Every year in the first quarter, Samsung sets the standard in the industry by introducing its Galaxy S line of "wearable" phones. This time is no different. This time I took the Samsung S21 Ultra for a closer look.
OK, I won't belabor the point, but… Phones have become ours a cybernetic extension of the brain and many people suddenly became "ultra" smart because of the phone in their pocket. Even myself personally! Telephones "penetrate" practically every pore of our society. We shop online, talk to friends and have meetings on them. Personally, I also watch TV most of the time on my phone and stream content from portals such as Netflix and HBO. "Long story short": phones are the most important technological device of every individual. And that is also why it only happens a few times a year that all the attention of the world public is focused on one technological product.
First impressions – Samsung S21 Ultra
This time, therefore, about the phone to which Samsung did not add +, Pro or Max in the end, but the word Ultra!
If we go to the dictionary of the Slovenian literary language and look for the word "ultra", it will be immediately clear to us that it means something extreme, extreme... And so Samsung also wants it to be immediately clear to everyone that this is "their" top product - i.e. their "flagship ”, flagship.
ultra adj. not included (ȗ) book. which to a very high degree exceeds the ordinary, usual qualities of something, extreme: critics called the painter an ultra modernist; he found his views too ultra
So this time about the ultra phone. Overphone! To the most expensive phone! All clear! To the phone, in which it is Samsung threw his entire treasury of knowledge. And thus showed all the competition what this year's trends are. He did this about a month earlier than usual and so we will have the best novelties from the "house" Samsung from now on already in January. Which is cool in a way. Also because the others will present phones, spring, summer, fall...and Samsung will still be there benchmark year, which will have to be overcome in some way. Now let's move on to the new phone... and what's really new. And why is it really an "overphone". Ultra phone!
Design: The most obvious first!
Just look at this phone. This year, at least in my opinion, no one can complain about by design. Samsung went in his own direction - as far as you can go with a phone - and internalized that users like it"flatscreen", i.e. a non-rounded sunken screen in the phone frame itself. In this way, the design is less baroque and more refined minimalist. In my opinion, there are several reasons for this move. The primary reason is that this way the screen is less sensitive to impacts and it is very easy to protect it well. Many of us have experience with rounded screens and protection that doesn't hold up at all. And then s(m)o users are angry, and screen repairs are damn expensive. Another reason is that it is rounded screen design caused problems with multimedia content. Thus, an unwanted touch on the edge of the screen could stop the video or increase the playback sound, etc. and caused some other unwanted move. The third reason is certainly financial. These types of near-submerged and flat screens are cheaper to manufacture. Samsung is betting all its horses on the screens of the future, too folds. And it seems to me that this year they took an apparent step back, but next year they will make a quantum leap forward. And in my opinion, that's right. The screen is still there slightly rounded, to make no mistake. But it seems to me that the real revolution will be next year. I really like that it's on five colors available and that in between is my favorite: "cosmo" black. I would choose exactly that - black. Anyway!
Personally as someone who is in based designer, designer, the phone fits perfectly. In a way, the phone has a design language that is very, very close to what I call really good design. In a way, it is one of the first phones that I can call "Scandinavian" minimalist. Of course, design is not everything, but for me it is an outstanding factor of any phone. And that's why I have absolutely no comment this time! It's a fashion accessory! Definitely impressive. I would rate it 10 out of 10 in this segment. No qualms.
Let's get into the details!
I really won't go into details. This is an ultra phone in which Samsung has thrown everything it has in its "garage" of knowledge and added the word "Ultra" to it. But I can list some of the most important characteristics! Those of you who are not interested in this, skip this. So, it's powered by the processor Exynos 2100 with 5 nm technology, keeps him company 12 or 16 GB of working memory, that is of RAM, and you can save 128 GB to 512 GB of "traparia" and data. The battery has 5,000 mAh and you can charge it quickly with 25 W and wirelessly with 1 5 W. You can lend the energy of your battery to other devices with this "reverse charging" and this with 4.5 W. You can also charge your headphones or watch this way. The phone is really not small - on the contrary - the phone is the largest - almost bigger than the NOTE series - the screen holds just enough 6.8 inches, it's not easy either - with 227 grams it's Ultra, so it's really big here too. Although it seems to me that it is still a bit smaller than last year. And it's true, the screen is 0.1 inches smaller. The screen itself can be refreshed at speed 120 Hz, which is the "benchmark" for all premium phones this year and has an insane brightness of 1,500 nits, which means that there will be no problems even in the sun. This last number is also better than last year. Of course it is waterproof according to the IP68 standard, and the screen protection this time is Gorilla Glass Victius, which is also on the back of the phone. Did I forget something else? I am! Of course, it is connected to 5G, which is a necessity for premium phones. It comes in five colors, in addition to black, white, silver, blue and brown. It is powered by Android 11 with a pretty good One UI 3.1 “sandwich”. For the last few years, Samsung has kept this really well organized and clean, and the user experience is great. Is there anything else? It only has one SIM card with no expansion, so I highly recommend one with at least 256GB of data storage. Anything else? I think I must have forgotten something else. But, that's all for now. Ultra photo and video capabilities will be worked on a little later. For all ultra-experts, and more precisely, of course, I have not told everything, but for those who do not care so much about numbers, it is definitely already too much.
Ultra features
Maybe it's the first feature insanely good phone screen. Every year, Samsung prepares what is truly a "benchmark". Contrasts and brightness are great. This time, it can even handle resolution and refresh at the same time - so 1440 x 120 Hz … thank you, Samsung! What I really like is that the screen is almost completely submerged and therefore much less sensitive. The fingerprint sensor is hidden in the screen, which is larger than last year's and thus easier to use and works"like shush”. Speaking of the screen, we shouldn't overlook the possibility of a special pen just for the S21 Ultra series. The latter is not as advanced as S-pen, known from the Note series. For example, it does not work as camera trigger remotely because there is no Bluetooth functionality. But it has most of the other features of this type of pen. Of course, you can't store it anywhere, that's why Samsung prepared a special cover, which is used so that the "user" can store it and, above all, not lose it. Everything will be sold as a set for around 80 euros. With this, Samsung somehow "buried" the main feature of the Note series, which in my eyes will definitely be replaced by a series of folding devices Fold. If not this year, then next year, when the latter will finally make their way onto the main stage.
Cameras…
I'm going to be very, very quick about cameras today. This is an area where another completely unique record could be created. So, if iPhone 12 is considered the best video phone for anyone living in the bitten apple ecosystem, then Samsung has been far and away the number one spot when it comes to Android-powered smartphones for the last few years. Here I must point out that this is a great phone for all those who create video, because it is without a doubt a "first" in this field. Both in the segment of stabilization and video sound. Also, the photos are exactly what you would expect from one of the most expensive phones in the world. But I will still list some numbers that can attract you. The video is recorded in the car 8K with 24 frames per second, the main camera has a whopping 108 MP and has a wide-angle lens with a lens bearing the label f/1.8 and 24 mm, it is followed by an ultra-wide one, the kind for "firefighter pictures", which holds only 12MP and is equivalent to lens s 13 mm. Of course, the lens here is slightly smaller and has f/2.2. Then there is the "telephoto party", as many as two cameras, one of which is periscopic and capable of zooming up to 10 times.
Impressions
I've been friends with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra for the last two months, and maybe I can put in a word or two about my feelings. It has definitely become my first phone when it comes to gaming. It is a real "gamer" machine in this segment. This means that only a responsive screen offers me such an advantage over the competition - other players, that I achieve simply better results. Another thing I'm noticing is that it's becoming my primary digital streaming platform. It is dominated by streaming platforms such as HBO GO and Netflix, which in everything replace the object in the apartment that we call television, which in our house only performs the function of a screen for watching live sports events. The S21 Ultra also impresses with its battery. She almost never gave up before the evening. Except if I was abusing the phone for video production. And it is precisely in this segment that the phone is an excellent companion for those of us who record a video every now and then and the phone is a Swiss army knife that replaces a bunch of other devices. Of course, it's great for all other smart tasks and definitely ranks very, very high on my list of smartphones or ultra phones. If not even the highest.
And when the user of the brand with a bitten apple says this... it's worth thinking about! It really is an ultra phone!
