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00:00Hey guys, I'm Tom the Tech Chap and I've had the S21 Ultra in my pocket for a little over a month now.
00:06I've fully switched to it, it's my everyday phone and I've really put this thing through its paces
00:11with camera tests, battery rundowns, I've even had a couple of extra phones shipped in for my
00:16big Exynos vs Snapdragon video.
00:18And so after all that, while it's not perfect, I reckon the S21 Ultra is probably the best phone in the world right now.
00:26Even if the CEO of Huawei seems to disagree.
00:30So I hope you guys enjoy this video, it's basically everything you need to know about the S21 Ultra
00:35as I've been testing it for the past month.
00:37And if you do want to see more from me, then a thumbs up and a sub would be awesome.
00:42Okay, let's get this whole Snapdragon vs Exynos thing out of the way first.
00:46Because as you guys know, for the past couple of years, Samsung's own Exynos chips have been pretty rubbish.
00:52In fact, I've got the Note 20 Ultra and also the S20 Ultra here with me.
00:56And in the UK and Europe and India and some other countries, these came with the Exynos 990
01:01which was around 10-20% slower than the equivalent Snapdragon.
01:05Gave you an hour less battery life, the camera was a little bit iffy.
01:08So considering we were paying the same price, we felt a little bit screwed over.
01:12But this time, things are different and we have as close to parity as I think we've ever had with Samsung phones.
01:19Which is still a crazy thing that we have to talk about because what other phone...
01:22You know, imagine the iPhone being slightly faster in the US than it is in Europe.
01:26It's just not something you see elsewhere.
01:28But in this constant battle between the chips, yeah, these are as close as we've ever had.
01:33But they're still not exactly the same. There are some differences.
01:36And depending on the particular phone you have, it seems people are getting different results.
01:40Now, from my pretty extensive testing, I found the Exynos 2100 model to be as fast
01:46if not actually faster than the Snapdragon 888.
01:49Battery life can still vary, but there's not really more than, say, 5% difference.
01:53So it's not a big deal. Although I did notice some camera differences in the Snapdragon's favour.
01:58But what we may also be seeing is a bit of a silicon lottery.
02:01Which is something we're pretty familiar with in the PC world where not all chips are made equal.
02:06However, minor differences aside, it is certainly a big step up from last year.
02:10Where we were genuinely getting a bad deal with the Exynos models.
02:14So I'm pleased to say that it's not really something most of us need to worry about anymore.
02:18And given how much Samsung has caught up, I'm pretty keen to see what they can do next year.
02:22Especially if it comes with the rumoured AMD graphics.
02:25But putting that aside, as you would expect though, these chips paired with 12 gigs of RAM
02:30or 16 gigs on the 512 storage option is, well, incredibly fast.
02:35Most of the time it'll max out even the most demanding games at 120 FPS.
02:39Although I do still like to unlock the dev options, scroll down and then speed up the animation times
02:44to make everything feel a little bit snappier.
02:46So we've dived right into all the nerdy stuff, but what's it actually been like to use?
02:51Well, one of the advantages of the Ultra over the rest of the S21 lineup is you get this Quad HD resolution.
02:57As well as the adaptive refresh rate and you can have them at the same time.
03:01Now having Quad HD isn't a massive deal.
03:04I think you can just about tell the difference with the high res if you're looking for it.
03:08But even when I was using the Note 20 Ultra at full HD before this,
03:12I never had an issue or thought it didn't look sharp enough.
03:15So altogether, the Ultra has pretty much the best screen on any phone right now.
03:20Peaking at a whopping 1500 nits.
03:22That Quad HD and 120 Hz combination.
03:24And just simply the quality of the AMOLED panel that Samsung's using.
03:28Now since I am stuck at home in what seems like this never-ending lockdown here in the UK,
03:33I'm not as worried about battery life in my day-to-day as I might normally be.
03:37So I'm pretty comfortable to keep this at WQHD and have that adaptive refresh at the same time.
03:43So I'm getting the best of both worlds and the screen just looks absolutely stunning.
03:47Although I think when things return to normal, if I was going to go out on a shoot for a day,
03:51I'd probably switch back to full HD to save a bit of battery.
03:53Because so far in my experience, having full HD leaves me with about 35% left by 11pm.
03:59Versus about 23% when I have Quad HD.
04:02Of course this is very anecdotal and it will slightly vary between the different models as well.
04:07But on average I'd say I'm getting about 8-10% less battery when I have the higher resolution.
04:12And actually, in my big battery test with the phone set to full HD,
04:16it lasted a good deal longer than both my Note 20 Ultra and the S20 Ultra.
04:20So having this new more efficient chip, the adaptive refresh which can go between 10 and 120 Hz,
04:26plus the big 5000 mAh battery, means this phone will easily get you a day and a half of use.
04:32Or from my experience, around 7 and a half hours of screen on time at full HD.
04:36So it has a nice screen, but actually one little bonus new feature which I really appreciate
04:41is when you swipe right to go left at the home screen, we now get this option for Google Discover,
04:46which means I never, ever have to look at Samsung's Op Day or what they refreshed it to be called Samsung Free,
04:53ever again, because every time I used to have to do this it would pause and load and just be kind of rubbish.
04:58But now I've got my Google News Feed which is just so much slicker,
05:01and I'm sure this will be coming to older phones as well through updates,
05:04but right now at least it is a nice little bonus with the S21.
05:08Another handy upgrade is the Ultra now supports the S Pen, or at least it sort of does.
05:13Initially I borrowed the pen from my Note 20 Ultra, which does work,
05:17albeit with a slightly slower response time and no Bluetooth support.
05:21So I went out and bought this, which is the proper S21 Ultra pen for about £34,
05:26which is basically the same as one of their tablet pens.
05:29But while it does work well, it still doesn't have any Bluetooth or air gesture support,
05:34and confusingly you'll actually need to wait for the S Pen Pro,
05:38which is coming out later in the year, and presumably will also have a faster response time.
05:42Either way though, it is pretty cool we're getting pen support on this.
05:46But you'll probably want one of the fancy cases to store it in as well,
05:49because obviously we are losing the convenience of being able to store it in the phone like we do on the Note.
05:55But just as Samsung adds new features, they also take them away.
05:59And I think one of the biggest disappointments with the whole S21 range
06:02is the fact that we've lost microSD card support, which I know isn't the end of the world for a lot of people,
06:07but for some it was a real selling point.
06:09The fact that you could just pop in up to a 1TB microSD card in these guys,
06:13so you could have up to 1.5TB of storage,
06:16which maybe meant you could go for a slightly cheaper internal storage model than top it up yourself.
06:21And especially for these do-it-all phones,
06:23that cater to productivity with their wireless deck support, S Pen,
06:27and of course the big file sizes you get from shooting up to 8K video.
06:31So sadly no microSD or even charger or headphones in the box.
06:36Although base storage on the S21 is 128GB,
06:39but what I would recommend is paying the £50 extra to get 256GB.
06:44Now as the true nerd that I am, I am also pretty excited that the Ultra supports the latest WiFi 6E standard.
06:50But the downside is you do also need a 6E compatible router,
06:54or router for my American friends,
06:56which I don't have at the moment, they're just starting to come out and are quite expensive.
06:59But when I do get one, then, well, I'll look forward to having slightly more reliable WiFi on this.
07:05So those are definitely smaller upgrades,
07:08but I think one of the biggest improvements here is with the camera.
07:11Now the problem is, tech reviewers and YouTubers, like myself I guess,
07:15are always exposed to the latest and greatest tech.
07:18We change our phones every 5 minutes it seems.
07:20So in my world, something like the S20 Ultra or the Note feels like a million years ago.
07:25But the truth is, if you are thinking about upgrading to this,
07:28chances are you have maybe an S10 or an S9 or maybe something even older.
07:32And so coming from those phones, I think the camera on this would be a massive step up.
07:36Because to be honest, even coming from the Note 20 Ultra,
07:39which came out 6 months ago,
07:41the extra 10x telephoto zoom,
07:43the better dynamic range and the improved white balance, particularly in low light,
07:47and actually even the new Ultra Wide that doubles as a pretty decent macro lens,
07:51all add up to be quite a nice upgrade.
07:53Although I would say that the 100x zoom on the Ultra,
07:56while a touch better than before, is still pretty ridiculous.
08:00In fact, I found it's best just to take a 30x zoom photo, which still looks good,
08:04and then maybe crop in to 100x yourself afterwards.
08:07And a recent Samsung video explains that their new ISO cell sensor has this smart ISO Pro technology.
08:14Marketing buzzwords for why we're getting much improved HDR performance.
08:19This may be a touch controversial,
08:21but I think I'd say that this overall has the best camera on any phone right now.
08:26And before you grab your pitchforks and head to the comments,
08:29I'd argue the flexibility you get with this,
08:31from the macro to a usable photo at 30 or 50x zoom,
08:35and the overall quality of portraits, 4K and even 8K video, selfies,
08:41and the extras like single take where you can just press it once and it takes one of, well, everything,
08:46or the director's mode video options.
08:48But altogether, I don't think there's another phone that offers this level of versatility
08:52and also quality in one package.
08:55In my opinion, at least.
08:57Last question to you guys, though.
08:58Which colour do you prefer?
09:00Phantom black or phantom silver?
09:03I thought I was going to find the black one a little bit boring looking,
09:06but actually now I've used it for a while,
09:08I think I'd go for this one.
09:10But what about you?
09:11Oh, and also, I've noticed that neither of these play nicely with pop sockets.
09:15They don't really stick to the texture very well.
09:17So I definitely recommend getting a case,
09:19and I'll leave a link to the one I've been using in the description below.
09:22So I reckon by now I've probably made about a billion or so videos on the S21 Ultra.
09:27You're probably sick to death of it,
09:28but this has been a bit of a roundup of everything I've talked about so far.
09:32Just as my background YouTube video goes to adverts,
09:35I should probably get YouTube Premium for that.
09:37Not ideal.
09:38But I am still really happy that I switched to this.
09:41It is my, I hate to say it, daily driver, my everyday phone.
09:45And I do still maintain that right now, at least,
09:47I think, if you can afford it, this is the best phone in the world.
09:51My only caveat to that would be,
09:53if you're in the Apple ecosystem,
09:55if you're using iCloud and AirDrop and FaceTime a lot,
09:58then, yeah, the iPhone 12 Pro Max would be a better option for you.
10:02But for enthusiast Android users,
10:04definitely recommend the S21 Ultra.
10:06Although, I am very excited to see how this will compare with the upcoming OnePlus 9
10:11and also the Xiaomi Mi 11 Pro.
10:14So stay tuned because those phones are coming soon,
10:16and I will be doing full comparisons.
10:18But what do you think of the S21 Ultra?
10:20Would you be tempted to upgrade?
10:22Thank you so much for watching, guys.
10:23And if you do want to see more from me,
10:24then hit that subscribe button, ding that bell,
10:26all those YouTuber cliches.
10:28And I'll catch you next time right here on The Tech Chap.