Our review
What is the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra?
What about the S21 Ultra’s camera?
Add to the Galaxy S21 Ultra mix a host of other flagship elements – Samsung’s feature-packed OneUI interface
What does the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra do?
Is the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra good value for money?
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the best gimmick-free flagship Android on the market.
Pros: Across-the-board excellence
Best-in-class screen
Excellent camera system
S Pen support is welcomeCons: S Pen not included
Can get warm when gaming
Chunky size will put some off
Any time a £1,000+ smartphone hits the scene, it has to work hard to justify that kind of price – and boy does the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra do just that. A triple threat, it looks the part with top-quality design and a killer screen, it packs performance in spades – power, party tricks and a long-lasting battery, and then there’s that camera. Sporting one of the best zooms of any smartphone around, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra gets you right up close to the action. In fact, it does pretty much everything right on paper, but you know what? So do a few phones out now.
Battling stiff competition from the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max, the OPPO Find X3 Pro and Xiaomi’s Mi 11 Ultra, not to mention the much more affordable OnePlus 9 Pro, Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra has its work cut out for it. Also, while the phone introduces note-taking and doodling to the Galaxy S line thanks to clever S Pen support, unlike the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, it doesn’t come with an S Pen. Therefore, to get the full experience, you’re talking about a cost of £1,199 and an extra £34 for the pen from Samsung’s official store.
Its price sounds (and is) high, but on paper, its specs still put the S21 Ultra in a strong position for the smartphone top spot. After all, it’s the only phone that can do everything – pen input, a 10 times zoom camera system, a world-class screen and more. So if big phones are your thing, and you want quality across the board, keep reading to see what it’s like living with what could be the best Android phone of 2021.
Jump to:
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra summary
What is the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra?
How much is the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra?
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra features
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra battery
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra camera
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra design and set-up
Our verdict
Where to buy
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: summary
Ultra by name… Samsung’s back on top
Price: £1,199
Key features:
Big phone, premium design
IP68 dust and water-resistant
Fantastic, smooth, sharp display
S Pen support for note-taking
108MP high-resolution main camera
40MP selfie camera
Impressive 10 times zoom range
Sharp 8K resolution video recording
Excellent night photography
Fast performance with Exynos processor
5G mobile data speeds
Large 5000mAh battery
Fast 25W charging and wireless charging
Desktop interface when connected to screen
Pros:
Across-the-board excellence
Best-in-class screen
Excellent camera system
S Pen support is welcome
Cons:
S Pen not included
Can get warm when gaming
Chunky size will put some off
What is the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra?
Every year, a smartphone maker launches its technology showcase – that one device that’s loaded with cutting-edge everything; and in 2021, for Samsung, that showcase is the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.
The S21 Ultra is the phone for Samsung fans who consider themselves power users. Its screen is big, bright, bold, sharp and smooth. It’s also smart, with as many as 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity when paired with an S Pen. That means the pen input matches that of pro-grade graphic designer tablets – impressive stuff.
What about the S21 Ultra’s camera? Most flagship phones sport three these days – a primary camera, an ultra-wide camera, and a zoom camera. Some phones like the Google Pixel 5 even get away with just two cameras around the back. As for the S21 Ultra, it packs no less than four rear cameras, featuring not one but two zoom cameras.
Add to the Galaxy S21 Ultra mix a host of other flagship elements – Samsung’s feature-packed OneUI interface, top-tier flagship power and impressive battery life, and it isn’t a stretch calling the S21 Ultra a total package smartphone.
What does the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra do?
Takes crisp, high-resolution photos at up to 108MP
Features a ten-times zoom lens and an ultra-wide-angle camera
Captures video at up to a class-leading 8K resolution
Shows off photos and videos on a glorious, large 6.8-inch screen
Lasts all day with its large 5000mAh battery
Supports both fast wired, and fast wireless charging
Supports Samsung’s S Pen (sold separately)
How much is the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra?
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra retails at £1,199 and is available off-contract at a number of retailers such as Argos, Amazon and Currys, as well as from Samsung.
Available from eBay (£950.00), Amazon (£963.00) and AO.com (£1149.00).
Skip to view the pay monthly prices
Is the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra good value for money?
It’s very hard to call any £1,199 smartphone good value for money per se – there’s no which way about it; the S21 Ultra is one of the priciest smartphones you can buy. Set it alongside the £1,000+ competition though – Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro Max, OPPO’s Find X3 Pro and Xiaomi’s Mi 11 Ultra, and value fast becomes relative – the S21 Ultra stacks up very well.
If all you want is a great camera and flagship power, of course, there are other phones that check those boxes for less. What the S21 Ultra does, however, is cram best-in-class features across the board without gimmicks. In turn, despite its price, the S21 Ultra is indeed decent value, even though much of what makes it great – that 10 times zoom and S Pen support – are nice to have features rather than essentials.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra features
Turn on the Galaxy S21 Ultra, and it’ll beam brightly and vibrantly, glamouring you with its first charm – that killer screen. On paper, the S21 Ultra’s screen checks all the right boxes. It’s AMOLED technology, for starters, which is Samsung’s special brand of OLED screen. When you see ‘AMOLED’ anywhere, you can be confident the screen’s blacks will look endless and inky, while colours jump out with punch and zing. Matched with that quality, the S21 Ultra screen is also smooth, with a 120Hz refresh rate, meaning it glides when scrolling and swiping through menus and web pages. By comparison, the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s screen caps out at 60Hz, so it’s around half as smooth. The S21 Ultra’s screen is also sharp too, making it a complete package and arguably the mightiest mobile display on the market.
That slick screen matches mighty performance, thanks to the Exynos 2100 power inside the S21 Ultra, so the S21 Ultra is perfectly suited to mobile gaming, especially when factoring in the expansive stereo sound that booms from the speakers. One potential blip – there’s no headphone port in sight, so you’ll need to use Bluetooth headphones or an adapter that plugs into the USB-C charging port if you want to connect your cans.
With fast 5G mobile data speeds, if you’re in an area that supports 5G and it’s included in your mobile contract, you can get broadband-grade download speeds on the go on the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Practically speaking, you can download a roughly 1GB movie in under a minute, though be mindful, heavy 5G use will drain a phone’s battery faster.
The smarts keep coming with the Galaxy S21 Ultra, and just like the Note 20 Ultra and Samsung’s entire flagship line, DeX is back. What’s DeX? Connect the phone to a computer monitor or a TV (via the USB-C charging port), and a Windows-style desktop experience Samsung created for the big screen is displayed – that is DeX. If you connect a keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth, you can comfortably type and edit long documents, watch movies, and even play games using a full-sized display, all powered by the Galaxy S21 Ultra. There are limitations to DeX – it won’t run advanced apps like Photoshop, for example. However, for basic web surfing or document and presentation edits, it’s more than up to the task.
The S21 Ultra’s screen makes for a fantastic canvas for Samsung’s S Pen (sold separately), turning the phone into a palm-sized, high-tech notepad and sketchpad. With 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, the harder you press on the S21 Ultra’s screen when writing or drawing with the pen, the thicker the stroke. This is the same kind of technology found in professional graphic designer tablets and as good as it gets on mobiles. The Samsung Notes app is also loaded up to get you started. It can convert your handwritten words into searchable, selectable text and syncs them with Microsoft OneNote for easy access on other devices.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra battery
Battery life is another area of the Galaxy S21 Ultra that lasts all day and then some. The phone packs a huge 5000mAh battery – a much higher capacity than almost all its competitors. In turn, while Samsung’s other big-screened beauty, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra just about makes it through a full day (with its 4500mAh battery), the S21 Ultra goes the distance with a bit of juice left in the tank, even if you stream a couple of episodes or game here and there.
You can stretch out the S21 Ultra’s battery life even further thanks to its ‘Power saving’ mode. Within the phone’s settings, select ‘Battery and device care’. Here, you can get a sense of how long you have left before your phone runs out of juice, and it’s also where you activate ‘Power saving’. Turn on the feature, and the phone disables power-drains like 5G, maximum screen brightness and full-power processing, and stops apps from sapping power in the background.
Fast 25W charging means the S21 Ultra can charge fully in around an hour and 10 minutes. That speed pales in comparison to phones like the OnePlus 9 Pro or the OPPO Find X3 Pro, which take just over 30 minutes to charge. However, it’s better than the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which powers up to 100 per cent in nearer 90 minutes.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra camera
Without a doubt, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is one of, if not the most, versatile camera phones money can buy right now. With no less than four cameras around the back and not one but two zoom cameras, it gets you a front-seat view wherever you’re sitting.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra’s camera story starts with a 108MP high-resolution main camera sensor. Instantly, you’re talking about loads of pixels, which means high-detail, crisp photos. The Galaxy S21 Ultra’s main camera has some unique characteristics – punchy colours, impressively shallow depth of field (background blur), and pleasing dynamic range. That last one means even when you’re taking photos with bright spots in your scene – a backlit subject or neon lights, for example – the S21 Ultra manages to pull out an impressive amount of tonal detail.
Onto the S21 Ultra’s two zoom cameras – three and ten times zoom – and the first question to answer is – why are there two zoom cameras? If the phone featured just a three times zoom, it wouldn’t be able to get you close to the action as key competitors like the Huawei Mate 40 Pro with its five times zoom. By including a huge reach, it holds onto the top zoom and makes for a handy phone in a concert or when you’re creeping on friends from a distance. That said, if the S21 Ultra only had a 10 times zoom, then the more practical zoom range of three to nine times wouldn’t look great because it would just be photos taken on the main camera cropped heavily into. By featuring both 10 times and three times zooms, Samsung covers all the key bases, and the S21 Ultra retains its camera champion status.
The fourth and final snapper on the S21 Ultra’s camera bump is a 12 MP ultra-wide. Ultra-wides are the opposites of zoom cameras. Like the cameras estate agents use to get make a box room look like a suite, they often border on having a skewed fisheye look, with a similar field of view to a GoPro action camera. Also of note, the S21 Ultra is able to shoot super-close-up shots with its ultra-wide camera, giving it macro photography capabilities in line with the best out there.
Day or night, photos from the S21 Ultra pop, and with a 40MP front camera, even selfies look impressive. Thanks to the phone’s massive megapixel counts, the selfie camera shoots up to 4K resolution video, and the rear camera captures future-proofed 8K content which is steady, crisp and impressive.
Leave a Reply