Any time a £1,000+ smartphone hits the scene, it has to work hard to justify that kind of price – and boy does the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra do just that. A triple threat, it looks the part with top-quality design and a killer screen, it packs performance in spades – power, party tricks and a long-lasting battery, and then there’s that camera. Sporting one of the best zooms of any smartphone around, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra gets you right up close to the action. In fact, it does pretty much everything right on paper, but you know what? So do a few phones out now.
Battling stiff competition from the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max, the OPPO Find X3 Pro andXiaomi’s Mi 11 Ultra, not to mention the much more affordable OnePlus 9 Pro, Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra has its work cut out for it. Also, while the phone introduces note-taking and doodling to the Galaxy S line thanks to clever S Pen support, unlike theGalaxy Note 20 Ultra, it doesn’t come with an S Pen. Therefore, to get the full experience, you’re talking about a cost of £1,199 and an extra £34 for the pen from Samsung’s official store.
Its price sounds (and is) high, but on paper, its specs still put the S21 Ultra in a strong position for the smartphone top spot. After all, it’s the only phone that can do everything – pen input, a 10 times zoom camera system, a world-class screen and more. So if big phones are your thing, and you want quality across the board, keep reading to see what it’s like living with what could be the best Android phone of 2021.
