years old (I recently gave it to my dad and moved to the Xiaomi 14 Ultra). I wiped it and set it up for him (with the new setup designed to give optimal battery life). He gets three days on a single charge despite the battery being 3 years old.

    Well done Samsung. The S21U was ahead of its time and was a marvel of a design. However they have sat on their heels and failed to innovate much since then. Hence my jump away from them.

    Oh how I wish a true class leading successor to the S21U was in the cards. I hate the squared off design of the 22U, 23U, 24U, etc. I also could not possibly care any less about having a stylus. To me that just takes up valuable interior space. I'd make a trade for another 500mah of battery any day of the week in place of that (or better camera hardware).

      Superb phone!! Went to the riverside took lots of pics of friends, family and nature with different modes all turned out great, the battery lasted till the next day I'm using the Exynos version & no complaints so far still get fast updates (April being the latest). All in all a very satisfying experience using this phone ❤️

        So I tried call recording in Firefds Kit. It starts recording after call is connected and adds a new option in the phone with an option to autorecord calls.

        And it works.

          Camera is pretty decent if not outstanding but that's the case with almost all phone cameras. I've tried the S22 Ultra camera & it's way to contrasty compared to this. As far as battery is concerned for me it's quite satisfying as I use standard refresh rate minus QHD (I don't game on it) with all useless apps put to deep sleep plus some handy tricks to save battery life so for me it lasts for over a day with somewhere around 7 hours of SOT. Overall it has been a good experience using this phone even in 2024.

            Sreenadh R, 13 Apr 2024Using S21 Ultra 5g for more than year now. These are the pr... moreCon #1: I don't know about previous One UI since I bought it brand new recently and updated to latest, but the cameras seem to have good details. I'm not a photographer but everyone is impressed with the details and quality. Except 10x in low light.

            Con #3: I get 8-10% battery wastage per hour with screen on as shown by Battery Guru, using Brave browser, 16%/hr plus battery heatup with music with JamesDSP + ViPER4Android. Idle, with Naptime (Doze turns on much sooner than stock) in NFS Injector plus sensor disabled during Doze plus deep doze plus doze optimizations in NUKED I get maybe 1% per hour idle (screen off). In contrast, Firefox heated up my phone and wasted more battery than Brave (but with tons of addons). It depends on the apps you use and so on. I also turned on Adaptive battery. I also put most apps in deep sleep, and a few in sleep.

            Con #4: That's battery management at work. You can force it to keep up to 5 apps constantly on, not killing them, by opening recents, tapping the app icon, and selecting Keep open. Plus, in settings you can choose apps to never sleep.

            Con #6: Again, see #3

            Con #7: Same happens with FTP transfer through WIFI. Don't know about 5G (don't have it here) but I think constantly using it to transfer huge amounts of data quickly, just like FTP, taxes both the radio and the internal storage. Other than music and constant and long WiFi FTP transfer (10 MB/s for 2.4 and 30 MB/s for 5 GHz) the phone doesn't heat up. And how do you know Snapdragon doesn't heat up too in same conditions? I'd rather have Exynos than SD, since I use root for Doze optimizations, NUKED scripts, Neo Backup apps and app data backup and restore plus those two audio effects I mentioned. Oh, and LSPosed (successor to XPosed) modules which can customize and unlock many features. Plus Magisk modules.

            With root, you can always set the governor to Conservative in SmartPack Kernel Manager - Conservative keeps CPU cores at lowest possible frequency and only rarely ramps it up but really slows down the phone when video editing and all that (but UI is still smooth as ever). Or even powersave governor for even more power saving but even less performance.

              Alright.

              I chose Hi-Res Output, enabled USB DAC, and chose 352.8 kHz. That put the Shanling UA3 into 384 kHz sample rate, and the indicator lights up purple to indicate this. It's using 32 bits. But the volume is lower. 192 kHz and lower gets me normal high gain it's capable of, with the indicator lighting up yellowish-green to indicate 192. Still 32 bits at auto.

              All audio effects (JamesDSP and ViPER4Android) work with all sample rates.

              OpenSL ES shows 48 even if I choose 44.1. And 24 bits if I enable 32 bits. Even though PowerAMP is showing 48 in OpenSL ES, the indicator is still yellowish-green when UHQ is on, which means the DAC/AMP detected 192 kHz on a hardware level, and I tend to trust that more as it's always right, even in Windows and Linux when you manually choose the sample rate.

              So up to 384 kHz / 32 bits in PowerAMP is supported, IF your DAC/AMP supports it, with the issue of low gain on that sample rate. 192 is normal, double the volume at least of standard 3.5 mm adapter and 384 kHz. Plus all that power means I can REALLY ramp up the bass with UHQ, ViPER4Android, JamesDSP and jetAudio without it lowering volume, even at over 50% system volume turned up (which is WAY too high with ATH-M50x, 34 out of 150 as shown with Sound Assistant expanded volume notification is plenty enough).

              If you're interested in UA3 since you like high sample rates, you can find it on eBay (no, I won't link it, for fear they'll delete my comment) - find annie-audio seller, it's 20 USD postage from China, but it arrives well-packed and in 2 weeks or less. Also, a good-quality replacement durable cable is ddHiFi TC07S, from the same seller, expensive but really durable. Since Shanling UA3 has a detachable Type-C port, you can use ANY cable with it and it will work; and not worry about it dying because of a faulty cable since you can just replace the cable. Except iOS devices, which need special Type-C OTG cables.

                Sreenadh R, 13 Apr 2024There's an option in poweramp to check the sampling ra... moreI use jetAudio player for Z-Bass and X-Bass and Z-Treble effects.

                And JamesDSP for systemwide effects, bass, convolver and AutoEQ.
                And ViPER4Android for systemwide effects plus additional bass plus ViPER Clarity.

                You can use RootlessJamesDSP in conjunction with Shizuku to get systemwide effects plus AutoEQ but it won't work in every app. Or Wavelet + adb (or Shizuku + aShell to send adb without a PC) to get systemwide AutoEQ plus a few effects in legacy mode.

                You can download a good bass convolver called Magic Bass here: https://xdaforums.com/t/irs-sound-mod-vinardos-impulse-response-samples-elements-of-fidelity-ex-dolby.2765331/

                I'll check out PowerAMP and see the sample rate and bits for Shanling UA3 and report after I charge my phone later.

                Edit: I think PowerAMP just shows the sample rate and kbps of the song, not of what the system is using, because it showed 48 kHz for Over the Horizon ringtone and 44 kHz for an mp3, and 44.1 kHz and high bitrate for another FLAC. Rest assured, if it supports it, and UHQ is enabled, it will use it. I will check out later once my phone is charged, since the indicator on UA3 shows clearly 192 kHz used.

                Edit 2: nevermind, found the sample rate used by device option in setting by searching.

                  • S
                  • Sreenadh R
                  • X@g
                  • 13 Apr 2024

                  vjx012, 13 Apr 2024About #2 con, try turning on UHQ. It's in Settings -&g... moreThere's an option in poweramp to check the sampling rate. I always turns on the UHD when wired connect. Poweramp also notifies the current devices Supported hires or not

                    This may be obvious, but coming from S10+ which was using LineageOS 20, I was annoyed by slow install speed.

                    The culprit is McAfee virus scanning bundled with One UI. So turn off virus scanning while installing for a massive install speed boost.

                    To do so, go to Settings -> Security and privacy -> App security -> App protection. Tap the three dots in the upper right corner, then tap App protection settings. Then turn off Auto scan when installing apps.

                    This provides a massive boost in install speed, at the cost of no malware scan when installing apps. But if you already know that sideloaded and Google Play apps you installed or plan to install are virus-free (and I have yet to find a virus since I had my first Android, Galaxy S3) you can turn it off while installing those apps en-masse (such as when restoring from your previous phone or from a factory data wipe), and only turn it on while installing one suspicious app, then turn it off after that.

                      vjx012, 13 Apr 2024About #2 con, try turning on UHQ. It's in Settings -&g... moreJust checked using Eddict Player companion app for Shanling DAC/AMPs like Shanling UA series that allows advanced settings like low/high gain, fixed sample rate, native DSD playback and so on.

                      Fixed sample rate of 96 kHz lights up green, 192 yellowish-green (this needs exclusive USB access, disabling anything other than the app using it, such as sound effects like ViPER4Android and JamesDSP). UHQ lights up yellowish-green too. UHQ therefore plays up to 192 kHz, and probably uses 32-bit as shown by FLOAT support in Sample Rate Checker.

                      Edit: ViPER4Android shows 48000 and FLOAT, while the dongle is yellowish-green, working anyway despite the higher sample rate. Note that I'm using ViPER4Android Reverse Engineered which should support higher that 48 kHz unlike original ViPER4Android. Therefore it uses FLOAT by default if the dongle supports it.

                        Sreenadh R, 13 Apr 2024Using S21 Ultra 5g for more than year now. These are the pr... moreAbout #2 con, try turning on UHQ. It's in Settings -> Sounds and vibration -> Sound quality and effects. UHQ can only be turned on for wired headphones.

                        I have a Shanling UA3, and it has a LED showing sample rate. When I turn on UHQ and play music from any source, it lights up green for 192 kHz sample rate, to return to 44.1 or 48 kHz when I stop music - without UHQ it defaults to 44.1/48 always (the dongle lights up blue to indicate this). The dongle supports up to 32 bit 768 kHz sample rate, and sample rate checker shows up to 384 kHz support, but UHQ only goes up to 192. Don't know how many bits but sample rate checker shows 16 bits and float support.

                        There's a Magisk module called USB-SampleRate-Unlocker, unlocks 384 kHz, that should force the system to use 384 always (or 768 if you change the config file), but it doesn't do anything on One UI.

                        How do you check current sample rate?

                          • S
                          • Sreenadh R
                          • X@g
                          • 13 Apr 2024

                          Using S21 Ultra 5g for more than year now. These are the pros and cons I found

                          Pros;
                          Build quality really impressive
                          Display just outstanding
                          Haptic is good but not excellent like iphones
                          Scalable codec performance via Samsung buds 2 Pro is fantastic and detailing presentation of sound.
                          108mp cam quality is excellent with natural colour and so much detailing.
                          Flagship inhand feel..
                          Regular Updates

                          Cons.
                          1,I'm skeptical about Samsung Updates, because with OneUI 6 Updates the main camera quality decreased drastically [over saturation, lack of detailing, pathetic video clarity and belive me it's not any defects it's only because the Updates. They're willingly done this- 108mp performance also decreased but better than 12mp cam]
                          2,Lack of external DAC dongle support!
                          Samsung dongle pretty average they offering 24but/192khz output , but in real world performance Samsung dongle struggling and give an output of 16bit/44khz most times.
                          3,Battery life very average to below avg
                          4,Occasionally apps shut downing
                          5, with QHD +120hz refresh you will lose lots of Battery
                          6,Bulky in hand
                          7,while using 5g or camera phone heatup like ironbox thanks to exynos

                          Finally S21 Ultra 5g is not a perfect flagship, and there's no perfect phones out there. But s21 ultra lack some major areas. Manufacturers not optimised this phone. Lately I used iphone 12, comparing both video shoot iphone stands out! But coming to photography s21 ultra's 108mp do wonders. Iphone 12 is very optimistic, very consistent in performance, s21 ultra lacks there. One big problem I used to face on iphone is storage issues but here you got freedom.

                            To get the AI assistant download chatgpt from play store once you log in on it you can have it on your quick panel which is quite handy.

                              So got the update through Frija. Was expecting One UI 6.1. Still 6.0. Mainly because of Adaptive battery protection.

                                • A
                                • Aiza
                                • KIn
                                • 12 Apr 2024

                                I got this phone in 2023 it's like a gaming PC

                                  Sam799, 12 Apr 2024Just received April update. My CSC is CRO, Frija shows G998BXXS9FXBD, SM-G998B_4_20240302010522.

                                  What is your CSC?

                                    Just received April update.

                                      This phone is an absolute Beast!

                                        • S
                                        • Sam
                                        • 2xx
                                        • 10 Apr 2024

                                        This phone is still a beast!!

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