Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra COMPLAINTS and TAKEAWAYS By Joshua Vergara

Let me tell you: this is one hell of a device, so let's go ahead and jump right into it. Finally, bringing you this video with my complaints and takeaways on Samsung's latest flagship, it's Joshua Ferrara! What's going on everybody, these are my complaints and takeaways with the Samsung Galaxy s21 ultra, I'm not saying companies shouldn't go all in on the camera humps, given the specs and the power that they might provide, but anything would be better than that large platform that we got last time. Samsung took it to a whole new level, with the s21 ultra, not only going in on the camera hump, but making it blend in with the general design language better than ever. While we might be in the era of smartphones, all largely looking the same credit does go to Samsung for adopting subtle, yet very meaningful design. Cues that made their phone stand out now. The phone is rather large, but that's the point of it being the highest end model.

The black edition is the one that I have, but it's also the one they talked about the most during the announcement. It might be a little MHD of me to say this, but I'm really digging this whole matte black everything granted the phone can still be a little slippery. Thankfully, it's not hard to change up the look and give the phone more grip with things like a skin and a grip case from brand shout out to them for being a channel sponsor, and you can check out their products for the s21 line in the link below. Despite how effective the design of the s21 ultra is. I can't help but wonder if we'll ever get an ultra device that isn't massive yet doesn't skimp out on some key aspects.

Yes, there are reasons why this is the ultra device, the size of the display, a few of the internal specs and the number of cameras, both physically and in terms of the megapixel count. All of this is to justify the nomenclature, but I'm hoping that one day we can get a s21 ultra. That is the size of a s21. By the way I do have the galaxy s21 in line for these complaints and takeaways treatments as well. So let me know you're looking forward to that by hitting the like button telling me whatever complaint or takeaway, you might have with your galaxy s21 and then subscribe to my channel.

So you know when that video comes out now. I say all of this, but, as you might have noticed, over the last few months, I've really been embracing the big screen life, because I'm not really moving around a ton being in maybe one two three places total primarily has got me looking at my phone screens way more, and eventually it got me appreciating having a larger screen and what better screen to stare at and enjoy than a Samsung super AMOLED display. The one on the galaxy s21 ultra is just a joy to use for all the YouTube and lately Disney, plus that I've been watching and there's also all the game streaming, that I've been playing and all the mobile games that I've been maxing out, including with the adaptive high refresh rate that we're seeing become the norm in 2021 flagship devices. The galaxy s21 line was the first set of phones that I actually got to use with the snapdragon 888. Yes, I'm in the region that gets the snapdragon compared to the people who are in the areas with the Enos, but apparently the Enos 2100 has made some strides.

Yet if you want the best gaming performance possible, you're going to want this Qualcomm chipset and, to that end the galaxy s21 ultra has been everything. I've wanted to play and visually enjoy anything from gentian impact to dragon quest, 8 to pascal's wager at max settings throughout and to round out the entire experience of these games. The speakers on the phone happen to be pretty great, but true to the typical Samsung balancing act. Every year you get some and you lose some. The sheer power of the galaxy s21 ultra gets some of its extras, dialed back to the dismay of some users.

Now I know that there are going to be people on both sides of each feature that I'm about to mention. You see, despite the creator, heavy focus because of the cameras, there's no micro, SD card slot anymore for expanding the storage, and it costs 50 extra dollars to go from 128 gigabytes to 256, and then there's still debate on whether fast charging damages batteries to a significant extent in the long term, although it is pretty safe to say that it's not the best thing for it over long periods of time, but the convenience of superfast charging is no longer something that Samsung prioritizes in their latest line.25 watt charging is nothing to sneeze at, but anything over 40 on plenty of other phones is still impressive and really easy to lean on I'll admit. This is a move that Samsung could argue is in line with their eco-friendly choice, to remove the power, brick and other accessories from the unboxing experience. Maybe if the phone was able to do faster, charging Samsung wouldn't include the fast charger in the box anyway, which means you would have to buy yet another break and that's doubling up on the e-waste potentially no matter what, though, we're left without the option altogether. So, just let me know how you feel about that in the comments Samsung made a huge deal about a better relationship with Google to make the one UI experience less of a double-edged sword and over the years we did have to experience this kind of phenomenon where you get google versions of certain apps, and you still get Samsung's versions of the same apps, but with the sentiment that they're trying to put out there well, the end result is still a complicated mess.

Us units, for example, still get Samsung messages, and in my phone there are still two different apps for plenty of tasks, not to mention the fact that Bixby and Google Assistant play this tug of war. That google usually wins, at least for me, and then there are some ads that have started to appear in certain parts of one UI granted. They are particularly found in areas like the galaxy store, which kind of makes sense, but this two-phase approach undercuts what has been a proper evolution of one UI over time into a software suite rife with extras that toe the line between superfluous and useful, while providing an intuitive enough interface that most users can navigate comfortably with a little of elbow grease like I've done here, you can make one UI a simultaneously powerful, yet spartan version of android Samsung's, just ultimately making it very tedious to get to this point. And finally, we make it to the cameras. Aside from the already powerful 108 megapixel sensor, you get a 12 megapixel ultrawide, and then you get two 10 megapixel boomers one is a three times telephoto, while the other is 10 times.

This is a little of a far cry from the telescopic 100 times space zoom that we all maligned on the galaxy s20 ultra. But after putting this one to use, it actually strikes me as a pretty brilliant move. Take into consideration that if a phone prioritizes just the far zoom, then every level from one x to that x is probably a digital crop into the main sensor, and that means much more practical. Focal lengths suffer in overall quality. This time, Samsung is covering those bases, because clearly we as users prioritize portraits far pictures of waterfalls and animals and maybe tight framing of things within reach, rather than so many pictures of the moon and the cityscapes that some of us can't even visit right now.

Samsung still provides close to the original capabilities, letting you go to 100 times for results that look a little more like an oil painting, but improving on the way more useful, 30x, hybrid zoom in below that. The two telephotos support these zoom levels get support on the video side as well, with locked stabilization akin to what the pixel 5 originally introduced. But the main point in this takeaway is that Samsung made sure to keep the quality good, both near and far and within proper reason. Of course, this is Samsung we're talking about, so the camera app is not without its extra functions to match its number of lenses. There are a ton of different modes to help the budding creator from single take modes to slow motion to live focus video to the new director's view.

Now. My complaint with these modes is something that has become a broken record in recent flagship phones. It's the fact that they all relegate to lower resolution capture throughout with a 108 megapixel sensor as the main shooter and with 4k capture available across all lenses, including the front-facing camera. You would think that that capability would eventually bleed over into the creative tools. That's just still not the case, which is disappointing, but I guess not totally unexpected.

In particular, the director's view mode would have been great as an on-the-fly 4k focal length switcher, while the front-facing live focus. Video could give social media creators a lot of extra room for cropping and editing. Now I get that there are still limitations to what our technology can give us, but I'm still hoping that one day we can get these cool new modes and be able to treat 4k as a setting in those modes rather than treat 4k as a mode in and of itself. Let's make one thing clear, though: the galaxy s21 ultra is overall the best camera system in android right now. Some competitors aren't far behind.

Don't get me wrong, but Samsung has done a great job, making the phone one of the most compelling choices. Good pictures from phones with high processing and HDR capabilities are a known commodity by now, and the s21 ultra demonstrates that across all of its lenses, even the front-facing camera allows you to now turn off the softening that most phones have taken as straight-up cameras. Both photos and videos are great across all five lenses.4K video capture on the front-facing camera is awesome to see, as is the improved and tight autofocus. That is a huge leap from last year's misstep, with steady hands to further bolster the is or as, depending on the lens you use. Even halfway good lighting and locking the focus, I have been happy to use the s21 ultra the same way that I have used the iPhone 12 Pro for quick b-roll shots when I don't have my other cameras on hand I'll further that point even more in a little.

But let me just drive the point home that the galaxy s21 ultra is Samsung's greatest actual example of the camera quality claims that they make on stage year after year, so it's too bad that Samsung's long-standing issues kind of continue, even if they're happening to a different degree than before in the past. There was this thing I used to call galaxy syndrome which mostly focused on the various software features that I felt most users would never actually use. If you remember back in the day, it was like the galaxy s4 hand waving and the edge lighting on the edge phones and the edge era, but now Samsung has made strides to keep only the features that have more or less endured, while experimenting just enough to push the envelope with each new high profile release in the galaxy s21. Ultra, all the fundamentals have been properly turned up to 11, but all the extras remain on the fringe. The result is a phone that is chock-full of so many things you might have fun with, but all of those extra features can also easily be stripped away, begging the question of how much you're willing to pay for things that you won't actually utilize the extra modes in the camera.

App is a great example. But then, let's talk about s pen support s. Pen usage is a great way of getting precision. Input on any note device now brought to the galaxy s, but it's just carried the writing and pointing over with none of the air actions that I would argue, made the s pen even more of a killer app for that particular line. I can understand why Samsung couldn't necessarily make remote, shutter or air actions happen on the galaxy s21 ultra, but then buying the s.

Pen, stylus and pen. Combo is an extra cost that I just can't recommend for anyone that isn't specifically looking for that use case scenario, which puts the s pen support squarely in the realm of galaxy syndrome. At the very least, you have a choice of whether you want to spend the money on the extra taken in a vacuum. The galaxy s21 ultra is the epitome of a premium smartphone. It has great design all the power within and a camera system that finally balances practicality with sheer feature set.

A lot of android smartphones have trouble really hitting the sweet spot, because either some fundamentals aren't optimized or the extras are ultimately useless. Looking at you, macro lenses by turning certain necessary features up to 11 Samsung has properly justified the moniker of ultra there's one other company that tries to do that instead with the name pro max, and one could argue that, while Apple did put some extra effort into parts of their biggest iPhone 12, it didn't feel like enough to justify the higher price and the harder ergonomics. You see the stabilized bigger main sensor in the camera of the iPhone 12 Pro max is an improvement, but it wasn't significant enough to make it the must-have device of the four product lineup. Meanwhile, Samsung hits the big display, with the best tuning, backs the power up with the biggest battery and hits the camera with a powerful main sensor with a second telephoto lens, to really justify the amount of money you might put down to have literally the best of the best. It's a boon to Samsung that they made the ultra and the word ultra makes sense, and it might serve as a great example for other manufacturers who are slowly moving toward this trend of having at least three phones in their lineups, not to mention the s21 ultra is actually a little more affordable than last year's biggest offering, which is yet another example of Samsung's continued optimization year after year for more on the Samsung Galaxy s21 ultra the galaxy s21, including real world camera tests, make sure you subscribe to my channel if you haven't already with all that said, I'm going to call it on this one.

Thank you. So much for watching, please take care of yourselves and each other and enjoy your tea. Everybody.

Source : Joshua Vergara