Samsung Galaxy S21 vs S21 Plus vs S21 Ultra – Which of them should you Buy?

Samsung Galaxy S21 vs S21 Plus vs S21 Ultra – Which of them should you Buy?

 

The Samsung galaxy s 21 series is finally official I’ve had an early first look and here’s everything you need to know.  What’s up guys it looks like pretty much all the leaks and rumors were spot on accurate but uh now we have the official information we can break everything down look at the differences between the devices and hopefully by the end of this video you’ll know which one to go for so as expected we’ve got three new Samsung galaxy s21s. There is the s21 the s21 plus and the s21 ultra the s21 is the smallest with a 6.2-inch display the s21 plus has a 6.7-inch display and the s21 ultra the largest with a 6.8-inch display all devices have small bezels with an Infiniti or punch out.  

They all have gorilla glass vectors they all have dynamic AMOLED displays and they all have a maximum refresh rate of 120 hertz.  The similarities stop there, however, the s20 1 and the s21 plus are quite different otherwise compared to the s21 ultra let’s break down all of the differences.  Firstly the brightness of the s21 and the s21 plus have a peak brightness of 1300 nits the s21 ultra does have a peak brightness of 1500 nits 1300 is more than good enough but 1500 just means that the s21 ultra will be better to view outdoors.  

The s21 and the s21 plus also have a full HD plus resolution the s21 ultra has a quad HD plus resolution now this is the first time in many years that Samsung has gone back on the resolution on one of their s devices so it might be disappointing for some of you.  However, I think for most people it should be fine if we do go back to last year and take a look at the likes of the s20 series as well as the note 20 ultra all of those although they did have quad hd plus resolution you could only have that resolution at 60 hats as soon as you wanted to switch to that smoother 120 hertz you would drop down to full hd plus resolution and personally speaking on my note 20 ultra which I’ve been using since last year.

It has been on full hd and it’s been generally absolutely fine so this is going to come down to your personal preference if you do want all the bezel and whistles then the s21 ultra is the one to go for and for the first time on a Samsung device the s21 ultra also can support 120 hertz with quad hd plus resolution so you can have that high resolution with that high refresh rate also the s21 ultra does have the ability to switch between 11 or 120 hertz making it a lot more efficient the s21 and the s21 plus however can only switch between 48 and 120 hertz so although you do have that adaptive refresh rate it’s not going to be as efficient as the s21 ultra and the final difference between the displays is something that you might actually prefer on the s21 and the s21 plus and that’s that they have a flat display whereas the s21 ultra does have some curves on the side now this is something that Samsung has had for quite some time but it looks like they are starting to move away from it i think it’s going to come down to personal preference some people do prefer curved displays some people do prefer flat displays now let’s move on to the design and the build so Samsung has now updated their design and we have the camera modules kind of melting in to the edges of the devices and we do have metal frames across all the devices.

However, there are some key differences in terms of the material the s21 plus and the s21 ultra do have glass panels on the back whereas the s21 standard has a plastic back what Samsung like to call glastic so it’s not going to be as premium as the s21 plus and the s21 ultra again i think this is going to come down to personal preference most people do tend to put their device in a case and if that is the case for you case case for you then i don’t think it’s going to be that much of a big deal because you’re not necessarily going to be feeling that all the time and having used the Samsung galaxy s20 fe for the past few months i can tell you that personally speaking it’s not a big deal for me it might be for you now all three devices do have an ip68 water and dust resistance rating which is always nice to have and they all have a matte finish which I’m a big big fan of in previous years Samsung has usually offered matte as well as glossy backs but this time we have got matte across the board now we’ve got some different color options there’s four color options available.

For the s21 three color options available for the s21 plus and two color options available for the s21 ultra and the flagship color for the s21 and the s21 plus is the phantom violet which let’s be real let’s just call it the thanos edition perfectly balanced [Music] it looks like there are lots of marvel fans in Samsung’s design team now let’s move over on to the cameras so we do have more differences here the camera module on the s21 ultra is much larger compared to the s21 and the s21 plus that is because it has more cameras initially let’s look at the s21 and the s21 plus they have the same cameras there’s a 10 megapixel selfie camera and then we have a triple rear facing camera setup there’s a 12 megapixel ultra wide camera a 12 megapixel primary camera and then a 64 megapixel telephoto zoom camera which is going to give you three times optical zoom now the camera setup seems very similar to what we had on the s20 series last year but the s21 ultra is really where we have a lot more of the improvements.

Firstly, there’s a 40 megapixel selfie camera and on the rear we’ve got quite a few cameras we’ve got four cameras in total as well as a laser autofocus sensor let’s break these cameras down so we’ve got a 12 megapixel ultra wide camera now the key thing here is this camera has dual pixel autofocus which we don’t have on the s21 and the s21 plus and this is going to allow you to also use the ultra wide camera as a macro camera so when you do get to subjects around 10 centimeters or closer then it’s gonna switch to focus and you’ll be able to get some really nice macro shots now this isn’t the gimmicky 2 megapixel macro cameras that we’re talking about this is actually going to be using the 12 megapixel ultra wide camera sensor to focus in closer we’ve seen something like this on the oneplus series as well as a few oppo devices and it’s something that i really really do like we then have the primary 108 megapixel sensor now this is the same size as what we had last year but it is an improved sensor which is supposed to give you three times more dynamic range and it’s also capable of capturing 12-bit raw files it also has optical image stabilization and it’s going to use the laser autofocus sensor to help it focus which was a problem with the s20 so it’s nice that Samsung has improved this and then we have two telephoto cameras.

There is a three times as well as a 10 times zoom camera both have optical image stabilization as well as dual pixel autofocus now this is a similar setup to what we’ve seen on the Huawei p40 pro plus last year and it just gives you a lot more scope with your zoom you’re not just stuck to one extreme or another Samsung has said that they’ve also improved the zoom so we do have a zoom lock feature which kicks in when you are zooming in at extremes you can zoom all the way up to 100 times which i’m still not too keen on but of course guys we are going to be doing a supersaf style camera comparison as soon as we can definitely let me know in the comments below which device you’d like me to compare the s21 ultra cameras to first and also be sure to subscribe and hit the bell icon if you haven’t already now we’ve also got some improvements for videos so firstly we do have 8k at up to 24 frames a second as we did have last year this is across all the s21 series devices but we now have 4k at 60 frames a second across all of the cameras of the s21 ultra we also do have 4k up to 60 frames a second on most the s21 and the s21 plus his cameras except the telephoto camera the telephoto camera does not have 4k60 that only goes up to 4k 30 frames a second I’m not sure how much of a big deal that’s going to be for most people but, it’s nice to see that consistency at least on the s21 ultra. 

There’s also a lot of new software features one of those is directive view which will give you some more advanced features for the cameras and also let you preview the different lenses before you do switch to them we’ve also got single take 2. Which is going to use multiple cameras to put together a piece for you i personally don’t use this that much myself but we’ll see how much it’s been improved and we also have vlogger view which will let you capture video from the front and the rear facing cameras at the same time now let’s move on to the performance so the s21 series as we’ve seen previously from Samsung will vary depending on your region some reasons. We’ll be getting the QUALCOMM snapdragon 888 chipset other regions will be getting Samsung’s exynos 2100 now the 2100 was announced by Samsung a few days ago and, it does seem to have lots of improvements compared to last year.  We’re gonna have to wait until I’ve got the devices in hand both the UK version and the us version.

So, I can really do more of a comparison for longer term usage make sure you are subscribed to see that as soon as i can get hold of the QUALCOMM version. I will be doing lots of tests for storage and ram the s21 and the s21 plus come with eight gigabytes of ram the s21 ultra does come with 12 gigabytes of ram. So, it is going to be a multitasking beast and for storage we do have 128 and 256 gigabytes across all devices and the s21 ultra does come with a 512 gigabyte version ufs 3.

As you may have already heard there is some bad news the s21 series does not have a micro SD card slot rip to the micro SD card slot should we have a moment of silence for it no-no right so when it comes to the micro sd card slot personally speaking because of the differences of speed based on its 3.1 storage and even some of the fastest micro sd card slots I do see why Samsung has done this but let me know what you think one of the positives that we do have is that Samsung is only going to be charging around 50 pounds more if you do want to go for the 256-gigabyte option so I think that is pretty reasonable if we look at it that way I’m not defending them again let me know what you guys think for software all devices do come with androids 11 out of the box with Samsung’s One UI 3.1 and all of the devices also have a brand new fingerprint sensor it is the QUALCOMM 3d sonic sensor gen 2.

Now this is 1 times larger compared to the previous generation and it’s also 50 faster this is something that I’m really looking forward to i really do like good in-display fingerprint scanners and this improvement is definitely welcomed the s21 plus and the s21 ultra also have ultra wideband technology and this will allow a few things. Samsung have talked about using the devices as a digital touchless key for your car there is improved android auto and there’s also integration with smart things from Samsung.  So you’ll be able to get some smart tags to be able to locate them much more easily the s21 ultra also comes with some unique features which you won’t get on the s21 and the s21 plus.

Firstly we do have hyper fast wi-fi 6e which can give you up to four times faster Wi-Fi speeds and the s21 ultra as you may have already heard does have support for the s pen this is the first time we’ve got s pen supports on a galaxy s device and this isn’t going to be included it’s going to be an accessory that’s sold separately bundled with a case because there is no space in the s21 ultra for the s pen like you have on the note series.  I’m not sure of the exact pricing as yet for the cases but, i really think this is a good move from Samsung because it does bring the s pen.  Which i personally use all the time.

The galaxy s series but it is optional so it’s not something that you have to have to have all devices do have stereo speakers and let’s move on to the batteries.  So, based on the size of the devices of course the s21 does have the smallest battery 4 000 milliamps the s21 plus has a 4 800 milliamp battery and the s21 ultra with the biggest 5000 milliamp hour battery.  All devices do support up to 25 watt fast charging up to 15 watts wireless charging. They will also have reverse wireless charging where you can use the devices to charge maybe some galaxy buds or another device altogether but, none of the devices come with a charger or earphones out of the box.  Now, this has been something that’s been rumored for some time but it’s now. 

Officially, confirmed Samsung is not including this and i mean it’s controversial personally speaking. I do use wireless charging mostly so not having a charger is not the biggest deal for me.  The problem i do have is the fact that Samsung wore taking digs at apple just a few months ago when apple didn’t include a charger and, this is something that you know really does work me up. I’ve gone on about this in a full rant in my podcast on supersaf speaks shameless plug.  There, why not if you do want to hear that podcast then I’ll be linking that down below let me know what you guys think of Samsung not including the charger out of the box one thing that might help the blow of not having a charger out of the box is the fact that the s21 series is priced lower quite a bit lower actually.  Compared to what the s20 series came in at last year so the Samsung galaxy s21 is going to be starting at 800 or 769 pounds the s21 plus will be coming in at a thousand dollars or 950 pounds the s21 ultra starts at 1300 or 1150 pounds which is at least in the uk significantly lower compared to what the s20 ultra came in last year in terms of the release date you can pre-order now 29th of jan is the official release dates but, obviously before that we are going to be doing lots more coverage.  Unboxing camera comparison hands-on if you want to see all of that content first you know what to do hit that subscribe button and that bell icon so you don’t miss any of that coverage that’s coming up.  What do you guys think of the Samsung galaxy s21 series?  Will you be picking one up which one would you be picking up definitely drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts. I hope you enjoyed this video and found it useful if you did then do hit that thumbs up button for me thanks for watching this is saf on supersaf tv and I’ll see you next time?