Review: Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
Price: £1,149 (inc VAT) from fave.co/38kqM0d
There are all sorts of concessions that you can pay to a phone depending on factors like price or its standing within a brand’s portfolio; when it comes to the Pro Maxes and Ultras of this world, however, there’s far less room for error.
Just as hypercars have emerged as a class above supercars, so too have phones like the S21 Ultra in the flagship space – billed as uncompromising devices that can handle anything a user dares to throw at them, without so much as breaking a sweat – albeit for a premium, of course.
The idiom ‘the bigger they are the harder they fall’ felt apt for last year’s Galaxy S20 Ultra, which promised so much – primarily from its impressive-sounding camera specs – but under-delivered as a final product. With this year’s S21 Ultra, we’re hoping Samsung has righted the wrongs of its predecessor and in the same breath, created a smartphone truly fitting of the ‘Ultra’ moniker.
DESIGN
There’s no getting around the fact that aesthetically 2020 was an off-year for Samsung’s Galaxy S phones. The S20 Ultra was possibly the worst offender of the bunch; with its large glossy form rendered in flat colours and laden with an unsightly black rounded rectangle of a camera arrangement, that seemed like an afterthought.
Almost one year on and while the S21 range is undeniably an evolution of the S20 line’s design, it’s experienced something of a ‘glow-up’ that brings sharper aesthetics and more confident forms to the table.
The Galaxy S21 and S21+ may turn heads with their two-tone signature Phantom Violet colourway but the Ultra comes in far more sedate finishes that draw the eye to the phone’s form first and foremost, and that’s no bad thing.
The ‘contour cut’ camera module is the new defining design element across this year’s Galaxy
