Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra first look: stunning 100x zoom camera, 120Hz Quad HD screen and industry-best screen brightness
- An extra prism inside the S21 Ultra’s Periscope zoom lens results in 100x zoom shots that blew this writer away
- Existing S-Pens from older Note phones will work on the S21 Ultra, or users can buy a larger S-Pen made specifically for it
Following a somewhat below-par showing last year, Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S series – the most mainstream Android phone series in the world, according to global sales figures – returns with a new eye-catching design, new Qualcomm 5nm chip, a much improved zoom camera, and a trick borrowed from its sibling, the Note series.
We spent some time with the new S21 series – mostly the top dog S21 Ultra – ahead of Samsung’s official launch. Here are the early impressions.
Design and hardware
Having an original and unique camera module design is becoming increasingly difficult – what with there being a new Android release every other week – but Samsung has managed to achieve that with the S21 series, featuring a “contour cut camera design” that sees half the module blending seamlessly to the phone’s aluminium railings.
It’s an elegant look that makes the bulky camera bump of last year’s S20 Ultra look clunky and unrefined. The rest of the back piece is crafted out of the latest Gorilla Glass, and the phones come in eye-catching colours.
That camera module on the S21 Ultra houses a quad camera system plus a laser autofocus, while the lower-tier S21 and S21 Plus models stick with a triple camera array.
Around the front, the S21 Ultra brings back the trademark curved screen of previous Galaxy phones, while the S21 and S21 Plus use a flat panel. All three screens refresh at 120Hz with Quad HD resolution, but the Ultra’s screen shines the brightest, maxing out at 1,500 nits – an industry best.
Samsung display panels are widely acknowledged as the best in the industry, and the S21 Ultra’s screen is likely going to be the best phone screen for the first half of 2021.
It helps that the bezels are slim and the hole-punch cut-out housing the selfie camera is small. Place the S21 Ultra’s screen next to the iPhone 12’s slower refreshing panel with a large notch, and the latter looks a generation or two behind.
All three phones are powered by the Snapdragon 888, the newest 5nm chip from Qualcomm that is said to rival Apple’s A14 Bionic in neural processing power and efficiency.
Software and features
All three S21 phones run Samsung’s One UI software over Android 11, which includes a very useful desktop mode named “DeX”.
New features, such as the ability to shoot 4K/60fps across every camera, and a new “Director’s Mode” that allows recording a video with multiple lenses simultaneously, make the S21 phones fun to use.
The S21 Ultra has an extra trick this year: it supports the S-Pen, the stylus that’s been a staple of Samsung’s other flagship, the Note series.
Existing S-Pens from older Note phones will work on the S21 Ultra, or users can buy a larger S-Pen made specifically for the S21 Ultra.
Because the device does not have a slot to store the stylus, Samsung has also designed a case that stores the stylus while offering all-round protection. While the case doesn’t look bad, I do think wrapping this gorgeous design in plastic is a shame.
Performance
I only had a brief time with the S21 phones in a controlled setting, so I could not conduct extensive performance testing, but rest assured the Snapdragon 888 is a powerful and fast processor. But what impressed me most – blew me away, as a matter of fact – is the S21 Ultra’s new zooming prowess.
The S21 Ultra’s quad camera system brings back the Periscope zoom lens used in last year’s S20 Ultra and Note 20 Ultra, but this time the lens has an extra prism inside for further magnification of image information.
This, plus more advanced software algorithms, makes the lens the equivalent of a 10x optical zoom lens capable of zooming up to 100x.
Unlike last year’s 100x zoom, which appeared blurry, the S21 Ultra’s 100x zoom shots appear to be relatively sharp. At 20x and 30x, images looked great to my eyes.
That is not all: the S21 Ultra also adds a new shorter 3x optical telephoto zoom lens ideal for portraits. The two zoom lenses combined cover more focal length area than before.
Early impressions
Reliable rumours say several Android brands including LG, Xiaomi and Oppo are planning to release foldable phones and explore other radical form factors.
Samsung will almost certainly have at least two new foldables for 2021 too. Considering that, the rectangular slab smartphone may be in its final months of being the dominant form factor in Android.
If that’s the case, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is a fitting phone for this final hurrah, because it’s about as refined and powerful as a slab smartphone can get. I cannot even imagine where else slab phones can improve from here.
Pricing was not made official at the time of writing, but reliable rumours say the S21 Ultra, S21 Plus and S21 will start at US$1,299, US$999, and US$799 respectively.
