Age Of Ultra Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra

The first Galaxy S with digital pen support, the new flagship is a five-star beast in almost every way

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SPECIFICATIONS

SOC Snapdragon 888 RAM 12GB Storage 256GB GPU Adreno 660 OS Android 11 Camera 108 MP, 10MP, 10MP, 12MP rear; 40MP front Battery 5,000 mAh Dimensions 165.1x75.6x8.9mm Weight 229g

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the phone the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra should have been. Last year’s phone was a massively powerful handset that, in some areas, was coarse around the edges – and as such fell from grace in terms of receiving a perfect score.

The S21 Ultra, while not perfect, builds upon and refines what was there last year, as well as offering functionality that up until now has been the preserve of the Galaxy Note series alone. It’s still a very expensive flagship phone, and certainly not for everyone, but now it’s one with fewer flaws and more overall usage potential.

One of the foremost reasons anyone would pick up the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is for its camera system, so that is where we’ll begin.

A 40MP front-facing camera is bundled with a quad-camera rear setup made up of an ultra-wide 12MP camera, a second-generation wide 108MP camera, and two 10MP telephoto cameras. It has a 10x optical zoom, and Samsung’s famous 100x ‘Space Zoom’ digital zoom. You also get a fast laser focus sensor, 12-bit HDR, and a brighter noise sensor for low-light photography.

Shooting modes are bountiful, and include a fully manual Pro mode. Samsung has really got Portrait mode sorted now, with subjects captured and lit wonderfully, and backgrounds blurred out with subtle rather than overbearing bokeh.