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
Camera - Low Light Evaluation
Low-light photography of the new S21 series devices should be relatively uneventful. Both the Ultra and the regular models don’t have any superior light gathering abilities compared to their predecessors, so in general the differences between the generations should solely lie in terms of software algorithm updates – if there’s actually any.
[ S21U(S) - ] [ S21U(E) - ]
[ S21(E) - ] [ S20+(E) - ]
[ Note20U(S) - ] [ iPhone 12 Pro - ]
[ Mate40 Pro - ] [ Mi 11 - ]
[ Mi 10 Pro - ] [ Pixel 5 - ]
[ X-T30 ( ) ]
In the first scenario, we see the S21 phones showcase excellent results in their respective night modes. There are small differences when it comes to colour temperature and blacks, where the new Ultra phones don’t seem to be as fine-tuned as the Note20 Ultra or the baseline S21, but generally fall in amongst the best performing phones.
[ S21U(S) - ] [ S21U(E) - ]
[ S21(E) - ] [ S20+(E) - ]
[ Note20U(S) - ] [ iPhone 12 Pro - ]
[ Mate40 Pro - ] [ Mi 11 - ]
[ Mi 10 Pro - ] [ Pixel 5 - ]
[ X-T30 ( ) ]
This scene really wasn’t kind to the new Ultras, as the Note20 Ultra produced significantly better and more realistic shots in all capture modes. We’re again seeing some of Samsung’s stark software inconsistencies at play.
[ S21U(S) - ] [ S21U(E) - ]
[ S21(E) - ] [ S20+(E) - ]
[ Note20U(S) - ] [ iPhone 12 Pro - ]
[ Mate40 Pro - ] [ Mi 11 - ]
[ Mi 10 Pro - ] [ Pixel 5 - ]
[ X-T30 ( ) ]
The S21 Ultra issues continue here as well, the Snapdragon unit is just far blurrier than the Exynos and the Note20 Ultra, while the Exynos’ colour temperature is too cool and overcompensates the orange sodium lamps.
[ S21U(S) - ] [ S21U(E) - ]
[ S21(E) - ] [ S20+(E) - ]
[ Note20U(S) - ] [ iPhone 12 Pro - ]
[ Mate40 Pro - ] [ Mi 11 - ]
[ Mi 10 Pro - ] [ Pixel 5 - ]
[ X-T30 ( ) ]
In this scene I was curious to see the dynamic range the phones would be able to retain in night mode – those lamps actually weren’t all that bright at all, it’s just that the rest of the scene was just very dim.
The Samsung phones didn’t improve all that much generationally, and still lag behind the leader in low-light dynamic range, Huawei.
[ S21U(S) - ] [ S21U(E) - ]
[ S21(E) - ] [ S20+(E) - ]
[ Note20U(S) - ] [ iPhone 12 Pro - ]
[ Mate40 Pro - ] [ Pixel 5 - ]
[ X-T30 ( ) ]
This scene is easier to analyse, as essentially, we’re seeing little to no differences with the new S21 series phones bar a bit of colour temperature variations.
[ S21U(S) ] [ S21U(E) ]
[ S21(E) ] [ S20+(E) ]
[ Note20U(S) ] [ iPhone 12 Pro ]
[ Mate40 Pro - ] [ Mi 11 ]
[ Mi 10 Pro ] [ Pixel 5 ]
[ X-T30 ( ) ]
Going into lower light situations, we’re seeing larger differences. The S21 Ultra Snapdragon falls flat on its face here in terms of night mode processing as everything is a blurry mess. The Exynos variant fares significantly better, and is actually along with the Exynos S21 the best results of any phones night modes, going as far as clearly depicting the Orion and Pleiades constellations in the background sky.
[ S21U(S) ] [ S21U(E) ][ S21(E) ] [ S20+(E) ] [ Note20U(S) ]
[ iPhone 12 Pro ] [ Mate40 Pro - ] [ Mi 11 ] [ Mi 10 Pro ] [ Pixel 5 ]
[ X-T30 ( ) ]
Lastly, just for fun and because I had an unusually clear night sky, I tried out pointing the phones at the sky to see what happens. These are all handheld shots without a tripod. Sadly enough, the Ultra phones lagged behind the regular S20 and S21, and far behind the Huawei Mate 40 Pro.
Low-light verdict: Pretty much the same
Low-light photography on the S21 series, hasn’t really changed all that much from the S20 series. Frankly speaking, in some scenarios, it might be even worse due to the immature software, particularly on the Snapdragon S21 Ultra. We didn’t really expect any improvements this generation as essentially, it’s all pretty much the same hardware, but I was still disappointed to see that the software side of things is still handicapping Samsung from achieving better results.
The same conclusion applies here as on the daylight shots, in that we don’t really have a conclusion. The results are too inconsistent, and I’ve already had two newer firmware updates I would need to re-test things on. The picture quality will undoubtedly improve, but it’s getting quite tiring to wait months for Samsung to sort things out.
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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.