Galaxy S21 Ultra vs Note 20 Ultra Camera Test Comparison After Updates By Danny Winget

What's up everybody: this is Danny, and today I'll be doing the camera comparison between the galaxy s21 ultra and the Galaxy Note 20 ultra. So I've been getting a lot of requests for this video, because the camera systems are very similar. There's a few minor differences here and there. But if you own a note, 20 ultra-right now, do you really need to upgrade to the galaxy s21 ultra? So let me go ahead and test these two cameras out and let's see, if you need to make that upgrade, let's do it, since there won't be a new flagship note this year. I think this comparison is more important than ever. If you love that integrated s, pen, you're going to have to wait until 2022 to get that next upgrade.

All of these images were taken on auto mode with scene. Optimizer on everything you see is straight out of the camera with no edits. This is exactly what you can expect on your devices when you use these awesome cameras. They are both on the latest software. At the time of this video, both on the march patch, with camera, improvements noted on the software release, notes, let's start with the daytime pictures as usual.

I took way too many pictures. I took close to 200 for this comparison, but we won't need that many to show you the differences, just as you would expect they both are full of great color, sharpness and dynamic range, and for the average consumer, you probably wouldn't notice a major difference, but here are some things that I noticed. Generally speaking, the new galaxy s21 ultra tends to produce the brighter picture with more shadow detail. It doesn't happen in every shot, but for the most part you will see this throughout the video, but again it does flip-flop once in a while, but for the most part this is consistent in my testing. The note tends to lean with heavier contrast.

Some people might prefer this look. So let me know what you think in the comments and which approach that you like better. You will see that this makes a big difference in the nighttime shots, which I will show you later. The sky, renditions and saturation levels do go back and forth in some pictures, the s21 ultra has the more natural sky color and then in some pictures the note 20 ultra has the more natural rendition. So I wouldn't really worry about the color, because it's just personal preference and the results are inconsistent, but what I did notice is an improvement on the dynamic range side on the galaxy s21 ultra.

You can see less clipping on the clouds, so you will get some improvements on landscape shots and in a more real world example. Here is a harsh lighting scene. Take a look at my daughter's dress and the center of this photo all the details are preserved in the newer phone. Now this isn't going to be the case every time, because I took a lot of photos in harsh lighting conditions and the improvements on most scenarios weren't as visible, but even in harsh sunlight photos, you will notice better control, making the overall photo more pleasing. So that is a nice improvement that you will gain.

There is a newer 108 megapixel sensor on the galaxy s21 ultra, but the note can also shoot in this resolution, so I had to compare and when it's slightly cropped, you don't notice a ton of difference, but when you go into 1 000 scale, you can see that the s21 ultra does capture more detail in this photo, but I did test it a few times more. I took a shot of the castle here again, not a huge difference on the slight crop and in this 1 000 scale scenarios. There isn't a drastic difference like last time, but you can see it on the roof tiles and on the window detail. So there is some improvement. I think where it really makes a difference in real world shooting is through the zoom ranges.

The galaxy s21 ultra has two dedicated zoom lenses, a 3x and a 10x, where the note zoom defaults to 5x on the first option, and then it's hybrid after that the quality difference is noticeable, especially at the 10x as expected. This is where I can see families loving this on vacation to capture those moments. Now, I'm not saying that the hybrid zoom on the note 20 ultra is bad whatsoever, but you will notice a quality upgrade, so you won't be afraid to zoom in more with the s21 ultra. If you like, getting close up with macro shots, there are improvements with the new sensor as well, there's less fringing, and you get a better shot with the s21 ultra. Here you can see a shot from the same distance.

The notes are a little blurry, but you can just back up slightly to get it into focus and I think that's a pretty easy way to accommodate, but with the s21 ultra, it's an easier picture to get with less fringing and detail, and there is a cool new feature where the focus enhancer kicks in and uses the ultra-wide to get a better macro shot. It all depends on preference, though you do lose, that depth of field which I like, but I still think it's a cool option to have. I hope Samsung brings this to the note with a software update down the line. It's not all bad for the note, though, because I did notice where, in certain shots, the s21 ultra tends to selectively focus, so parts will be blurred out in the foreground like here, where the note kept everything sharp in the frame. This happened multiple times during my testing.

So keep that in mind also the note 20 ultra generally does produce the sharper looking picture. It does appear that it's over sharpening in terms of processing and a lot of people will love the outcome. I guess it all just depends on personal preference, and it does go back and forth. But generally, if you like editing your photos, I think the s21 ultra's approach might be a better fit for you on portrait mode. I'd also noticed that the results were sharper more detailed on the note 20 ultra.

Of course, there are going to be some anomalies once in a while, and there were some shots that looked very similar, but for the most part I found the portrait mode was consistently better on the note 20 ultra with sharper details and in some instances better edge detection. They are both great regardless, unless you have both of these side by side to compare like I did a lot of times. You will notice that the pictures look so similar. I don't think you'll be disappointed at all in the note 20 ultra whatsoever. It's just the extra features, the minor improvements in processing and the flexibility that make the difference and if you're, going beyond just auto mode, you do get 12 bites raw this year with the s21 ultra.

So you will get more flexibility in post-processing as well. They both can shoot up to 8k video, but for this test I'm going to use 4k 30 frames per second, the s21 ultra can shoot 4k 60 frames per second, with every lens, where the note 20 ultra is limited to 4k 60 frames per second on the main lens. Only so keep that in mind. They both look very similar, but the video looks brighter on the s21 ultra with better shadow detail. The zoom range also extends to the video, so you will get a bigger zoom range with the s21 ultra, but when you zoom in that far, you can see how exaggerated your hand, movements are.

The jitters are very, very noticeable, so be careful with that when you zoom in heavy on video here is a walking example, both phones, handheld and when it comes to stabilization, I don't notice a huge difference. Let me know which one you think does a better job after looking at it very closely, I think the note 20 ultras video is slightly smoother, though let me know what you think, alright, so, let's jump into low light performance. This one was more of a shocker to me because I expected a much larger jump in performance, but here's what I noticed after looking at a ton of pictures side by side in some shots, you can see the improvements in the newer phone. You do get some more shadow detail with basically the same amount of noise. So that is a good thing, and without night mode you will see some noise reduction improvements when you punch in a little, you can see the improvements but remember the over sharpening and more contrast that I mentioned during the daytime shots.

Well, this actually works better in low light shots that extra sharpness. You can really see it, especially when you punch in this one. The note shot looks a lot better in my opinion, and I had to double and triple check a lot of times that I didn't flip. These two results around, but the over sharpening works here now, if you don't like this over sharpened, look you're going to side with the s21 ultra-right away, but for the average consumer in a blind camera test. I think a lot of people would pick the note 20 ultra.

If you are a s21 ultra owner, then don't worry about it. They can definitely fix this in a software update. There are some instances here where the s21 ultra does take the sharper picture as well. So I know that this is something they just need to tune up with software updates and when you introduce night mode into the equation, that extra shadow detail and brightness is noticeable on the s21 ultra. Take a look at these rocks on the s21 ultra without night mode.

It looks much softer than the note 20 ultra, but kick in that night mode and that sharpness is regained. So I hope Samsung does a little more with the nighttime tuning of the single snap on the s21 ultra. That extra contrast on the note 20 ultra also helps handle light sources better technically more detail in the s21 ultra. But I just prefer this look again. You do get more shadow information on the s21 ultra, as you can see here.

So this is much better for editing later, and I prefer this s21 ultra shot here, but kick in that night mode, and I, like the note 20 ultra more straight out of the camera. I think it nailed it with this heavier contrast and more saturation. The one thing that I noticed that is awesome on the note 20 ultra as well, is, if you center your focus by tapping in the middle of the screen and the environment is really dark. You get a cool natural, both or background separation with no modes, and this even extends to the night mode shot, which I thought was great on the s21 ultra. It keeps everything sharp in the frame, including the trees, but I like how cool that bouquet looks on the note 20 ultra, so I thought I would point that out portrait mode again looks sharper on the note 20 ultra in moderate, low light again.

That increase in sharpness helps out overall depends on the scenario, though, because sometimes it just doesn't look that much different, but where you will notice, a major difference is on the night mode portrait shots. This is not available on the note 20 ultra, and it's a huge difference and that night mode portrait also extends to the front-facing camera, which also makes a big difference at night. This is just software, so I hope they bring this over to the note 20 ultra as well. Later down the road, because I would love to see it, but even without any modes, the s21 ultra seems to let more light in it does a better job here and then kick in that night mode. The s21 ultra remains brighter.

Now I do have to say that the note 20 ultra capture is more true to the scene. This is what it looked like in that restaurant. The advantage of the zoom range and flexibility again is the main reason to upgrade to the s21 ultra. Even at night. The quality is better, and I think that 3x as a starting zoom point is way more practical than the 5x starting point and with night mode exposure.

You can definitely see how that hybrid zoom is impacted with the note 20 ultras image, here's one without night mode, again the s21 ultra with more shadow detail. Both are still pretty noisy without night mode, but this is just single snap and at 10x, while the noise is left alone on the s21 ultra, and it looks pretty bad, it's so much more detailed if you're going to take zoom shots at night. I highly recommend that you use night mode because your results will be so much better. This is a great example of how much better the quality is on the zoom side, with the s21 ultra. It's very noticeable nighttime video they both are pretty noisy, but the s21 ultra does produce a brighter image.

It's also sharper with more detail. So that is a welcome improvement. Here is a more drastic example of the differences in processing. Here, with my dining table, it literally blacks out on the note 20 ultra because of its preference, towards contrast, while you can see it still on the s21 ultra again. This is an extreme example of low light, not much light on this side of the house just wanted to show you.

The difference here is an example outside again the same thing: the s21 ultra is sharper with more detail, but the fluorescent lighting and colors are handled better by the note 20 ultra lots of green being picked up by the s21 ultra, but regardless it's better video in most scenarios. So in conclusion, I was very surprised how well the note 20 ultra did in low light. Overall, I think I preferred it in a lot of the pictures, but at the same time, I guess it can't be much of a surprise, because the note 20 ultra is not that old, even though technically a shot with more sharpening, more contrast and more vibrant colors might be looked at as bad in the photography aspect, and I totally understand that I think the ready to share photos go to the note. This test really goes to show that Samsung still has some more work to do on the s21 ultra in terms of tuning the software, and they will, they're very good with camera software updates. But the positive thing is, you do see some improvements in low light.

Look at how sharp this nightmare shot is. So don't get me wrong. You will see some improvements, but I think I can safely say that if you don't need the zooms and the slight improvements all around, especially in the daytime, you can stick with your note 20 ultra another year, especially if Samsung dedicates to improve the camera with software since they're, not releasing another note this year. So let me know what you guys think: is the s21 ultra worth the upgrade, or are you going to stick with your note another year sound off in the comments and if you enjoyed this video and if this helped you in any way make sure you hit that thumbs up subscribe for a lot more camera comparisons. Just like this one, and I will see you in the next video.

Source : Danny Winget