The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra & S21 Review: The Near Perfect and The Different

Conclusion & End Remarks

As we’re wrapping up the review, I’m left with quite a few different views on the new S21 series, all depending on the model, with also some value considerations depending on the price you’re able to get the new phones at.

Starting off with the design of the new phones, particularly on the S21 Ultra. From the front, the S21 Ultra isn’t all that different from the S20 Ultra, which is fine – don’t change what isn’t broken. Until we get under-screen front cameras, it’s unlikely we’ll see Samsung change the successful formula here.

On the back of the phone, Samsung has really made more dramatic changes on the S21 series. On the Ultra, this means a much more cohesive design for the camera island, getting rid of the rather half-baked looking attempt on the S20 Ultra. This also applies to the simpler 3-camera setup of the S21 and S21+ which now look even more streamlined and unique – I really like both designs, and I think Samsung managed to create a new characteristic design aspect to their phones.

This generation is also the first for Samsung to adopt a matte back cover finish. On the S21 Ultra, this is a frosted chemically etched glass. It’s not much different to any other matte glass implementations, but it’s well executed – good riddance on glossy glass backs. On the smaller S21, there’s also a matte finish, but it’s out of plastic. I was generally unconvinced of the material till I used it, and it’s actually absolutely fine. It doesn’t quite have the same premium feel of the matte glass variants, but it’s still much better than the glossy plastic of past days. Only thing to see is how this material handles long-term usage and scratches.

The display of the Galaxy S21 Ultra is absolutely outstanding. It combines high resolution, high refresh rate, high brightness, high accuracy, and high power-efficiency into a package that you will find in no other device right now. It’s pretty much the best Samsung has been able to achieve to date, and the cornerstone feature of the new S21 Ultra.

In contrast, the regular S21 screen looks relatively boring. It’s still plenty accurate and showcases good characteristics, but it’s just not in the same weight class as the new panel on the S21 Ultra. It’s now a flat display screen – many people might prefer that, but I thought that the screen curvature on the S20 series was already as minimal as you could get it. I’m sure I’ll get flak for this opinion, but because of the flat screen, the S21 just feels like a cheaper phone to me. The 1080p resolution for some will be acceptable, particularly on the smaller S21, but for me I think it was a compromise too much, especially on the larger S21+.

Beyond the technical choices made here, I feel like it also generally dilutes what the Galaxy S series has stood for the past decade; having uncompromising displays. In that regard, besides the new software adaptive refresh rate capabilities, the new S21 and S21+ screens aren’t actually better than the S20 and S20+ screens in my view.

Performance of the new S21 phones is excellent. The Snapdragon 888 is a good iteration on last year’s chips, although the improvements are probably below what you’d expect. The Exynos 2100 is a very large generational improvement and although it doesn’t quite match the Snapdragon variant, it’s the closest it’s ever gotten to. For everyday usage, you will absolutely not see a difference, although prolonged gaming is still a Snapdragon variant advantage.

Battery life of the new phones is excellent. The S21 Ultra is carried by the new outstandingly efficient display – the brighter the scenarios you tend to use your phone in the more pronounced the battery advantages of the Ultra will be. The regular S21 while not featuring the same display advantages so at 60Hz you might not see big differences generationally, however the software based adaptive refresh rate will significantly improve 120Hz battery life.

When it comes to the cameras of the S21, although their new design is great, their picture quality doesn’t really showcase similar improvements. On the S21 Ultra, frankly speaking, Samsung should ditch their 108MP sensor in favour of their 50MP unit. It’s been an interesting experiment for these two generations, but we’ve seen that the sensor offers little to no advantages other than being able to market the 108MP figure. The company still hasn’t figured out how to do basic things such as a high-quality 2x magnification mode – you’d might forgive them that in the first generation, but not in the second generation here. The picture quality advantages of the 108MP sensor otherwise just boils down to better details in daylight shots – otherwise the 12MP sensor of the S20 and S21 are pretty much equivalent in every other way.

Samsung’s addition of a 3x optical module to the Ultra helps it bridge the quality gap, but it’s still there, and gets pretty bad in the 5-9x range, on top of the horrible 2-2.9x range. For portrait mode shots, the Ultra doesn’t even use the new 3x telephoto module, instead falling back to the main module. The innovative 64MP sensor implementation of the S21 still beats the S21 Ultra here – I’m a great fan of this approach, Samsung just needs to deploy it on the Ultra and generally rethink their whole system at the lower focal lengths.

The 10x telephoto module of the Ultra however is fantastic, and is by far the strongest system in the market right now. Given the internal hardware space this module takes up, it had better be amazing, so at least it paid off in that regard.

The S21 and S21+ camera setup is the same as on the S20 and S20+, which I’m completely fine with. It’s just a much simpler and streamlined capture experience, and I really don’t have anything negative to say about the hardware here, it’s a very well balanced out system.

Samsung’s camera weaknesses on the S21 series seems to be continuing immaturity on the software side of things. We saw many processing inconsistencies, not just between the usual Snapdragon and Exynos models, but also compared to the S20 series or even the Note20 Ultra, where the new phones are sometimes just worse.

This is actually a very familiar scenario we’ve seen too many times before in the last few years- the devices tend to launch with rather lacklustre camera software that then gets improved upon in the months following the release. It happened to the S10 series, the S20 series, and I’m pretty sure it will happen to the new S21 series as well. Samsung has great potential for improvement here, but currently the general conclusion today is that you’ll be getting a rather inconsistent capture experience.

Pricing and Recommendation
 

Galaxy S21

The S21 launched at an MSRP of $799 or 849€. For the US, at the time of writing, there’s actually already early promotions on the new phones, and the S21 can be had for $699. While I’ve had mixed feelings about the phone, at that price, the S21 just destroys everything else in the market right now, and I would outright recommend one to buy it.

European users right now still have to pay the full €849 / £769 MSRP, which is actually still quite a lot more, but generally speaking, it’s very hard to find a smaller form-factor device that is as well-rounded as the S21, so it’s certainly appears to also be a good value purchase.

Galaxy S21+

Although we didn’t review the S21+ today, it’s not all that much of a different device than the S21 other than it being larger. In terms of MSRP prices, the S21+ being priced at $999, $200 higher than the S21 in that regard didn’t make much sense – a glass back and a slighter bigger phone isn’t worth that large a difference. However, Samsung also does a promotion here in the US, delivering the S21+ at $799 at time of writing, which is a very good offer – if you are satisfied with the 1080p screen in this larger form-factor.

European users have to pay €1049 / £949 - which currently is just off-putting. I would strongly recommend users to consider the 749€ Xiaomi Mi 11, or actually even look at the 630€ S20FE 5G instead.

Galaxy S21 Ultra

Finally, we arrive to the S21 Ultra. This is Samsung’s best phone ever. It’s not perfect, and I won’t be giving it any awards due to the camera quirks, but it’s as close as we’ve ever gotten to a no-compromise device in years. In the US, it’s currently at $999, which frankly speaking is again a great price compared to the competition. In Europe, it’s starting at €1249 / £1149 which is still extremely steep, but again, there’s very little other options right now that offer as much as the S21 Ultra, so I do think it warrants itself to sit in that price niche.

The real only draw-back of the S21 Ultra this year is the fact that it’s still a massive phone, both in size and weight, and that it won’t cater to everybody. I think what Samsung should do in the future is create four models of the S series, three being the same as the current line-up but renaming the Ultra to “Ultra+” and keeping form-factor and features as today, and introducing a slightly smaller, thinner and lighter Ultra, keeping the same no-compromise display, and possibly getting rid of the periscope camera for a more high-end traditional lens setup.

All in all, although this generation hasn’t been perfectly executed, and I still have mixed feelings about the displays on the S21 and S21+, it’s generally a much better and well rounded line-up than last year, especially with the new more attractive pricing.