Review Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: Peak Android

Feb 2, 2021
2
0
10
I have owned the Ultra 21 for just under a week now. I have experienced terrible battery life. I've done several things in the settings to fix this but no luck. I am expecting about ten percent battery drain per hour with very light use. Others in the official Samsung forums have similar issues. A Samsung moderator posted that the adaptive battery should solve some of the issue, but some members are saying that even after a week they are seeing no change. This is something to be aware of. The issue seems to be mainly in America and Europe for whatever reason
 
Feb 2, 2021
2
0
10
I returned my original to Samsung and purchased another from my local dealer. This one is improved but still not stellar given that it is a 5000 mAh battery.

Samsung has released an update for the Exynos version of phone designed to address the battery life issue that many have experienced. In the US, the phones use the Snapdragon version of the phone. To the best of my knowledge Samsung has not acknowledged any issues with the Snapdragon phones.
 
Feb 18, 2021
1
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10
Sounds like a quality control issue. If I buy from Costco, I have a 90 day return, which seems like a smart way to avoid a problem
 
Mar 4, 2021
1
1
10
I have owned the Ultra 21 for just under a week now. I have experienced terrible battery life. I've done several things in the settings to fix this but no luck. I am expecting about ten percent battery drain per hour with very light use. Others in the official Samsung forums have similar issues. A Samsung moderator posted that the adaptive battery should solve some of the issue, but some members are saying that even after a week they are seeing no change. This is something to be aware of. The issue seems to be mainly in America and Europe for whatever reason


I joined the club and am leaving the Ultra 21 behind and we are getting our $$$ back. S10+ owner for two years and since my battery and my wife's on her S10 were starting to show signs of fading, it was a good time to jump to the S21 and S21 Ultra. Both of us experienced the battery drain on light use and both had problems with text messaging. It's not the network, I switched the SIM cards back to our S10's and the texting is fine. The side buttons , and this may be nitpicking, were awkward. Trying to do a screen shot didn't work and I can read directions. It didn't happen.

Maybe we just had a bad experience, but just on our batteries alone, I give this phone 2*'s out of 5. I read from Tom there are battery fixes in the works and as long as that and the texting work, I'd give this another look this summer. For now a hard pass.
 
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Reactions: eaglegrad16
Aug 21, 2021
2
1
15
I experienced nothing but failures with this WAY overpriced piece of junk. Swapped out 4 times because of poor network, connectivity, dropped calls. Battery drain. Poor function. I've never owned a worse phone. The very last great one was the Note8, which Samsung stupidly discontinued. Verizon courteously canceled my lease bless them.

I will happily look for a decent prepaid that actually works. This one is 1.5 out of 5.
 
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Reactions: turk58guy
Aug 29, 2021
1
0
10
Yeah I gotta say, as an average phone user, this phone makes no sense to buy. Coming from the S8+ has been a disappointing experience thus far. The phone tends to heat up and is extremely fragile. For something this expensive, they cut all the corners on the assembly and it really shows. I really don't notice much of a performance or battery life upgrade from my S8+ which is surprising since the battery life on my S8+ is declining. Cameras are nice but the rest of the phone needs to do its job too for such an expensive piece of equipment
 
Last edited:
Nov 19, 2021
1
1
10
The S21 is the worst Android phone I've ever owned. The original purchase just stopped detecting the original SIM and 2 replacement SIM cards. The warranty replacement was simply a POS. I managed to finagle an upgrade to Pixel 6 Pro. I cannot imagine it being any worse.
 
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Reactions: eaglegrad16
Aug 21, 2021
2
1
15
The S21 is the worst Android phone I've ever owned. The original purchase just stopped detecting the original SIM and 2 replacement SIM cards. The warranty replacement was simply a POS. I managed to finagle an upgrade to Pixel 6 Pro. I cannot imagine it being any worse.

The ONLY REASON I opted for the S21 (upon junking the garbage Note10+) was bc some coworkers had "raved" about it, insisting it was "the best phone ever" What utter garbage. Mine had to be swapped out 4 $^(^&^ time with Verizon for complete suck. Now THAT ---isn't normal. NO PHONE is ever swapped out multiple times bc of network etc. issues. Complete BS. I don't know that Samsung has made anything decent since the Note8.