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Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G review: Samsung's premier phone is pretty badass

Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G review: Samsung's premier phone is pretty badass

The Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G, unveiled alongside Samsung's Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus phones, proves that sometimes you have to do something twice to get it right. While just as bold as last year's Galaxy S20 Ultra, the S21 Ultra is a refined second take on the concept. There's still the 100x Space Zoom, but it's easier to use. There is still the "big for the sake of being big" design, but it looks more appealing. And there's still a high price, but at $1,200 (£1,149, AU$1,849) it costs $200 less than the S20 Ultra in the US. 

If you want the absolute best specs and features, the S21 Ultra is undoubtedly appealing. The phone will also attract camera nerds, thanks to the improvements. The addition of S-Pen support -- it's the first Galaxy S phone to support the stylus -- will likely catch the eye of Galaxy Note users looking for a different option.

Like

• Gorgeous phantom black finish
• Two telephoto cameras
• The screen is spectacular
• S-Pen support

Don't Like

• It's heavy
• Lacks a microSD card slot
• $1,200 is still expensive

Last year's Ultra model seemed like it came out of nowhere. It was a phone all about excess that, by sheer fate, was launched at the beginning of a global pandemic and recession. Its bold, behemoth take on the Galaxy S line was undercut by its $1,400 (£1,199, AU$1,999) price and issues with its nearly domino-size camera system.

Overall, the S21 Ultra is a major update both in terms of hardware and software over the S20 Ultra. And when you factor in a lower price, it all kind of makes sense. And that's why the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra earned a CNET's Editors' Choice Award. The whole Galaxy S21 lineup is available to purchase -- here's how you can buy one.

Read more: Samsung Galaxy S21 vs. S21 Plus vs. S21 Ultra

The Galaxy S21 Ultra has the best black finish

I wouldn't call the S21 Ultra's design radically different, but my review unit has the best black finish I've ever seen on a phone. It's the stuff that goth dreams are made of. The color is called phantom black, and seeing it in person makes you understand why Samsung made a nearly three-minute video explaining the blackest black finish. The S21 Ultra also comes in phantom silver and there are limited-edition phantom finishes in titanium, brown and navy, which can only be found on Samsung's website.

The camera bump is large and melts into the sides of the phone, which are glossy black. And while the regular S21 and S21 Plus looks snazzy in their two-tone colors, the all-black S21 Ultra is cool, elegant and badass all at the same time.

Read more:  Galaxy S21 drop test: It broke on the first drop

The S21 Ultra is heavier than last year's S20 Ultra and the iPhone 12 Pro Max. It's the second heaviest phone I have tested in the past year, just behind the Asus ROG Phone 3.

The display is brighter and adds S-Pen support

Around the front is one of the most impressive displays I've seen. It has a Wide Quad HD resolution and a variable refresh rate between 10 and 120Hz, which is determined by what's on the screen. And just to be clear, it can be set to 120Hz without the hit to resolution that the S20 Ultra had. The 6.8-inch display is bright and the contrast is gorgeous. Covering the front and back is Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus.

Support for the S-Pen means you can draw, write, edit photos and sign documents on the S21 Ultra.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Under the screen is a larger ultrasonic fingerprint reader which feels peppy. I had a hard time telling if it was faster than the one on the S20 Ultra. The display also has S-Pen support.

The Galaxy Note phones line always tempted me, but I didn't think I'd use the S-Pen enough to justify getting one. I like the iPad Pro-Apple Pencil approach Samsung took with the S21 Ultra. Without an S-Pen, you can still enjoy using the S21 Ultra. But if you're S-Pen curious, you can buy a new S-Pen or find an old one and it will work. There's a lot you can do like draw, take notes and sign documents. I love editing photos and making adjustments with the S-Pen.

There are a few S-Pen considerations. The S21 Ultra doesn't come with an S-Pen and doesn't support Bluetooth or gesture functionality. For example, the S21 Ultra can't send you a notification if you leave your S-Pen behind. Also, the Ultra doesn't have a built-in slot to store an S-Pen. Samsung does sell cases for the phone that include S-Pen storage.

The S21 Ultra has two telephoto cameras

The S21 Ultra's camera system received several significant updates. There are four rear cameras: one wide, one ultrawide and two telephoto cameras. The time-of-flight sensor on the S20 Ultra is gone; in its place is a laser autofocus module.

The 108-megapixel sensor on the main camera is new and has better autofocus for both photos and videos. There's even a new focus enhancer tool that pops onscreen to help the phone focus faster. The tool looks like it might be switching to a wider view to do so.

Read more: S21 Ultra vs. iPhone 12 Pro Max vs. Pixel 5: Which phone has the best night mode?

There are four rear cameras: wide, ultrawide and two telephotos.

Patrick Holland/CNET

The dual-telephoto cameras add a number of benefits. One has 3x magnification and the other 10x. This means when you zoom in, there are two places in your zoom range where the image isn't cropped and where you'll capture the best image quality. Another benefit is stability. The two cameras are paired to help make zooming in, even at 100x, easier and more steady.

At 30x or higher, a zoom guide appears to help you find the specific spot that you're zoomed in at. You can lock it so the cameras  don't move, which turns the guide yellow. This works quite well. Obviously you have to be careful not to move the phone around too much, but it's less finicky and frustrating than the S20 Ultra.

Photos from the S21 Ultra are excellent, with good detail and a wide dynamic range. There is a 108-megapixel mode, but I found that the 12-megapixel photos that come from pixel binning look consistently great.

Below are several photos I took with the S21 Ultra.

The main camera was set to 12 megapixels, which uses pixel binning to combine nine pixels into one.

Patrick Holland/CNET

One benefit of pixel binning is that it can bring out the details in a photo. Notice the different textures and details.

Patrick Holland/CNET

I used the single-take mode in the camera app to capture photos and videos of this cute dog. Here's one of the pictures my S21 Ultra chose.

Patrick Holland/CNET

There's so much for the S21 Ultra to capture correctly here: the barren tree branches, the water and the white fluffy clouds in the blue sky.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Here are three different photos I took from the exact same spot using the wide 1x camera (left), the 3x telephoto camera (middle) and the 10x telephoto camera (right).

Patrick Holland/CNET

In low light, the S21 Ultra's night mode is outstanding. Flaring on the lens is minimized and photos look bright without a bunch of image noise or noise-reduction smearing. Below are a few night mode photos I took:

This might be my favorite night mode photo of the bunch.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Here's another night mode capture. I like how the S21 Ultra brought out the colors in the sculpture.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Night mode on any of the S21 Ultra's cameras. I took this shot with the ultrawide.

Patrick Holland/CNET

For selfies there's the same 40-megapixel camera that the S20 Ultra had. You now have an option to change the color tone to either bright or natural which is excellent.

Here is a selfie I took with the natural setting.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Samsung added the ability to take raw 12-bit color photos. There's a new video feature called Director's View, which gives you a thumbnail preview of the video feeds coming from all of the cameras on the phones. As you record, you can switch between them. Within Director's View, there's a vlogger setup that gives you a side-by-side video view or a stacked one if you're shooting vertically. This means you can record yourself with the selfie camera and show what you're seeing or reacting to with any of the rear cameras.

On paper, Director's View seemed like something I might try once and not really use. But after some time using it, some people will definitely be into the feature. A downside to Director's View is that the final video is saved in HD instead of 4K or 8K. I'd love to see a similar thumbnail preview interface of all the rear cameras when recording a regular 4K video.

I'm excited to pit the S21 Ultra and its cameras against the iPhone 12 Pro Max and Google Pixel 5. Each phone takes a different approach to photography and will appeal to different people.

S21 Ultra has a Snapdragon 888 chip and 12 or 16GB of RAM

Powering the S21 Ultra is the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip, along with 12GB of RAM, or 16GB in the most expensive model -- which also has 512GB of storage (see the chart below for prices). In my benchmark tests, the S21 Ultra scored better than last year's S20 Ultra. And in use, it handled everything I threw at it, even playing Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games on it.

You can use the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate app to play Xbox games on your S21 Ultra.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Supplying juice to the phone is a 5,000-mAh battery. I've easily been averaging a day and a half on a single charge. Battery tests on the S21 Ultra for continuous video playback on Airplane mode clocked an average of 22 hours and 57 minutes with the refresh rate set to Auto 120Hz. That's actually an hour less than the S20 Ultra lasted in the same test. Though keep in mind, in real world use my colleague Jessica Dolcourt found the S20 Ultra's battery drained like it was being bitten by a "thirsty vampire."

Below are the results of my benchmark tests for the S21 Ultra.

3DMark Slingshot Unlimited

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

Geekbench v.5.0 single-core

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

Geekbench v.5.0 multicore

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

Android 11 and 5G support

The Galaxy S21 Ultra runs Android 11 with Samsung's OneUI 3.1 top layer. And I like it a lot. I can now default to Google Pay or Google Discover News feed instead of Samsung's versions. The look for everything from settings to pop-up windows is clean and contemporary. And with a phone this big, OneUI helps make it easier to use one-handed.

Last, the Galaxy S21 Ultra has 5G and supports both sub-6 and mmWave flavors of 5G. You shouldn't get the Ultra for its 5G. But as 5G networks get better, so will your 5G speeds and connection. And then we'll really have something to talk about.

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra specs vs. Galaxy S20 Ultra, Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, Galaxy Note 20

	Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra	Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra	Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra	Samsung Galaxy Note 20
Display size, resolution	6.8-inch AMOLED 2X, 3,200x1,440 pixels	6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X	6.9-inch; 3,088x1,440 pixels	6.7-inch; 2,400x1,080 pixels
Pixel density	515 ppi	511ppi	496ppi	393ppi
Dimensions (Inches)	2.97x6.5x0.35 in	2.99x6.57x0.35 in	6.49x3.04x0.31 in	6.36x2.96x0.33 in
Dimensions (Millimeters)	75.6x165.1x8.9mm	76.0x166.9x8.8mm	164.8x77.2x8.1mm	161.6x75.2x8.3 mm
Weight (Ounces, Grams)	8.07 oz; 229g	7.76 oz; 220g	7.33 oz, 208g	6.84 oz, 194g
Mobile software	Android 11	Android 10	Android 10	Android 10
Camera	108-megapixel (wide-angle), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), 10-megapixel (3x telephoto), 10-megapixel (10x telephoto)	108-megapixel (wide-angle), 48-megapixel (telephoto), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), time-of-flight camera	12-megapixel (ultrawide), 108-megapixel (wide-angle), 12-megapixel (telephoto)	12-megapixel (ultrawide), 12-megapixel (wide angle), 64-megapixel (telephoto)
Front-facing camera	40-megapixel	40-megapixel	10-megapixel	10-megapixel
Video capture	8K	8K	8K	8K
Processor	Snapdragon 888	Snapdragon 865 Plus	Snapdragon 865 Plus	Snapdragon 865 Plus
Storage	128GB, 256GB, 512GB	128GB, 512GB	128GB, 512GB	128GB
RAM	12GB, 16GB	12GB, 16GB	12GB	8GB
Expandable storage	No	Up to 1TB	Up to 1TB	No
Battery	5,000 mAh	5,000 mAh	4,500 mAh	4,300 mAh
Fingerprint sensor	In-screen	In-screen	In-screen	In-screen
Headphone jack	No	No	No	No
Special features	IP68 rating, 5G-enabled, 100x Space Zoom, 10W wireless charging, 10x optical zoom	5G enabled; 120Hz refresh rate; 100x zoom; water resistant (IP68)	120Hz screen refresh rate, 5x optical zoom, 120Hz display; UWB sharing, S-Pen stylus; 5G connectivity; Wireless PowerShare; water resistant (IP68)	S-Pen stylus; 5G connectivity; Wireless PowerShare; water resistant (IP68)
Price off-contract (USD)	$1,200 (128GB), $1,250 (256GB), $1,380 (512GB)	$1,399 (128GB), $1,599 (512GB)	$1,300 (128GB), $1,450 (512GB)	$1,000
Price (GBP)	£1,149 (128GB), £1,199 (256GB), £1,329 (512GB)	£1,199 (128GB), £1,399 (512GB)	£1,179	£849 (4G) and £949 (5G)
Price (AUD)	AU$1,849 (128GB), AU$1,949 (256GB), AU$2,149 (512GB)	AU$1,999 (128GB), AU$2,249 (512GB)	AU$1,849 (4G) and $AU$1,999 (5G)	AU$1,499 (4G) and AU$1,649 (5G)

First published Jan. 21.

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https://nichols.my.id/how-to-repair-windows-10-from-usb-without-losing-data.html

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Apple Watch 7 makes me think bigger upgrades could be coming next year

Apple Watch 7 makes me think bigger upgrades could be coming next year

The Apple Watch Series 7 has some new features, a bigger screen and upped durability. It charges a bit faster, apps load quickly and is fitted with WatchOS 8. But as I flick through it and its watch faces, I have to ask myself: Has anything really changed? 

Of course things have changed, a bit. But the newest Apple Watch feels like a careful polish on the same ideas the Series 6 had. Or, the Series 5 before it. There isn't one big new thing that stands out. Now that the Apple Watch feels like it's cleared the experimental zone of wearable tech and become a mainstream product like the iPhone and iPad, maybe this is the watch's destiny. I still see some clear areas where the Apple Watch should evolve, and the larger-screened, quicker-charging Watch 7 makes it more obvious than ever. Maybe the rumored Apple Watch Series 8 will bring some larger upgrades. 

Read more: How the Apple Watch 7 compares to the Apple Watch 6  and why you might want the Apple Watch SE instead.

Better battery life

There are clear limits on batteries and small devices. Some fitness trackers last up to a week, but make sacrifices when it comes to performance and features. High-powered smartwatches tend to never make it past two days, max. Still, the Apple Watch has hovered at about a day and a half of battery life for years. When will better battery life finally happen? That 18-hour-plus range keeps getting bonuses in performance: an always-on display, a larger screen, faster processor. When will the scale tip and allow longer battery life, like what's been happening on recent iPhones and MacBooks?

Some people are fine with daily charging. It seriously hampers the Watch's use as a sleep tracker, though. Apple suggests a quick recharge in the morning or a top-off at night to make it through a night's sleep. But a lower-power sleep mode seems like a clear need, or some other way to get the battery through to a couple of days (or more). Turning off the always-on display or other features could help the watch extend its battery life, sure. I think about that Apple Watch battery more than ever as something that needs to evolve.

The Apple Watch has lots of watch faces. But they never feel like enough, and their customization has limits.

Scott Stein/CNET

A watch face store

Apple's watch face collection is extensive and customizable, and the watch faces look good. But it's also limited. With Apple investing so much in larger displays and high-performance processors, the lack of a watch face store is a wasted opportunity. I keep trying to find watch faces to show off the larger Watch 7 screen and use it in all sorts of new ways, and I hit limits. I want to show just how many bits of info I can layer (complications, they're called), for instance.

One of Apple's new Watch Series 7 faces, Modular Duo, shows two rows of rich information for apps that support it: a heart rate graph and a weather chart, for instance. There aren't that many apps that use larger complications like this. I'd prefer a way to show a bunch of smaller ones, but also lay it out the way I'd like. There's room on the screen now, so why not? I can't, though, not really.

I've said this a ton of times : Apple Watch is the only major smartwatch that doesn't have an open watch face store. There could be so many more interesting designs on tap, but right now Apple still hasn't made it happen.

Full watch independence

The Apple Watch is nearly a self-contained device, now: a fast wrist computer. It does a lot more than it did back in 2015. But you still need to pair it with an iPhone.

Recent Apple Watch updates allow you to pair a watch for someone else and have them wear it on their own, but you still need an iPhone for it to link to at the start. 

Opening up the Watch to Android would be great, but there's an ever simpler path: It should just work on its own without a phone. You should be able to set it up and fully operate it as its own device. And then, optionally, pair it with whatever phone you have.

The Apple Watch Series 7's display is so large, it wraps around the side a bit. But the sensors on the back are the same.

Scott Stein/CNET

More sensors, or a more complete sleep-to-wake awareness

The Apple Watch's fitness and health features keep expanding, but it still doesn't have a feature that I've started appreciating on a few other watches and rings: a daily health score.

Fitbit and Oura wearables both have a morning score that can be interpreted as a sort of barometer of wellness or stress levels. The scores can seem arbitrary, sure. They're dependent on multiple readings ranging from sleep quality to resting heart rate to even heart rate variability and daily activity the day before. And yet, over weeks and months, I came to love the idea. I find that these scores help remind me of some things I haven't been tending to (not getting enough sleep, not getting up or being active enough), but in ways that are more proactive than the end-of-day activity ring goals the Apple Watch has. 

Sometimes these scores remind me to take it easy, too. They can feel, at times, like a form of subtle alert system that can sometimes (not always) correspond with not feeling well.

The Apple Watch doesn't have onboard temperature sensors, and it still doesn't break down nightly sleep in as detailed a way as other trackers do. Sleep tracking is an imperfect science on smartwatches right now, but I still find sleep scores to be helpful reminders (and motivators).

The more I might wear an Apple Watch all the time, the more I'd expect a little more awareness of my health than the three-ring fitness metric I've started to ignore since being at home a lot.

Series 7 is the perfected Watch as we know it, but what's next?

I can see the Apple Watch as a fast, large-screen wrist successor to the iPod, and going a lot more places next. I love the bigger screen, but it also feels like an opportunity that's not being taken advantage of enough. And that makes me more frustrated than ever that I still have to take it off every day for a charge-up.

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https://nichols.my.id/how-to-make-a-paper-airplane.html

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How to Make Your Outdoor Zoom Meetings Sound Better

How to Make Your Outdoor Zoom Meetings Sound Better

Two years of pandemic living has shifted my default workspace from an office to the now-common sidewalk seating outside almost every cafe or coffee shop in New York. Weather permitting, it's also my favorite place to join Zoom or other web meetings. And don't worry, I always use a headset, usually a set of AirPods Pro, to avoid bothering those around me. 

But it's not a perfect system. Sitting outside, even in a semi-enclosed wooden sidewalk shed, there's a lot of noise around me. Besides other human beings, I've got to contend with cars, trucks and buses driving by a few feet away, as well as occasional police, ambulance and fire engine sirens. The result is that my outgoing audio -- what the other people in the meetings hear through my mic -- is often noisy or unintelligible, and I would get a lot of complaints about it. 

Sarah Tew/CNET

In this particular case, using a MacBook and AirPods, I used a quick tweak to greatly improve my audio, which was greatly appreciated by the other people in my meetings. 

The problem is that the microphone built into the AirPods is merely OK at best, even with a directional mic on each earbud and behind-the-scenes audio cleanup. However, the MacBook Pro I was using has a high-quality three-mic array. In addition to the better mics -- and the fact that my voice is actually projecting in the direction of those mics -- the Apple-silicon-powered MacBook Pro has a ton of computational power to do all that behind-the-scenes AI sweetening and noise filtering. (The Zoom app tries to help with that as well.)

Read more: MacBook Pro 14-inch Review  

Here's what you want your Zoom settings to look like. Except your AirPods probably aren't named after me. 

Dan Ackerman/CNET

So after you pop in your AirPods or other earbuds, navigate to Zoom > Preferences > Audio. There you'll see separate pulldown menus labeled Speaker and Microphone. Under Speaker, select your AirPods. Under Microphone, select your laptop's built-in mic. In my case, it was labeled MacBook Pro Microphone. That's it. You're done. 

In the middle of a Zoom meeting, I made this voice input switch, as I was having trouble competing with a busy street corner and a nearby subway entrance. Everyone on the call immediately noticed the difference and said I sounded much clearer. 

Many Windows laptops have excellent built-in mics as well, so this isn't a Mac-only tip. Similarly, I was using AirPods, but this goes for other earbuds, too. 

Or, you could always just wear a giant gaming headset with a microphone boom arm, which is always a good look for your local coffee shop. 

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Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G review: Samsung's premier phone is pretty badass

Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G review: Samsung's premier phone is pretty badass

The Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G, unveiled alongside Samsung's Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus phones, proves that sometimes you have to do something twice to get it right. While just as bold as last year's Galaxy S20 Ultra, the S21 Ultra is a refined second take on the concept. There's still the 100x Space Zoom, but it's easier to use. There is still the "big for the sake of being big" design, but it looks more appealing. And there's still a high price, but at $1,200 (£1,149, AU$1,849) it costs $200 less than the S20 Ultra in the US. 

If you want the absolute best specs and features, the S21 Ultra is undoubtedly appealing. The phone will also attract camera nerds, thanks to the improvements. The addition of S-Pen support -- it's the first Galaxy S phone to support the stylus -- will likely catch the eye of Galaxy Note users looking for a different option.

Like

• Gorgeous phantom black finish
• Two telephoto cameras
• The screen is spectacular
• S-Pen support

Don't Like

• It's heavy
• Lacks a microSD card slot
• $1,200 is still expensive

Last year's Ultra model seemed like it came out of nowhere. It was a phone all about excess that, by sheer fate, was launched at the beginning of a global pandemic and recession. Its bold, behemoth take on the Galaxy S line was undercut by its $1,400 (£1,199, AU$1,999) price and issues with its nearly domino-size camera system.

Overall, the S21 Ultra is a major update both in terms of hardware and software over the S20 Ultra. And when you factor in a lower price, it all kind of makes sense. And that's why the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra earned a CNET's Editors' Choice Award. The whole Galaxy S21 lineup is available to purchase -- here's how you can buy one.

Read more: Samsung Galaxy S21 vs. S21 Plus vs. S21 Ultra

The Galaxy S21 Ultra has the best black finish

I wouldn't call the S21 Ultra's design radically different, but my review unit has the best black finish I've ever seen on a phone. It's the stuff that goth dreams are made of. The color is called phantom black, and seeing it in person makes you understand why Samsung made a nearly three-minute video explaining the blackest black finish. The S21 Ultra also comes in phantom silver and there are limited-edition phantom finishes in titanium, brown and navy, which can only be found on Samsung's website.

The camera bump is large and melts into the sides of the phone, which are glossy black. And while the regular S21 and S21 Plus looks snazzy in their two-tone colors, the all-black S21 Ultra is cool, elegant and badass all at the same time.

Read more:  Galaxy S21 drop test: It broke on the first drop

The S21 Ultra is heavier than last year's S20 Ultra and the iPhone 12 Pro Max. It's the second heaviest phone I have tested in the past year, just behind the Asus ROG Phone 3.

The display is brighter and adds S-Pen support

Around the front is one of the most impressive displays I've seen. It has a Wide Quad HD resolution and a variable refresh rate between 10 and 120Hz, which is determined by what's on the screen. And just to be clear, it can be set to 120Hz without the hit to resolution that the S20 Ultra had. The 6.8-inch display is bright and the contrast is gorgeous. Covering the front and back is Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus.

Support for the S-Pen means you can draw, write, edit photos and sign documents on the S21 Ultra.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Under the screen is a larger ultrasonic fingerprint reader which feels peppy. I had a hard time telling if it was faster than the one on the S20 Ultra. The display also has S-Pen support.

The Galaxy Note phones line always tempted me, but I didn't think I'd use the S-Pen enough to justify getting one. I like the iPad Pro-Apple Pencil approach Samsung took with the S21 Ultra. Without an S-Pen, you can still enjoy using the S21 Ultra. But if you're S-Pen curious, you can buy a new S-Pen or find an old one and it will work. There's a lot you can do like draw, take notes and sign documents. I love editing photos and making adjustments with the S-Pen.

There are a few S-Pen considerations. The S21 Ultra doesn't come with an S-Pen and doesn't support Bluetooth or gesture functionality. For example, the S21 Ultra can't send you a notification if you leave your S-Pen behind. Also, the Ultra doesn't have a built-in slot to store an S-Pen. Samsung does sell cases for the phone that include S-Pen storage.

The S21 Ultra has two telephoto cameras

The S21 Ultra's camera system received several significant updates. There are four rear cameras: one wide, one ultrawide and two telephoto cameras. The time-of-flight sensor on the S20 Ultra is gone; in its place is a laser autofocus module.

The 108-megapixel sensor on the main camera is new and has better autofocus for both photos and videos. There's even a new focus enhancer tool that pops onscreen to help the phone focus faster. The tool looks like it might be switching to a wider view to do so.

Read more: S21 Ultra vs. iPhone 12 Pro Max vs. Pixel 5: Which phone has the best night mode?

There are four rear cameras: wide, ultrawide and two telephotos.

Patrick Holland/CNET

The dual-telephoto cameras add a number of benefits. One has 3x magnification and the other 10x. This means when you zoom in, there are two places in your zoom range where the image isn't cropped and where you'll capture the best image quality. Another benefit is stability. The two cameras are paired to help make zooming in, even at 100x, easier and more steady.

At 30x or higher, a zoom guide appears to help you find the specific spot that you're zoomed in at. You can lock it so the cameras  don't move, which turns the guide yellow. This works quite well. Obviously you have to be careful not to move the phone around too much, but it's less finicky and frustrating than the S20 Ultra.

Photos from the S21 Ultra are excellent, with good detail and a wide dynamic range. There is a 108-megapixel mode, but I found that the 12-megapixel photos that come from pixel binning look consistently great.

Below are several photos I took with the S21 Ultra.

The main camera was set to 12 megapixels, which uses pixel binning to combine nine pixels into one.

Patrick Holland/CNET

One benefit of pixel binning is that it can bring out the details in a photo. Notice the different textures and details.

Patrick Holland/CNET

I used the single-take mode in the camera app to capture photos and videos of this cute dog. Here's one of the pictures my S21 Ultra chose.

Patrick Holland/CNET

There's so much for the S21 Ultra to capture correctly here: the barren tree branches, the water and the white fluffy clouds in the blue sky.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Here are three different photos I took from the exact same spot using the wide 1x camera (left), the 3x telephoto camera (middle) and the 10x telephoto camera (right).

Patrick Holland/CNET

In low light, the S21 Ultra's night mode is outstanding. Flaring on the lens is minimized and photos look bright without a bunch of image noise or noise-reduction smearing. Below are a few night mode photos I took:

This might be my favorite night mode photo of the bunch.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Here's another night mode capture. I like how the S21 Ultra brought out the colors in the sculpture.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Night mode on any of the S21 Ultra's cameras. I took this shot with the ultrawide.

Patrick Holland/CNET

For selfies there's the same 40-megapixel camera that the S20 Ultra had. You now have an option to change the color tone to either bright or natural which is excellent.

Here is a selfie I took with the natural setting.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Samsung added the ability to take raw 12-bit color photos. There's a new video feature called Director's View, which gives you a thumbnail preview of the video feeds coming from all of the cameras on the phones. As you record, you can switch between them. Within Director's View, there's a vlogger setup that gives you a side-by-side video view or a stacked one if you're shooting vertically. This means you can record yourself with the selfie camera and show what you're seeing or reacting to with any of the rear cameras.

On paper, Director's View seemed like something I might try once and not really use. But after some time using it, some people will definitely be into the feature. A downside to Director's View is that the final video is saved in HD instead of 4K or 8K. I'd love to see a similar thumbnail preview interface of all the rear cameras when recording a regular 4K video.

I'm excited to pit the S21 Ultra and its cameras against the iPhone 12 Pro Max and Google Pixel 5. Each phone takes a different approach to photography and will appeal to different people.

S21 Ultra has a Snapdragon 888 chip and 12 or 16GB of RAM

Powering the S21 Ultra is the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip, along with 12GB of RAM, or 16GB in the most expensive model -- which also has 512GB of storage (see the chart below for prices). In my benchmark tests, the S21 Ultra scored better than last year's S20 Ultra. And in use, it handled everything I threw at it, even playing Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games on it.

You can use the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate app to play Xbox games on your S21 Ultra.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Supplying juice to the phone is a 5,000-mAh battery. I've easily been averaging a day and a half on a single charge. Battery tests on the S21 Ultra for continuous video playback on Airplane mode clocked an average of 22 hours and 57 minutes with the refresh rate set to Auto 120Hz. That's actually an hour less than the S20 Ultra lasted in the same test. Though keep in mind, in real world use my colleague Jessica Dolcourt found the S20 Ultra's battery drained like it was being bitten by a "thirsty vampire."

Below are the results of my benchmark tests for the S21 Ultra.

3DMark Slingshot Unlimited

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

Geekbench v.5.0 single-core

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

Geekbench v.5.0 multicore

Note:

Longer bars indicate better performance

Android 11 and 5G support

The Galaxy S21 Ultra runs Android 11 with Samsung's OneUI 3.1 top layer. And I like it a lot. I can now default to Google Pay or Google Discover News feed instead of Samsung's versions. The look for everything from settings to pop-up windows is clean and contemporary. And with a phone this big, OneUI helps make it easier to use one-handed.

Last, the Galaxy S21 Ultra has 5G and supports both sub-6 and mmWave flavors of 5G. You shouldn't get the Ultra for its 5G. But as 5G networks get better, so will your 5G speeds and connection. And then we'll really have something to talk about.

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra specs vs. Galaxy S20 Ultra, Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, Galaxy Note 20

	Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra	Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra	Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra	Samsung Galaxy Note 20
Display size, resolution	6.8-inch AMOLED 2X, 3,200x1,440 pixels	6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X	6.9-inch; 3,088x1,440 pixels	6.7-inch; 2,400x1,080 pixels
Pixel density	515 ppi	511ppi	496ppi	393ppi
Dimensions (Inches)	2.97x6.5x0.35 in	2.99x6.57x0.35 in	6.49x3.04x0.31 in	6.36x2.96x0.33 in
Dimensions (Millimeters)	75.6x165.1x8.9mm	76.0x166.9x8.8mm	164.8x77.2x8.1mm	161.6x75.2x8.3 mm
Weight (Ounces, Grams)	8.07 oz; 229g	7.76 oz; 220g	7.33 oz, 208g	6.84 oz, 194g
Mobile software	Android 11	Android 10	Android 10	Android 10
Camera	108-megapixel (wide-angle), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), 10-megapixel (3x telephoto), 10-megapixel (10x telephoto)	108-megapixel (wide-angle), 48-megapixel (telephoto), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), time-of-flight camera	12-megapixel (ultrawide), 108-megapixel (wide-angle), 12-megapixel (telephoto)	12-megapixel (ultrawide), 12-megapixel (wide angle), 64-megapixel (telephoto)
Front-facing camera	40-megapixel	40-megapixel	10-megapixel	10-megapixel
Video capture	8K	8K	8K	8K
Processor	Snapdragon 888	Snapdragon 865 Plus	Snapdragon 865 Plus	Snapdragon 865 Plus
Storage	128GB, 256GB, 512GB	128GB, 512GB	128GB, 512GB	128GB
RAM	12GB, 16GB	12GB, 16GB	12GB	8GB
Expandable storage	No	Up to 1TB	Up to 1TB	No
Battery	5,000 mAh	5,000 mAh	4,500 mAh	4,300 mAh
Fingerprint sensor	In-screen	In-screen	In-screen	In-screen
Headphone jack	No	No	No	No
Special features	IP68 rating, 5G-enabled, 100x Space Zoom, 10W wireless charging, 10x optical zoom	5G enabled; 120Hz refresh rate; 100x zoom; water resistant (IP68)	120Hz screen refresh rate, 5x optical zoom, 120Hz display; UWB sharing, S-Pen stylus; 5G connectivity; Wireless PowerShare; water resistant (IP68)	S-Pen stylus; 5G connectivity; Wireless PowerShare; water resistant (IP68)
Price off-contract (USD)	$1,200 (128GB), $1,250 (256GB), $1,380 (512GB)	$1,399 (128GB), $1,599 (512GB)	$1,300 (128GB), $1,450 (512GB)	$1,000
Price (GBP)	£1,149 (128GB), £1,199 (256GB), £1,329 (512GB)	£1,199 (128GB), £1,399 (512GB)	£1,179	£849 (4G) and £949 (5G)
Price (AUD)	AU$1,849 (128GB), AU$1,949 (256GB), AU$2,149 (512GB)	AU$1,999 (128GB), AU$2,249 (512GB)	AU$1,849 (4G) and $AU$1,999 (5G)	AU$1,499 (4G) and AU$1,649 (5G)

First published Jan. 21.

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