The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra & S21 Review: The Near Perfect and The Different
by Andrei Frumusanu on February 22, 2021 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Mobile
- Galaxy S21
- Galaxy S21 Ultra
System Performance
Following our more in-depth review of the SoCs powering the S21 family, today we’re focusing more on the general system performance and user experience. In many instances, this aspect of a device is defined by the software making good use of the available hardware capabilities more than the actual hardware itself.
In the PCMark results, both the Exynos and Snapdragon S21 Ultras showcase massively impressive results. While the Snapdragon 888 variant of the S21 isn’t all that much of a massive upgrade compared to the Snapdragon 865 powered S20 series phones, the new Exynos 2100 S21’s are very much leaving its predecessors far behind.
The web-browsing tests are showcasing similar results, with the Snapdragon S21’s showcasing smaller generational boosts, while the Exynos S21 sees massive performance uplifts.
General Performance - Outstanding
In general, the performance of the new Galaxy S21 series this year is nothing short of outstanding. In terms of software optimisations and general responsiveness of the devices, they’re practically perfect, and essentially the way the phones now behave is as optimal as can be achieved whilst still remaining reasonable with every-day power efficiency.
While the 120Hz mode last year came at a great cost in power efficiency, and I even personally opted to use 60Hz in everyday usage because of that, the new adaptive refresh rate displays on the S21 series, particularly the superior implementation on the S21 Ultra, means that most people will be able to enjoy this highly user-experience augmenting feature without any major drawbacks this year.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
122 Comments
View All Comments
cosmotic - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
The edge of the bulge scratches everything it touches, no matter how brief. DO NOT BUYbcronce - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
Inside the Otterbox, none of the phone touches a flat surface.TheinsanegamerN - Monday, February 22, 2021 - link
If you need a case to prevent scratching of surfaces BY the phone, your phones design is rubbishiphonebestgamephone - Tuesday, February 23, 2021 - link
Lets just say its an extra, the main being drop protection.sonny73n - Tuesday, February 23, 2021 - link
And they keep making slippery phones. Add to them premium price tags. I'm taking about Apple and Samsung and the US market is flooded them.bcronce - Wednesday, February 24, 2021 - link
Welcome to a democracy. It's what the market demands. This is why the USA is actually a hybrid and doesn't directly let the people vote.FunBunny2 - Wednesday, February 24, 2021 - link
"It's what the market demands. "Not according to Steve: he decided what the market *needs*. Fortunately, he doesn't run the company any more. Along with a host of other decisions made by other 'markets', there is an endless supply of brain dead lemmings.
flyingpants265 - Wednesday, February 24, 2021 - link
What the hell are you talking about? Democracy is in no way synonymous with the "free market".And as you well know, the market doesn't demand anything, people don't know what they want until you show/tell them. Don't blame consumers for Samsung and other companies making crap phones.
squariesfri - Friday, February 26, 2021 - link
Sad....https://pickedbox.com/coupon/turbotax-coupon-code/
sharath.naik - Saturday, April 3, 2021 - link
This phone is classic example of designed for obsolescence approach. they got the number of cameras and zoom ranges right but the camera sensors completely wrong. Wide angle cannot be less than 24mp but they chose 12.. main camera should not go beyond 48mp if you have 3x zoom too , so what's the point of 108mp? 3x zoom can't be less than 48mp I but they gave 12mp. these are just bad sensor choices making the phones obsolete within months if not already because these are artificially limited in thru our uses,. then removal of sdcard for a camera focused phone . I hate manufacturers who play this game of designed obsolescence.