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Transcript
00:00What's up guys, today we've got the S21 Ultra versus the S23 Ultra and yes, I'm going to
00:06compare the S23 Ultra to all of my older flagship phones, especially the Samsung ones and whatever
00:12else you guys request and we'll bring the S23 and the S23 Plus on as well for comparisons
00:19as promised.
00:20Alright guys, so this is a pretty good one, the S21 Ultra is literally one of the best
00:26phones that you can get right now, price to spec ratio goes.
00:31It's just amazing for the price, I did a whole video on it.
00:34It's around $400 here in the USA in the used refurbished marketplace like this one, this
00:38is a refurbished one and I just absolutely love it, I love recommending it to people
00:42and you'll see why when we compare it to the $1200 S23 Ultra here.
00:49Alright so first off hardware, this is actually a big one because a lot of people prefer the
00:54look of the S21 Ultra so let me know in the comments what do you guys think, which phone
00:58do you guys think actually looks better.
00:59A lot of people like the cutout of the S21 Ultra and I can definitely see why.
01:05When Samsung made the Switch with the design, I was okay with it because this reminded me
01:10of a LG Velvet but I do like the cutout on the S21 Ultra, it does have like a futuristic
01:16sort of just Terminator look to it, it's got just a really cool tech look so I absolutely
01:21love that.
01:22Now hardware wise, they feel about the same in weight, they're both IP68 dust and water
01:27resistant, they both have a matte finish so they don't really pick up fingerprints but
01:32they do have different sort of body styles here so the S23 Ultra has a more boxy body
01:38style and this one has a bit of a curve on the edges so it fits into the palm much better
01:44so I do like how the S21 Ultra feels in the hand honestly, it just feels much better,
01:49it's not as boxy, it doesn't cut into the palm.
01:52So one hardware difference that you'll notice is that with the S23 Ultra there's an S-Pen
01:58and you have no S-Pen on the S21 Ultra.
02:01Now what a lot of people don't know or they forget is that the S23 Ultra, or not the S23,
02:09but the S21 actually has pen support so you can see, I can, you know, Samsung sells a
02:15pen with a case for the S21 Ultra so you can buy it separately but it actually still works,
02:20you can actually still use the pen on this thing no problem, so all that software features
02:26are there.
02:27Yeah, and it works pretty much just the same so the only difference is you have the pen
02:31built into here.
02:33So I would say if you really want a pen, buy the case and the case is not too expensive
02:39but buy the case with the pen in it and I think that'll be sufficient for you guys honestly.
02:46So you know, it's not a big deal but yeah, hardware, that's pretty much it for the big
02:50hardware differences here.
02:52Alright so let's go ahead and talk about the displays on both of these phones here.
02:56So the S21 Ultra, it does have a 6.8 inch dynamic AMOLED display and it is 120Hz HDR10
03:03plus, 1500 nits peak brightness, it's a 1440p display, 515 for the PPI.
03:09The S23 Ultra has a 6.8 inch display also, 120Hz and then it gets up to 1750 nits peak
03:17brightness so it is a slightly brighter display when you're outdoors at max brightness and
03:22also 540 PPI and again it's a 1440p panel here.
03:27So basically, I really do like both the screens on these two phones, they both pretty much
03:33look identical and again you see the different screen sizes, not sizes but shapes here.
03:39So you can see the more boxy shape versus the more sort of curved shape and they both
03:43have these minimal curves to them as well and again, if you have smaller hands, the
03:50S21 Ultra is going to be way easier to hold because it's not as wide, if you have bigger
03:55hands you probably don't care but that's one thing that I noticed.
03:59So for these two phones being so big, the S21 Ultra is more comfortable but as far as
04:04the screens go, it's pretty much the same screen guys, 120Hz, they're both super bright.
04:09Yes, the S23 Ultra is a little bit brighter outdoors but it's not really by much so you're
04:16not really getting an upgrade when it comes to the screen here, they both pretty much
04:21look identical.
04:22Alright guys, let's talk about the specs a little bit more here.
04:25So we got the S21 Ultra, it is upgradeable to Android 13, One UI 5.1 and after it's done
04:31with it's major updates, it will get 5 years of security patches as well so this phone
04:36has an extremely long lifespan.
04:39And then we have the Snapdragon 888 processor on this phone as well with 128GB of internal
04:45storage and 12GB of RAM on this model.
04:48I think this actually might be 256GB.
04:51But anyway, on the S23 Ultra we have the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy and then this
04:57model is 512GB and then it is 12GB of RAM on here.
05:02You can see the Geekbench scores here, you can see not really a big difference with the
05:08single core but there's kind of a big difference with the multi-core score.
05:12Now as far as your general speed, you're not really going to notice too much of a difference
05:16when it comes to the overall app launching, smoothness with animations, it's pretty much
05:22the same thing here, it's not really a big difference at all.
05:27So for real world use, you're not going to notice too much of a speed improvement here.
05:34They pretty much feel on par with each other, like I said, both 120Hz so they're silky silky
05:38smooth and yeah, so me just using both phones, I did not notice overall smoothness anywhere.
05:48So now let's talk about the overall gaming experience because to be able to, alright
05:54so if I was a gamer, there's really no reason to upgrade because again, they play at the
05:59same settings, they both feel very consistent with frame rates with pretty much any game
06:05you throw at it.
06:07Again the biggest difference that I found is that the S21 Ultra does get hotter than
06:11the S23 Ultra when gaming for long periods of time and then also the battery life is
06:17better on the S23 Ultra as well.
06:19So if you're gaming, you won't have to plug your phone in as much so that's definitely
06:24one thing that you might like but overall, would I upgrade off of gaming?
06:29No because they're just too similar in terms of performance and yeah, it just depends on
06:36if you're a hardcore gamer and that matters to you about the heat and about the battery
06:42life.
06:43If you're just a casual gamer, you won't notice any type of a difference with these two phones.
06:48Like I said, they both play at HDR Extreme and they're both really fast, blazing fast
06:53phones when it comes to gaming performance so you'll be good there.
06:57There's not really a big upgrade here.
06:59Alright, so let's go ahead and check out the speakers on both these phones.
07:02We're at max volume.
07:03We'll start with the S21.
07:48Yeah, so the S23 Ultra is definitely slightly a little bit louder.
07:57It overall has a little bit more detail to it but the speakers are actually very close.
08:03You have a fuller sound and you can hear the low notes on the bass a little bit better
08:07on the S23 Ultra and like I said, it's slightly a little bit louder as well too but they're
08:13so close that again, not a massive upgrade but the S21 Ultra, it already has some pretty
08:20impressive speakers but I do like that they improved these speakers from the S22 Ultra
08:26with the S23 Ultra.
08:27These sound really good this year actually.
08:30Also, let's talk about the other additional features here.
08:36Both phones have NFC, wireless charging, reverse wireless charging.
08:40The fingerprint scanners pretty much feel the same.
08:43They both have face unlock.
08:45Like I said, they both have pin support and they both pretty much have the same software
08:48features as far as Samsung desktop support, secure folders, wireless charging, basically
08:53everything is still the same software wise.
08:57Alright, so let's talk about the cameras.
08:59So again, the S21 Ultra's cameras are so good that I didn't see a massive difference overall.
09:07I personally wouldn't upgrade because of the cameras.
09:09I'm just keeping it real because they're just way too similar.
09:13So the S21 Ultra, while it does have a 108 megapixel standard, it does have a 10 megapixel
09:19periscope telephoto that does 10x and then another 10 megapixel telephoto that does 3x
09:24and then a 12 megapixel ultrawide.
09:26It does have macro capability using AK24 and then a 40 megapixel selfie cam on here and
09:32then it also has the fancy 100x zoom on here as well too.
09:38It takes great photos at 10x and 30x as well.
09:41It's just a very capable phone.
09:43I think the average person is not going to notice too much of a difference here.
09:48So yes, you do have the new 200 megapixel lens on here.
09:51So yes, dynamic range is going to be better overall.
09:54You'll have a little bit more detail with shots.
09:58You also have a 10 megapixel periscope telephoto.
10:01The same setup pretty much, 10 megapixel optical zoom and then you also have telephoto with
10:06a 3x optical zoom, 12 megapixel ultrawide, it has the macro mode.
10:11It shoots in 8K30 this time though, which is actually pretty decent, 12 megapixel selfie
10:16cam.
10:17So the selfie was improved.
10:18I know you're wondering why I went from 12 because on here it's 40.
10:21This went to 12, but this does take kind of better selfies, kind of.
10:26I took some side-by-side stills for you guys to check out and it also, the selfie shoots
10:31in 4K60.
10:32So I took some side-by-side stills so you guys can sort of see where I'm coming from
10:36here.
11:02All right guys, here is the S21 Ultra video.
11:25Here's our 10x, tons of detail here, and then here's our 0.6.
11:37All right guys, here's just a little test footage of the S23 Ultra here for the video.
11:51The 3x, 10x, and as you see, just look at the detail, it's really, really nice.
12:04Very, very impressive.
12:05And we do have a 0.6 on here as well too.
12:09So just awesome image quality here, man.
12:14All right, so battery life here is where, honestly, is the biggest upgrade.
12:20If you want to keep it real here.
12:21So the S23 Ultra, they both have 5,000 milliamp batteries, right?
12:25They both have 45 watt charging, wireless and reverse wireless charging.
12:30The big upgrade here is because of the new chipset on here, it's just more efficient.
12:35The S23 Ultra is getting like a day and a half to almost two days of battery life if
12:40you're a light user.
12:41The S21 Ultra typically will get you around a day of battery life or around six hours
12:46of screen on time.
12:47Yes, the battery life is much better.
12:50Not only that, but standby time is so much better on the S23 Ultra as well.
12:54It's pretty impressive and I have a live wallpaper running on here too, which is even more impressive.
12:59So battery has gotten a pretty nice upgrade here.
13:03So that's definitely something to consider.
13:05I think that's the actual real upgrade, not the speed, not the cameras, not the design.
13:09It's really the battery life.
13:11But if that is not enough to get you to upgrade, I don't think you need to upgrade.
13:15You can keep your S21 Ultra here.
13:17So let me know what you guys think and I'll catch you guys in the next one.

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