Instead of the upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event, let’s do a long-term review of the Samsung S21 Ultra. We saw a lot of smartphones in the first half of 2021, but the S21 Ultra is the phone that’s always been in my pocket since I got it.
After 6 months of use, here is my opinion and my experience.
The phone – after testing so many other phones, the S21 Ultra is still one of the prettiest phones. The design is iconic and sexy and I still take a moment to look at it when I clean the case every now and then.
Now, I haven’t spent time without a case on the Galaxy S21 Ultra, but honestly I still really like the matte black finish of the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
We must also talk about accessories. The S Pen is a separate purchase and I ended up ditching the included case because it was too grippy. I had this case from Spigen which is thinner than the supplied case from Samsung, but it is a bit wider.
While we’re talking about the back of the phone, let’s talk about these cameras again. This time around, Samsung has really stepped up its camera game on the Galaxy S21 Ultra, touting a total of 4 cameras, two of which are telephoto lenses at different focal lengths.
I have taken a lot of photos and videos with this phone. Sometimes I even use the Galaxy S21 Ultra directly to take photos and videos to use in the videos you’re watching right now – and no editing is required. It’s a big time saver for me.
To have many point-and-shoot photos I took with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, watch the video at the top of this long-term review.
Data transfer is also fast since the Galaxy S21 Ultra uses USB 3. Besides, other budding “flagship” phones still use USB 2.
And about this, I must point out one thing. The Galaxy S21 Ultra I am using comes with 256GB of storage and so far I have around 140GB of content in the phone. I have become too lazy to delete or organize my files and end up hogging data now. And yet, I still can’t get through that 256GB of storage.
I know a lot of people are complaining about the lack of a microSD card slot – and I was a little weird at first, too. But, I end up not needing a microSD card slot.
For my part, I use my phone to work. That’s why the Galaxy S21 Ultra is pretty much perfect for me. The Exynos 2100 is surprisingly good this generation because it doesn’t overheat like the Snapdragon 888 chipset and never lag when I use the phone to do my business.
I usually jump between several different apps, recording and cropping screenshots, and using the S Pen to write, draw, and most importantly to illustrate things.
And that’s why I love Samsung’s unique user interface. Edge Panel compliments the overall user experience so well that I find myself doing things that everyone is going to complain about. For example, Edge Panel has the option to select part of the screen and then save a screenshot.
But before you hit save, there is another option to extract the text. I find these kinds of features too useful, especially since some people like to take a photo of my package tracking code via a photo in WhatsApp. So I am using this feature to extract the tracking code in a second and put it on the parcel tracking site.
Next is Samsung Pay – it’s very convenient. I mean, while the pandemic is literally raging these days, I don’t even find myself using cash. I only use my cards and e-wallets these days. And it’s also because I don’t want to go to the ATM to withdraw money because the daily cash registers are skyrocketing.
Foooh… anyway, I don’t play cell phone games because I have a PC equipped behind me that I use to edit the videos you are watching right now and also to play games.
And throughout my use, the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s 5,000mAh battery rarely drops below 45%. Even on the days I have to go back to the studio, I still find myself at over 45% drums. And every day I also get a lot of emails and notifications.
Now you may have realized that the The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra that I’m showing here has a pretty hazy screen. This is because I recently switched to a matte screen protector. I replaced the original preinstalled screen protector because it was a bit scratched.
While I am using a matte screen protector, the fingerprint scanner still works flawlessly.
Speaking of screen, I am using this screen with 1440p resolution at 120Hz. That’s because I can – and I still have a lot of battery juice left to burn off at the end of the day. This shows that the LTPO backplane is working really hard to ensure the battery life is as long as possible.
Sometimes if I’m too busy doing other things, I still go to bed with about 60% battery remaining – and end up not needing to charge for the day.
And since I have such a good battery life, I’ve never needed a quick charge. I just use a 10W charger and charge every time I go to bed and unplug when I wake up.
But the battery life is affected by software updates. Every month, without fail, an update will be available for the Galaxy S21 Ultra. I feel like some updates extend the battery life a bit more. It is not that important, but certainly noticeable and consistent.
But the price …
If you are planning to buy the Galaxy S21 Ultra today, I have some great news. You can even get this phone with 256GB of storage at around RM4,299 now, which I think is a significant price drop from the original RM5299 that Samsung requested.
While the RM4,299 the price tag is a much more reasonable price, it’s still an expensive phone overall. Having said that, throughout my use, I think I have found the phone that best suits my use case. Maybe this is an example of “you get what you pay for”?
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