The Galaxy S21 Ultra is designed to represent the best of Samsung's mobile expertise; spanning design, performance, camera and more. That all doesn't come cheap, though
The Galaxy S21 Ultra is designed to represent the best of Samsung's mobile expertise
Design and build
Almost one year on and while the S21 range is undeniably an evolution of the S20 line's design
In the case of the Ultra
Display and S Pen
There are all sorts of concessions that you can pay to a phone depending on factors like price or its standing within a brand's portfolio; when it comes to the Pro Maxes and Ultras of this world, however, there's far less room for error.
Just as hypercars have emerged as a class above supercars, so too have phones like the S21 Ultra in the flagship space - billed as uncompromising devices that can handle anything a user dares to throw at them, without so much as breaking a sweat - albeit for a premium, of course.
The idiom 'the bigger they are the harder they fall' felt apt for last year's Galaxy S20 Ultra, which promised so much - primarily from its impressive-sounding camera specs - but underdelivered as a final product. With this year's S21 Ultra, we're hoping Samsung has righted the wrongs of its predecessor and in the same breath, created a smartphone truly fitting of the 'Ultra' moniker.
Design and build
There's no getting around the fact that aesthetically 2020 was an off-year for Samsung's Galaxy S phones. The S20 Ultra was possibly the worst offender of the bunch; with its large glossy form rendered in flat colours and laden with an unsightly black rounded rectangle of a camera arrangement, that seemed like an afterthought.
Almost one year on and while the S21 range is undeniably an evolution of the S20 line's design, it's experienced something of a "glow-up" that brings sharper aesthetics and more confident forms to the table.
The Galaxy S21 and S21+ may turn heads with their two-tone signature Phantom Violet colourway but the Ultra comes in far more sedate finishes that draw the eye to the phone's form first and foremost, and that's no bad thing.
The 'contour cut' camera module is the new defining design element across this year's Galaxy S range and the Ultra's interpretation is the boldest and most imposing yet, spanning almost half of the phone's width (it's so big that the phone actually benefits from less-severe wobble when placed back-down on a flat surface, compared to the narrower camera arrangements of its launch siblings).
In the case of the Ultra, there was no way this module wasn't going to be huge though; with four imaging sensors - including a 108Mp primary camera - a periscopic zoom arrangement, a laser autofocus system and an LED flash to accommodate.
Rather than contrasting colours, it's the contrasting textures that give the S21 Ultra a more sophisticated look and feel than its competition; with a glossy colour-matched metal frame against a lightly-textured satin-finish back and camera frontage that collectively imbue the phone's aesthetics with a subtle confidence, while also deftly repelling fingerprints and smudges.
Something about the alternative Phantom Silver colourway evokes the stylings of vintage 80s Japanese tech and grant the phone a distinct retro feel as a result, while the two-tone carbon-fibre-toting Samsung.com-exclusive finishes seem poorly-considered and executed by comparison - particularly the Phantom Brown option.
Beyond finish, the rounded edges and slightly curved Gorilla Glass Victus on the back and front ensure that despite its size, the S21 Ultra feels comfortable to hold. This sizeable 6.8in handset - with its all-glass-and-metal construction (for reference, the base Galaxy S21 features a plastic back) - also proves deceptively lightweight, despite clocking in 228g.
Being a Samsung flagship, there's the expected top-tier fit and build quality, the absence of a headphone jack and IP68 dust and water resistance to consider too.
Display and S Pen
While 0.1in smaller than last year's entrant, you're still getting an expansive 6.8in panel to play with; using the same WQHD+ resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio and HDR10+-compliant 'Dynamic AMOLED 2X' technology.
There was little to complain about with the screen on last year's Ultra and while the expansive size and the rounded edges won't be to everyone's taste, the S21 Ultra's display is a joy to interact with; boasting stunning contrast, vibrant colours, broad dynamic range and pin-sharp clarity that nothing else (save for perhaps Oppo's Find X2 Pro) collectively comes close to matching right now.
One small improvement is a maximum peak brightness of 1500nits (up from 1400), although both this year's and last year's phones offer excellent visibility regardless, even in bright surroundings.
Where the S21 Ultra's display pulls out in front is with its ability to display content at both its native resolution and at its maximum 120Hz refresh rate, simultaneously. Last year's Galaxy S and Note devices had you choose between full resolution or super-smooth viewing; with the S21 Ultra, there are no compromises to be made in this regard.
While you can lock resolution, refresh rate (under the 'Motion Smoothness' setting) can only be dialled from 'Standard' (60Hz) up to 'Adaptive'; which means the Ultra doesn't run at 120Hz constantly but instead automatically scales from as low as 10Hz to a peak of 120, depending on the use case at hand. This dynamic adjustment isn't unique to Samsung's devices but serves as an essential means of guaranteeing respectable battery life, while also still delivering high refresh rate viewing.
Beyond a top-tier visual experience, the screen also showcases an upgraded ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, which finally feels genuinely competitive against older capacitive sensors (like the one found on the back of the Pixel 5), thanks to improved read speed and, perhaps more importantly, more consistent reliability.
S Pen
One other display party piece is - for the first time on a Galaxy S phone - support for Samsung's S Pen stylus. At launch, Samsung introduced two new styli alongside the S21 Ultra; a conventional S Pen and the still-unreleased (at the time of writing) S Pen Pro.
For most users looking to pull in Note-like functionality, the standard S Pen will do the trick (or if you have an existing Note device, their S Pens work too). Latency is excellent (when testing with the Note 20 Ultra's S Pen), with a seemingly-identical 9ms response time, or something very close to it (likely made possible by its use of an LTPO display, instead of the S21/S21+'s LTPS panel, just like the Note 20 Ultra).
The main difference between the S Pen experience and that of the one promised by the S Pen Pro is the additional Bluetooth functionality that Note 20 users will already be familiar with; controlling the phone's camera and navigating around the user experience with simple air gestures. That said, thanks to the Wacom tech at play, you can still press the side button on the S Pen (even the standard model) when hovering the nib above the surface of the display for additional features and functions.
While the S21 Ultra is already a more niche device compared to the standard S21 and S21+, and the subset of those who buy one who might also consider pairing the experience with an S Pen is smaller still, it's nice to see that Samsung has brought as much of the established feature set of its signature stylus to a product line that previously had nothing to do with the peripheral.
Samsung also sells numerous cases that feature a cavity to hold the S Pen, as unlike the Note, there's no integrated S Pen storage on the S21 Ultra, while we're yet to hear of any storage setup for the S Pen Pro.
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