My Samsung Galaxy S21 ULTRA First Impressions! | The Tech Chap By The Tech Chap

It's, finally, here this is it the new galaxy s21 ultra, I'm tom, the tech chap, and I want to give you guys, a quick unboxing walk through of all the new features and also my first impressions of Samsung's latest flagship. The first thing, you'll notice, even just as we look at the box, is how much thinner it is because, despite making fun of them only a few months ago, Samsung's now following apple's lead with not actually giving us the power adapter or headphones in the box, and if we put the phone just to one side, this bit won't take long at all. So all we actually get in the box is an USB cable. So you can plug this into your old charger or a new one if you buy it. It's also helpful if you're transferring uh your data from an old android phone to this one as well, and that is literally it oh, and also we are getting a sim ejector tool completely free. We didn't even have to pay for this, at least for now, so here it is the galaxy s21 ultra.

This is a big phone, and actually, although I've got the phantom black color here, which isn't the snazziest in the world, I think I would have preferred the phantom silver. It does look quite good. Actually, plus we've got this massive camera module at the top, with the quad lens setup, uh, plus the laser autofocus and the flash, but as you can see it just kind of melts away into the edge of the phone I'll. Tell you what, though, the first time you pick this up. It does feel like a big dense phone.

I mean this is actually slightly thicker and even just a little heavier than even last year's s20 ultra. I think it's about 228 grams and 8.9 millimeters thick, the camera bump itself doesn't stick out as much. They have reduced that, but then the whole phone itself is a little thicker. You can see. We've got this curved edge screen.

The ultra is actually the only model with a curved edge. The s21 and the plus are flat, which I know a lot of you guys- do- prefer there's nothing at all on the left side or on the top on the right. We've got the volume rocker and also the power button at the bottom. We've got one speaker, grille, USB c port and also the sim card tray which actually, if I just pop this out, while this is still dual sim and of course, supports all the latest 5g networks. Sadly, though, the s21s no longer support micros cards, so you can't expand the storage beyond the 128, 256 or 512 gigs of install storage, external storage, internal storage that you get with this, which is a bit of a shame because before you could pop in a one terabyte micro SD, so you'd have one and a half terabytes of storage.

But it is a bit disappointing, and it does feel like a bit of a downgrade losing that feature, we're still getting ip68 water resistance. We get stereo speakers one on the top one at the bottom and while I'm not actually allowed to bring in other Samsung devices just yet to compare uh, there's an embargo on sort of reviews and comparisons. I have to say this is one of the nicest phones I've seen in a long time, and this matte glass really does go. A long way to you know reduce fingerprints and smudges and just keep it looking. You know premium.

I think for me, though, one of the standout features of this phone is that screen. This is a massive 6.8 inch display, but if we jump into the display settings, you'll see that not only is this who so 3200 by 1440, the only phone of the s21 lineup to come with a quad HD res, but as well as that, if we jump into motion smoothness, you can see I've got it in adaptive mode, so this will actually dynamically scale between 10 and 120 hertz. I can't force it to 120, but we are for the first time on a Samsung phone, getting quad HD and up to 120 hertz. At the same time, does it make a difference? Well, if you look closely, then yes, you can tell it's sharper than the full HD resolution, but I haven't really had any issues using the note 20 ultra for the last six months or so, which was capped at full HD when you wanted 120 hertz, but it is a nice extra and something you don't have the option with on the regular s21 or the plus, because they're stuck at full HD. Now, as well as the resolution and the high refresh rate, the s21 ultra also boasts a 25 brighter screen.

So if you're watching HDR content and if you're in a really bright environment, this will go all the way up to 1500 nits uh, which is actually 200 it's brighter than the other s21 phones, so the ultra is not only the biggest, but it's also the sharpest and also the brightest screen of the new s21 series. If we jump back into the display settings, another new feature is this eye comfort shield. Now we've had a blue light filter for a couple of years, but let's just take it sort of step. Further and then it will just help reduce the blue light emitting from the screen, depending on the ambient lighting and the time of day. Another new feature is the improved fingerprint reader.

This is now using Qualcomm's 3d sonic sensor, the generation 2 version, which is 50 faster, 70 bigger and takes in more biometric data. You still have to get your finger pretty much bang in the center uh, but it does seem to be a little more reliable and also don't forget. The s21 ultra now supports the s pen. I actually just stole this from my note 20 ultra, and it does actually work with it. It doesn't come with the phone.

You have to pay an extra 40 to get this s pen, and may want to get a folio case as well to store it because there's no room internally to hold it, but it does bring over one of the key selling points of the note series onto the ultra. So this becomes a bit more of an all-around productivity device. Now, if you're a regular on a channel, you know that I've made a bunch of videos talking about the differences between the Qualcomm and the Enos versions of Samsung's phones. Historically, Qualcomm snapdragon models have been faster, offered longer battery life and even improved the camera. So we've always felt a little short-changed here in the UK and Europe and wherever they sell the Enos variant.

Now, unfortunately, I can't run any benchmarks just yet on this, but I will be doing that in my full review and also doing a versus video with the Qualcomm version. But I've got the Enos 2100 in here, which is a 5 nanometer chip and from some leaks and reports I've read it does suggest. The Enos is a lot better than before. So hopefully, fingers crossed will actually have some parity between the different s21 models. So I've got the Enos 2100 here paired with 12 gigabytes of ram.

Only the 5 12 gig storage option of the ultra comes with 16 gigs of ram I'll need to spend a bunch more time with this, but uh yeah. First impressions very good. Now, along with the hardware, we've got android 11 uh shipping, with the ultra. We also have Samsung's latest one UI, and it's nice and fast as you'd expect nothing really that different. I had android 11 updated to my note, 20 ultra a few weeks ago, so I'm used to this slight redesign, which I do quite like actually, so.

I've got 12 gigs of ram 256 storage and, as for the battery, the s21 ultra packs in a massive 5 000 million power cell. So this actually has the same size battery as the s20 ultra and actually a 500 million power bigger battery than the note 20 ultra because they haven't had to squeeze in the s pen as well, and I think, with the adaptive refresh and also the more efficient new chips a day and a half of battery should be easily doable and even though there's no charger in the box uh, the s21 ultra supports the same 25 watt charging as uh the s20 ultra, as well as 15 watt wireless and also reverse wireless charging. So you can top up your new Galaxy Buds pro we're also getting faster Wi-Fi with this, because the ultra supports the brand new Wi-Fi 6e standard. You will need a compatible, router or router for my American friends to support it, but in theory it's kind of like adding more lanes to a highway and maybe even some dedicated carpool lanes. The speed limit may be the same, but there should be less traffic.

So hopefully you should have more reliable or even faster Wi-Fi with this. As I say, if you have a supportive, router. Okay, let's talk about this camera, and we're getting a quad lens setup with a 108 megapixel main sensor, which Samsung says now offers much better dynamic range and also 50. More contrast. We're also getting a 12 megapixel ultra-wide three times: optical telephoto lens and a whopping 10 times, periscope lens, it's a similar setup to the Huawei p40 pro plus, and it should mean that zooming in all the way up to a hundred times space zoom as they call it, will be even better quality than before.

It's also a lot more stable, as when you zoom in by 30 times and beyond, you can now tap the little viewfinder that pops up to lock the zoom, and it gives you a kind of digital stabilization to help reduce the vibrations. As usual, Samsung seems to hide a bunch of your camera options in this more tab. But what you can do is just long press on them and bring them down to the main carousel makes them a little easier to access, and we've got some new features, including directors mode, which gives you a live preview of all the three different lenses. So you can see if you want to switch between them, how it would look. This is picture in picture mode, as you can see so.

The front camera is also being captured at the corner here, but we can switch that to split view if you want 50, 50, uh front and rear camera or just go full single view with the rear one and then, as you can see, jump between the lenses, I'm not sure how often I would use this, but it's a neat little extra. As for video, it still tops out to 8k 24 and same as last year with the s20. You can record some 8k video and then from that you can capture high-res 32, megapixel, uh photos or screenshots, essentially from that in the camera, app we're now getting single, take 2.0. This is where it'll capture five to 15 seconds of well everything, really a big thanks to my wife, Sarah, for this fantastic demonstration and after 30 seconds or so of processing, you get a bunch of photos. Videos, slo-mo portraits.

It doesn't seem to be a lot different from the first gen version. But Samsung say it should be a little smarter and also higher quality, switching to the selfie camera, and we now get a 40 megapixel front camera, which is up from 10 megapixels on the s20 ultra, and you can shoot in the full resolution if you want to, but by default, you'll, get a pixel bend, 10, megapixel image and actually one new feature I haven't touched on. Yet is the new portrait studio mode? Definitely not at all borrowed from the iPhone, but it adds a range of lighting background both options to your portraits. So if you want that extra pop for your Instagram, then it could be fun, but I'm old and boring and kind of prefer more natural photos. I will need to spend a bunch more time with this, for my full review coming up and also, let me know in the comments below what phones you'd like me to compare this against.

So what do you guys think of the s21 ultra my first impressions? Well, there is a lot new. You know we got the faster processor. We got the quad HD 120 hertz screen. There's redesign support for the s pen slightly faster Wi-Fi, the improved cameras, particularly the laser autofocus, and also the second periscope lens, and actually it is a little cheaper than the s20 ultra was at launch by about 30 or 50 pounds, or so it is still very expensive, starting at 1150 pounds or 1200. But what do you reckon? Do you think it's a pretty big upgrade or just a bit meh? Let me know in the comments below and also let me know if there's anything you'd like me to test or try out on this as I'll have my full review coming very soon, as well as camera comparisons, battery tests, all that good stuff so make sure you have hit that subscribe.

Button below, and I'll see you guys next time right here on the tech chat.

Source : The Tech Chap