Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra Unboxing, Setup & Comparison to iPhone 12 Pro Max By Brandon Butch

What's up guys, my name is Brandon, and today we're going to be unboxing. The brand new Samsung Galaxy s21 ultra we're going to run through the setup process and also briefly, compare it to Apple's iPhone 12 Pro max and also the Samsung Galaxy s20 ultra from last year. So the ultra is the largest and the most expensive of the s21 line this year with the s21 and s21 plus both coming in smaller and cheaper. So the s21 has a 6.2 inch display and starts at 7.99, while the s21 plus has a 6.7 inch display and starts at 9.99 for the 128 gigabyte model, and then, of course, we have the s21 ultra, which has a 6.8-inch screen and starts at twelve hundred dollars for the 128 gigabyte model. You can also get this in 256 or 512 gigabytes for 1249 or 1379 respectively, but anyways. Let's go ahead and unbox this guy and take a look at it.

So you can see the box here. It's a very nice black shade, and obviously I did get this in the black color as well. It does come in five different colors. We have phantom black phantom silver phantom, titanium, phantom navy and phantom brown. Let's go ahead and cut into the box and take a look at the phone itself.

So right when we take the top off, you can see there. We just have some paper that says Samsung and the phone is right there. We pick it up by the bottom tab right here and that piece of paper comes right off, and we have our s21 ultra-right here. Let's take a look at what else we have in the box before we get to the phone itself, you can see. We have just a box right here and nothing else in the box.

So we just have this little box right here with the sim eject tool on the back inside. We have our USB cable right here, and then we also have our quick start guide inside as well. Let's go ahead and take that out and take a look and that's everything we get in there as you can see just a quick reference guide, the terms and conditions and then just an ad for the s21 5g right there. So we're going to put all this off to the side over here and take a look at the s21 ultra. So on the bottom.

We have this little tab here which will pull off the plastic on the back of the s21 ultra. As you can see right there very satisfying, and you can see we have the matte black backing, which I absolutely love. We also have a cover here for the camera, so go ahead and peel that off as well always satisfying and man. Those are some massive cameras right there. I bet this thing is going to take insane pictures which we'll do a minor test in this video, but I will have a more detailed video coming on the s21 ultra versus the iPhone 12 Pro max, and we'll do like a camera shootout and things like that in a future video, so make sure you guys are subscribed for that.

We do also have some plastic, of course, on the front screen right here as well, and then also it looks like we have some on top here as well, so very protected in there from scratches we'll peel off this last piece of plastic right here you can see it kind of just goes around the border there around the edges, and here we go. This is the Samsung Galaxy s21 ultra, let's go ahead and just right off the bat, compare it to something like the iPhone 12 Pro max in terms of just the size. So you can see the size. There is pretty similar. It is a little taller, but it is also skinnier than the iPhone 12 Pro max.

If we just set them right here, you can see that the iPhone 12 Pro max is just a little thicker than the s21 and, of course, the cameras there's a massive difference, and just the overall look and design of the cameras right there, a lot more lenses on the s21 ultra here and also the edges. I can tell right away that we have aluminum edges on the s21 ultra versus stainless steel. Edges, like the frame is stainless steel on the iPhone 12 Pro max. They feel about the same in terms of the weight. The iPhone 12 Pro max is a little heavier, but they feel very, very similar in the hand and then compared to last year's s20 ultra you can see here.

The front is very, very similar, but of course, on the back, you are going to see quite a change there, of course in the camera bump, but that's really the only difference. You're going to be able to tell with these two. Of course, we do have the matte coating as well, which is different from last year. So let's go ahead and boot up this s21 ultra here and see what we're working with so here is the welcome screen on this big 6.8 inch, dynamic, AMOLED display, so we do have a 1440 by 3200 resolution with a pixel density of 515 pixels per inch. So I can already tell that gaming and just videos- just media consumption overall, is going to be amazing on this phone.

We also have 1500 nits of max brightness, so this thing is going to get extremely bright and that's a great thing for me living down here in Florida. I need as much brightness as I can get, so I can't wait to use this in direct sunlight and see how it compares to maybe something like the iPhone 12 Pro max, which just for comparison, gets 1200 nits of max brightness, so quite a difference there. We do also get an under screen fingerprint sensor, which is something I can't wait for the iPhone to get. We may be getting that this year or possibly next year, but let's go ahead and continue through the process. The setup process here- and I will talk about that fingerprint sensor when it comes up in the setup.

So now we just have to go through a few legal items to review. So I just wanted to agree with to those and click on next we're going to go ahead and connect to Wi-Fi it's checking for software updates. Now so we'll see if we have any software updates, which I don't think we should at least not yet, but it's still checking for those updates. I did also want to mention that I did get some pre-order bonuses here as well. Samsung always does good with pre-order bonuses, so I will be unboxing these here in a minute, just a few extra goodies, so anyways you can see here we have the option to transfer over some data from an old phone to a new phone.

So I'm going to go ahead and do that. Let's go ahead and tap on next, and I'm going to go ahead and use the s20 ultra here. So we have the option to select galaxy, slash, android or iPhone or iPad. So of course, I'm going to select galaxy. There agree we're going to do it wirelessly, and you can see we get this pop-up on the old phone right there.

Let's go ahead and tap on. Yes, we're going to allow, and it's going to switch and transfer over all of my data, and you can see it's going through it very fast. Of course, I did not have too much data on the old phone, but you can see this is everything it's switching over right. There it's going to tap on transfer, and again it should not take too long. Since I don't have too much information on this phone.

I just need to verify that this is me with the fingerprint sensor and there we go it's copying and I will be back once this finishes and there we go. We are all set up. I decided not to do a fingerprint scan or a facial recognition scan, because I will do that in the settings here. I just wanted everything to transfer over, as you can see right there. Everything is still transferring over, and you can see the transfer there is at 85, so it's almost done and while we're waiting, I am going to show you guys the fingerprint scanner, because we do have again the second generation 3d sonic sensor, and it's 77 larger on the s21 ultra and also 50 faster than the fingerprint scanner.

The first generation 3d sonic sensor in the s20 ultra. So let's go and test that out. So we're going to go into our settings here and then scroll down to biometrics and security, and we're going to go to fingerprints we're going to enter in our pin right there, and you can see we get the splash screen for fingerprints right here. Let's tap on continue, and it says start scanning with the center of your fingertip, and it shows us where we should be putting our thumb right there. Let's go ahead and tap on that, and you can see we get a percentage value there.

That shows us how much we've scanned, so we're at 54 just trying to get different angles here, and I can already tell just from doing this that the size is bigger. I mean it is 77 larger the area right here for where you put your fingerprints, and it definitely shows I can already tell just from the setup process here. So, let's tap on done and there we go. We only have to do it one time so now, I'm just going to go ahead and lock the phone and put my fingerprint in and yeah that definitely feels faster as well, definitely faster and definitely more area to work with more room to work with than last year's s20 ultra, which is really nice, because that was really my number one complaint with this phone. I didn't use it very often because I did just use facial recognition, but when I did, I noticed that it just wasn't as accurate as I wished.

It was so you can see there. The data did finish. The transfer did finish there, so I do have all my information now from the s20 ultra on at my s21 ultra all the applications and data, and things like that. Now inside the s21 ultra, we do have the snapdragon 888 processors, which is a pretty fast processor, and I will be putting that up against the iPhone 12 Pro max and also the s20 ultra as well in a future speed test, and we also get 12 gigabytes of ram. So a massive 12 gigabytes of ram.

You also get 16 gigabytes of ram if you get the 512 storage model of the s21 ultra this year, which is crazy. So we do also get a 120 hertz refresh rate. So it's going to make this phone just feel even smoother, and if we go into our settings here, I will show you how that looks. So, let's go into a display right here, and you can see if we go down to motion smoothness. It shows you the different options right there.

So we have adaptive and standard, and it says for adaptive, get smoother animations and scrolling by automatically adjusting your screen refresh rate up to 120 hertz. You can also set it to standard for better battery life with a 60 hertz screen refresh rate, but I'm pretty sure most people will want that 120 hertz, just because it makes everything feel just that much smoother. Now, if we go down to screen resolution, you can see it's set by default to full HD plus, which is the 2400 by 1080 resolution, and you can go ahead and change that here. If you want to just know that it will impact your battery life, I'm also going to go ahead and change the screen timeout here to five minutes, just because that really annoys me when it just locks the screen when I'm still using it. So now, let's talk about the cameras on the back side of the s21 ultra, so we have a really nice uniformed layout right here, so it doesn't look quite as awkward as like.

The last note did I just really didn't like the look of this. It really stuck out a lot, and it also was not uniform. It didn't go all the way to the sides like we see here with the s21 ultra, and it also looks perfect that it's all matte black here as well, but anyways you can see here. We have five different lenses or sensors, including the flash right there as well. So we have two primary lenses: one is the 108 megapixel, f 1.8 lens and the other is the 12 megapixel ultrawide lens, and then we have two telephoto cameras as well. One is a 3x and one is a 10x zoom telephoto camera, which is nice.

We do also have a laser autofocus sensor, which will help with autofocus in both photos and especially with videos, and that sensor is something that is brand new. The s20 ultra did not have that. We can also record an up to 8k at 24 fps on this guy, so you can see there also the layout finally changed from the transfer. But if we go into the camera right here and then go over to video and then tap on where it says FHD you can see, we can record in up to 8k at 24fps. You can see it right there now.

Obviously, that's not going to be practical for most people. Most people are not going to be shooting in 8k, it's really overkill, but we can also shoot and everything else like 4k 60, 4k, 30 1080p, if you want to as well, so that compared to the iPhone 12 Pro max, which can only record up to 4k at 60fps. But once again the 8k is kind of overkill. At this point in time, you'll also once again notice the big difference in the cameras on the back of the iPhone 12 Pro max compared to the s21 ultra. So obviously, we just have three camera lenses on the 12 pro max, along with the LIDAR scanner there as well.

So we don't have a laser autofocus sensor, but I will be testing autofocus on both phones to see how much better one is over the other. But I already know that one big advantage that the iPhone 12 Pro max will have over the Samsung Galaxy s21 ultra is both deep fusion and also the smart HDR, the third generation smart HDR. So those are both computational things, both things that happen thanks to the a14 bionic chip inside the iPhone 12 Pro max. But it will be interesting to see how these two compare when it comes to picture and video quality and actually, since I'm curious, I am going to go to video here and just take a quick video and test out the autofocus to see which one has better autofocus overall. So after comparing the autofocus on both, I actually think that the iPhone 12 Pro max is better with autofocus and video.

As you can see here, I kept bringing this knife into focus, and it looked like the iPhone was just quicker to latch on to the knife just consistently every time, even without the sensor that the s21 ultra has the iPhone 12 for mac still seemed to get this in focus quicker than the s21 ultra, which is fascinating, and that just really speaks volumes about the a14 bionic chip inside the iPhone and just how well that handles things even like autofocus, so just pretty interesting results there. Of course, I will test this more in depth in a future video that is just a quick initial test that I've done. But aside from the autofocus, I would expect the s21 ultra to probably be a little better in terms of dynamic range and especially zoom when it comes to video, since we do have that 10x zoom the periscope zoom lens on the s21 ultra. So I will be testing that again, but I would expect some pretty exceptional results from this phone now. As far as the selfie camera goes, we have a 40 megapixel lens on the s21 ultra, which can shoot video in up to 4k 60fps and on the iPhone 12 Pro max.

We can shoot that same video up to 4k 60fps, but we only have a 12 megapixel lens, but as we know nowadays the megapixels really mean absolutely nothing. It all comes down to computational, photography and just kind of what the chipset can do to enhance the photo and video quality. So I would imagine that the front-facing camera quality is probably about the same, if not better, on something like the iPhone 12 Pro max. Just because this thing takes absolutely incredible: selfies, especially portrait selfies in low light. It's just incredible the results I've been getting from the iPhone 12 Pro max, but the s21 ultra could surprise me, and I will let you guys know in my later comparison with these two phones.

Now, as far as the battery life goes, we have a 5 000 William hour battery on the s21 ultra, which is massive, and it's likely going to outlast something like the iPhone 12 Pro max, which has a 36 87 William hour battery, but yeah just holding the phone in the hand. It feels absolutely great. I mean that matte back is just my favorite finish on the back of any phone, and I really haven't had a full matte finish on the back of a phone since, like I think the iPhone 7 plus a long time ago. So it's been a while, since I've held something with this nice matte black finish, and I just love the look, I love the feel and the size. The edges are not stainless steel, which is what I've been used to on the iPhone 12 Pro and pro max.

But it is this aluminum right here, and it feels fine. It again doesn't feel quite as quality and as premium as the stainless steel edges do. But it's fine. I mean it feels great in the hand, and I really have no complaints at all so far. I do also love the fast fingerprint scanner here as well.

It's definitely faster than it was on the s20 ultra, which is nice, so I did also get some extra goodies from Samsung when I pre-ordered the s21 ultra. They always give you pre-order credits, which is nice. They allow you to get other additional products with your phone, so I went with the Galaxy Buds live right here. I also got the smart tag, which is going to be the early competitor to apple's air tags whenever those come out- and I also got the wireless charger duo here- so it charges the watch, the buds, iPhone and AirPods and also, of course, the galaxy phone, so we're going to start from smallest to biggest. I want to check out the smart tag here first, because I think this is going to be pretty similar to what we're going to get from apple later this year.

Furthermore, I would assume later this year with the air tags, so we just have this little tray. That comes out just like so, and you can see that is the smart tag right there, so very similar, of course, to the tile tracker, which is where you can track your devices. That is, of course, the same thing that Samsung is doing here with the smart tag, and you can see it's also in matte black, and it says galaxy smart tag on it right there, so it's nice that it kind of matches with the matte black phone that I got right here. So you do need these smart things' application for this to work. So if we go into smart things right here, we'll agree to the terms we'll go ahead and start that, and then we should be able to pair up our smart tag right here, and you can see down at the bottom.

It shows the Samsung Galaxy smart tag right there, we're going to add that now, and you can see it says, let's get started, let's go ahead and start, and it's going to connect, and we do also have a percentage up top for this. So it says press the button in the center of the smart tag. Go ahead and tap on that, and you can hear the audible chirp right there, there we go, and now you get the option to rename the device. If you want to I'm just going to leave mine at smart tag, so there you go once you get it all connected and updated. It shows you pretty much how to use this and the benefits of this.

So it says, find phone or tablet with tag, so it says can't find your phone or tablet make it ring by pressing your tags button twice. You just press this middle button right here twice, and it will ring where your phone or tablet is, and you can also start automations with the tag as well, which is pretty neat, and then we have the wireless charger duo right here which will charge up your phone at the watch, the buds, and also it works with the iPhone as well and AirPods as well. So let's go ahead and unbox this. I always like Samsung's wireless chargers. For some reason, I prefer them over a lot of other companies.

Let's go ahead and take this out, and you can see we have a clear sheet over it right there. We have our USB cable in here and our regular fast charging plug right there as well. We have a little pamphlet in here, and we just have some plastic on the back, so this is also matte black, so everything is matte black, which is awesome. Furthermore, we have a nice theme going here, and you can see I can set my phone on here. I can set these smart tags there.

If I want as well and just charge everything up at a time and then finally, we have the buds live. So these are Samsung's answer to the AirPods. These are the bean headphones. So let's go and check out what these look like. So we have a pamphlet that popped out right away with just some getting started information there, and we have the case right here.

So you can see. This is what the case for the buds live looks like, and you can see the beans in all their glory right there. So these are what they look like in the hand you can see. They have that nice glossy look to them. I do wish that these had the matte black look as well, so everything kind of went together because see this is what they look like, and they're going to be very similar to last year's buds as well, and then in this box we get our USB charging, cable and two additional rubber pieces which you can put on your headphones.

If you want to so yeah guys there you have it, that is an unboxing and first impressions of the Samsung Galaxy s21 ultra. I actually love the phone so far, and I'm really curious to see how the camera works out and how fast it is in terms of the performance. I will be testing all that stuff in the future. Videos so make sure you are subscribed for that, and I just love the way. This thing feels on the hand.

I love that matte finish. So, if you guys do want to see more videos on this in comparison to the iPhone 12 Pro max, let me know down in a comment below but anyways. If you guys did enjoy this video, I would appreciate, if you give it a thumbs up and, of course make sure you subscribe for all those additional videos coming on the s21 ultra and future Samsung phones as well, but anyways guys thanks again for watching, and I'll see you soon. You.

Source : Brandon Butch