Should you upgrade from Galaxy S9 to Galaxy S21 Ultra?

[khtannnnnnnnnn]

Samsung recently unveiled its next-generation flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and the Galaxy S21 Ultra. They bring a brand new design and improvements in camera quality, performance, and battery life compared to the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, and the Galaxy S20 Ultra.

However, if you have an older Galaxy smartphone that was launched 2-3 years ago, like the Galaxy S9+, should you upgrade to the new phones? Well, the answer is not that simple because Samsung has removed a few features that are extremely important to some consumers.

Bigger, better, faster screen

The Galaxy S9+’s 6.2-inch Super AMOLED screen was the absolute best when the phone was released three years ago. Since then, Samsung has brought important improvements in terms of screen technology. The Galaxy S21+’s 6.7-inch Super AMOLED Infinity-O display has extremely thin bezels all around. Yes, its resolution has been dropped to Full HD+ (from Galaxy S9+’s QHD+), but it has higher brightness, more accurate colors, and a much higher refresh rate at 120Hz. Whether you are browsing the web, playing high-end games, or just scrolling through the UI, everything feels more fluid and smooth. The Galaxy S21+’s HDR10+ certification also means a more immersive HDR experience.

Huge performance gains

The Galaxy S21+ is equipped with the 5nm Exynos 2100 processor (Snapdragon 888 in China and the US), which is faster and more power-efficient than the Galaxy S9+’s 10nm Exynos 9810 SoC. The new processor is more than twice as fast as the Exynos 9810 in terms of CPU and GPU performance. And you’ll definitely feel the additional speed while launching apps, gaming, and multitasking. The Exynos 2100’s dedicated NPU (used for AI processing) also means a faster camera and better images and videos.

Guaranteed software updates for 3 years

The Galaxy S9+ was launched with Android 8 onboard, and it received two major software updates (Android 9 and Android 10). Since last year, the phone has just been receiving security patches. In comparison, the Galaxy S21+ was launched with Android 11 (with One UI 3.1), and it will receive three major Android updates and at least one additional year of security patches. One UI 3.x brings massive UI design improvements over One UI. Knowing how important software updates and security patches are, you might want to upgrade to the Galaxy S21+.

Better front & rear cameras

The Galaxy S21+ features a 10MP selfie camera and a 12MP+12MP+64MP triple-rear-facing camera setup. All four cameras on the Galaxy S21+ perform better than the cameras on the Galaxy S9+. The new phone captures brighter images with higher detail and a wider dynamic range. It can also record 4K 60fps videos using the front and rear-facing cameras and 8K 24fps videos using the rear-facing camera. The phone has an ultra-wide camera, something that is lacking on the Galaxy S9+, and you get up to 30x digital zoom capabilities with massively better quality compared to what you get on the Galaxy S9+.

Faster connectivity

The Galaxy S21+ also brings faster wireless connectivity in the form of 5G and Wi-Fi 6. Even while using an LTE network, the Galaxy S21+ offers faster upload and download speeds compared to the Galaxy S9+, thanks to improved carrier aggregation (CA).

Longer battery life, faster charging 

The Galaxy S9+ is powered by a 3,500mAh battery, while the Galaxy S21+ uses a 4,800mAh cell. Sure, the Galaxy S21+ has to power a bigger and brighter screen and a bunch of cameras and latch on to 5G networks, but it will still last longer compared to the Galaxy S9+, thanks to the more power-efficient 5nm processor, a variable refresh rate screen (that can drop to as low as 48Hz in certain conditions), and optimized software.

The Galaxy S21+ charges fast, too, thanks to its 25W fast charging technology. If you are in a hurry and find that your phone is almost out of charge, you will want the Galaxy S21+ rather than the Galaxy S9+ with its 15W fast charging.

More striking design, stronger glass protection 

The Galaxy S9+ was among the most polished phones of 2018, but the Galaxy S21+ is even better. It sports a more striking design, thanks to extremely thin bezels at the front and a camera housing that melts into the phone’s frame. Plus, it uses more durable Gorilla Glass Victus panels at the front and the rear.

Even the in-display fingerprint reader on the Galaxy S21+ is easier to reach compared to the rear-facing fingerprint reader on the Galaxy S9+. The unnecessary Bixby button has been removed as well. On the design front, the Galaxy S21+ is clearly a better choice compared to the Galaxy S9+.

[Sy3ney]

The conclusion is change to S21 series 🤭

[khtannnnnnnnnn]

U will lose headphone jack

[Sy3ney]

use wireless buds

[khtannnnnnnnnn]

Wireless buds have poor latency when gaming

[CHRoe]

I use my S9+ to read black text in white background a lot. I can see big different between FHD+ and WQHD+ where texts in WQHD+ look far more finer & eyes don't get tired even reading for long time. texts in FHD+ screen look "fatter" & joined together

[Sean3]

What company would say, "No, stick with your old equipment." :)