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
Silver5urfer - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
These phones are not Flagships.- Design, the back camera metal to glass camera island is hard to repair, how do you even do it, meaning once the battery is busted, you cannot do a DIY easily on these phones at all. It makes them harder than iPhones, which have Glass glued onto the back panel making them have official repair being expensive than a display.
- No 3.5mm jack, No SD card slot. More features removed and they are True Flagship ?
- No more charger shipped in the box copying Apple.
- Display resolutions reduced hard. $1000 for a 1080P grade display, it's pure rip off. Worse than Apple.
- S21 base edition has plastic back, really horrible.
AT won't even mention anything, but all praise. Shame. This is what the computing looks like now, a disposable tech product which is useful nly for social media bs. What about the filesystem issues, never mentioned at all. Scoped Storage kills NAND performance HARD, it's a known fact and no acknowledgement of that all. Another year another new shiny product just spend more $1000 money because it looks amazing !! Just like all Youtubers out there.
People say it's for nature and environment, but nope it doesn't matter just buy new shiny product every year regardless of the drop in the features on HW and SW.
Psyside - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
Hi Andrei, thanks for your brilliant review. However, please take note, that all of the first 10x zoom shot on the exynos are a total anomaly! the phone takes, much, much much better photos at 10x, it looks like the shot are not take by the 10x camera, check out the EXIF please, it does not state f/4.9.Please reconsider to redo the test shots, thanks.
Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
All of the 10x S21U shots are great and are f/4.9 per EXIF, so I don't know what you're talking about.Psyside - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
I talk about the exynos version. The S21U I didn't check because it looked good, but i noticed immediately that the 10x exynos are not even close to what they should be.Check this 10x AUB9 shot,
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/camera-performa...
Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
Yes.... the S21U (E) 10x shots are all are all looking great and are on the correct module...I don't know what you're seeing, maybe you're confusing it with the S21 (E) which is the regular non-Ultra phone.Psyside - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
Damn, it could be! i will check from my desktop, really, really sorry if that's the case!s.yu - Wednesday, February 24, 2021 - link
Actually, the 3x shots all look cropped, that's what's strange.Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
> Design, the back camera metal to glass camera island is hard to repair, how do you even do it, meaning once the battery is busted, you cannot do a DIY easily on these phones at all.You can remove and replace that part easily, along with the whole back cover, as well as a battery replacement, the same as any other phone we've had since removable batteries had been retired.
I've covered the SD card, 1080p, and the plastic (which is absolutely fine). The charger I didn't mention because I don't consider it very important. Scoped storage doesn't affect performance in everyday usage and I did not notice it at all.
Silver5urfer - Tuesday, February 23, 2021 - link
Okay I checked Teardown and yes you are correct. I was thinking Metal frame of camera island is a part of the phone frame.Absolutely fine ? not even Apple does it for $400 USD priced entry level iPhone SE, they have a glass back with AL frame. This is extreme cost cutting from Samsung and shameless. Since iPhone moved plastic backs a long time back. Why it is okay in the $800+ price tag territory, they will creak badly after time and with heated gaming sessions and all that expansion and contraction they will wear out.
Again for such price tag the charger needs to be packed in the box. A 100% unoriginal idea from Apple should not be excused but at-least should be covered from your publication when you called out 3.5mm jack for S20 reviews which no one even cared to mention.
Yeah it doesn't but that Scoped Storage has huge issues, the Issuetracker is filled with developer complaints and Commonsware blog listed out so many issues. And here's Dolphin Emulator developers saying the huge performance impact.
When you have a significant advantage on Journalism you should use that to show to the world on these, Camera comparisons are great but you know who read these ? only people who visit AT and they are too common, not saying should not do them but AT is a tech focus site and if you guys do it some other blogs might pick them up & most important of all, Google and Samsung might as well notice.
https://www.xda-developers.com/dolphin-emulator-li...
Yeah it doesn't even matter if you cover or not now, because it's been there since 2 Android iterations already and Google is decided to yank the Filesystem.
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/128591846
https://commonsware.com/blog/2017/11/14/storage-si...
ksheltarna69 - Monday, September 27, 2021 - link
Yes, reviews on Anandtech have become a marketing place. And it seems Android is going the Apple way. We need a new system.Andrei should stop being so defensive and become more objective.