Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G review: Second time’s the charm for Samsung’s premier phone

The Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G, unveiled alongside Samsung’s Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus phones, proves that sometimes you have to do something twice to get it right. While just as bold as last year’s Galaxy S20 Ultra, the S21 Ultra is a refined second take on the Ultra concept. There’s still the 100x Space Zoom, but it’s easier to use. There is still the “big for the sake of being big” design, but it looks much more appealing. And there’s still a high price, but at $1,200 (£1,149, AU$1,849) it costs $200 less than the S20 Ultra in the US. The whole Galaxy S21 lineup is available to purchase — here’s how you can buy one.

If you want the absolute best specs and features, the S21 Ultra will undoubtedly seem appealing. The phone will also attract camera nerds, thanks to the improvements Samsung made to the cameras. And with the addition of S-Pen support — it’s the first Galaxy S phone to use the stylus — the S21 Ultra will likely catch the eye of Galaxy Note users looking for a different option.

Read more: Samsung Galaxy S21 vs. S21 Plus vs. S21 Ultra

Last year’s Ultra model, on the other hand, seemed like it came out of nowhere. It was a phone all about excess that, by sheer fate, was launched at the beginning of a global pandemic and recession. Its bold, behemoth take on the Galaxy S line was undercut by its $1,400 (£1,199, AU$1,999) price and issues with its nearly domino-sized camera system.

Overall, the S21 Ultra is a major update both in terms of hardware and software features over the S20 Ultra. And when you factor in a lower price, it all kind of makes sense.

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The Galaxy S21 Ultra has the best black finish

I wouldn’t call the S21 Ultra’s design radically different, but my review unit has the best black finish I’ve ever seen on a phone. It’s the stuff that goth dreams are made of. The color is called phantom black, and when you see it in person you immediately understand why Samsung made a nearly 3-minute video explaining what went into making the blackest black. The S21 Ultra also comes in phantom silver and there are limited-edition phantom finishes in titanium, brown and navy, which can only be found on Samsung’s website.

The camera bump is large and melts into the sides of the phone, which are glossy black. And while the regular S21 and S21 Plus are snazzy in their two-tone colors, the all-black S21 Ultra looks cool, elegant and badass all at the same time.

Read more: Galaxy S21 drop test: It broke on the first drop

The S21 Ultra is a little heavier than last year’s S20 Ultra and the iPhone 12 Pro Max. It’s the second heaviest phone I’ve used in the past year, just behind the Asus ROG Phone 3.

The display is brighter and adds S-Pen support

Around the front is one of the most impressive displays I’ve seen. It has a Wide Quad HD resolution and a variable refresh rate between 10 and 120Hz, which is determined by what’s on the screen. And just to be clear, you can have 120Hz and not take a hit on resolution like the S20 Ultra did. The 6.8-inch display is bright and the contrast is gorgeous. Covering the screen, and the back. is Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus.

Under the screen is a larger ultrasonic fingerprint reader which feels peppy. I had a hard time telling if it was actually faster than the one on the S20 Ultra. The display also has S-Pen support.

I’ve always been tempted by the Galaxy Note line of phones, but I wasn’t sure I’d use the S-Pen enough to justify getting one. But I like the iPad Pro-Apple Pencil approach Samsung took here. Without an S-Pen, you’ll still enjoy using the S21 Ultra. But if you’re S-Pen curious, you can buy a new one or find an old S-Pen. And there’s a lot you can do, like draw, take notes and sign documents. I love editing photos and making adjustments with the S-Pen.

I should note there are a few considerations. The S21 Ultra doesn’t come with an S-Pen and doesn’t support Bluetooth or gesture functionality. For example, the S21 Ultra can’t send you a notification if you leave your pen behind. Also the Ultra doesn’t have a built-in slot to store an S-Pen, but Samsung will be selling cases for it that include S-Pen storage.

The S21 Ultra has 2 telephoto cameras

The S21 Ultra’s camera system received several significant updates. There are four rear cameras: one wide, one ultrawide and two telephoto cameras. The time-of-flight sensor is gone and in its place there’s laser autofocus.

The 108-megapixel sensor on the main camera is new and it has better autofocus for both photos and videos. There’s even a new focus enhancer tool that pops up onscreen to help the phone find focus even faster for photos. The tool looks like it might be switching to a wider view to do so.

Read more: S21 Ultra vs. iPhone 12 Pro Max vs. Pixel 5: Which phone has the best night mode?

The dual-telephoto cameras are a first on any phone and add a number of benefits. One has 3x magnification and the other 10x. This means when you zoom in, there are two places in your zoom range where the image isn’t being cropped where your photo will have better image quality. Another benefit is stability. The two cameras are paired together to help make zooming in, even at 100x, easier and more steady.

At 30x, a zoom guide pops up to help you find the particular spot that you’re zoomed in at. You can lock it so it doesn’t move, which turns the guide yellow. This works well. Obviously you still have to be careful not to move the camera around too much, but it’s less finicky and frustrating than the S20 Ultra.

Photos from the S21 Ultra are excellent, with good detail and a wide dynamic range. There is a 108-megapixel mode, but I found the 12-megapixel photos coming from pixel binning look consistently great.

Below are several photos I took with the S21 Ultra.

In low light, night mode is outstanding. Flaring on the lens is minimized and photos look bright without a bunch of image noise or noise-reduction smearing. Below are a few night mode photos I took:

For selfies there’s the same 40-megapixel camera as the S20 Ultra. But you now have an option to change the color tone to either bright or natural which is excellent.

Samsung also added the ability to take raw 12-bit color photos. And there’s a new video feature called Director’s View, which gives you a thumbnail preview of the video feeds coming from all of the cameras on the phones. As you record, you can switch between them. Within Director’s View there’s a vlogger setup that gives you a side-by-side video view or a stacked one if you’re shooting vertically. This means you can record yourself with the selfie camera and show what you’re seeing or reacting to from any of the rear cameras.

On paper, Director’s View seemed like something I might try once but not really use. But after some time using it, I can definitely see some people being into this feature. If there is a downside to Director’s View it’s that the final video is saved in HD instead of 4K or 8K. I would love to see this thumbnail preview interface when recording a regular 4K video.

I’m excited to pit the S21 Ultra and its cameras against the iPhone 12 Pro Max and Google Pixel 5. Each phone takes a different approach to photography and each will appeal to different people.

S21 Ultra has a Snapdragon 888 chip and 12 or 16GB of RAM

Powering the S21 Ultra is the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip, along with 12GB of RAM, or 16GB in the most expensive model with 512GB of storage (see the chart below for prices). In my benchmark tests, the S21 Ultra scored better than last year’s S20 Ultra. And in use, it handled everything I threw at it, even playing Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games on it.

Supplying juice to the phone is a 5,000-mAh battery. I’ve easily been averaging a day and a half on a single charge. That said, I still have a number of battery tests to put the S21 Ultra through. Please check back to this review for updates.

Below are the results of my benchmark tests for the S21 Ultra.

Android 11 and 5G support

The Galaxy S21 Ultra runs Android 11 with Samsung’s OneUI 3.1 top layer. And I like it a lot. I can now default to Google Pay or Google Discover News feed, instead of Samsung’s versions. The look for everything from settings to pop-up windows is clean and contemporary. And with a phone this big, OneUI helps make it easier to use one-handed.

Last, the Galaxy S21 Ultra has 5G and supports both sub-6 and mmWave flavors of 5G. You shouldn’t get the Ultra for its 5G. But as 5G networks get better, so will your 5G speeds and connection. And then we’ll really have something to talk about.

First published Jan. 21.