Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G Smartphone SIM Free Android Mobile Phone Phantom Black 128GB, (UK Version)

Product Information

Bokeh Mode, HDR, Panorama, Night Mode, Portrait Mode, Stereo Recording, Face Detection, Gesture Recognition, AI Features, Scene Detection, Video Photo, Slow Motion, Time Lapse Hang on to your power adapters. Neither the old USB-A nor the new USB-C chargers are included in the box, but you will get all-day battery life. (Image credit: Future) Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra battery life It’s paired with a duo of tele lenses to achieve the 100x Space Zoom tag; hopefully, it’s more successful this time. Last year, the S20 Ultra’s Space Zoom tech was a key let down, with it offering poor performance without a tripod during testing. The fourth camera is a more traditional 12-megapixel ultra-wide unit. Rounding the setup out, there’s a 40-megapixel sensor on the front. Depending on your location, the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s box will miss a couple of notable bits, namely a charging plug and headphones. Some regions will have these included (as many did for the iPhone 12) but this won’t be the case in the UK and US. The only item included in the box outside of the phone itself, is a USB-C to USB-C cable. Where the Galaxy S21 Ultra has seen the biggest improvement is in the graphics rendering department. With an average frame rate of 93fps in the GFXBench Manhattan on-screen test (at native WQHD resolution), the S21 Ultra’s GPU performance is almost double that of last year’s S20 Ultra. Drop the screen resolution down to FHD+ and the frame rate jumps to 118fps.

This is bad news for consumers who are looking to make the switch from iPhone to Samsung, since the Galaxy S21 Ultra charges via USB-C and thus doesn’t support Apple’s Lightning cable. Perhaps a more consumer-friendly tactic would be to provide a choice as to whether or not the charger was included, instead of removing it entirely. Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Display The base-level 128GB of internal storage with 12GB of RAM might not be enough for everyone. You’ll want to either pony up for the version with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM, or max out at 256GB of storage with 16GB of RAM. The RAM won’t make much of a difference in a phone, but you’ll definitely notice if you run out of storage space. We noticed that the Galaxy S21 Ultra camera offers improved dynamic range in outdoor photos (see photos with a bright sky and darker buildings) over its predecessors, and Samsung now offers 12-bit raw files for greater flexibility when editing. The iPhone 12 Pro series still wins out for many non-zoomed photos, especially indoor and nighttime shots, but Samsung and its more finely tuned night mode (it doesn’t simply bump up the exposure) help close the gap. The S Pen is a key change that could differentiate it from the competition. Previously reserved for the Note series, the S21 Ultra is fully compatible with Samsung’s excellent stylus for doodling, drawing or scrolling. While this won’t spell complete doom for the Note series, it certainly means that the Note 21 will need to offer something else to help differentiate it. The cameras also receive their fair share of upgrades this year. Indeed, the Ultra is the only S21 phone to come with a 108MP (f/1.8) main camera and it also comes with a pair of 10MP telephoto lenses.

Proximity Sensor, Hall Effect Sensor, Light Sensor, Gyroscope Sensor, Accelerometer (G-Sensor), Fingerprint Sensor The long-awaited verdict to having both? Meh – it’s the best of both worlds, sure, but you won’t see much of a difference between 1080p and Quad HD on a display of this size, and Quad HD will drain your battery faster. Powering the phone is either a Snapdragon 888 (US) or Exynos 2100 (UK), both of which are 5G capable. We’ll have to properly test out the Exynos version to see how it compares to the usually superior Qualcomm model. In the past, we’ve found Qualcomm chips have easily outlasted their Exynos rivals during our battery tests.

For budding photographers who want the best files for editing, you can also shoot in 12bit RAW on the Ultra. We’d expect the Galaxy S21 Ultra to be available through UK and US network vendors, too, if you don’t want to buy it outright and prefer to pay in instalments. This is still Samsung’s best screen, but for many other reasons. We found the 6.8-inch body to be easier to grasp than the 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max, and that’s in large part thanks to the curved display and overall narrowness of Samsung's device. The curved edges are subtle on the S21 Ultra, and not quite as pronounced as on past Samsung devices, and that means fewer errant presses. The Galaxy S21 Ultra has the biggest screen of the three new S21 phones, stretching out across 6.8in. It’s one of Samsung’s “Dynamic AMOLED 2x” panels and it now supports 120Hz at the native WQHD+ resolution (1,440 x 3,200) of the panel. As ambitious as it was at the time, the S20 Ultra didn’t have the skills to really make it one of the top phones of 2020. It was ugly, struggled to keep focus, and disappointed with its headline Space Zoom feature. For the ridiculously high asking price, Samsung missed the mark quite dramatically.Overall, though, the S21 Ultra lags slightly behind the Snapdragon 888 (tested in the Xiaomi Mi 11) and is no match for the as-yet-unbeatable processing speeds of the iPhone 12 Pro Max. No, you’ll need to source your own charger and earphones for the Galaxy S21 Ultra. What software does the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra run? Part of the reason the S21 Ultra seems snappy is the fact that Samsung has further streamlined its software interface. With the OneUI 3.0 interface, menus now throw fewer unnecessary windows in your face before executing what you want to do. Turning on power save mode, for example, makes adjustments immediately. This is also the first Samsung phone to launch without a charger in the box. Following in Apple’s footsteps, Samsung says the charger’s removal is an effort to reduce the environmental impact of the phone, but it also says that it “removes any pressure that consumers may feel towards continually receiving unnecessary charger accessories with new phones”.

Samsung says this new AMOLED 2X Infinity-O display is the most intelligent it has ever shipped on a smartphone. It has an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, which changes based on what you are doing on the device, so you'll always get silky smooth scrolling ...without a battery life hit. This panel also includes a technology called Eye Comfort Shield, which automatically adjusts blue light levels to make it more comfortable to view for long periods.With up to 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, a 120Hz WQHD+ display, S Pen support and a 108-megapixel camera, this is Samsung’s no-compromise attempt at delivering the best Android phone ever made. The need for resolutions higher than Full HD among smartphones was being driven by VR headsets – you could see a ‘screen door effect’ at lower resolutions when the pixels were so close to your face. But Samsung, along with the entire mobile industry, seems to have cooled all phone-based VR initiatives. We also tested the screen brightness of the Galaxy S20 Ultra outdoors, and it automatically amps up to a super-bright 1,500 nits when necessary. Other phones with AMOLED screens, including the S21 and S21 Plus, max out at 1,200 nits, and every little bit helps in direct sunlight.