A Week with the S21 Ultra

I've used a lot of phones in my life; various shades of Android hardware and software, as well an iPhone at one point - and I've never really felt satisfied with any of them. Sure, I'd be satisfied in context; I'd often say "I like my Moto G7+ because it only cost me x amount and it's a great value buy." or "I'm satisfied with my Pixel 4XL because my staff incentive discount made it a bargain I couldn't pass up.", but I was never genuinely satisfied with the experience I had with the phone.

For context, a conservative overview of my phone history looks a little something like this:

HTC Salsa (Early 2012) (replaced)
iPhone 5 (Dec 2012) (broke, shattered screen)
Nexus 5 (Apr-ish 2014) (broke, broke the LCD while playing basketball with it in my pocket)
LG G3 (Q3 2014) (broke, phone was obliterated by a rebounding basketball)
A combination of a iPod Touch 5th gen and some cheap Alcatel phone (Middle of 2015)
Moto G4+ (Late 2016 or early 2017) (Replaced)
Moto G6+ (Early 2019) (Water Damage)
Moto G7+ (Early 2019) (Replaced)
Pixel 4XL (Late 2019) (Broke, battery fault)
OnePlus 6T (Late 2020) (Temporary)
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (Early 2021)

After 11 phones and 9 years, I've made the jump to try out a truly top-of-the line offering from Samsung - an opportunity I couldn't justify the cost of until just recently.

I picked up the phone last Friday so here are my thoughts after one week.

Unboxing

The unboxing experience was probably the most minimalist one I've had in years; this is mostly in part to the lack of an included charging brick. I'm not massively in favour of this trend that is sure to continue, but I will say the simplicity of just pulling the phone out of the box and booting the phone up set a tone of "that was easy" that I've quite enjoyed with this phone. The box does contain the standard packet of warranty information and start up guides, as well as a USB-C cable for charging/data, but without the bulky power brick, the phone takes sole focus of the unboxing experience, which while not massively important - is a plus.

Setup

For those that know me, I'm the type of Android user that has a very specific setup that I don't want to change with every phone upgrade. Due to this, it's always a plus when setting up a new phone is as easy as it was using Samsung's Smart Switch app. Within an hour of first booting the phone I had most of my apps installed and configured and minimal manual re-configuration was required - the most being telling the phone to use Lawnchair 2 as my launcher instead of OneUI and a few widgets. Overall it was a really seamless experience - marginally more so than the built in Android 'Set up an new device' functionality.

Build

The S21 Ultra is immaculate from a design and build quality perspective. The design really looks natural for a phone and the camera bump is lightyears ahead from even last years' S20 Ultra. The phone is slim otherwise but has a nice heft in the hand and is overall very comfortable to hold. The phone is also durable; even being able to withstand an accidental collision with my ceiling fan blade as I stretched one morning, although I wouldn't personally skip on a nice case and glass screen protector (which I am looking for ASAP).

Overall the design is a clear indication of Samsung refining their philosophies from their 2020 line of phones and really nailing it. It's not the most creative or innovative design, but that's rarely been Samsung's lane, leaving me to describe the S21 Ultra as elegant and mature.

Hardware

When it comes to a phone of this caliber and price tag, specs matter - a lot. If you're going to demand close to $2000 AUD for a phone, you better bring it with the specs, and Samsung did not shy away with this offering.

The phone is fast, with the international model sporting the Exynos 2100 - a snappy chip that finally holds a candle to the US/Snapdragon model. I was apprehensive after hearing the S21 Ultra would still sport an Exynos processor internationally due to the previous year's phone having a pretty clear variance between US and international models. Thankfully my concerns were alleviated shortly after the initial wave of reviews dropped.

Samsung held no bars with this phone. A QHD 120hz display, a snappy and power efficient CPU/GPU, and responsive fingerprint sensor make using the phone a buttery smooth experience that is a joy for anyone. While I haven't had the best conditions to test out the five cameras - the limited testing I have done really demonstrated to me how far Android cameras have come in the past few years. The hardware has always been there, and the native viewfinder has been able to leverage it, but I actually feel apps like Snapchat and Instagram are no longer using their 'workarounds' to avoid having to implement the plethora of brand specific camera optimisations. Whether this is Samsung specific thing or Google have finally managed to get their camera API supported is unknown to me - the important thing is the cameras look damn google no matter where you take a picture from - both in the real world and the user interface.

TODO: Insert pictures of various locations and times of day (weather permitting)

I don't play a lot of games on my phone anymore but I booted up Genshin Impact for 15 minutes or so and it was perfectly playable and smooth. I also tested out Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle briefly. While Dokkan Battle isn't a super intensive game, it does serve a fair comparison as some of my previous phones have definitely experienced a frame drop or two - especially as super attack animations got loads more complex. As expected the S21 Ultra ran through the game with ease and I was a little blown away at how responsive the game can be on a good device.

Overall, the S21 Ultra does not hold back and Samsung really earnt the 'Ultra' title this year.

Software

As mentioned above, I don't really interact with most Android phones' UI's much. Other than the settings, notification shade and app switcher, and the occasional default app - I don't really see it. I've had a pretty consistent layout since I had my Nexus 5 and I don't plan to change much. There is one gripe I have using Samsung phones and that's the bloatware (surprise surprise). Samsung have for years tried to provide their own alternatives to Google services for a number of reasons which make sense from an operations and experience perspective, but it frustrates me beyond belief that I'm unable to uninstall these apps in favour of their Google or different 3rd party alternative. It's definitely not as bad as it used to be because Google services are now available by default (for the most part I've noticed a few apps being disabled but that's no big deal) but if anything that frustrates me more because that's so close to Samsung admitting defeat without raising a white flag. Just let me uninstall them and we'll be all good.

Aside from that the notification shade is standard Android affair at this point; a positive in my eyes, with a OneUI styling that works nicely enough for my tastes. The app switcher is a little finicky at times; sometimes skipping directly to the second app on the list instead of the one I'm currently in - but with a phone that officially wasn't released until today I'm fine with a few software hiccups like that. They'll get patched eventually and they aren't so frequent that they're a hindrance of any sort.

Overall, the S21 Ultra gets a serviceable mark from me on the software suite for the parts I have had to interact with.