Samsung Galaxy S21 vs Plus vs Ultra | Which is best for me?

Comparing the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra vs the S21 Plus and regular flagship phone to see how they stack up for camera tech, performance and general specs. Samsung just officially launched its 2021 flagship series and sequel to the S20, and ahead of my unboxing and review videos, here's a full comparison of this beefy trio.

The Samsung S21 Ultra may boast improved features such as S-Pen support and a quad lens rear camera versus the other two handsets. However, that £1149 UK asking price is also a killer. For £949 you can grab the Plus model instead, while the vanilla Galaxy S21 is yours for £769, all released on January 29th.

If you go for the Ultra you'll get a 108MP primary sensor (upgraded from a 12MP), plus the 64MP telephoto setup is replaced with a dual-lens camera offering 3x and 10x optical zoom. All three of Samsung's 2021 smartphones can shoot 8K video however, and boast improved features like Night Mode.

They're all powered by the same Exynos 2100 chipset too, although the Ultra boosts that RAM count from 8GB to 12. You also have the option of 512GB storage if you bump up the price, while the 5000mAh is a step up from the 4000mAh Samsung S21 and 4800mAh Plus model.

Full unboxing of these Galaxy phones coming soon, followed by a review! And stay tuned for my thoughts on the new Buds Pro as well. Pre-order the new Samsung blowers right here:

[NeilHawke]

A memory like a perforated rubber johnny?! Haha. You might be leaky but you're still rocking these reviews

[atgkingak]

Not even SD card support on the ultra come on Samsung

[markcasidsid]

All camera upgrades are on the ultra, no meaningful change on the s21/s21+, wtf!???

[channeljmc]

Gonna get regular S21, Glastic doesn't bother me especially if you going to put a case over it anyway. Plus that violet colour🔥

[onlyyou]

Best samsung flagship was s10 series, after that samsung went full greedy
This is my opinion, don't be mad 😬

[aburgin]

No card slot, charger or earphones, Samsung doing the same as Apple, and with this virus era, too expensive for most

[joeytribiani]

I wonder how the UK exynos chip will do... I hope its better than previous years

[tevo]

It’s about time the UK got the Snapdragon CPU. We are just getting ripped off.

[JedBullet]

Silver surfer colour! Yayy I'm ditching my s20 plus cos I got to have that silvery surfer look! 😉

[kudaa]

s21 Ultra in all black has got me by the heart strings, makes the slightly weird step more palatable. Liked your idea about requesting a charging brick with a proof of purchase, im using a LG V30 and im looking to upgrade this year (4GBs of RAM is starting to slow down the things i use my phone for) so getting an appropriate charger for the rating of the phone would be nice considering the kidneys ive sold to get the darn thing.

[errorcode]

The stream ain't started yet mate

[theexplorer]

Samsung now, is going on opposite direction..hahahaha
Flagship phone - no charger, no casing, not expandable memory, no headset, polycarbonate back for S21, w/o headphone jack

MID-range phone - has charger, w/ casing, expandable memory, w/ headset, also polycarbonate body w/ glass, w/ headphone jack

[robertocurrlos]

Looks so unappealing...tech is also unappealing...whats new about these exactly...no battery upgrade...lost qhd...hope exenos 2100 is good on batttery...

[sirvicemanone]

Just pre-ordered ultra-5G... Thanks for your video!

[callumbrodie]

Pre-order of the Ultra is tempting. 10% student discount with buds that have a resale value of £200.

[pauloeugenio]

Being glasstic or 1080p(at least 120hz) isn't really a deal breaker for me. But No microSD slot for the non-Ultra S21 models are a deal breaker for me. My S10 have a 400gb card installed on it so upgrading to a Non-Ultra would make my memory card unusable unless I keep using a card reader on it(which is a hassle and cumbersome).

[davidmartrano]

I pre-ordered the S
21plus, Verizon gave me a trade in deal I could not refuse. I know about the 1080p display, having used the FE the last 9wks. To the naked eye, not a problem the 1080p gets the job done admirably. There ain't much difference with the 1440p? I used the S10+ for 19mos, there ain't much difference? Total cost of the S21+ after trade 384.00 buck-a-roos, not too shabby? Holy crumpets!

[ngdgaming]

I really enjoy this reviews with the spicey memes 😂😂

[paulwilson]

S21 plus on the way to me. Can't wait

[martinjgriffiths]

From one bushy eyed baldy to another and ahh man, what a mixed bag the camera has turned out to be (for me). I have the 256GB Ultra Exynos, here's my findings on the photography front...

In general I think it's fair to say this phone expands the shooting possibilities far beyond any other device I've had to date, which most recently include the S20 FE 5G, Pixel 4XL, Pixel 2XL. For me the choice of focal ranges is what i've been looking for and something I didn't ever expect to see in a package like this. I thought triple lens cameras would be the limit, so the S21 Ultra came as a surprise and I hoped mistakes made in the past generation would be ironed out. The hardware itself is definitely more than capable of handling a multitude of shooting scenarios but it is ultimately let down by the software that I VERY much doubt will be fixed, ever!

My first impressions were of the sensor & lens choices themselves, all seem very capable, all include massively improved stabilization and autofocus capabilities and even the pixel sizes are promising particularly on the tele lenses. A clue to Samsung engineering decisions comes with the assumed improvement over to the 108MP pixel binning sensor compared to the S20 Ultra last year, but it serves far more than just taking photos in the wide setting. Samsung are clearly borrowing ideas from the AI kings at Google, but their implementation is weak and in many scenarios I have found using the cameras terribly frustrating.

Overall, in brightly lit daytime shots indoors and outdoors with all lenses I cannot complain, but that's as long as you're pointing the camera at certain targets that are deemed ideal for the lens mode you are in! When I venture outside these ideal scenarios I'm ending up with unexpected and awful results. In medium and low light scenes my problem is exacerbated further through Samsungs smart choices that you have no control over whatsoever, giving me further disappointing results.

So what am I banging on about here Well in a nutshell it's Samsungs focus assist mode. As an end user you only know it exists because you can selectively turn it off between the 0.6x UW and 1x W lenses when moving a subject much closer to the lens itself...But, you cannot turn it off between the 1x W, 3x tele and 10x tele lenses! In scenarios Sammy deem fit for telephoto shots, ie. extra long focal length scenes (generally) in good light the tele lenses are always picked at the set 3x and 10x magnifications. Pictures are often impressive but at times smoothing could be better and sometimes I get light haloing around objects, but still a big improvement on anything i've had before.

It all goes terribly wrong when I bring my subjects much closer to the lenses in either the 3x or 10x tele modes. These lenses have great autofocus and are more than capable of handling this scenario, but what the software does (after a second or two) is pick the next sodding lens down and then upscale the flaming image! Some might say, that's my fault because I've pushed the ISO or shutter speed too much, but no, it's happening when there's more than enough light available to these lenses and even if it wasn't, night mode would overcome this in dark scenes anyhow!

Which moves me onto the 108MP sensor, Sammy picked it not just for the 4x binning extra light crud. It also makes for a great cropping in option when deemed necessary, and you'd think the results would be comparable to the 3x tele, but sadly no, in almost every shot i've taken where it's used the 1x to crop in the results are still very disappointing compared to the optical lenses. Smoke and mirrors people, smoke and mirrors!

Focus assist should be optional for ALL lenses and if you do turn it off, all it needs to do is warn you that a shot might not come out as well as you expected. Although to be blunt the results with it permanently on are terrible anyway! In fact I personally feel it shouldn't be doing what it's doing at all. Anyone who has ever held a camera and taken a photograph will know these things cannot work miracles, and Samsung are literally trying to trick you into thinking it can, with awful results!

If you get the over processed, smushed images they are all coming from the lenses dropping down and upscaling or cropping in from the 108MP sensor. Utterly awful engineering decisions that make it all look seamless and magic but you more often that not get terrible photos.