The biggest area where Samsung are consistently great at is the display. The 6.8-inch, Dynamic AMOLED display with QHD+ resolution (1.440 x 3.200) is certainly a sight to behold. It has vibrant colours, very high peak brightness, high pixel-per-inch count and a super-smooth refresh rate at 120 Hz. The refresh rate especially makes a massive difference in how responsive the device feels. Combined with the Exynos 2100 chip that powers the device, navigating the UI is just a breeze. The content on display is super sharp too. The 515-PPI display is perfect for high-res multimedia consumption. The Advanced Camera System Where the Galaxy S21 Ultra has seen the biggest improvement is in the graphics rendering department. With an average frame rate of 93fps in the GFXBench Manhattan on-screen test (at native WQHD resolution), the S21 Ultra’s GPU performance is almost double that of last year’s S20 Ultra. Drop the screen resolution down to FHD+ and the frame rate jumps to 118fps. Bokeh Mode, HDR, Panorama, Night Mode, Portrait Mode, Stereo Recording, Face Detection, Gesture Recognition, AI Features, Scene Detection, Video Photo, Slow Motion, Time Lapse Samsung's Ultra series superphones are meant for the consumers that want the absolute best of the best in their phones and the S21 is providing just that kind of an exceptional experience with top-tier features and specs in all relevant areas imaginable. With an attractive new design, powerful the Exynos 2100 chip and a larger display, the S21 will not disappoint the power users. On top of all that, the price has been reduced too. Compared to the last year's S20 Ultra's launch price, the Ultra is more affordable to find its place in this troublesome global economy. Super-Smooth and Colour-Rich Display Let’s move to the numbers-heavy portion of this review, then. In the Geekbench 5 CPU test, the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s Exynos 2100 matched the single-core performance of its predecessor, the Exynos 990, found inside the S20 Ultra. Where it differs, however, is in multi-core performance. The S21 Ultra is roughly 24% faster here, which is a huge boost.

Sitting at the top of Samsung’s new flagship trio, the Galaxy S21 Ultra has everything you could want from a top-end flagship phone, including a gigantic 6.8in screen, a smattering of rear and front-facing cameras, up to 512GB of internal storage and the option to upgrade to a – frankly bonkers – 16GB of RAM. It’s also the first Samsung phone to come with Android 11 pre-installed, and it can record 8K video, just like last year’s Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Price and competition This is bad news for consumers who are looking to make the switch from iPhone to Samsung, since the Galaxy S21 Ultra charges via USB-C and thus doesn’t support Apple’s Lightning cable. Perhaps a more consumer-friendly tactic would be to provide a choice as to whether or not the charger was included, instead of removing it entirely. Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Display A choice you don’t have to make, however, is whether or not to pay extra for a 5G model. All three phones come with 5G at no additional cost this year and the Galaxy S21 Ultra even supports Wi-Fi 6E connections (the first smartphone to do so), although the number of people likely to have a new 6GHz router at home is vanishingly small right now. If you are someone who prefers Android, has a lavish budget and prefers large displays over compact form factors, then the S22 Ultra is certainly a no-brainer among the 2022 models. Featuring an almost undeniably beautiful design, the S22 Ultra comes with a 6.8-inch AMOLED display, running at 3088 x 1440 pixel resolution and resulting in a 500 per-pixel-inch clarity. With a dynamic refresh rate that goes from 1Hz all the way up to 120Hz, it offers fantastic functionality and vivid colours with everything you may possibly do on the phone. With the peak brightness of 1750 nits and Samsung's Vision Booster technology, the display performs great even under direct sunlight and stays comfortably bright whenever you may need it. Moreover, there is an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner placed on the bottom half of it and said to be quite secure. Cameras: No More Contour Cut Camera improvements include enhanced noise reduction in low-light conditions, as well as the ability to slow down multiple instances in a single slow-mo video. You can also grab a still image directly from 8K footage, and add virtual lighting in portrait pictures.Proximity Sensor, Hall Effect Sensor, Light Sensor, Gyroscope Sensor, Accelerometer (G-Sensor), Magnetometer, Barometer, Fingerprint Sensor No matter the task, the powerful Exynos 2100 chip that comes with the S21 Ultra crushes it with ease. In addition, it is also more energy-efficient than the S20 Ultra's chip, so what you get with this 5,000 mAh capacity battery is nothing short of impressive. With approximately 5 hours of on-screen time, you get around 34 hours of battery life. This easily means nearly 2 days of use, which only a few smartphones on the market could claim to offer at this level of system performance. And finally, the phone supports 5G connectivity and expectedly still has the beloved USB-C port for fast charging and data transfers. S21 Ultra 5G: Price UK

The Galaxy S21 Ultra has the same Exynos 2100 chipset (it’s the Snapdragon 888 in the US) as the rest of the lineup. Unlike the other phones, however, you also get the option to upgrade from 12GB of RAM to a whopping 16GB, along with a choice of either 128GB, 256GB or 512GB of non-expandable storage. In my experience, 16GB of RAM is pretty much overkill for any smartphone – my MacBook Pro “only” has 8GB of RAM. Not that there’s much need to tweak the camera settings, though. Open up the camera app and you’ll be treated to wonderful, detail-rich images that are filled with vibrant colours and rich, intricate details. I was particularly impressed with the portrait mode, which you can see here side-by-side with the iPhone 12 Pro: As expected, the performance is top-notch across the board thanks to the Exynos 2200 chipset and 8GB of RAM. It's no better than Apple's A15 Bionic, but it keeps things more than buttery-smooth and snappy in all tasks and apps you could think of. The graphics performance here alone makes the S22 Ultra also a fantastic gaming phone - it handles games with no hiccups. The 5,000mAh battery here offers a day of usage on a full charge with fast charging as well as wireless charging support, but nothing more than that. We wish it lasted for more than that but a full day is still okay. We also noticed that there are some heat-related issues when performing demanding tasks, so beware of that as well. S22 Ultra: Price UK Proximity Sensor, Hall Effect Sensor, Light Sensor, Gyroscope Sensor, Accelerometer (G-Sensor), Fingerprint Sensor This is also the first Samsung phone to launch without a charger in the box. Following in Apple’s footsteps, Samsung says the charger’s removal is an effort to reduce the environmental impact of the phone, but it also says that it “removes any pressure that consumers may feel towards continually receiving unnecessary charger accessories with new phones”.

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It should come as no surprise that the quality of the images that the Galaxy S21 Ultra is capable of capturing are nothing short of exceptional. As with other high-megapixel-count flagships, the S21 Ultra doesn’t capture 108MP images by default – although this can be enabled in the settings – instead taking 12MP pictures in the auto mode. Overall, though, the S21 Ultra lags slightly behind the Snapdragon 888 (tested in the Xiaomi Mi 11) and is no match for the as-yet-unbeatable processing speeds of the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra has the biggest screen of the three new S21 phones, stretching out across 6.8in. It’s one of Samsung’s “Dynamic AMOLED 2x” panels and it now supports 120Hz at the native WQHD+ resolution (1,440 x 3,200) of the panel. The cameras also receive their fair share of upgrades this year. Indeed, the Ultra is the only S21 phone to come with a 108MP (f/1.8) main camera and it also comes with a pair of 10MP telephoto lenses. When it comes to the videos, 4K-60 FPS recording is here in addition to the fantastically sharp and cinematic 8K-24 FPS mode. The auto-framing feature isn't all that well refined, but the ability to pause the recording to continue recording a bit later is a great feature. Performance and Battery Life Samsung Electronics (UK) Limited, registered at Samsung House, 2000 Hillswood Drive, Chertsey, Surrey KT16 0RS, United Kingdom, acts as a credit intermediary and not as a lender. Credit is provided by Klarna Bank AB. For more information please visit www.klarna.com/uk. Finance is only available to permanent UK residents aged 18 and over, subject to status, T&Cs apply. The following products are not regulated by the FCA: Pay in 30 days and Pay in 3 instalments.