 I bought the S21 Ultra with my own cash and intend to keep it for the long haul of at least three years. I'm Rafael from Hardware Sugar and this is what it's like using the S21 Ultra after 30 days. Sporting in aluminum chases and trying in a glass matted black finish, the S21 Ultra is a wonder to hold and look at. Even though I quickly put it in a case, I find myself quite frequently picking it up just to turn it over and admire the impressive camera modules and the phantom black skin peeking out from underneath the case. In terms of aesthetics alone, this looks like the biggest change in Android smartphone design since the metallic HTC One M7 released back in 2013. Big phones are here to stay and while foldable phones have made their debut, price, questionable durability and an app ecosystem which is slow to change means that for now, the best value flagship will still need to maintain a traditional impression. All my last phones have been phablets and so I'm used to clumsily moving my fingers across the back in order to use the phone with one hand. However I noticed that my index finger has a habit of touching one of the cameras in the back which disturbs me because I know that the oils on my finger would thereafter have smudged the glass and that I would need to use a microfiber cloth to wipe it down. If you plan going on a trip to take a lot of photos and videos then you may want to bring one just in case. A lot of people use their smartphones as their main camera for generating content. I sported a Note 9 for most of my videos and so I was very excited to upgrade to the S21 Ultra's powerful several camera lenses and to be honest, I was disappointed and amazed at the same time. Let's talk about the great stuff first. Being able to switch from the wide angle camera lens and into the 10x is amazing. It gives you an opportunity to take a variety of shots which previously would have led to a pixelated mess. The S21 Ultra has 4 camera lenses which shift in use depending on how far you want to zoom in. You have the wide camera 0.6x, standard 1x, a lens of 3x and a lens for 10x. If you want the best images the camera can give you you should avoid a level of zoom that isn't any of the above because it will lead to digital zoom as opposed to optical zoom. If for instance you want to zoom in to 5x, what happens is that the phone uses the 3x scope and then digitally magnifies it. Digital magnification or digital zoom produces grainier photos. The same goes when if you wish to zoom in 9x, you might as well go back off a couple of feet and switch to the 10x camera lens which will give you a much clearer image. I spent a ridiculous amount of time couch sniping the higher-ice buildings outside my room and thereafter felt a tinge of guilt by doing so because of how powerful the camera was. A digital zoom of 100x is possible but it leads to grainy images which won't win any Instagram contests. However if you stop the marvel at nevertheless how much clearer the zoom in photo is compared to let's say the maximum zoom power of a Note 9 or an iPhone 7 Plus it clearly tells a story that Samsung is making genuine advances in this upgrade and yes you can indeed shoot up the moon. In fact it is through the 100x zoom of the S21 Ultra where I saw the moon's craters which were invisible to my naked eye. Zooming in is also a lot easier now because of the novel digital assistant box which steadies your shot. Prior to this, zooming in would require superhuman strength in order for you to stay on target. This assistant is no gimmick, it is easy to use and it does its job. There is a moment when you know it has locked on and when you move even by just a little the camera nevertheless maintains the lock. I quite literally went crazy taking photos any chance I got and I have been mesmerized on the quality of the shots. The versatility of the different camera lenses allows you to take amazing shots which are sometimes impossible to get. Take for instance this bird nest with younglings who are just about old enough to fly away. No matter how good my camera is, if the subject runs away before I can take the shot, it's useless. But with the S21 Ultra's 10x zoom, I can now take NAT Geo shots from a distance. The quality of the camera shots alone makes me recommend this to anyone who is still using a 4 year old phone or older who isn't looking to use it as their primary camera for making YouTube videos. More on that later. The S21 Ultra produces photos which are much more color accurate as opposed to its more saturated colorful predecessors. In this regard, you can say that Samsung is yet again following in the footsteps of the iPhone which is well known for focusing on color accuracy over unnatural but vibrant eye-popping colors. You can see that the S21 Ultra has more in common with my old iPhone 7 Plus as opposed to the more recent Galaxy Note 9. The wood paneling next to my bed is a darker hue as opposed to my Galaxy Note 9 which shows a brighter but more washed out look. The same goes for my sofa in which the Note 9 gives it a faded look as opposed to the richer dark maroon that it is in real life. Portrait mode is also well done. Have you ever wanted to take a picture of the sunrise or sunset and had to reduce the camera exposure in order to bring out the rich orange flame and after moving the camera a little, reverts the exposure back to its original state? It has been extremely maddening over the years. Thankfully, the S21 Ultra now allows you to lock the exposure you want without having to repeat it over and over again. This is extremely welcome and long overdue. Now to the bad stuff. First, there is a noticeable lag when taking shots with the camera. You need to wait half a second in between shots and while that may seem like a short period of time, life doesn't stop for when your phone is ready. Secondly, zooming in and out while impressive to get a shot is not instantaneous and the animation of moving back and forth is not smooth. In fact, I would categorize it as though the phone was genuinely having difficulty keeping up with me. This however didn't lead to phone crashes but it just wasn't a buttery smooth experience unlike most of the other features of the S21 Ultra. Video recording suffers from two grueling problems. First, the autofocus problem earlier mentioned. In this example, the S21 Ultra is mounted on a tripod and I am trying to get a clear shot of different charging adapters. No amount of screen pressing the focus on the adapter would make the camera focus on it, thus the distortion. Until I realize that if I move it from right to left in one motion, I can get the camera to focus on it. It really is quite ridiculous to spend so much on a phone with so much high tech hardware that it can't do something as basic as focusing on something five inches away from the camera. I suspect that it finally focused after I directly placed the object in the line of fire of the laser AF sensor. The second problem is overheating and I'm not just talking about it being uncomfortable to hold. No, the camera application needs to shut down completely in order to prevent damage to the phone. I covered this partially in my video review of the S21 Ultra Director's view which I'll link up top. In short, if you record for longer than 15 minutes straight, you run the risk of it shutting down and the camera not being operable for five minutes or so. If you aren't going to use the S21 Ultra for vlogging, then you don't need to worry about it. However, for those of us who generate content, the S21 Ultra would not be my first choice, especially since it sucks to record a roll by yourself only to find out that it had stopped recording while we were still talking. With that out of the way, let me tell you that it is a blast to record with the S21 Ultra. You can record in HD 30 frames all the way up until 8K 24 frames. However, my sweet spot is using Full HD 60 and Ultra HD 60. The benefit of Full HD 60 is that the super-steady mode of the S21 Ultra camera really is super-steady. It's as though I am panning with a gimbal and it makes for nice smooth B-roll shots. As a Note 9 user, I was never impressed with the optical image stabilization. However, shooting with the S21 Ultra is refreshing and I definitely can't wait to take it on trips when that is possible. If I have a gimbal or if I need a stationary shoot, I shoot with the Ultra HD 60. The four camera lenses also benefit video recording. Here I am shooting from how far I am from my subject and then the next shot is with the 10x lens. This is the first time in my life where I have been able to record the cleanest looking zoomed in footage. Using the 10x scope to record video with such clarity opens up a whole new range of ways to save travel memories. There isn't any optical stabilization through the 10x scope. However, if you have a gimbal or a tripod, this won't be a problem. I highly recommend you have tracking autofocus switched off during stationary shots if you want to avoid strange matrix-like effects in the background. The fingerprint sensor which is built into the screen is cool and more or less accurate. However, it really doesn't work as well as the fingerprint sensor on my 5-year-old iPhone 7 Plus or my Galaxy Note 9 which has its fingerprint sensor in the back. It works most of the time when I make a conscious decision to be careful where I place my finger. However, I realize that the best way of improving my chances of success was to program the same finger twice. And even with this, I get it wrong maybe 2 out of 10 times. This however is hardly something which would keep me from buying this phone. My biggest problem with the S21 Ultra is as I mentioned frequent overheating and it is a pain which I suspect is caused by the Exynos processor, a problem which you might not get if you buy the Snapdragon North American version. So yes, there are two kinds of S21 Ultras, the one with the Snapdragon chip and the Exynos chip. A lot of YouTubers use their iPhones as their primary camera for filming and I shot all my previous videos on my Galaxy Note 9 and so when the S21 Ultra arrived, I was excited to begin using it for shoots immediately. What I discovered was that the camera app would shut down after recording 13 to 17 minutes straight of UHD 60 frames videos. I'm sure other YouTubers have covered this in greater detail but I am casting my two cents that the Exynos version is most likely deficient compared to its twin counterpart. The S21 Ultra battery is an interesting topic. I was originally only getting 6 to 8 hours of regular use. In fact, I screenshoted the battery status of my phone as proof that my phone was just using normal apps and the phone itself was telling me that a full charge would only last me 10 hours. At the time, the most intense apps I ran were YouTube, Instagram and the messaging app Viber. Surprisingly however, two weeks afterwards, I am amazed to report that my phone lasts a full day and a half with moderate to intense use. The only explanation I could think of was that I needed to give my phone time for it to learn how best to optimize based on my specific usage. I know that sounds vague, however Samsung does tout that the phone's battery improves every day through its study of your unique use of the phone. I don't play any games on it but I am a heavy YouTube user and I send a lot of pictures and videos over wifi. As you already may know, the phone does not come with a charger. Using a 15 watt fast charging adapter which came with my Galaxy Note 9 2 years ago will juice it from 0 to 100% in 2 hours. You can get a 50% charge in 1 hour. For those of us who are used to getting 50% in half an hour will be disappointed. I thus highly suggest you buy the 25 watt Samsung super fast charger to go with it which will boost you to 50% in 30 minutes and give you 100% in 1 hour and 10 minutes. Overall, I am very happy with the 5000mAh battery and if it has a similar life to that of my Galaxy Note 9's battery then I expect for it to maintain a good charge which will last me at least a day of use for the next 3 years or longer. The brightness, colors and the overall clarity of the display is nothing short of amazing. Sometimes I just switch on the lock screen to see the pre-recorded wallpaper of Samsung's swoosh around. The option to choose WQHD resolution and to run an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate adds to the awe and snappiness of the phone. My only advice to those who have never experienced refresh rate above 60 but don't wish to upgrade their phones anytime soon is that you should avoid sampling one because the buttery smooth reflexes of a high refresh rate screen will leave you wanting more. And going back to a phone with traditional 60Hz will never feel the same again. The high refresh rate is something that iPhones have yet to have and while it doesn't offer a genuine upgrade in productivity, it most definitely makes the sensation of using your daily driver extremely satisfying. Adaptive refresh rate means that the phone drums down the refresh rate according to your needs in order to extend battery life. So if you are watching a video on YouTube, the display will run below 120Hz because if you are watching a 25 frames video, you won't be needing it anyway. In short, the high refresh rate comes into the limelight when you are scrolling the news, reading emails, flicking through Instagram and the like. In conclusion, this is probably the best Android smartphone on the market and if you can afford it, I would buy it in a heartbeat. Even more so if you can get the snapdragon version of the phone. But even with the overheating of the Exynos chip, I have no regrets whatsoever and most people don't record videos for 15 minutes or longer at a single time and the quality of the video that it can record and the photos it shoots is phenomenal. In short, you will be the designated camera person for all the family and friend outings because if you aren't using this camera over others, you are seriously missing out. Great battery life, a screen you can use and stare at for hours, a powerful camera and a reliable multi-tasking cell phone makes the S21 Ultra everything Samsung set it out to be. If you liked this video, please consider liking and subscribing as we greatly appreciate your support. We want to thank our top fans, Asher Anima, Richard Ongkinko, ITX Addict, John Occia, Christian Espinosa. Thank you so much for supporting our channel, we really greatly appreciate it.