Samsung Galaxy S21
Discussion
BlueJazz said:
They're very good photos, how are you finding the video quality when transferred onto the TV screen (assuming 4k and HDR)?
I don't do much if any video, but this is a still taken from x3 optical camera recording at 4K 60FPS.
The main camera also records at 8K 24PFS, with HDR10+.
I have no idea though what quality people expect from video, I do know 4K 60FPS videos generate crazy file sizes. 8K 60FPS will am sure appare for the S22 Ultra, you might need terabytes of internal storage if you are a serious video shooter I suspect. I cannot see SD cards been fast enough to support these kind of file size transfer rates, maybe that's one of the reasosn why Samsung killed off SD card storage?
Edited by gangzoom on Wednesday 10th February 09:19
BlueJazz said:
True, but often the best device is the one you have on you at the time which is usually your phone.
Thanks for the video review, hopefully I'll give my S21 Ultra a go outside on some wildlife at the weekend.
This is true, but I think in my head I was thinking more of YouTubers and the like who need professional/reference quality from their recordings. I agree, it's actually really damn good for a phone.Thanks for the video review, hopefully I'll give my S21 Ultra a go outside on some wildlife at the weekend.
In case anyone is interested, I took this video of a little visitor to my back yard earlier today, at the time of writing it was still processing so the quality may still improve, but this is using the 10x zoom...
https://youtu.be/VaO3b-3LqY8
Edited by TameRacingDriver on Wednesday 10th February 14:09
I'm still amazed at the HDR processing on this thing, this was first shot directly into sun light, through a window. I could barely see the road due to the sun, how it manages to meter than expose/recompose the image to deliver what is a pretty good looking final shot is beyond me. This phone is a much better 'photographer' than I could ever be!
TameRacingDriver said:
BlueJazz said:
True, but often the best device is the one you have on you at the time which is usually your phone.
Thanks for the video review, hopefully I'll give my S21 Ultra a go outside on some wildlife at the weekend.
This is true, but I think in my head I was thinking more of YouTubers and the like who need professional/reference quality from their recordings. I agree, it's actually really damn good for a phone.Thanks for the video review, hopefully I'll give my S21 Ultra a go outside on some wildlife at the weekend.
In case anyone is interested, I took this video of a little visitor to my back yard earlier today, at the time of writing it was still processing so the quality may still improve, but this is using the 10x zoom...
https://youtu.be/VaO3b-3LqY8
Edited by TameRacingDriver on Wednesday 10th February 14:09
gangzoom said:
I'm still amazed at the HDR processing on this thing, this was first shot directly into sun light, through a window. I could barely see the road due to the sun, how it manages to meter than expose/recompose the image to deliver what is a pretty good looking final shot is beyond me. This phone is a much better 'photographer' than I could ever be!
Super quality shot thereFrimley111R said:
gangzoom said:
I'm still amazed at the HDR processing on this thing, this was first shot directly into sun light, through a window. I could barely see the road due to the sun, how it manages to meter than expose/recompose the image to deliver what is a pretty good looking final shot is beyond me. This phone is a much better 'photographer' than I could ever be!
Super quality shot thereBlueJazz said:
Frimley111R said:
gangzoom said:
I'm still amazed at the HDR processing on this thing, this was first shot directly into sun light, through a window. I could barely see the road due to the sun, how it manages to meter than expose/recompose the image to deliver what is a pretty good looking final shot is beyond me. This phone is a much better 'photographer' than I could ever be!
Super quality shot there
TameRacingDriver said:
BlueJazz said:
That's quite impressive! Oddly when viewed on YouTube it didn't play back in HDR?
That could have been a setting i missed either in the camera app or in YouTube, or is not supported by the app or device you're using? 
My pre-order Phantom Navy Ultra arrived on Friday. The first phone I have bought outright, and it knocks my S10 Plus into a cocked hat. The speed of it is fantastic, and the camera,,, wow, the camera.
Picking up my S10 now and it already feels too small and I wonder how I managed with it for almost 2 years :-)
Even though it is 'only' 25 Watts, the speed it charges is hard to believe.
Using SmartSwitch and exporting a backup of Nova Launcher took a total of around 10 mins to set the phone up exactly how I like it.
5g Data speed is great. Apparently, I am only meant to be able to get 5g outside, but 200+ MBs inside seems to be the norm. It is faster outside, but I can live with that inside. Almost as fast as my WiFi. Because I have no contract, I can choose a decent SIM deal, and I have chosen an EE (I have been with Orange/EE since 1997) plan, of unlimited calls/text, and 120GB of data, which was doubled a few days ago to 240GB. How I am meant to use that much is a mystery though.
My initial thoughts are that it is a superb phone. It is super responsive, apps load almost instantly, it looks great, the screen is a thing to be marveled and almost everything is ramped up from the S10. It will take time for my muscle memory to learn that the volume up button is not the power button though.
I want a glass screen protector for it, but I want one that still allows the use of the fingerprint scanner. I currently have a film protector, and it is niggling my mind that it is not good enough. I found a decent one for the S10, but I am yet to hear of one that will work ok on the S21. As soon as I do, I will replace the film one for sure.
I have put a clear gloss XtremeSkins skin on the back and the camera, and it is in a Samsung clear case. The S10 had a brushed aluminum XtremeSkins skin on the back with a brushed titanium skin over the camera. Taking off the skin, I had to wonder what was going through my mind when I decided to put a solid colored skin on it. Mine was a Prism White, and boy does it look nice. My taste must have altered since April 2019, because now there is no way that I would have got anything other than clear skin for it.
The S10 is all packaged up in a bag to send off to Samsung for my £350 rebate. Given that I will have paid £849 for the phone, I will be saving almost £1000 over 2 years compared to if I had taken out another contract. It was cheaper to get the S21 than it was to keep the S10. That is what my man-maths comes up with anyway. Add to that the 'free' Ear Buds Pro and the tracking Tile, which is already earning its crust, it was a Billy Bargain.
If you are on the fence about getting an S21, jump off and get one. I doubt few will regret it.
Picking up my S10 now and it already feels too small and I wonder how I managed with it for almost 2 years :-)
Even though it is 'only' 25 Watts, the speed it charges is hard to believe.
Using SmartSwitch and exporting a backup of Nova Launcher took a total of around 10 mins to set the phone up exactly how I like it.
5g Data speed is great. Apparently, I am only meant to be able to get 5g outside, but 200+ MBs inside seems to be the norm. It is faster outside, but I can live with that inside. Almost as fast as my WiFi. Because I have no contract, I can choose a decent SIM deal, and I have chosen an EE (I have been with Orange/EE since 1997) plan, of unlimited calls/text, and 120GB of data, which was doubled a few days ago to 240GB. How I am meant to use that much is a mystery though.
My initial thoughts are that it is a superb phone. It is super responsive, apps load almost instantly, it looks great, the screen is a thing to be marveled and almost everything is ramped up from the S10. It will take time for my muscle memory to learn that the volume up button is not the power button though.
I want a glass screen protector for it, but I want one that still allows the use of the fingerprint scanner. I currently have a film protector, and it is niggling my mind that it is not good enough. I found a decent one for the S10, but I am yet to hear of one that will work ok on the S21. As soon as I do, I will replace the film one for sure.
I have put a clear gloss XtremeSkins skin on the back and the camera, and it is in a Samsung clear case. The S10 had a brushed aluminum XtremeSkins skin on the back with a brushed titanium skin over the camera. Taking off the skin, I had to wonder what was going through my mind when I decided to put a solid colored skin on it. Mine was a Prism White, and boy does it look nice. My taste must have altered since April 2019, because now there is no way that I would have got anything other than clear skin for it.
The S10 is all packaged up in a bag to send off to Samsung for my £350 rebate. Given that I will have paid £849 for the phone, I will be saving almost £1000 over 2 years compared to if I had taken out another contract. It was cheaper to get the S21 than it was to keep the S10. That is what my man-maths comes up with anyway. Add to that the 'free' Ear Buds Pro and the tracking Tile, which is already earning its crust, it was a Billy Bargain.
If you are on the fence about getting an S21, jump off and get one. I doubt few will regret it.
I have to say the S21 Ultra was expensive, but so far, must be the best phone I've ever had in my entire smartphone history. Screen, camera and performance, all wonderful. Battery life is strong. The included earbuds and token are a nice touch, and the earbuds are pretty excellent sounding (although for me, the noise cancellation ain't all that). And crucially, mostly everything just works. Sounds daft but I've rarely ever owned an Android device where there hasn't been some crap issue that just takes the edge off. e.g wonky auto brightness, poor finger print sensors, subpar cameras, crap battery life, touch screen issues, bluetooth glitchiness, I could go on, all of this is absent in this phone. Definite 5/5 for me even though it is very expensive.
Had mine to coming up 1 months, loving it. Bought it for the camera which is fab, no where to go in lockdown to test it out properly so just been resorting to food shots....everyone needs to eat 
.
The Ultra is much more expensive than my old S9 and bigger, but am actually quite amazed at complex games like CoD mobile is, and it plays really well on a big screen device. DEX is the other feature I've been surprised about, never tried it on my S9 but on the Ultra it really does feel like it can replace my laptop once that finally dies.
.The Ultra is much more expensive than my old S9 and bigger, but am actually quite amazed at complex games like CoD mobile is, and it plays really well on a big screen device. DEX is the other feature I've been surprised about, never tried it on my S9 but on the Ultra it really does feel like it can replace my laptop once that finally dies.
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