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Art et designTranscription
00:00All right, so Samsung has announced their S21 lineup of phones, and this year the spread feels more distinct,
00:09like the S21 and the S21 Plus are more feature stripped and further away in price point from the S21 Ultra
00:16than previous generations of Samsung Galaxy S phones.
00:20So this video, I'm going to focus more on the S21 Ultra, because this is the one that I'm most interested in right now.
00:26It's got the most kind of new features and just stuff I want to talk about,
00:29but I'll be definitely doing a full review of the S21 and S21 Plus in the future.
00:34Okay, I'm going to focus on the design and the finish first, because during the presentation,
00:41they spent like five minutes talking about the color black on this phone.
00:45It is, I mean, it's nice black, it's a matte finish, and I've always preferred this kind of muted black look
00:52instead of the super glossy black finishes that Samsung usually puts on their Galaxy S phones.
00:57But I don't know if it's like super special, right?
00:59If they hadn't told me that they had spent a crazy amount of effort and time to create something more unique looking,
01:05I would have just assumed this was just a well-engineered and well-made, but regular black finish.
01:10Okay, on to the kind of design of this phone.
01:13The most iconic part of this phone is going to be the camera area, right?
01:18It's shared between this phone and all the other S21 phones.
01:21It's got the two curved corners, and I like the look.
01:24Now, when I first saw the leaked images of this stuff last year, I didn't really like the design aesthetic of this camera area.
01:30Maybe I've seen it so much that it's grown on me, but in real life, they've done it well.
01:35There is a very thick camera hump, and even compared to like the S20 Ultra from last year,
01:42so the camera hump on the previous generation, this didn't really embrace the hump, right?
01:48They just kind of made the camera segment stick out just on the camera component.
01:53But here, because the camera area just goes right up to the edge, it gets really thick at the corner of the phone.
01:59The rest of it doesn't feel as chonky, like if you grip this phone in a regular fashion away from that camera hump.
02:04It feels like a big thick phone, but it's just this corner that's on another level.
02:09Now, inside this chonky zone, you have a new camera system.
02:13So it's a four-lens camera, and because of the new hardware, you get some cool camera capabilities.
02:18You get some multi-camera recordings, so you can record from the rear-facing cameras at the same time as the front-facing stuff.
02:24So you get like two camera streams at once, and the Snapdragon 888 or the Exynos variant will be able to handle that without any issues.
02:31And in the director's mode, you can view and choose between the different cameras on the back.
02:36There's a lot of video streams being piped in at the same time, and you'll be able to view and select it all in real time.
02:42It's a lot of processing capability on this camera system.
02:46And it's partly due to the camera hardware as well as the SoC itself.
02:51Now, the most interesting thing on this camera system, to me, is the zoom capability.
02:56So, like last year, it has the 100x space zoom, but the hardware and the software both seem improved to be able to execute this idea in a way better manner.
03:05So, right off the rip, you're looking at a 10x optical zoom, which is improved from last year's optics.
03:10But another big thing is the software.
03:12So they now have zoom lock.
03:14So, when you're dealing with, you know, trying to snap a picture from something that's super far away, which is when you'd use 100x zoom, handshake is a real issue.
03:23Like, even the slightest movement in your hand amounts to a huge movement in your framing.
03:27So, Samsung now has a zoom lock, where if you hold your camera steady for a couple of seconds on a point of interest, it'll recognize that as the thing you're trying to take a photo of, and it'll lock onto that.
03:37Just to allow you to take steadier shots when you're using that 100x zoom.
03:40And you can also set it manually as well by tapping on the screen.
03:43Now, on the back of it, you also have a second telephoto lens.
03:47So you have your 10x optical as well as a 3x optical.
03:50So, depending on how far you zoom in to your shot, it'll switch between the two different lenses.
03:54And that's nice to see.
03:55Like, it just gives you a nice range of optical clarity on your zooms.
04:00Now, the screen up front is really nice.
04:02It's 1440p up to 120Hz.
04:04And because it's an LTPO panel, it can downclock pretty aggressively.
04:08It can reach 10Hz when it wants to, just for energy efficiency.
04:12And it's also bright.
04:141500 nits.
04:15But keep in mind, when it comes to nits, it's not linear.
04:18Like, just because it's, let's say, 25% higher nit count, doesn't mean it's 25% brighter to the perception of your eye.
04:25It's probably half that, just because our eyes are more logarithmic.
04:29It's some nerdy stuff.
04:30But it's not going to be 25% brighter than a screen in terms of how we visually perceive it.
04:37But it is a very bright screen.
04:39Now, there's also a new fingerprint sensor.
04:41It's Qualcomm's second-gen ultrasonic sensor.
04:44And it's supposed to be 77% bigger than the previous generation, as well as 50% faster.
04:49But we'll get into that in the proper review of this phone.
04:53Now, in terms of the other hardware, there's no support for microSD, which is strange for a Samsung device,
04:58especially one that shoots 8K videos.
05:00And in the box, there's no charger.
05:02There's no earphones.
05:03But there is a charging cable, thanks to that other company.
05:07Now, I want to end off this video with the talk of the S-Pen.
05:11So, S21 Ultra supports S-Pens, which is a very new and interesting inclusion for Galaxy S phones.
05:19Now, this only works on the S21 Ultra.
05:22It doesn't work on the S21 Plus or the S21.
05:24Now, this pen is a separate purchase.
05:28So, I believe the pen is $40.
05:30And the case, if you want to house your pen in a complete package, is a, I think, $60 or $70 purchase.
05:39Now, my initial thought when I first saw this thing, like, at the announcement was like,
05:45hmm, that's weird, right?
05:48Not just because that this is new for a Galaxy S phone,
05:51but this package, when you look at it, is very unassuming.
05:54It doesn't look like a complete package, the way that Note phones do, right?
05:58When you have a Note, the pen, it's built right into the device.
06:02There's a slot right for it, and if you don't use it or you use it,
06:07it doesn't matter because it's part of the phone, comes with it, whatever, right?
06:11On the S21 Ultra, I think for a lot of people, they look at this like,
06:15huh, that's just, that can't be as good as a Note.
06:18But having used this just for a little bit of time,
06:20I will say that the pen, first of all, is a thicker pen.
06:25This feels like the girth of, like, a chopstick, let's say.
06:29I don't know why that came to my mind.
06:31Don't racially judge me.
06:33But the pen that comes in the Note is a very slim and slender unit.
06:40Every time I pull this out of every Note I've ever reviewed,
06:43it doesn't feel like a proper pen.
06:45It just feels like a, like, secondary thought that,
06:48and they had to keep these things small, right?
06:50Because it's got to fit into the Note device.
06:52This guy, because it's attached on the side, you can make a little bit thicker.
06:57And it's like this rubberized, soft-touch material.
07:01It just feels a lot better.
07:03And when I used this, this felt nice.
07:05This felt like a legitimate writing tool.
07:08This feels the way that, like, a stylus should on any kind of portable device.
07:13I've always thought that the pens that came with the Note,
07:16they're like dinky little tools that are just like,
07:19if you need a pen, you got one.
07:20But this is like, if you're someone who uses a pen regularly,
07:24I think you're going to like this a lot more than the pen in the Notes.
07:28But you do have to, number one, purchase it separately,
07:31and number two, store it outside of the device,
07:35which for some people might be a huge negative.
07:37I look at this like it's a really nice value add,
07:41way more than I thought it would.
07:42Now, keep in mind that this is just a first impression of the S-Pen hardware itself.
07:47The capabilities and functionality of this
07:50isn't as robust as the one that comes on the Note, right?
07:53This has Bluetooth connectivity, and you can control stuff in the air,
07:57and if you walk away from the S-Pen,
07:59like, the device will let you know that you're separating from it.
08:02So there's definitely advantages to it, but this is nice.
08:06And I just thought of something.
08:07I think the reason why this one is rubberized with this soft-touch material
08:11and not the regular Note, like, this is a really slick material.
08:14Maybe it's because you've got to put it in and out of the hole,
08:17and if it was this more frictioned rubbery material,
08:21it would scratch up or just cause issues.
08:23But on this one, because it's an externally mounted one,
08:27it can make this thing chonkier and nicer to grip.
08:31I like it.
08:32I think for a lot of people, this is going to be a nice option
08:35if your kind of workflow can make use of a good pen.
08:39And the case itself is this kind of industrial black silicon look.
08:45Yeah.
08:46Okay.
08:47That wraps up my first look at this stuff.
08:49I'll be doing full reviews on the S21 Ultra as well as the S21 and the S21 Plus
08:54in the near future, so stay tuned for those,
08:56and be subscribed if you want to see that stuff.
08:58All right.
08:59Hope you guys enjoyed this video.
09:00Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it.
09:02See you guys next time.
09:03Ciao.