I'm using a pixel 5 right now that doesn't bother me at all and I don't recall any issues on my 11 pro last year.
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Samsung Galaxy S21 / S21+ / S21 Ultra
- Thread starter kkh786
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I got to read this forum on my husband’s phone for about 20 minutes. I’m adjusting. With the regular 12 and 12 Pro my eyes started watering pretty quickly. There’s hope for me.
There’s no screen protector on his yet, I bought some but haven’t had a chance to put one on. So I don’t want to get too excited comparing it to my S20’s fps, but so far, the finger print reader is fast and accurate! I am so excited about that. The one on my S20 is slow and misses more often than not. This one is a beast!
Seems the 100x zoom is more useable than in the S20 Ultra. Though, it's not going to be something you'll want to use very often.
Got mine today, to early to tell exactly what it's like, but so far so good.
It's nice to have 512GB again.
It's nice to have 512GB again.
Same. Since they got rid of the SD slot (for some reason), I found myself having no choice but to go to the 512gb.
I'm having buyer's remorse even if this phone is a good deal. I don't want to give them my S10 plus! Lol! Nothing wrong with phone that I can think of. It may go back through.
How much did you pay after trade in? I had the S10 Plus. Great phone but if I hadn't bought about 600 phones since then and was truly upgrading from the S10 Plus, I feel like it would be a pretty substantial upgrade.
2 days in with the Ultra and I have zero complaints. The phone is a beast. Its essentially best in class or close to it in almost every single area that matters.
If I was pressed to find faults I would say I miss having microsd storage just as a backup but for me this isn't that big of a deal. And I would like to have a face unlock on the level of FaceID or Face Unlock from the Pixel 4. But those don't make sense with the current pandemic.
But yeah, this phone is excellent. I can't see myself getting another candy bar style phone after this. I just think this is damn near perfection for what this form factor can be. I'll probably hold onto this until I make the move to foldables. The only thing that would temp me would be a full on flagship Pixel or a iPhone Proax with promotion but even then I'm not sure it would be tempting enough.
If I was pressed to find faults I would say I miss having microsd storage just as a backup but for me this isn't that big of a deal. And I would like to have a face unlock on the level of FaceID or Face Unlock from the Pixel 4. But those don't make sense with the current pandemic.
But yeah, this phone is excellent. I can't see myself getting another candy bar style phone after this. I just think this is damn near perfection for what this form factor can be. I'll probably hold onto this until I make the move to foldables. The only thing that would temp me would be a full on flagship Pixel or a iPhone Proax with promotion but even then I'm not sure it would be tempting enough.
Agreed. I was saying last night that it would be damn hard to go back to an iPhone after this. I've already been off of iPhone for about a month so I'm over missing the whole ecosystem/iMessage. This phone is just leaps and bounds so much more fun to use than an iPhone.
I do miss the SD Card a bit, but at the same time, I do have an adapter that I can quickly plug in if I really need bigger files. I have about 11gb of music on my phone and I still have about 60gb left on the 128gb version. Not really sure that I'd fill it up much further.
thats a huge stamp of approval
would you mind sharing details of the adapter that you have mentioned?
My observation about the S21 Ultra vs my 12 Pro Max is that in plain auto mode low light photos exaggerate available light to the point you no longer see the scene as your eye sees it. Like my husband and I took photos of our Christmas tree and some lighted decorations (yes we keep them up all winter) and the 12 Pro Max perfectly captured the scene but the Ultra blew out the lights a bit.
All the low light photos are very bright. That’s an advantage for some things but removes the charm of some scenes where the lighting is the subject as well.
When I get my own phone I’ll try to replicate this comparison and post the results.
We tested zoom and in some cases I was able get photos of ornaments that were comparable using digital zoom on my iPhone. Or by magnifying and cropping. Low light auto photography is not the strong suit of the S21 Ultra camera from what I can see. But I look forward to seeing what the advanced modes can do.
In good light, lol, well I haven’t yet even seen the S21 Ultra in daylight. Yesterday my husband left it in his home office during the day as he was setting things up. I don’t even know what the phone’s black finish looks like in daylight. It’s night and past sunset when he gets finished with work.
I find it about the same to grip as my 12 Pro Max. I might actually prefer the extra width of the iPhone. But it is just what I’ve gotten used to. I like the size of the s21 Ultra so far. I think for me, for my current needs, it’s optimal. I was surprised how it’s not really that much more to accommodate than my S20 when both are in cases.
My pea brain did FINALLY register a difference between adaptive refresh and 60 Hz when I tested the display last night. I can’t really notice it as much on my s20, but I did finally notice on the s21 Ultra when I critically evaluated the difference to see which setting better mitigated the effects of pwm on my eyes. Unfortunately changing the settings doesn’t eliminate pwm. I do think variable refresh makes it a little easier on my vision.
I prefer my s20 display for comfort, but my husband runs much smaller fonts than I do. I won’t know anything about which display is best for my vision until I get my own phone and adjust it to my preferences. There are so many things that can be customized on a Samsung vs an iPhone. It takes days and many deeper looks into what can be adjusted.
All the low light photos are very bright. That’s an advantage for some things but removes the charm of some scenes where the lighting is the subject as well.
When I get my own phone I’ll try to replicate this comparison and post the results.
We tested zoom and in some cases I was able get photos of ornaments that were comparable using digital zoom on my iPhone. Or by magnifying and cropping. Low light auto photography is not the strong suit of the S21 Ultra camera from what I can see. But I look forward to seeing what the advanced modes can do.
In good light, lol, well I haven’t yet even seen the S21 Ultra in daylight. Yesterday my husband left it in his home office during the day as he was setting things up. I don’t even know what the phone’s black finish looks like in daylight. It’s night and past sunset when he gets finished with work.
I find it about the same to grip as my 12 Pro Max. I might actually prefer the extra width of the iPhone. But it is just what I’ve gotten used to. I like the size of the s21 Ultra so far. I think for me, for my current needs, it’s optimal. I was surprised how it’s not really that much more to accommodate than my S20 when both are in cases.
My pea brain did FINALLY register a difference between adaptive refresh and 60 Hz when I tested the display last night. I can’t really notice it as much on my s20, but I did finally notice on the s21 Ultra when I critically evaluated the difference to see which setting better mitigated the effects of pwm on my eyes. Unfortunately changing the settings doesn’t eliminate pwm. I do think variable refresh makes it a little easier on my vision.
I prefer my s20 display for comfort, but my husband runs much smaller fonts than I do. I won’t know anything about which display is best for my vision until I get my own phone and adjust it to my preferences. There are so many things that can be customized on a Samsung vs an iPhone. It takes days and many deeper looks into what can be adjusted.
I don’t upgrade my Samsung as often as iPhones. After trade in I paid 696 or 688, with all the extras too. A pretty good deal.
You bet! I use this one. Loads up real quick. That way if you have movies or bigger files but don't always want them on your phone, this comes in handy.
ThanksYou bet! I use this one. Loads up real quick. That way if you have movies or bigger files but don't always want them on your phone, this comes in handy.
I havent played with the camera too much yet but I find low light picture to be good, not great. Not on the same level as iPhone or Pixel. Pictures in well lit areas look excellent, but thats the case on most phones. Zoom pictures look much better on my S21 Ultra than any other device I've used. At anything higher than 2x it crushes the iPhone and Pixels. You notice it especially if you crop in on a zoomed photo on the Ultra vs a device using digital zoom.
You can also use one of these little Samsung USB-C to USB-A dongles that they gave out for free.
"This phone is just leaps and bounds so much more fun to use than an iPhone." How so?
I'm so tempted to switch to this, but largely everyone in my university uses an iPhone and it would be hard to switch. But I am thinking about using my Apple Watch as my iPhone and having a Galaxy/Pixel sharing a hotspot with my iPhone (I still have my old iPhone 8 that I could use as a tether to the Watch).
I don’t want to trade my phones as often as I do. Going from the S20 to the S21 Ultra I wanted the super zoom and a better fingerprint sensor. My S20 fps made the phone unpleasant to use for much. I can’t get over the difference with the new one.
S Pen capability was icing on the cake. I don’t always use S pen, not enough to justify getting a Note and giving up internal space for the battery. But there are times I miss it. I am excited to be getting that back.
I was hoping the display would be an upgrade, too. And on paper it is, but being sensitive to pwm, if the s21 Ultra may be worse in this regard, that may become a new irritating problem for me. Possibly not a deal breaker, but like the wonky fps on my S20 or the messed up proximity sensor on my S10+, it may be the irritant that triggers the next upgrade.
I hope not. I like the looks. I like the feature set. The finger print sensor is finally fantastic. The cameras are not perfect but you’d have to do super picky comparisons to an iPhone 12 Pro Max to notice. And the 12 Pro Max has plenty of irritating points of its own. So, I would like to see this phone stay with me 2 years.
My 11 Pro came close to being a two year phone. My 12 Pro Max may well be. My iPhone 4 was a three year phone for me. It’s the benchmark and the level of happiness I get owning my iPhone 12 Pro Max approaches how I felt owning the iPhone 4. So it’s possible. The only thing it can’t do so far is macro photography and my husband and I got a Moment lens for that. But the S21 Ultra will probably make that redundant since the Ultra does a wicked macro!
Oddly, my 12 mini is key to the success of both these large phones for me. The one thing I absolutely refuse to do with such large phones is carry them around in my pockets and in summer, it’s out of the question I’ll be taking them around for neighborhood walks or cycling or scootering. Yes my fat old self still rides scooters. Lol. For that, I have the 12 mini. It occupies the unique niche my original iPhone SE and later my Pixel 2 did when I could not bring myself to haul the iPhone 6-8 Plus around.
I would not dare own these phablets if I didn’t have that tiny marvel for on-the-go days where I don’t want to be weighted down.
Bingo. I'm a pen guy and a battery guy. With the S21 Ultra I don't have to choose between one or the other and can have both.
Despite my PWM issues I'm keeping my S21 Ultra. It doesn't seem to be as bad as my 12 Pro after using it all day yesterday. Also, I got the phone from T-Mobile and traded in my old S20 FE so if I return the phone I lose out something like $500 in T-Mobile credits. So I guess I'll see how it goes. It really is an amazing device. I've been using it along side my Pixel 5 for 2 days now and the Pixel 5 is getting harder and harder to pick up. The screen on the Ultra is just leaps and bounds better. I can't stop looking at it, it's mesmerizing. Yes, I know a bit dramatic but it's great.
I agree with @mjschabow though, the Ultra is just more fun than iPhones. I suppose for me it's all the customizing and optimizing you can do vs iPhone. You can really mess with the look and feel of the phone. I know this is true of all android phones but this one just does it best. Between the hardware and software (added stuff but not TOO much added, unlike older galaxies that had too much), it really is a joy to use.
This is before I even test out the Spen. I've never used an Spen but I'm picking up the silicon case with spen today so I think that will make the experience even more fun.
My only gripe so far is the same gripe I have with all curved screen phones: finding a good screen protector. I have a TPU one (made by LK from Amazon) arriving today that is a dry TPU install so we will see how that goes. If it doesn't work out I'll just go naked on the screen and keep my fingers crossed.
I agree with @mjschabow though, the Ultra is just more fun than iPhones. I suppose for me it's all the customizing and optimizing you can do vs iPhone. You can really mess with the look and feel of the phone. I know this is true of all android phones but this one just does it best. Between the hardware and software (added stuff but not TOO much added, unlike older galaxies that had too much), it really is a joy to use.
This is before I even test out the Spen. I've never used an Spen but I'm picking up the silicon case with spen today so I think that will make the experience even more fun.
My only gripe so far is the same gripe I have with all curved screen phones: finding a good screen protector. I have a TPU one (made by LK from Amazon) arriving today that is a dry TPU install so we will see how that goes. If it doesn't work out I'll just go naked on the screen and keep my fingers crossed.
I lot of it for me is that I was not happy with the homescreen on iOS 14. The widgets were ok but some of them I found pretty useless. Get me an interactive calendar widget like the Samsung one and then we're talking. App Library was a complete mess. Whoever let that pass quality testing is seriously messed up in the head. Then add the fact that for 2 months I was missing notifications every time I got a text message, spent hours on the phone with Apple, and when it was finally fixed, I kindly asked for a small gift card for my trouble, and I got a big fat "no". Samsung on the other hand, I had an issue with my preorder credit, did an online chat, and not only did they send me a new promo code, but they added $25 to it for the inconvenience of me having to chat with them. That's customer service.
Overall, I feel like Samsung has polished One UI to where "it just works" and there are so many more options that actually improve my daily life, like Swiping down on the nav bar for a true One Handed Mode, or the Edge Panel where I can access a calculator, my favorite apps (to where you can switch within apps), my reminders, etc.
As iOS has added more Android-like options, I actually feel like they've become less stable and functional for daily life compared to a few years back.