The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra & S21 Review: The Near Perfect and The Different
by Andrei Frumusanu on February 22, 2021 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Mobile
- Galaxy S21
- Galaxy S21 Ultra
Display Measurement
We’ve noted many times now that the displays of the S21 series are relatively special, although for different reasons depending on the model.
The S21 Ultra’s new panel uses a new hybrid oxide pack panel technology along with a new OLED emitter generation that allows it offer seamless fine-grained refresh rate switching along with getting extremely bright while being much more power efficient. The smaller S21 doesn’t have any of the new display technologies, it is lower resolution, but still has software based adaptive frequency features. I did note that at least in terms of hardware build quality, the smaller S21 does seem to have advantages over the S20 series when it comes to its lamination, as I am seeing better viewing angles, and the panel being better glued to the glass.
When it comes to colour accuracy, we find Samsung’s usual display modes, limited to a “Vivid” setting that’s more saturated in terms of the colours, and allows you to fine-tune colour temperature to your taste, and the “Natural” screen mode that tries to adhere to sRGB and Display P3 colour gamuts and features near 6500K whites.
We move on to the display calibration and fundamental display measurements of the Galaxy S21 Ultra and S21 screens. As always, we thank X-Rite and SpecraCal, as our measurements are performed with an X-Rite i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer, with the exception of black levels which are measured with an i1Display Pro colorimeter. Data is collected and examined using Portrait Display's CalMAN software.
When it comes to screen brightness, the Galaxy S21 isn’t all much different to the S20 series, although it does allow for brighter manual brightness up to 393 nits on our unit. Peak full screen whites are still at around 700 nits when in auto-brightness mode under bright ambient conditions.
The S21 Ultra’s brightness is beyond any other OLED display on the market right now. Manual brightness is still limited by Samsung to only 462 nits, however when in auto-brightness, it goes to a staggering 942 nits – almost beating the superbly bright RGBW LCD display of the LG G7.
If you’re looking for a device which does excellently under sunlight, then the S21 Ultra is definitely the right choice.
Portrait Displays CalMAN
Galaxy S21 Ultra
In terms of greyscale accuracy, the good news for this generation is that it seems Samsung has done a better job than in past years. Whites fall in at 6423K on the S21 Ultra, much less red than the S20 series devices’ calibration, with general great colour balance at dEITP of only 1.2. Gamma curve also looks reasonable although it’s still hard to measure this accurately due to Samsung’s APL brightness adjustments, even with fixed 50 APL and 50% windows sizes during out measurements.
Portrait Displays CalMAN
Galaxy S21
The smaller Galaxy S21 also does very well, with great colour temperature out of the box .
Portrait Displays CalMAN
Galaxy S21 Ultra
Saturation accuracy on the S21 Ultra is great in all aspects except the reds, which for some reason are undersaturated at the maximum intensities.
Portrait Displays CalMAN
Galaxy S21
The smaller S21 doesn’t have the same issue, showcasing generally more accurate colours.
Portrait Displays CalMAN
Galaxy S21 Ultra
Portrait Displays CalMAN
Galaxy S21
Gretag MacBeth test patches with common colours such as skin tones fare well for both the S21 Ultra as well as the S21, although the latter does better, showcasing less luminosity errors.
Overall, Samsung did uncharacteristically well this year when it comes to colour accuracy. After a few years of glaring gamma issues and too warm whites, the S21 series seems to be able to achieve great results out of the box, early on in its firmware, which couldn’t be said of the S10 or S20 series.
The S21 Ultra’s display in terms of its fundamentals is outstanding – it gets extremely bright, more than any other phone in the market right now. Together with the 1440p resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, it represents the single best mobile display in the industry right now.
The smaller S21 display is good, although really not in the same class as the Ultra’s panel. There’s really nothing much to write home about here, as it’s very much similar to many other 1080p panels in the industry, with good brightness levels, good colour accuracy, and of course also featuring that 120Hz adaptive refresh rate mode. If the Ultra’s panel is an S-tier display, the baseline model’s display is A-tier.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
122 Comments
View All Comments
sanjeev2.k - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
I am assuming system wide dark theme was not turned on during battery life test. So by how much roughly will the battery life improve if dark mode is turned on?Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
It doesn't affect our tests, unless I also enable the browser dark mode.jhoff80 - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
I mostly like my S21 Ultra a lot, but I still hate a lot about the software. Even as OneUI has improved greatly over the years, there's some really stupid stuff here or there. Like I should be able to disable or uninstall Samsung's duplicate apps (calendar, contacts, clock, etc.) without adb. But that's fine, there's a workaround for that, so that's just annoying.What really annoys me that I can't work around as far as I'm aware is that I can't disable half of the unnecessary notifications that Samsung gives me. Like constant notifications when my Bluetooth headset battery is low (and if I swipe them away they come right back for each percent lost). Or a notification for do not disturb being on (even though DND is in my quick settings). Or a notification that I need to unlock my phone after a reboot to see more notifications. Android has settings to turn notifications off, but Samsung doesn't let me flip the switch on ones they think I need to be forced to see.
And other than that, I dislike the scoped storage issues with Google Photos, and the fact I can't set Samsung's camera app to go directly to Google Photos instead of their inadequate Gallery app. And I'm slightly disappointed that the S21 removed ANT+ support. And I hate that I can't set the power/side button to the devices menu like I did with my Pixel 4XL. But I worked around that with sideActions set to go directly to SmartThings instead.
But still, overall I really like it. It's faster than my Pixel 4XL, has a better camera (though I continue to dislike Samsung's post-processing in general, it sometimes smears things), I missed having the capability to use the S-pen compared to my even older Note8, and the fingerprint reader over face scanning is a huge bonus in the Covid era.
I just really don't get why Samsung wastes their time on duplicate apps nobody wants, or why they prevent the user from actually taking control over their experience. Oh well. At least there's workarounds for most of it.
Edwardmcardle - Friday, February 26, 2021 - link
They messed up the split screen multitasking imo. It's still has the advantage of keyboard pop not bumping the top half off the screen, but swiping home now minamises BOTH screens , where it should normally only minimise the active screenWereweeb - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
Yeah, they really f*cked up with the screens. Less than 400 PPI in an S-series? My last Sammy was an S6 Edge, and that f*cking thing had a 577 PPI screen.Sure, younger me couldn't really tell the difference to a good 1080p 5-incher, but it simply doesn't make sense to decrease the resolution *after* display sizes have increased so much that the sharpness of QHD is actually noticeable to the average user.
Glad they added back a flat screen option, I've always despised curved displays (I didn't buy that S6 Edge, it was handed down). But all in all, it sounds more like an A92+ than an S21.
Retycint - Tuesday, February 23, 2021 - link
To make things worse, it's a pentile/non-full-rgb matrix, so it's going to look worse than a 1080p LCD of the same size. Why pay $1000 when you can get a QHD 120Hz in the Mi 11 for a couple hundred less?DJ XtAzY - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
Anything on the video quality, or was that in a different article?BedfordTim - Tuesday, February 23, 2021 - link
Also anything about the fingerprint sensor? Poor Amazon reviews were one of the reasons I chose a P30Pro over the S20 last time.Edwardmcardle - Friday, February 26, 2021 - link
I think the ultrasonic is the best available, works with screen off and this generation is exceptionally fast and accuratebcronce - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
I saw USCC now has unlimited plans that were cheaper than the plan I was on. The wife went in to switch our lines over and came back with an S21 basic for me to place my S7. At $13/m over a 30 month contract, we will only be paying $400 for the phone.My last plan was technically unlimited, but only in the sense that going over 2GB would drop me into 3G speeds with no overage. But now with truly unlimited, I no longer have artificial caps on speed, only have to compete with congestion. For an extra $10/m, I could get 25GB of "high priority" data, and $20/m extra, 50GB. I'm fine with best effort and no artificial limits.