Galaxy S21 Ultra Durability Test - What About the Camera?! By JerryRigEverything

The Galaxy S21 Ultra is the latest and greatest thing in the Android world... at least for the next couple months. A little side note: if you order a JerryRigEverything razor knife, our second batch will be shipping out later this week, so be on the lookout for that. The S21 Ultra box looks like it's lost a bit of weight since last year. Either it's spent quarantine working out and eating right, or Samsung's just copying Apple and leaving out the charger. Once the phone is out we get our first look at the maddest, blackest phone I think I've ever seen.

It's like filming a black hole. The S21 Ultra is as dark as 2020. My fingers are also a little bit dark. I've been working with metal and that stuff does not wash off real easy. But since this isn't Jerry Manicure Everything, let's get started.

Inside the slender box, we get a short USB-C to USB-C charging cable, and that's about it. For the most part the phone doesn't look much different than last year. We still have the hole punched camera in the front. Changing the look of that camera bump is about as much innovation as we're getting these days. Everything else is just marginal, incremental improvements.

Which is good of course, don't get me wrong. I'll peel off the screen protector and we can make our way down to the screen and start our scratch test. Anything that scratches at a level 2 or 3 would be made from plastic. And as we can clearly see, the S21 Ultra scratches at a level 3. You guys saw me remove that screen protector, right? Well, Samsung, with all of their generosity, gives us a screen protector for the screen protector.

The innovation just doesn't stop. Anyway, like I was saying, things that scratch at a Mohs 2 or 3 are plastic. Levels 5 or 6 would be glass, and levels 8 or 9 would be sapphire. A 10 would be a diamond. After removing both screen protectors we can see that the S21 Ultra scratches at a level 6, with deeper grooves at a level 7.

It's using Gorilla Glass Victus. The top hole punch front facing camera is 40 megapixels protected under that front glass. There's also a slit up here about one razor blade thick for the earpiece and top stereo speaker. The sides of the phone are protected with a very thin piece of temporary plastic. If Samsung is shrinking their box to be more environmentally friendly, they still sure are using a lot of plastic.

The sides of the phone are made from aluminum, along with a power button and volume rocker – both made from metal. The top of the phone is kind of unique. The camera hump is blended into the sides of the aluminum frame. Samsung is calling this a contour cut, which I actually kind of like. It's a little more seamless.

Then down here at the bottom near the 25 watt fast charging USB-C port, we get the SIM card tray. It is IP68, but new this year, Samsung has removed the expandable memory card slot, which is kind of sad. I'm not a huge fan of removing features. I'd rather have a tool and not need it, than need a tool and not have it. One thing I do like though, was the frosted glass on the back.

We've seen this for a while on OnePlus and iPhones, and I like it every single time. It's a little more abrasive than smooth glass. You can see that bits of my razor, keys, and coins are rubbing off on the back glass surface. Kind of like sandpaper. But for the most part the marks can all be rubbed away.

The dust from the softer metals is just getting caught on the microscopically rough surface of the edged glass. The camera lens, however, oops, is not made from glass. There are 4 cameras on this guy, the top being a 12 megapixel ultra wide with a few sensors. Then the impressive 108 megapixel wide angle. Then we have 2 telephoto cameras, one of which might be a periscope lens.

It's kind of difficult to tell what's going on in there from the outside. There's really only one way to check. Ah. There it is. Indeed the bottom 100x zoom camera is once again a periscope unit.

If you want to get your own Teardown Skin so you can see the insides of your phone from the outside, I'll leave a link down in the video description. The nice thing is that these Skins are temporary, so if you're ever headed to a funeral, just , and bam, you can get all bleak and depressing again whenever you want. The screen is where I think Samsung did make some solid improvements this year on the S21 Ultra. Not enough to get me to switch from my year and a half old Note 10 Plus, but still pretty cool. The 6.8 inch screen can do 1440p, with 120hz variable refresh rate. Basically, things look smoother and crisper than any other phone out on the market, all while conserving battery life.

And it lasts for about 45 seconds under the heat from my lighter. Which are all very good and equally commendable attributes for a cellphone to have. Underneath the AMOLED display, which does not recover from the flames, is an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, supposedly a tad larger this year, but we'll have to check that out from the inside. I'll scuff it up with some level 7 deeper grooves, and even with that damage, the fingerprint scanner can still read my fingerprint and unlock the phone every single time. Not too shabby.

Now for the bend test. Samsung has always been super solid with their phones, even more so now with the extra metal around the contoured camera bump. And once again, the S21 Ultra is as solid as a rock, whether bent from the front or the back. I guess the real question is whether the $1,200 S21 Ultra is worth buying. And I think that decision rests with the cameras.

I took a quick trip to New York City to test out the camera. And you can see from these unedited video clips that the S21 Ultra is pretty exceptional with super detailed and crisp video capabilities. You're probably like, 'Wow, Jerry, that's some really good footage. Ooo la la, really impressive. Ten out of ten.

Exceptional low-light capabilities. But why are you traveling to New York during a pandemic?' And you're right. I actually just totally lied and all this footage you're seeing now just came from a Galaxy Note 4 from a video I filmed and posted to my YouTube channel over 6 years ago. Smartphone cameras have been really good for a really long time, so upgrading your phone just for the camera doesn't make a whole lot of sense... especially when the phones from 6 years ago can compete with the phones of today.

And when the phones of today cost $1,200. You could go visit New York City in person for that price... after the pandemic of course. I'm going to hold off on upgrading for a little while longer. Flashy new phones are fun, but if you really do need a new phone, last year's model is always going to be cheaper and still has the SD card slot.

Let me know what you think of the S21 Ultra down in the comments. Hit that subscribe button if you haven't already, and come hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter. Thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.

Source : JerryRigEverything