Many reviews define the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra as the best Android phone money can buy. With a retail price that starts at $1199 this is exactly what you want to hear before buying it. However, I always struggled to find online reviews on phones that were not misleading: the phone is used for few days or weeks, the time to take some shots with the camera, and the review is done. This is not how most of the people use their phone, so are these reviews really accurate?
Since smartphones now integrates everything we need in one device, phones are an important part of our life. It would be really hard to go out without our phone: we need it to pay, to commute, to communicate and for many other tasks. For this reason phones should be evaluated for how well they integrate in our life and a review made on few days of usage is not sufficient.
I had the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra for more than 7 months, so I thought it was a good time for me to share what I think about this premium phone, helping to set the right expectations for the next buyers.
My expectations
Before reviewing the Galaxy S21 Ultra, I would like to share my preference about phones to let the reader better understand my point of view.
It is since 2013 that I always had Chinese smartphones and I loved them. With around a 300$ price target I was able to get a great phone with a decent camera and everything I needed to do my daily tasks. I still remember my TCL Idol X+ S960, what a great phone compared to other phones at that time: FHD screen, Octa-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of Storage, GPU, Audio Card, an incredible battery (2500mAh) and a good camera. On top of that it was really slim and resistant too, thanks to its Gorilla Glass: I never had a cover and the phone fell so many times without a scratch. I loved this phone!
As technology evolved, I got my hands on multiple phones: I would like to particularly mention the Huawei P10 Lite for its good camera and the Oppo F11 Pro for its incredible battery life and its beautiful screen without any notch (it had a rising camera, allowing a 91% screen-to-body ratio).
After all these good years and phones with their pros and cons, I decided that it was time for me to try out a premium phone. I am not an Apple fan so my choice was around the Huawei P40 Pro, the OnePlus 8 Pro, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G and few others (including Xiaomi). Since I love to travel, I was looking in particular for a good camera. In the past, I had a great experience with Huawei, however its ban from the US in 2020 meant that the P40 Pro did not have the Google Apps bundle available. This was a no-go for me.
After reading many reviews, the Galaxy S21 Ultra really stunned for its camera and some other features, reason why I eventually bought it. My expectations? I always spent around 300$ for my phones and I was now buying a 1200$ phone, 4x the price! Obviously, my expectations were super high: if my previous phones were really good, this phone had to be perfect to justify its price.
My review
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is a premium phone with a 1200$ retail price. For this reason I was looking forward for a phone perfect in every aspect. Was it though? Let us find out.
Size
Let us start from the size. This is a 75.6x165.1x8.9mm phone (Width x Height x Depth), with a weight of 229g and a 6.8-inch screen. Probably these numbers might not mean anything to you if you don’t have anything to compare them with, but look at your hand and imagine the phone being bigger than it. Do you think it is big? Let me tell you, yes it is! Is this a problem? Maybe not for some users, but for me eventually it was.
I usually leave the phone in my pants pockets and having such a big phone is not comfortable at all. Sometimes the phone does not fit in the pocket or the pocket is too small (well, rather the phone is too big) and thus the phone is compressed against my leg with really uncomfortable feelings. For these reasons, many times in the summer I find myself holding the phone in my hands while walking, which is annoying as I want my hands free when I walk. In the winter this is less of a problem, since I can use my jacket pockets.
In conclusion, if you are thinking about buying a phone with a big screen, think carefully about it. Next time I will definitely go with a smaller screen.
Fingerprint and Unlocking
This might not be another big deal for some users, but with the Galaxy S21 Ultra I realized it was for me. This phone comes with an in-screen fingerprint sensor, which uses ultrasonic technology, while I was instead used to rear fingerprint sensors. As a technologist, thinking about an in-screen sensor is mind-blowing, especially because you will not notice it! But at the end of the day, it has to come down to practicality and let me tell you, the rear sensor wins hands down. Let me explain to you a little bit more.
I usually keep the phone in my pants pocket and, when I pull it out, a rear sensor provides a tactile feedback that allows to pose your finger on it without looking. By the time you have the phone in front of your eyes, the screen is unlocked and ready to use. I also realized that most of the times the first part to break in a phone is the power button, due to the mechanical stress of pressing it every time you want to lock/unlock the phone, which is incredibly frequent! But with a rear fingerprint sensor, the problem is solved: the phone unlocks with no mechanical stress on any part of the phone.
With an in-screen sensor the story is slightly different: you will have to wait to have the phone in front of your eyes and turn the screen on to understand where to place your finger. On top of that I found out that the sensor is not always reliable. From time to time you will have to place your finger multiple times on the screen for the sensor to read your fingerprint which becomes annoying. This is something I would not expect from a 1200$ phone. And, by turning on the screen with the power button, you are inducing mechanical stress on it, which makes it an easy target as the first thing to break in the phone. There is workaround for this: the Galaxy S21 Ultra comes with a feature that allows you to turn on/off the screen by simply double-tapping and I found this very cool and convenient.
I must however say that the face unlock works relatively well, but I cannot judge its safety and it does not work in all conditions, as in low-light conditions or when you wear a mask (obviously).
Screen
The Galaxy S21 Ultra comes with a 6.8-inch screen, with very vivid colors, a super smooth 120Hz refresh rate and a great resolution: a WHQD+ (Wide Quad HD+) of 3200 x 1440 pixels. This sounds all great right? Well, let me tell you the truth.
The WHQD+ is really power hungry! You can really notice the battery draining real quick when the screen in on: don’t even think about half day of usage. And given that Samsung sells this screen as one of the main features, what is the point of having such a screen if then I cannot really use it because of its power consumption? Really disappointing.
However, there is a workaround: the phone settings allow you to choose between three resolutions: HD+ (1600x720), FHD+ (2400x1080) and WHQD+ (3200x1440). To be honest you will not notice a big difference between FHD+ and WHQD+ in terms of image quality, but you will in terms of battery life, that is why for normal usage (my working days) I have the FHD+ on. When I travel and I use the camera to take pictures, I have to use the HD+ resolution: this is the only way to ensure the battery to last the entire day, which is kind of sad, because here you will really see the difference with the FHD+ resolution.
About the 120Hz refresh rate? Another feature that you will not really notice the difference. So not really a selling point in my opinion.
Battery
In my point of view, the battery life should be the core selling point of every phone. Why should I buy a super great phone with super cool features if I should be careful of using it to do not drain the battery? This is where I am disappointed with this phone. With a 1200$ retail price, expectations were really high, especially because my previous 300$ phones were incredible in terms of battery life, but here the Galaxy S21 Ultra disappoints: during the week, the phone can last the entire day. But during the weekend, when I have a little bit more of spare time, I use my phone more and I often find myself charging it again before going out at night.
Something positive I have to say is that the Samsung Super Fast Charging is incredibly fast. It will fully charge your phone in 30 minutes, which is amazing. But I would prefer a much longer battery life rather than a fast charging phone: I do not want to go around bringing a charger with me. Ideally I would like to only charge my phone while sleeping, i.e. when I do not use it, when the phone has 8 hours to charge. Is fast charging really useful? By the way, you will have to buy the charger separately since it does not come with the phone, which can be irrelevant for some but it was relevant for me.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra also has wireless charging which in my opinion is a cool feature, but it is also extremely slow. For me its slowness is not an issue since ideally I charge the phone at night. Is this feature useful? Well, that is debatable.
Another disappointment came from the Samsung Wireless Charger Trio, which is sold as capable to charge three devices at the same time by placing them vertically on the pad. Well, my phone does not charge if placed vertically. It does only if placed horizontally, taking two spots on the pad. This is fine for me since the earbuds last for almost a month and I do not need all the spots at the same time, but I am equally disappointed since with a 1200$ phone you would expect everything to be perfect and in this case it is not.
Another feature is the Wireless PowerShare which allows your phone to reverse wireless charge another phone, watch, or Galaxy Buds. This seems a great feature, but sorry buddies, I am not going to share my battery with you if I cannot even make sure it is enough for me.
Design and Material
This is something that I find really funny nowadays: the phones design. If you go on the Samsung website you will read “A striking new design” and by looking for reviews you will come across “This is a tale of design beauty”. Seriously, can you please tell me how phones differ in design nowadays that all they are is a touch screen monitor?
Another thing I find really funny is how phone makers advertise the quality of materials they use for flagship phones, like the glass or ceramic back. Is the quality of material so relevant? I used to have my 300$ phones without a cover, since the lower price makes it really affordable to buy a new one if they break. But if you have more than 1000$ in your hands, probably you will not live without a cover, because every time the phone falls on the floor, your glass or ceramic back is at risk to break. And it does, very easily! I am happy enough with the polycarbonate (i.e. plastic) back that the Galaxy S21 Ultra offers, since anyway I use a cover and I will not see it or feeling it.
Another thing that I will never understand about phone designs is how the front screen easily breaks. And Samsung likes to increase your risks with a curved edge-to-edge screen, so that when it falls down, the screen is the first part of the phone impacting the floor, increasing the chances to break. That is why a cover becomes indispensable. All covers do is to have a little bump on the side that protects the screen when falling on the floor, so that the first impact is on the cover rather than on the screen. I will never understand why phone makers do not design phones already with these little bumps on the edges, so that we would be able to live a cover-free life. But I will tell you why: covers are accessories that generate revenues to phone makers. I indeed bought a Samsung cover: with a 30$ price I was expecting the high quality that the Samsung brand can offer. The cover comes with a 6-month warranty, guess what? The cover broke after the 7 month, well done Samsung.
Audio
Ok, I have been really critical so far. But this is probably where my critics end. Talking about the audio, the Samsung is perfect: good quality, stereo speakers when watching horizontal videos and with Dolby Atmos technology. If you care about audio, you found your phone.
Performance
Here another point where the Galaxy S21 Ultra is perfect. Nothing to say, I never had an issue, no slow downs, I never had to quit apps or to restart the phone, which tells you a lot.
Camera
This is probably what you are paying with your 1200 dollars: the camera! Astonishing: beautiful colors, beautiful pictures and an incredible zoom. If you ever wanted to take a shot of the moon, now with the 100x Zoom you can! Once I was in Manhattan and I had a friend on a rooftop in Long Island City (across the East River), can you believe that I was able to see her waiving the hands on the rooftop? At 100x the zoom does get shaky but the Zoom Lock feature helps you get a steadier shot with just a tap. Simply wow.
I do not want to mention the Megapixels of the camera sensors because they are not a measure of photo quality, given that it depends on the quality of the sensors, lenses and the Image Signal Processor. Although this is something that phone makers advertise, never get impressed by a high number of MP.
Another trend that I will never understand is the increasing number of rear cameras and the Galaxy S21 Ultra is not any different since it comes with 5! I do not know the technicality of cameras but I do question whether the average users need all of them since they are not camera experts. I cannot judge if they are really needed, but all I can say is that they do their job (together with the Image Signal Processor) since pictures are stunning.
About videos: incredible 8K videos, with Super Steady camera. You will feel like a cinema director by looking at your videos. Simply stunning, I uploaded a sample on YouTube.
Price
Well, the phone is pricey, full stop. I was used to a 300$ budget and I was happy with my phones. 4x as much, the price has to be justified. However there is something more that I did not like about the Samsung marketing campaign. When I bought the phone, the price was 1200$ (before taxes) with around 250$ free credits on accessories: this is how I bought the chargers (wireless and non-wireless), covers, earbuds. However, if you were to shop around you would have found out that on Amazon the same phone was selling for a little bit less than 1000$, so were the free credits really free? My suggestion is to always shop around.
Conclusion
According to many reviews, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is among the best phones money can buy. Instead, I do believe that the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the best camera on smartphones that money can buy. I was however slightly disappointed by other features like the battery (hard to last until end of day), the screen (very power hungry), the fingerprint sensor (not always reliable) and the size (massive). This is also because I was really satisfied with my previous 300$ phones and paying 4x as much set my expectations really high, looking forward for a perfect phone. Is the phone perfect? Really debatable. But the camera, audio and performance are stunning. Something to take into consideration.
