Galaxy S21 Ultra: The best “old” flagship phone Samsung has ever made, and the best Android deal in the middle of 2022?

Samsung’s plans to be an Android flagship phone maker were severely hurt by the Galaxy S20 Ultra. The back of the 2020 Ultra wasn’t very interesting, and the camera had major problems. It was also, ironically, the most expensive slab phone Samsung ever made, costing $1,400. The South Korean company quickly realized that it had made terrible mistakes with pricing and execution, so it was time to make up for it…

 

Even though the bar was pretty low, the Galaxy S21 Ultra, which came after the S20 Ultra, wasn’t just a much better phone. It was one of the best phones you could buy last year, and it’s still one of the best you can buy in 2022.

 

This time, the bar was set very high, and Samsung knew it would take something special to get people’s attention. This is why DJ Koh and his team decided to combine the Note and “S” flagship lines. That’s how we got current Samsung’s top flagship – the Galaxy S22 Ultra, which really is a Note flagship in disguise. Even though it’s still on paper, the Note is now “dead.”

 

The Galaxy S22 Ultra, on the other hand, isn’t much different from the Galaxy S21 Ultra. It just has rougher edges and an S-Pen. Whether or not it’s a surprise, Samsung’s 2021 flagship phone gets a better review score from us and most other tech sites as well. And there’s a reason…

 

If you’ve always wanted a Galaxy S21 Ultra but never bought one… Well, maybe now is a good time! I’ll explain why!

Galaxy S21 Ultra is probably a better deal than the pricey Galaxy S22 Ultra if you want to buy an Android flagship.

 

Now, to be clear, I won’t try to convince you that the Galaxy S21 Ultra is faster than the Galaxy S22 Ultra, because it isn’t. The newer phone is the S22 Ultra, which has a newer processor and better cameras, and a better screen. But both have good and bad points, which I think makes things more interesting.

 

The price of both phones will be a big deal, but we’ll talk about that a little bit later on…

Galaxy S21 Ultra might look better than Galaxy S22 Ultra. It also has a lot more RAM and lasts longer on a charge.

 

First of all, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is Samsung’s newest top-of-the-line Ultra phone that feels like a Galaxy “S.” It’s more rounded, which makes it more ergonomic and easier to hold for longer periods of time. If you use your phone all day, every day, which… of course, you do, this is something you shouldn’t forget.

 

Also, and this is more of a personal opinion than a fact, the S21 Ultra looks better than the S22 Ultra. Its camera housing looks more badass and is much more useful than the 2022 model’s separate camera rings, which will collect a lot more dust.

 

Then, even though it sounds strange, the phone with slightly longer battery life is the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Keep in mind that your mileage will vary based on how you use your car, but it won’t be a huge difference.

 

So, even though the Galaxy S21 Ultra and Samsung’s new flagship both have a 5000 mAh battery, it is safe to say that the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s battery life is not worse. Even though the Galaxy S22 Ultra supports 45W fast charging and the older phone only supports 25W, the charging speeds are the same. Both take about an hour to charge, which is very unfair for S22 Ultra users who may have been told they’d get much faster speeds.

 

Samsung downgraded this year’s Ultra Galaxy to only 8GB of RAM, so the base model of the Galaxy S21 Ultra has a lot more RAM than the equivalent Galaxy S22 Ultra. This could be a much bigger deal than you think since Android phones can use a lot of RAM.

 

So, it looks like the S21 Ultra might have an advantage in the long run because it has more RAM. RAM is what keeps apps running in the background and lets them start-up quickly after you’ve closed them.

 

There are some good things about the Galaxy S22 Ultra, but are they enough to make you pay twice as much?

 

Now, no one can deny that Samsung’s S22 Ultra, which looks like a Note, has a few important improvements over its predecessor…

The first one is, of course, the S-Pen, and if you want or need it, you should get the S22 Ultra. Then again, if I had to guess, I’d say that 90% of people won’t care about the S-Pen, and if they have one, they might not even remember to use it, so there’s that…

 

On paper, the Galaxy S22 Ultra has a slightly brighter screen, but this doesn’t make much of a difference in real life. It also has better night photography, which is worth noting if you take a lot of photos at night (most people don’t), and better image processing, which makes zoom photos look better.

 

When it comes to taking pictures, the camera hardware on the S22 Ultra is mostly the same as it was on the S21 Ultra. Both will give you four back cameras: an ultra-wide-angle camera, the main camera, and two telephoto cameras with optical zooms of 3x and 10x. Yes, the S22 Ultra’s zoom pictures are cleaner (good job, Samsung! ), but the S21 Ultra has the same range and features.