Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G Full Review By YugaTech

Hey guys Justine here of fintech, and I'm pretty sure that you already have an idea of what to expect with this Samsung Galaxy s21 ultra. Besides the dashing display, powerful set of cameras and performance, it's actually way more than what it looks with an ultra price tag. It is expected to go beyond its predecessor and most flagships in the market today for that matter. So the question is: is the galaxy s21 ultra magnificent enough for its eye-popping price? Let's find out first things. First, let's talk about its design. The s21 ultra has a few similarities to last year's s20 ultra, it's a bit smaller, yet still acceptably chunky to grip.

You might want to use your two hands when using it its frosted, gorilla, glass, Vitus back, complements the glossy aluminum frame, making it look very sleek and classy, especially in this phantom black color, that we have locally there's also a phantom silver colorway available. But if you ask us, we'd still pick this deep black variant, the s21, ultra's metal, rear camera module sure is a head turner. It's protruding and looks larger than what we're used to, but somehow Samsung managed to make it look smooth by seamlessly blending it towards the edge we like it. But then again it is still uneven up front. We get this edge to edge display, that's just a real feast.

For the eyes, similar to last year's s20 series, you can find the front camera on a hole punch set up in the upper middle part of the display for buttons and ports. We get some antenna bands all around. The left side is bare, while located on the right are all the buttons specifically the volume rocker and the power slash Bixby button up top are two microphones and at the bottom, are its loudspeaker, USB type c port main microphone and a dual sim tray with no dedicated slot for a micro SD card. It has an ip68 water and dust resistant, so it can withstand up to 1.5 meters deep at a maximum of 30 minutes, pushing it to its limits, wouldn't be the best idea, though overall the s21 ultra's design and build stands out even compared to its siblings. The s21 and s21 plus its elegant polished and the sleek camera design is just hard to hate more on that display.

The s21 ultra shows off a 6.8 inch edge, dynamic, AMOLED 2x display, with a resolution of 3200 by 1440 pixels and a pixel density of 515 pixels per inch and just like its back panel. It has gorilla glass victors on top for protection from near or far. This display is utterly stunning. Samsung doesn't disappoint when it comes to their AMOLED panels, but this one truly has a wow factor, and we can't get enough of it. It provides a buttery, smooth experience with vibrant colors and deep blacks.

The resolution can be switched from wide quad, HD, plus to full HD plus or to a lower HD plus. If you want to save battery and increase game frame rates, as for refresh rates, the option to switch between 60, hertz and 120 hertz is no longer available. Instead, we get to choose from standard mode which is purely 60 hertz and an adaptive refresh rate that automatically adjusts from 10 hertz to 120 hertz. This is a game changing feature that changes the way we look at high refresh rate smartphone displays. Realistically, you don't need that buttery, smooth, 90 or 120, or even 144hz all day.

All that will do is drain your battery life, but since the s21 series features a dynamic refresh rate, this problem is alleviated. You get that maximum 120 hertz for when you're playing games or doing some scrawling, but also 10 hertz for viewing static images or text files. The comfort shield or blue light filter also now has an adaptive mode, so it will automatically adjust based on the time of the day. Other awesome display features include a peak brightness of 1600 nits support for hdr10, plus a new and improved ultrasonic under display fingerprint sensor and, of course, the s pen support, which is a first for Samsung's galaxy s series. This means that while the s-pen will work on the s21 ultra, it doesn't have an actual s-pen slot built in for that you'll have to get a separate case when it comes to audio expect an immersive experience, a sound not only comes from the downward firing speaker, but also from its earpiece.

The combination of the two speakers is great, with good clarity and balance. Although there's not much bass present, then again, it's loud enough to be heard in a medium-sized room, and you can take advantage of its Dolby Atmos modes for better sound output running the software is one UI 3.1, that's based on android 11. It didn't go too far from one UI 2.5, but there are some subtle yet useful improvements and touches on the interface that we appreciate. There's the improved dark mode. Google discover feed bubbles, notifications that look similar to Facebook, messengers, chat, heads and mostly refinements on the overall look and customization features, there's still an option to use an app drawer, and you can navigate with gestures or the usual buttons if you prefer, there's honestly, not much pre-installed apps besides google and Samsung's own apps, which should be fine.

Of course, you won't miss Bixby, Samsung's AI assistant, while other nifty features include video, enhancer, digital well-being, parental controls, edge lighting for notifications, one-handed mode edge panel shortcut, Samsung DEX and the basic s-pen features for storage. I've mentioned earlier that there's no option to expand via micros card, which is a bummer, but storage option starts from 128 gigabytes to 256, gigabytes or 512 gigabytes. That's more than enough for most users talk about performance. As usual, we are getting two new chipsets for internal hardware, each reserved for specific regions, the American and Chinese markets will be getting the new Qualcomm snapdragon 888, while the rest of the world, including us here in the Philippines, will get the new Enos 2100 paired with a Mali g78 GPU. As for memory, you can choose between 12 gigabytes or 16 gigabytes of ram the unit.

We have packs 12 gigabytes. Even so, you can expect a blazing performance from the s21 ultra absolute quickly. Multitasking is a breeze, and it can practically handle anything you throw at it without any stutters. As for gaming, the game launcher app automatically boosts the experience and with the adaptive refresh rate playing heavy games is effortlessly immersive. We did experience some heating when using it for demanding activities, including gaming, under a 1440p display.

So we suggest lowering the resolution in such scenarios or invest in a high quality case for some numbers take a look at the benchmark scores we got as for biometrics and security, its improved Qualcomm ultrasonic under display fingerprint scanner works really fast. At the same time, reliable, it's placed near the bottom of the display, making it easier to reach even with one hand. Meanwhile, the face unlock works snappy too, but, like most, it sometimes struggles in low light conditions. Connectivity-Wise, the galaxy s21 ultra got you covered with 5g 4g, LDE, NFC, Bluetooth, 5.1, and it's one of the first phones to support Wi-Fi 6e, just like the s20 ultra. This large phone is powered by a 5 000 William hour battery with 25 watts, fast charging, 15 watts, wireless charging and reverse wireless charging.

As you probably know, already, the retail unit no longer comes with a charging adapter and the cable that comes with it is an USB c2c type, so you'll be needing an USB pd adapter or a standard type-c charger. If you already have one, it's not much of a bother to us, also because Samsung lent us a dedicated, cable and adapter, but I'm sure that this can be a hassle to some users in the battery settings by default. The superfast charging is turned on, which is the pd based solution. You can also turn on or off the fast charging option. If you have a non-pd charger, then there's also the option to enable or disable the fast wireless charging to prevent a fan noise, while charging wirelessly charging takes about an hour and five minutes from zero to a hundred percent, and that's pretty good, considering its 5 000 William capacity, we ran it through PC, Mark's work, 2.0 battery test under a 1440p resolution with the adaptive refresh rate turned on, and we got a considerable six hours and 58 minutes. Meanwhile, in our standard video loop test, where we loop, a 1080p video under a 1080p display, 60hz refresh rate 50 brightness, zero percent volume and airplane mode turned on, we got along 18 hours and 50 minutes, so the s21 ultra can last you a whole day with moderate use.

But if you want to use it with a 1440p resolution and adaptive refresh rate, you'll need to charge it at least one more time in a day. Alright. Now one of the highlights of this galaxy s21 ultra, are its cameras and, let's dive deeper into that, it might seem like it has five lenses at the back, but really it has a quad cam setup, composed of a 108 megapixel ISO cell hm3 main sensor, a 12 megapixel ultra-wide, a 10 megapixel 10 times telephoto and a 10 megapixel three times telephoto lens the one on top of the LED flash is actually a laser autofocus sensor. The front camera, on the other hand, gets a 40 megapixel sensor on the camera software side. We pretty much get improvements on past features like super, steady mode, night mode, single, take mode and even the 100 times space zoom that it's well known, for it also gives you the option to take raw photos as well as hdr10 plus videos, quality, wise photos come out rich in colors and look significantly sharp, most evidently under good lighting conditions.

We get crisp details, impressive, dynamic range and oftentimes consistent colors. Even if the lenses change, we found ourselves using the ultrawide lens a lot, and although there are some washed parts on the side, sometimes it does a very good job in matching the colors as in standard mode, the s21 ultra doesn't have a dedicated macro lens, but thanks to its laser autofocus, it automatically detects super close scenarios to switch the camera to the 12 megapixel lens. To give you an enhanced detailed shot when we zoom in three times we get a decent quality that maintains good colors and less noise. If used in low light settings, zooming it 10 times now gives a soft detail. That's still clearly acceptable, as for that 100 times zoom, we must say that it did improve a lot.

Of course. It's not too clear. It's still grainy and sometimes washed, but the details are now more visible compared to what we first saw in the s20 ultra. I don't know if you'll use this feature a lot, but it's there, and it's cool when it comes to night photography. Here's what it looks like when the night mode is not in use.

It's not that bright, and it looks washed out when we use the night mode whoa. It surely shows a big improvement in the photo's details and brightness without looking too grainy or washed out. The night mode is also flexible for ultra-wide or up to 10 times a zoom takes for portrait shots. As you can see, it did an awesome job even with the hair. The subject background separation is on point and if you want to tweak it, Samsung gives you the option to change the background effect in post.

The same goes for selfie portrait photos. Speaking of selfies, its 40 megapixel front. Camera provides extra detailed photos, especially under natural or bright lighting, like what we're used to with Samsung the skin tones. Look natural falling more on cooler tones there's some noticeable skin smoothening, going on even when beauty mode is turned off. Nonetheless, like the rear cameras, we get sharp details, impressive dynamic range, and you can always take wide selfies for more interesting features.

There's the improved single, take or end users can take short 8-second videos and immediately with AI, it will give you suggested best part photo. So you can still enjoy moments, then there's the newly introduced director's view, which essentially allows you to record videos with the front and rear cameras simultaneously with the output resembling a video call. These can be handy for your social media posts. When it comes to videos, you can shoot up to 8k with the rear cameras, but that will limit to only 24 frames per seconds, so we mostly stick to 4k that can be used up to 60 frames per seconds. Thankfully, the video stabilization now works across all settings even up to 8k.

Overall, the s21 ultras cameras are one of the best that you can get in a smartphone today, considering price, it's at 69, 990 pesos for the 12 gigabytes, plus 256 gigabytes variant and 79, 990 pesos for the 16 gigabytes, plus 512 gigabytes option compared to its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy s21 ultra holds noteworthy upgrades, that's perfect for creatives or users with demanding lifestyles, or you just have to budget for it, we're not judging without a doubt, it upholds the ultra in its name and probably even beyond you get a stellar dynamic, AMOLED display, excellent flagship performance, versatile cameras, reliable battery ip68, water and dust resistance, s, pen, support 5g connectivity and even access to Wi-Fi 6e. This phone is a winner. The lack of a micro SD card slot, headphone jack and power adapter isn't much of an issue to us personally. But we are wary of the occasional heating we experienced when using heavy apps and games. Then again it can be remedied with a high quality case or by toning down the resolution and refresh rate.

So, yes, for us, it's worth the hefty price tag, and we do recommend it, especially if you're looking for one of the best android flagship smartphones that can last you years and that wraps up this review guys. Thank you for sticking till the end feel free to share with us your thoughts about this Samsung Galaxy s21 ultra in the comments and if you enjoyed this video, be sure to drop a like subscribe to our channel for more content hit that bell icon. So you don't miss any future uploads and be sure to visit yugatech. com for the latest tech news and reviews. Once again, this is Justin and don't forget to wash your hands and stay at home.

Source : YugaTech