Samsung S21 Ultra Review Six Months Later By Jon Rettinger

A portion, this video is sponsored by monday. com, so it's been almost six months since the galaxy s21 line came out and despite coming out in January from the first hold of the s21 ultra, it became very clear to me. This is gonna, be a phone that I wanted to have neared me for the duration of the year, and I've loved the galaxy s lines through their history. They're, usually the phones they get the newest stuff. They get. The latest flagship phone from Samsung, usually the first ones to get that usually get the newest screen technology debut a new design language and the s21 line had liked all of that.

But now, six months later, several software updates things have improved. Some things have gotten a little worse but, more importantly, there is a metric ton of competition that have come out in the ensuing first half of 2021. So six months later is the galaxy s21 ultra still worth it. I have said this before and I think it bears repeating uh, but I think Samsung has the best hardware design down to a science, and you can start to see their influence. All over a ton of android phones out there and that's s21 ultra is like clearly no exception so, regardless, if we're talking about like anti-glare, rear glass, the seamless transition from the camera bump into the side rails, it seems like we made a conscious decision to improve this year's ultra versus last year's, and since I mentioned that camera bump from a minute ago, let's stay there for a second.

So if it's my job to squeeze this many cameras and sensors onto the back of a phone, this has got to be like the best looking way to do it, especially when it comes to this matte black model, which oh still looks and feels as gorgeous as that first day, as it does right now and beyond. All of that- and this is a novel thing for black phones, especially flagship ones- it's not a fingerprint magnet. I love saying that, and I still six months later, just love the design of the s21 ultra so with a flagship phone you'd expect, especially for the price premium, build quality attention to detail is ever present in the s21 ultra, even down to how smoothly the side rails, transition to the front and back glass panels. If I had a nitpick a little, and I'm going to something about the design of this phone, the one thing that stands out to me the fact that the phone is really slippery on the sides, so I haven't dropped it during my six months, but I've come close. I've come very, very close closer than I would like, and I get this can be fixed with the case, but I like to go on natural with my phones.

Perhaps that's TMI, but I like to feel of the devices themselves, so close call, not a giant issue. At least one to be aware of. I would happily take the slippery sides again for that. Matte finish on the back. First picking this phone up six months ago, at least to my eye, it was clear this was the best looking rectangle on the market uh.

I think that still holds true and there's been a lot of perfect, looking phones that have come out from OnePlus and from others, but there's something about the feel: the weight, the materials of the s21 ultra. That still feel amazing to me, and this design clearly has held up for the first six months, which is good. It's probably the same design, language we're going to see for the next year or so when it comes to phones over a thousand dollars. Android gives you options for design and style. We have foldable phones out there in the android world and looking at the s21 ultra and as much as I love the z full 2.

This rectangle is the best version of a phone, so I'm on the screen hill quite a bit, and I've even made a video on it. I am a screen snob, I'm open about it. I admit it. It's the portal into your phone. If the screen sucks it's hard to appreciate what a phone can do, it's the one part of the phone you're interacting with more than any other, so one trend, I'm happy to see continue with the s21 ultra- is the best in class screen technology.

That Samsung gives you especially on their flagship phones year after year, it's like a broken record, Samsung, somehow ups, their screen game, and if I could sum up the s, 21 ultra screens in three words bright, tight. Quite all right. I know that was more than three words, but uh three sounded good to me, but seriously, though I don't know if you expect anything less from a Samsung device, but there's a reason that apple has ordered millions of OLED panels from them, their screens are beautiful and their screens on their own phones are perfect. So having the 120hz refresh rate, QC resolution super bright, OLED panel, it's obviously a recipe for a great viewing experience, and I know I've. I've carried this flag.

I've been on that hill, but I'll continue to say it high refresh rate, all the things, the fluidity of high refresh rate screens, make it difficult to use any other phone that hasn't adopted this tech yet, and I will say, I'm happy to see more and more devices moving in that high refresh direction and I think Samsung is sort of leading the way I want to take a break for a second. A powerful phone deserves some powerful software any day of the week. Let me tell you about monday. com. I've actually never even talked about it anywhere on this channel, but we run two brand-new shows on Snapchat uh one is my name, the other one secretly launched on the down low called geek seed, all about marvel news and DC news and comic book stuff, and we're doing two videos per week on each of those channels.

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So the whole process has been fully automated for us by monday. com and monday. com is giving you a one-month trial instead, the usual two weeks, so you want to check it out and put a link to it down below. So I was a bit concerned if there is one downside of high refresh, especially when you can control the resolution that goes with that higher refresh it's battery, and I've actually been really pleased with what Samsung has done with the battery on the s21 ultra, even with high refresh rate on generally, I set it to just full HD, but when I bump that up, I can still get through a whole day and Samsung is one you have to talk about a lot more. You see a lot of granular options for battery saving and I think that's something that has been awesome to have and when I need to sort of push the phone for an extra two or three hours.

I can do that with just a few setting changes, and I love that I've got that options on the phone and after six months now, honestly the battery hasn't aged. For me, the battery life is still perfect. It's a day phone, no matter what you do with it, so the one gap that I am glad that it's closing is cam performance in the past Samsung, I don't think had the best track record when it came to photos, so they were over saturated at one point, then over sharpened and then skin was sort of overly smooth, but all of those past issues are like just that past issues. When it comes to photos, I can really confidently pick up. The s21 ultra be able to know I'm going to get an amazing photo without any worry, and the stills coming out of this main wide angle stack up with anything else in the world from the apples to googles of the world.

This is a sentiment that I think, if you use the phone you will share as well and throughout the software updates. Through the six months I've seen, processing tend to get better. Even the shutter appears faster to me. Samsung is constantly improving the software on their phones and what started off six months ago, as perfect pictures has maintained perfect and in some areas, especially low light, appears, have even gotten better. So most of this praise and love is reserved for that main wide-angle lens results are not always as consistent when it comes to the telephoto and the ultra-wide.

Now they definitely take very usable photos, but things like sharpness or dynamic range aren't always as good as that main reliable. A wide angle- and I guess that's why it's called the main camera. I will say that I commend Samsung for giving us just all of these options when it comes to focal length, and I think this is still one of the most versatile camera offerings in the world. I just want to clap for video on android phones getting perfect and really amazing- and I am here for it happy to report that Samsung did not cut any quarters in the Veda department, and this isn't again another narrative that is changing for the better. The biggest advancements that Samsung has shown when it comes to video is stabilization.

Having unintentionally shaky footage is pretty jarring for somebody watching back their footage and I think, to my eye screams, low quality hardware. The super steady feature is, I think, a game changer for galaxy films in regard to stabilized footage somebody who's running around chasing after kids, a lot I can personally use it and appreciate it. I do wish the future was there, though, throughout all resolution options and frame rates, but at very least it's like a step in the right direction, something maybe that's coming on the s22, but if you have it turned on, and you're willing to sort of go inside the boxes that you need to make it work. It's pretty close to perfect. So one common theme between the stills and the video for the galaxy s21 ultra is a straight up: abundance of choice, so when in video you can switch to pro mode be able to control everything from shutter speed to white balance and kind of next level, audio settings from directional audio like OFNI front and rear all the way to like Bluetooth, audio inputs uh.

If you had to create video content and only have the s21 ultra like you're, going to be fine, not to mention all the other video modes too, like director's view, slow motion, hyperlapse portrait, video, which is a questionable utility in all fairness, um. One thing that I have never been mad at uh is Samsung, throwing the kitchen sink when it comes to features they'll give it all to you, and you can pick and choose what you want to use. So performance is section that used to be a really long part of any phone video review, but it's no longer necessary. Phones have gotten perfect, and this thing's running the snapdragon 888 and have plenty of ram not going to be an issue. I'm not going to put up benchmarks and graphs on the screen.

It's 2021, but again pretty much. Every phone is competitive and can perform daily tasks and gaming with an incredible amount of ease. Most of your performance benefits in the phone that are coming down from the processor. It's the snapdragon, 888, and you're going to feel it in things. Like those camera features, portrait video stabilization, all the way down to 120 hertz screen, pushing all those pixels around smoothly and beautifully without a hiccup.

If performance is what you need, uh swim win ultra delivers without any issue, and still now, six months later, this phone has not slowed down, not experienced any lag. It feels as fast as it did in day. One so Samsung's had like a rough history with their software, but since they moved to the kind of one UI, I think they've been getting it right, and they've been making it better generation to generation. So the phone is currently running, one UI 3.1, and it's been really awesome and as smooth as they come. I also love that one UI now lets you have sort of the Google News on the home screen to the left.

That was a huge step up. I used to have to put nova or another launcher on to get that no more all built into one UI and with the snapdragon 88 and either 12 or 16 gigabytes of ram. You've got horsepower and headroom to spare. If there was ever a knock on the s21 ultra, it's still valid uh. It was price so at launch.

This phone was around 1200 bucks in its cheapest form, that's expensive, but one of the benefits of android phone, especially Samsung phones, is they get way less expensive and deals pop up as the months go on, carriers are giving up to a thousand dollars off. Samsung themselves have traded for up to seven hundred dollars, depending on what other phone you want to give back, you can get into this phone for 6 700 bucks. If you know where to look and at that price is not only a screaming deal, you are getting amazing value and top-notch specs from a device that really sacrifices. Nothing all right. So top of this video, I kind of asked: is the galaxy s21 ultra, like still my choice for the best phone in my pocket, even now like the rumored, pixel, 6 and pixel 6 pro and whatever's, yet to come from Samsung later on in the year? I can absolutely say: the s21 ultra deserves a spot in my pocket and in yours and say that without fear of photo, so that's a no fluff verdict.

I can confidently deliver with a clear conscience and also a clear recommendation and as a consumer, someone buys phones, you are in the best position nowadays to get a perfect. One phones are getting better. Competition is growing and innovation is sort of at an all-time high, and we've got companies stepping up their game. Google, stepping up hardware, game apple, adopting new technology and Samsung pushing the space forward when it comes to foldable, no matter what your preference is going to be. Your choices are endless when it comes to what phone you want and ultimately what you carry in your pocket and if you decide to make the choice to pick up a s21 ultra you're not gonna, be disappointed.

Source : Jon Rettinger