Review / Is the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra better than Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro Max? Why the Korean-made phone, released at the same time as the Galaxy Earbuds Pro, almost tempted us to the Android side
- Samsung’s newest flagship hugely improves on the Samsung S20 models with an even better camera
- Some downsides include no expandable memory, no included charger brick and a slippery grip
Here’s the disclaimer: I’m an iPhone and iOS person and have been for many years. Having said that, I usually keep a second phone which is more often than not an Android, because the flagship Androids tend to have slightly better cameras in my experience. But so far, the overall Android experience has never been strong enough for me to turn my back on Apple altogether.
Having spent two weeks with Samsung’s newest flagship, the Galaxy S21 Ultra, my opinion on the camera still stands. Samsung has really thrown down the gauntlet with the S21 Ultra camera specs. It has the highest smartphone camera resolution at 108 megapixels. There are also two telephoto lenses, one with a 3x zoom and the other with 10x at 10 megapixels. The selfie camera offers 40 megapixels by default.
In the early days, these photos would be too greenish or too fake, but the cameras have been modified to produce more acceptable colour hues. Photos taken with the iPhone, even with the flagship 10 Pro Max, show weakness in the white balance, so they always appeared muted and greyed in comparison. The S21 Ultra also offers better depth and detail with the bokeh.
Gone are the days when we were surprised with mobile phone designs. Since the advent of the smartphone, they mainly only feature small modifications with each new model. The S21 Ultra looks sleeker and is smaller than its predecessor, with a premium metallic case and a 6.8cm Dynamic AMOLED screen with a maximum of 3,200 x 1,400 pixel resolution. A whopping 120Hz refresh rate makes the whole scrolling experience seamless; it only works in full adaptive mode though.