Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review – Toms Guide

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is designed to deliver everything you could possibly want in a big-screen Android phone. And based on my testing, it pretty much does. 

For $1,199 — or $100 more than the iPhone 12 Pro Max — you a get dynamic 6.8-inch display and dual telephoto lenses for crazy zoom power. Plus, the S21 Ultra supports the S Pen, a first for the Galaxy S series.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra comes in a sleeker design and offers faster performance from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 chip. And, unlike the regular Galaxy S21, you don’t have to make nearly as many trade-offs. You get a better main 108MP camera, a glass back (instead of plastic), more RAM, and a higher-res display.

As you’ll see in my Galaxy S21 Ultra review, there are some trade-offs, including the lack of a charger in the box. But overall, this is one of the best phones money can buy for those willing to pay a premium and the best Android phone overall. 

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review cheat sheet

• The dynamic display on the Galaxy S21 Ultra delivers a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and sharpest WQHD resolution at the same time. And it’s amazingly bright and colorful to boot.
• The dual telephoto lenses (3x and 10x optical zoom) get you very close to your subject, and the new Zoom Lock feature keeps things steadier with digital Space Zoom.
• The S Pen support is nice to have, but you have to purchase the stylus and a case to hold it separately. 
• At $1,199, the S21 Ultra isn’t cheap, but it’s $200 less than the S20 Ultra. However, you don’t get a charger in the box or a microSD card slot.
• The larger fingerprint sensor is welcome, making the S21 Ultra easier to unlock. 
• The 11.5 hours of battery life is excellent for a 5G phone. 

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra release date and price

The Galaxy S21 Ultra is available for pre-order now. The release date for the Galaxy S21 Ultra is January 29. You’ll be able to buy carrier and unlocked versions of the phone. 

The Ultra starts at $1,199 and includes 12GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. You can also upgrade to 256GB of storage and to a model with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.  The 256GB model costs $1,249 — basically an extra $50 — while you’ll pay $1,379 for a Galaxy S21 Ultra with 512GB of storage.

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Design and colors

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is a monolith of a phone. Yes, the contour cut camera design blends the camera bump into the glass back, but this is still a massive device you’ll want to use with two hands. 

With its 0.35 inch profile and weight of 8.08 ounces, the S21 Ultra is thicker and heavier than the iPhone 12 Pro Max. The display is gently curved, unlike the fully flat regular Galaxy S21, but not annoyingly so. I never accidentally tapped something on screen as I did with last year’s Ultra.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra comes in just two colors from carriers: Phantom Black and Phantom Silver. I might go with black because of its slimming effect. Samsung.com is offering exclusive S21 Ultra colors, though, including Phantom Navy, Phantom Titanium and Phantom Brown. 

One of my favorite design upgrades is the 1.7x larger fingerprint sensor. It makes it easier to unlock the phone, and I found that the S21 Ultra didn’t ask me to press the sensor again like previous phones. 

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Display

The 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED display on the Galaxy S21 Ultra is simply one of the best screens on a phone. It’s bright, vibrant and doesn’t make you choose between the highest resolution and highest refresh rate like its predecessor. 

Yes, you’ll be mesmerized when watching videos on this phablet. The colors are as rich as ever, and the viewing angles nice and wide when bing watching on Netflix. 

But the Ultra surpasses the iPhone with its dynamic refresh rate. Not only do you get super smooth scrolling and gameplay, you now get 120Hz and quad HD resolution at the same time. So you don’t have to choose between the highest resolution and highest refresh rates.

The S21 Ultra is also smart enough to automatically dial the refresh rate all the way down to 10Hz to help save on power.

More good news, the S21 Ultra’s display is easy to read outdoors, because it can reach a peak rated brightness of 1,500 nits. In our testing, the S21 Ultra averaged 821 nits, which beats the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s 654 nits.

The S21 Ultra’s screen proved plenty colorful in our lab tests, with the panel producing 81.4% of the demanding DCI-P3 color gamut, compared to 84.8% for the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

The colors on the iPhone were a bit more accurate, with its screen achieving a Delta-E score of 0.07, compared to 0.35 for the Galaxy S21 Ultra. 

Samsung says the S21 Ultra has a 3 million: 1 contrast ratio, which is 50% higher than the S20 Ultra. And there’s an Eye Comfort Shield feature that’s designed to reduce eye fatigue by limiting blue light. 

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Cameras

It’s the cameras where the Galaxy S21 Ultra stands out the most against the S21 and S21 Plus. There’s a main 108MP wide sensor and 12MP ultra-wide camera, which is complemented by a laser auto focus sensor.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra will make you feel like a secret agent as you zoom in. While the iPhone 12 Pro Max is stuck at 2.5x optical zoom, the S21 Ultra packs two telephoto lenses of 3x and 10x optical zoom.

I was amazed how close I got to this sign well across a highway. At 100x the zoom does get shaky but the new Zoom Lock feature can help you get a steadier shot with just a tap. 

The 108MP main camera can capture 12-bit HDR photos with 64 times richer color data and more than three times the dynamic range of the S20 Ultra. Plus, there’s a 12-bit RAW file option in Pro mode.

I tested the camera out at a nearby store to capture a shot of produce, and the green peppers in the foreground look shiny and delicious. And you can make out a pretty amazing amount of detail when you zoom in. However, by comparison, the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s shot looks even more vibrant.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra is also a great partner to have when you’re outdoors. Take this photo of towering trees I took at a nearby park. You can make out fine detail in the bark, and the phone does a great job capturing the clouds against the blue sky even while dealing with all of the shadows in the foreground. I slightly prefer the S21 Ultra’s photo in this case to the iPhone 12 Pro Max, but it’s really close. 

Samsung says it has also improved the Portrait mode on the S21 by leveraging AI to better separate the subject from the background. The S21 Ultra delivers a great bokeh effect here. My skin tone is warmer on the iPhone 12 pro Max, but overall the S21 shot looks great.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra also performs quite well in low light, thanks to a faster Bright Night sensor and 12MP nona-binning technology for reducing noise reduction. In this comparison you can make out more of the stones and bushes in the foreground in the S21 Ultra’s photo compared to the iPhone 12 Pro Max, although the iPhone’s colors look more natural. 

The iPhone 12 Pro Max pulls ahead in this photo of a golden retriever. The S21 Ultra’s pic is overly bright and a bit washed out, while his fur his more golden and natural looking with the iPhone. 

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Video 

On the video front, the Galaxy S21 Ultra can record 8K video up to 30 fps and all of its cameras can capture 4K video at up to 60 fps. But the coolest video upgrade is Director’s View.

There’s a new vlogger mode that lets you use the front and back cameras as the same time for recording video. And you can see live thumbnails of each camera while you’re recording video, so you can make a quick call if you want to switch. 

The Galaxy S21 Ultra’s footage looks stunning. As I swept around a river with the S21 Ultra, it delivered near movie-quality results. The dark blue water, dock and puffy clouds all came through crystal clear.

And, yes, you can feel free to move around a lot while shooting. With Super Steady mode on the S21 Ultra engaged, I captured smooth footage even as I walked fast up a hill. 

If you want to take photos and stills at once, the Single Take 2.0 feature on the S21 Ultra is pretty fun. It managed to capture my attempt at a reverse layup in slow mo and pick a pretty good photo at the top of the jump. However, the music Samsung chooses sometimes for its auto-generated video clips sounds cheesy. 

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Performance

The Galaxy S21 Ultra is one of the first phones powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 chip, which is complemented by 12GB or 16GB of RAM.

And this is one fast Android phone. The S21 Ultra didn’t flinch as I sliced through multiple enemies in Grimvalor while delivering console-quality visuals. 

This flagship backs up my experience with impressive benchmark scores. On Geekbench 5, the S21 Ultra notched 3,440 on the multi-core test and 1,123 on single-core. That’s behind the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which cleared 4,100 and 1,600, but it’s still the best scores we’ve seen from an Android phone. 

The S21 Ultra also fared well on the 3DMark Wild Life graphics benchmark, hitting 34 fps. The iPhone 12 Pro Max averaged 41 fps.

On our video editing test using the Adobe Premiere Rush app, the Galaxy S21 Ultra took 1 minute and 2 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p. That’s faster than the Note 20 Ultra’s 1:16 but still well behind the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s 28 seconds. 

Unfortunately, while you have a range of storage options to choose from for the S21 Ultra — 128, 256 or 512GB — Samsung ditched the microSD card slot. So you can’t expand. 

Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Battery life and charging

If you’re looking for a phone that can last all day, this is it. On our web surfing battery test over 5G, the S21 Ultra’s 5,000 mAh endured for 11 hours and 25 minutes. That beats the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s 10:53 and lands the Ultra on our best phone battery life list. 

Note that this time is with the standard 60Hz display mode turned on and that you’ll see less battery life with adaptive mode (up to 120Hz) engaged. In this mode we saw a runtime of 10 hours and 7 minutes. 

The biggest bummer is that you don’t get a charger in the box. Yes, it’s the green thing to do, but if you haven’t bought a phone in the last couple of years and don’t have USB-C, it will mean more money coming out of your pocket. 

Using a 25-watt charger, the S21 Ultra reached 56% in 30 minutes and 31% in 15 minutes. 

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: S Pen

For the first time ever, a Galaxy S device supports the S Pen, the S21 Ultra makes that happen with a Wacom digitizer built into the display. The S Pen, which is optional, lets you draw, sketch and take notes, just as you can on the Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra. It also comes in handy for quickly signing documents.

Just keep in mind that the S Pen is sold separately — it costs $40 — and you’ll need to spring for a compatible case if you want to store the stylus on the go when it’s not in use. There are two case options with S Pen support, and both cost $69.99.

In addition to the S Pen — which is actually a slightly larger version of the one that ships with the Galaxy Note to improve its grip — Samsung is developing a second stylus. The S Pen Pro ships later this year for an undisclosed price. It’s larger overall and offer Bluetooth connectivity.

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: 5G, Wi-Fi 6E and UWB

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra supports all of the latest wireless standards, starting with 5G. The Qualcomm X60 modem inside this device is capable of carrier aggregation, which should result in higher peak speeds while delivering better power efficiency.

The performance was pretty solid in my neck of the woods on T-Mobile. I saw download speeds exceed 160 Mbps. It’s not fantastic, but the iPhone 12 Pro Max mustered only 100 Mbps in the same location when I popped the same SIM card in that phone. 

In addition, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is one of the first phones to support Wi-Fi 6E, a new standard that delivers faster speeds and more overall bandwidth when you have a compatible Wi-Fi 6E router. 

Lastly, the S21 Ultra has UWB (ultra-wideband), which makes it easier to share files with other UWB devices, like the Galaxy S21 Plus. And you’ll be able to use this phone as a digital key for select 2022 cars. 

If you’re constantly losing stuff — like me — you’ll want to check out Samsung’s new Galaxy SmartTags. You can use this tag in combination with the SmartThings Find app to track down everything from your keys to your bag. You can also use the SmartThings Find app to locate other Samsung devices, including phones, smartwatches, tablets and earbuds. 

Galaxy S21 Ultra vs Galaxy S21 vs Galaxy S21 Plus

We have a whole article dedicated to Galaxy S21 vs Galaxy S21 Plus vs Galaxy S21 Ultra, as there are many differences. But here are the key things to know. The Galaxy S21 Ultra has the highest resolution main camera (108MP vs 64MP for S21 and Plus), the most powerful zooms (100x vs 30x) and the sharpest display (QHD vs 1080p).

In addition, the screen on the Ultra is more dynamic, as it can scale from 120Hz all the way down to 10Hz, while the panels on the regular S21 and S21 Plus go down to 48Hz. This helps save on battery life. And the S21 Ultra has the largest battery at 5,000 mAh, compared to the S21 (4,000 mAh) and S21 Plus (4,800 mAh).

Lastly, the S21 Ultra has the most RAM at 12GB to 16GB, while the S21 and S21 Plus make due with 8GB. And only the S21 Ultra has a 512GB storage option. See our full Samsung Galaxy S21 review for more. 

Galaxy S21 Ultra vs iPhone 12 Pro Max

The biggest competitor for the Galaxy S21 Ultra is the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Apple’s phone delivers faster performance from its A14 Bionic chip, and you get a strong Ceramic Shield front display that’s designed to be more durable. The iPhone 12 Pro Max is also thinner and lighter.

But the Galaxy S21 Ultra has plenty of advantages over the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Samsung’s phone offers more versatile cameras (especially when it comes to zooming), a 120Hz display, an in-screen fingerprint reader and longer battery life. I’d say that’s worth the $100 over Apple’s flagship. 

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Verdict 

Samsung has nearly perfected the big-screen phone with the Galaxy S21 Ultra. The display is best in class, the cameras are much improved and you can even use this thing as a Galaxy Note if you want to.

Personally, I see the S Pen support as more of a bonus because of the added cost. 

There are some things I don’t like about this flagship. It’s a bit big and heavy, and the lack of a charger and microSD card slot both sting. And while the S21 Ultra is fast, it’s still a step behind the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Then again, Samsung’s phone lasts longer on charge and lets you do more with its cameras. 

Overall, if you’re looking for the pinnacle of Android phones, the S21 Ultra is it.