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00:00Hey what's up, MKBHD here, and welcome to your first look and hands-on with the Galaxy
00:08S21 Ultra.
00:11So right at the top of the year, Samsung's coming out swinging.
00:13Now, I also have a video about the S21 and S21 Plus dropping at the same time here, so
00:18that'll be the first link below the like button.
00:20Check it out if you're interested.
00:22But this is the big dog.
00:23So we kind of know what to expect at this point from Samsung's new ultra high-end phones,
00:28right?
00:29The S21 Ultra will start at $1,200, so it should be the best of what they can offer.
00:35But just to look back for a second at S20 Ultra, this phone last year was kind of a
00:40whiff.
00:41I mean, it still did have a lot of the high-end ultra numbers that you look for, but because
00:46of the focus issues with the camera, it was just never something you quite recommended.
00:51It got passed on a lot for the money.
00:53So the S21 Ultra looks to get them back to the best of everything world with a lot of
00:59next-gen parts and pieces.
01:01Now right off the bat, the first thing you notice is the biggest change, which is they've
01:04packed everything in this new design, so we might as well just start with that.
01:08So I got to handle these in the matte black and this sort of silver color, and so it looks
01:12just like the leaks and the rumors we were expecting, and I think I like it.
01:16Now I don't know if I love it, I'm still on the train that sort of a horizontal camera
01:21bump like Nexus 6P was actually kind of peak, but the more I look at this contour cut design,
01:27the more futuristic it looks to me.
01:28It kind of looks like someone was making a thicker phone with the huge cameras and
01:33then just melted it down to a thinner body for the rest of the phone.
01:36It's kind of hard to explain.
01:37It basically looks like Harvey Dent, like Two-Face, but on the smaller models, it actually
01:42has a cool color contrast model with the side rails, but I talk more about that in that
01:47video.
01:48On the Ultra, it's all matte across the entire back, which I love, and then shiny on the
01:53sides.
01:54So speaking of those cameras, we've got four here on the back of the Ultra.
01:58It's a new second-gen 108 megapixel main camera with OIS at f1.8.
02:05Very curious to see how that'll shoot.
02:07Then you've got a 12 megapixel ultra-wide, which should be pretty sweet at 120 degrees,
02:12and then two telephoto cameras.
02:15You've got two, a 3x telephoto and a 10x periscope lens.
02:20So this is an interesting zoom situation.
02:22I was playing with the phone, trying to imagine why they would do it like this.
02:26I think Samsung's probably done the math on, well, most people either zoom in a little
02:31bit or like all the way.
02:34And so I guess if they're just getting a 3x and then the 10x will facilitate the space
02:38zoom that goes really far.
02:40My curiosity is how will it do in between 3x and 10x?
02:44We'll have to see.
02:45But if you go on the camera app, it looks very familiar.
02:47It's the Samsung stuff.
02:48All these zoom buttons are still here, but now you can see, you can go all the way from
02:52that 3x to 10x, and it's doing digital zoom in between those two numbers.
02:57Then from 10x on, it's coming from the periscope lens and space zoom is still here.
03:01So you can go all the way to a hundred on the ultra and it's right off the bat actually
03:05looking much more stable than the last gen, which is actually pretty nice.
03:10And there's also some improvements to the higher end modes, like a director's view for
03:14more control over live switching between the cameras and recording from multiple cameras
03:18at once.
03:19There's also multi-device recording from both the phone's mics and your headphone mics
03:23at the same time, and then improved single take mode.
03:25So cool stuff here.
03:26We all know the ultra and Samsung's lineup is supposed to have the top of the line cameras
03:30and this is the best they can offer.
03:32And you can even see the laser autofocus here.
03:34So I'm almost surprised they didn't toss in a macro camera to sort of fill up the space
03:39and make an even grid, but hey, it's the periscope lens taking up that space instead, begging
03:44to be tested.
03:45So yeah, lots of new camera parts.
03:46It'll be interesting to see how these perform.
03:48And finally, make sure you subscribe to the channel if you haven't already to be among
03:52the first to see the review when it comes out and we can test these things.
03:55But enough about the back of the phone.
03:57Let's talk about the front.
03:58So it's a big phone.
03:59Of course, it's the ultra and that allows for a huge 6.8 inch quad HD OLED display.
04:05And this time it's quad HD at 120 Hertz.
04:09So you can see here in the settings, it's at the 1440p resolution and motion smoothness
04:13is also set to adaptive up to 120 Hertz.
04:16So that's sweet.
04:17But also this new adaptive refresh rate on the ultra is new and it'll automatically constantly
04:23be switching all the way up and down between 10 Hertz and 120 Hertz.
04:28So that should help save a lot of battery in this adaptive mode.
04:32It'll be really interesting to test to see how responsive it is and to see how much battery
04:36it saves.
04:37So you imagine when you're not really doing anything on the display, nothing's moving.
04:40It throttles all the way down to 10 Hertz.
04:41I'm curious if that can bring it to the same battery life or close to the regular 60 Hertz
04:47mode.
04:48I'm not too worried about overall battery life.
04:50The phone does still have a 5,000 milliamp hour battery.
04:53So I'm not concerned about being bad.
04:55I'm just more curious if it can be amazing.
04:57I also love that the display is nearly flat.
05:00It is slightly rounded at the very edges, but not nearly as much as I've seen it in
05:05other phones, which makes me happy.
05:07And there is the small cutout at the top for the ridiculous 40 megapixel selfie camera.
05:12And they also dropped Qualcomm's new, much larger and hopefully faster in-display fingerprint
05:17sensor back there.
05:18It's 1.77 times larger than the last gen, and I'm hoping less finicky too.
05:24And the display's max brightness is now up to 25% brighter, up to 1500 nits.
05:28And there's a new AI-based blue light shield option for better viewing comfort if you're
05:32into that.
05:33But yeah, everything else you're looking at here is right in line with what you'd expect
05:37from the 2021 Samsung flagship.
05:40Great build quality.
05:41It's IP68 water-resistant.
05:43The newest internals, of course, with the 5nm Snapdragon 888 in this region.
05:47It'll be the 5nm Exynos chip in other regions, which will be interesting, again, to test
05:52to see how it fares with battery.
05:5415W wireless charging.
05:56There's reverse wireless charging too.
05:58Great buttons, tiny bezels, the whole thing.
06:00One interesting spec though that is missing, there is no expandable storage anymore.
06:05So the microSD card is basically going extinct now.
06:09Samsung was some of the last ones to do it in their flagships.
06:12So there are only three specs for total storage on this phone, 128, 256, or 512 gigs.
06:18And then so unlike the smaller S21 and S21+, there's different amounts of RAM on these
06:23versions.
06:24So those all will have eight gigs of RAM.
06:26On the Ultra, you start at 12 gigs of RAM for the 128 and 256.
06:31And if you go with the tip top half a terabyte max spec, that'll have 16 gigs of RAM.
06:38So you're trading your expandable storage for a lot of RAM, I guess.
06:43Also speaking of things that are gone, no headphones or charger in the box confirmed.
06:47Like I've warned you, this is gonna start happening very quickly across the industry.
06:51iPhone 12 was a huge domino to fall.
06:54So now don't expect a power brick and a flagship phone from here on out.
06:59But last thing, let's talk about the S Pen.
07:03It was added to the S21 Ultra, S Pen support.
07:06Now, okay, a lot of people saw this in the rumors leading up to this and thought, oh,
07:10that probably means the Galaxy Note is on its way out.
07:14Maybe they'll kill it soon.
07:15I don't think so.
07:17This is just coming from my like hour of playing with the phone.
07:20The stylus on the S21 Ultra feels like a very optional add-on accessory, where on the Galaxy
07:29Note, well, it's still an integral part of the Note experience.
07:34And it's just, they're in very different worlds.
07:36So first of all, like I said, it's an optional $40 accessory.
07:39So if you want to buy an S Pen for your S21 Ultra, it'll cost you.
07:43And then it's actually compatible with other S Pens of the past.
07:46So if you have one already, you can carry that too.
07:49But the whole experience is passive.
07:51So the whole low latency writing and drawing experience is all the same, but there's no
07:55Bluetooth or gesture controls like you would have on the Note.
08:00And then of course, there's the whole, how do you carry it question, since there's no
08:03silo built into the phone.
08:06So that's another optional accessory.
08:07So you can get a stylus and a case for now $70 extra and the phone sort of just clicks
08:12into this rubber slot in the side of the case, which is fine, I guess, but it's definitely
08:19a very optional accessory.
08:20And so if you're going to go through all of that and spend extra money to have a stylus
08:26on your high-end Samsung phone, I feel like the obvious choice is to buy a Note where
08:32it slots in perfectly and neatly every time, charges, has the active experience, has more
08:38features.
08:39And of course there will be a Note 21 Ultra.
08:43I guess it's not an of course thing.
08:44I'm predicting there will be a Note 21 Ultra that people wanting a stylish consider later
08:50this year.
08:51So I don't think the Note's going anywhere, but that's basically it for the new S21 Ultra.
08:56What do you think?
08:57Is this enough of a redemption?
08:58I mean, you get the huge numbers again, you get a lot of next gen pieces.
09:01It seems to be going in the right direction.
09:04There is of course the S21 and S21 Plus launching alongside it on January 29th.
09:09But if you're going to spend the big bucks, this is what you're going to get.
09:11And they've also launched Smart Tags and Galaxy Buds Pro.
09:15So Samsung's clearly popping off right at the beginning of the year.
09:17But let me know what you think.
09:18Is this the one you guys would pick or would you go for one of the other S21 models?
09:23Let me know.
09:24Thanks for watching.
09:25I'll catch you guys in the next one.
09:26Peace.