Galaxy S21 Ultra Revisit: 7 Months Later! By Zachary Anderson

So back in January, Samsung got the year, kicked off with their galaxy s21 line of phones, the ultra being the biggest and baddest of the three, of course, starting at 1 200. Not only did it arrive, stuffed to the brim with features and specs, and everything in between it was also nicely refined and polished, and it came with a favorably adjusted price tag, 200 less than its predecessor to be exact. You remember that the s20 ultra 1400, for it never mind anyway, with new phones on the way from Google, apple and Samsung themselves. Where does this one stand as we continue and quickly begin closing out the second half of 2021 all right, so here's the thing with the s21 ultra, like I said this phone came, refined and polished? This is exactly what Samsung wanted the s20 ultra to be. This got right pretty much everything the 20 ultra got wrong and, dare I say it was polished to near perfection. Having said that, what's it like now, is it still this, and is it still that, yes, it's still fast, it's still smooth.

The screen still looks amazing. Yes, it still takes great pictures and, yes, the battery life is still good. It's only been seven months. I could. I could end the video right there, but I'm not going to because I like talking for real, though it's been great, revisiting this phone every time I come back to it, I kind of geek out over how well-built it is it's built like an absolute tank, and it screams quality.

It's weighty. It's rock, solid, it's more mature and classy than ever before. I really like how the camera module kind of melts into the frame instead of just getting plopped somewhere on the back, and instead of shiny glossy fingerprints glass, they use sort of a matted glass, which was definitely the right move. The 21 ultra nails it when it comes to making you feel you're getting your money's worth, and while the phone is pretty beefy, it's still comfortable to use even with how slippery it is seriously, not that you'd actually want to drop a phone on your face, but this is the last phone you'd want to drop on your face. I'm not one of those people that can trust themselves to leave the house without a case on my phone because of well experiences, I'm still kind of paranoid about that.

So I've been using one of brand's grip cases and well problem solved. This is a must for me. You can check out brand's super drippy cases, display saving screen protectors and awesome skins. Using the first link below the screen is another thing I continue to marvel at because of its phenomenal combination of size, quality, fluidity, brightness, colors, contrast, bezel-lessness. I think I just made that a word and all of that good stuff.

It is the king of eye candy everything put together, makes for a user experience that is super enjoyable and as smooth as butter. You know we got to come up with a better saying than that, because it's gotten old. This really is the king of straight butter. The phone is straight butter. It is very smooth, it's straight butter.

This phone has been buttery smooth. This phone has been absolute butter or, as I like to call it straight- butter um as frictionless as pumpkin pur?e. No as unruffled as avocado, I don't want to hear that as continuous as olive oil. That's what you want to hear. Yes, that's come on man as effortless as Greek yogurt.

Oh my gosh, okay in terms of everyday performance, there really isn't much to say like I said it's only been seven months after all, so of course it should run about the same as it did out of the box and well it does. If anything, a couple of updates have actually improved. Some things, which is great battery life, are good. A full day's use isn't difficult to achieve at all. The battery is reliable and, of course, there are plenty of built-in software options that will help save some juice.

If needed, I get around six hours of screen on time with everything fully maxed out and the standby time has been great, hey, so editor Zach here dropping in real, quick um. So, interestingly enough, I was actually able to pull over 13 hours of screen on time. One day during this revisit it was moderate use, so nothing too insane. It was an off day, so there was a good amount of catching up on Netflix, which is something I don't get to do too often, but ever since then I've been able to get over seven hours of screen on time. So I think it's safe to say that battery life has definitely gotten better with some of these updates over time, whereas before I was only getting a bit over six, so there's that, okay back to the other Zach the haptics, are nice and solid.

The speakers sound pretty good. I haven't had any issues with the fingerprint scanner. I do wish the volume controls were on the left-hand side, but that's not that big of a deal during heavy use. The phone does get a little warm, but that's normal and in my experience it hasn't overheated or anything. I honestly don't see this phone having much issue performance wise long term.

I do have the snapdragon model, so that's good, but we'll see what happens as time progresses as for one UI, I do have my gripes with it, and it's not my favorite. When it comes to visuals. I feel the stock experience is grossly under customizable in terms of aesthetics, I would love to be able to use third party icon packs from the play store in the stock launcher. I like that you can have the Google feed off to the left, so that's great, but you know it would also be great if the baked in weather app didn't have ads anyway visually, I'm not the biggest fan I've gotten used to it overall and yes, I'm well aware of things like the theme store and things like good luck, which I love by the way, but as a customization freak, I know, there's more Samsung can add without us having to grab extra resources ourselves. Now I am a fan when it comes to its practicality.

There are loads and loads of settings that you may not even think about when using a different phone, but if and when you discovered them in here, it kind of makes. You wonder why other manufacturers haven't implemented some of these. Yet, and on top of that, you got Samsung promising three new android versions and four years of security patches. Who knows when the phone will get android 12, but at least we know it's getting it. It's honestly really great to see Samsung take steps in the right direction when it comes to software support.

Now, of course, the cameras are a big focus with this phone pun totally intended, and they've been great. It kind of goes without saying that this is the most versatile and one of the best camera experiences in a phone period. Personally, I don't take a whole ton of pictures and videos, so a simple point-and-shoot experience on something like an iPhone or a pixel works just fine for me, but I'd be lying to you. If I said I didn't get a lot of enjoyment when I use these cameras because of everything they have to offer and while iPhones still remain at the top, when it comes to video capture, the s21 ultra isn't too far behind and in some ways it tops the iPhone with things like the baked in pro mode. For example, these cameras are not perfect at all.

Some people may not like what they have to offer, but all in all, there's no denying that they are some of the best and Samsung has done a good job, improving them and kind of nailing down a direction they want to go with them. Okay, so with this revisit one of the things that stood out to me, the most is this phone's current price. It started at 1200 like I mentioned earlier, but if you know anything about android phones and especially Samsung phones, these prices don't stay the same for long, even Samsung themselves. Have this thing at 200 off, or you can take advantage of the trading offers they have, and it won't be all that difficult, finding a 21 ultra for well under a thousand dollars on the used market, which is amazing, considering what this phone is all about. At that point, it's almost a no-brainer in my book with Google's pixel 6's on the way Apple's iPhone, 13 or 12s, or whatever the heck, they're going to call it Samsung's new foldable and next s-line, iterations, so on and so forth, and with its price decreasing over time.

The 21 ultra will continue becoming more and more of a sleeper and a value monster. Obviously, there's not a single, perfect phone in existence, and this one here is no exception, but it really isn't far from it say what you want about one UI yeah, it's flawed, but it's loaded with genuinely useful features. And yes, I totally understand the removal of expandable storage was super unfortunate and heartbreaking for a lot of people and boy. Would it be amazing if this phone had 65 watt fast charging either way? This remains a do it all phone from top to bottom heck. It even has s pen support which is great and just adds on a whole new layer of versatility.

So if it came down to it, where I had to choose one, just one phone to use as my main indefinitely, the s21 outro would be my first consideration. So what do you think of the s21 ultra? Do you have one, or are you thinking about getting one? Let's talk about it in the comments, if you made it to this point of the video, you are awesome, comment potato. If you enjoyed the video feel free to drop a like, it really helps out the channel subscribe to the channel if you're new, it's been Zach I'll talk to you later, and thank you so much for watching you.

Source : Zachary Anderson