A Punch Above Its Weight?

We have been witnessing a constant and steady scaling up of brands in the smartphone market for the last few years. While players who started with the budget segment move to a mid-priced segment and mid-price brands rapidly start testing the waters at the premium markets, the existing premium players like Apple and Samsung are busy carving out a luxury segment, catering to the crème-de-la-crème of the society. Make no mistake though; they are not leaving the premium segment yet, with carefully placed models in that segment, and even in the mid-priced market. We would call the S21 Ultra, Samsung’s luxury model, packing a surplus of everything in a stylish body.

- Sujith Gopinath

Inside the Box

Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G phone

USB Type-C data cable

Ejection pin

Quick Start Guide

Design & Build Quality

The Galaxy S21 Ultra features a classic minimalistic design. The camera bump is rather unconventional, with a part of the bezel curved and merged with the edges of the platform. From a design point of view, this leaves too much of an asymmetry at the back. However, the glossy bezel and the matte-finished back provide a touch of class to this design. Both the volume rocker and power button are on the right-hand side. The USB Type-C port and the SIM tray are at the bottom.

The screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. The S21 Ultra 5G carries IP68 ingress protection rating. This means that the device offers complete protection from dust and according to Samsung’s claims, is protected from submersion in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water for up to 30 minutes. The device is available in Phantom Black and Phantom Silver finishes.

Key Features

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra uses a 5 nanometre, 64-bit Samsung Exynos 2100 octa-core processor with three ARM Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.81 GHz, four Cortex-A55 cores clocking 2.21 GHz and one Cortex-X1 core at 2.91 GHz. These work in conjunction with an ARM Mali-G78 GPU to deliver a great gaming experience. The device is available in 12 GB and 16 GB RAM options. The 12 GB RAM variant offers 128 or 256 GB memory options while the 16 GB variant is available in 512 GB ROM version only.