Galaxy S21 Ultra Review vs iPhone 12 Pro Max (AMAZING PHONE HOWEVER..)

In this video I talk about my experience with the Galaxy S21 Ultra. I really wanted to move back into android and the Samsung ecosystem as Samsung offers great hardware and amazing customization when it comes to its devices. This year Samsung really improved upon alot of things with some caveats. First, they got rid of the SD card slot for expandable storage. I HATE this. Especially if you wanted to take advantage of shooting a bunch of 8K you are going to run of out of storage very quickly!

The display on the S21 is the best like it is every year. A nice vibrant 6.8-inch display with colors that just pop and a silky smooth 120hz display on top of QHD+ (you can't really tell the difference between FHD+ except for the text is a lot more crips in QHD+). The build quality is also nice. The phone just melts into your hand with curved edges unlike the boxy design of the iPhone. The camera bump is a part of the design of the phone instead of just sticking out in the back of your phone. Samsung did a great job here as well.

Software-wise, I love but also hate it. I hate that Samsung preinstalls all these useless games we will never use and I hate that carriers install their apps into the phone as well. thankfully, unlike in the past, you can actually get rid of these apps if you want to. Samsung also touts ads in its native apps like Samsung Health or the Galaxy store. Thankfully, Samsung free is gone and we now have the Google feed when you swipe to the far left of the home screen. Bixby still is Bixby but is very useful when using Bixby routines.

Battery life has been okay. With 5000mah I did expect more, but i was using the phone at 120hz QHD so lowering the resolution would help. But when you spend this much on a phone you want to be able to use it to its fullest potential and not hold back because you are worried about the battery not keeping up with you. This holds especially true for power users such as me. Granted, the software plays part in the battery utilization as it is also dependent on how efficient it is in running apps in the background and so on. Standby time is an improvement compared to past Samsung phones but still can't hold a candle to the iPhone's standby time.

The cameras are one of the main reasons I cannot switch to Samsung. Back when I had the Note 20 ultra I thought that would be the phone to keep and I would happy to have such an amazing phone in my pocket but the picture quality and image processing were a bother. I couldn't find a good gcam port for the selfie cam and rear which was my solution with the note 10+ but later phones don't work with the previous ports I used to use. Pictures of my baby kittens came out blurry, lacked detail, and the selfies made me look pale and sick. I shouldn't have ditched my iPhone 11 Pro Max as I would have had better pictures to cherish and hold onto. Even the Pixel 5 faired better when I owned that phone as well as I really was trying to come back to Android but the image processing from both devices, especially video quality, was not doing it for me.

Overall, this is a great device. Beautiful screen, great software with some cons to it, and a very versatile camera system that does take great images, but the shutter lag and oversharpening, and noise in low light are deal breakers for me. The oversharpening in the video is a deal-breaker as well. The Google Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel Watch are the techs I am most excited to see this year even more so than the next upcoming iPhone!

00:00 Intro
00:13 Unboxing
02:10 Overview
03:14 Design (Galaxy S21 Ultra)
05:33 Design (iPhone 12 Pro Max)
08:52 Battery Life (iPhone 12 Pro Max)
10:54 Battery Life (Galaxy S21 Ultra)
12:45 Software (Galaxy S21 Ultra)
15:06 Software (iPhone 12 Pro Max)
16:45 Why I'm keeping the iPhone
18:05 Cameras
19:56 Camera Samples
22:50 Camera Sample thoughts
24:40 Final Thoughts



#S21ULTRA #IPHONE12PROMAX #GALAXYS21ULTRA