Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra: What's the rumoured difference?

Samsung is going to be launching its latest series of Galaxy S smartphones on 14 January, giving us a fresh new set of devices for 2021.

There's been some heavy leaking for these new phones, so we wanted to run up the specs of the incoming S21 Ultra and outgoing S20 Ultra to see how they compare based on the rumours so far.

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Design

• S21 Ultra: 165.1 x 75.6 x 8.9mm, TBCg
• S20 Ultra: 166.9 x 76 x 8.8mm, 220g

There's been no shortage of leaks showing off the design of the incoming S21 Ultra so we've got a good idea of what to expect. Based on leaked dimensions, it looks like it will be close in size to the S20 Ultra.

The defining characteristic of the S20 Ultra was the huge camera unit on the rear of the phone. The biggest design change for the new phone appears to be moving that camera housing to the reach the edge of the phone.

It's more of an integrated design on the new model and less of an island, with the edge of the camera housing integrated into the side of the phone - but still a huge cluster of cameras, likely to trigger trypophobia.

Otherwise we'd expect the build to be much the same, with a glass back and metal frame, with IP68 waterproofing too.

Display

• S21 Ultra: 6.8-inch, Infinity-O, 120Hz, S Pen support
• S20 Ultra: 6.9-inch, Infinity-O, 120Hz

We're expecting the S21 Ultra and the S20 Ultra displays to be close in spec and performance, although it's said that the new model will be just a little smaller than the S20 Ultra.

While both will have Quad HD+ resolutions - 3200 x 1440 pixels - the big change for the S21 Ultra will be adaptive motion smoothness. This will mean you can have 120Hz at maximum resolution which wasn't possible on the S20 Ultra, which would only do 60Hz at the top resolution.

That's going to please those who want the best of both worlds, but the big advantage of the adaptive setting is that it will adjust the refresh rate to suit the content and save you battery life in the process.

There's another trick that the S21 Ultra is expected to offer - and that's support for the S Pen. While the phone won't physically accommodate it like the Note does, it will support S Pen input, making it a lot more versatile.

Outside of that, we'd expect excellent performance as we've seen from Samsung displays in the past.

Hardware and specs

• S21 Ultra: Exynos 2100 or Snapdragon 888, 12/16GB RAM, 128/256/512GB, 5000mAh
• S20 Ultra: Exynos 990 or Snapdragon 865, 12/16GB RAM, 128/512GB storage + microSD, 5000mAh

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is expected to come with the latest hardware. While some will get the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 - others are expected to get the to-be-announced Exynos 2100.

The new Exynos hardware for the S21 Ultra is expected to be announced on 12 January, with Samsung saying "Exynos is back" - so there are high expectations.

The other notable change on the spec sheet might be the omission of the microSD card. This has been a stalwart of Samsung spec sheets for many years, so we're not entirely convinced it will be removed - it would be a shame if it is.

The RAM and storage options aren't expected to be hugely different and it looks like the battery will stay at 5000mAh battery. It's not thought that everyone will be getting chargers in the box, but we're expecting 45W charging support again.

Cameras

• S21 Ultra:
  • Main: 108MP, 0.8µm, f/1.8, laser autofocus, OIS
  • Ultra-wide: 12MP, 1.4µm, f/2.2
  • Telephoto #1: 10MP, 1.22 µm, f/4.9 (5x? 10x?)
  • Telephoto #2: 10MP, 1.22 µm, f/2.4 (3x)
  • Selfie: 40MP, f/2.2
• S20 Ultra:
  • Main: 108MP, 0.8µm, f/1.8, OIS
  • Ultra-wide: 12MP, 1.4µm, f/2.2
  • Telephoto: 48MP, 0.8µm, f/3.5, OIS; 10X Hybrid Optic Zoom
  • Selfie: 40MP

Then Ultra model from Samsung is all about the camera and there's huge range of spec to plow through here. So let's clear out the easy stuff - it looks like there's a single 40-megapixel front camera is going to be the same - and it looks like the ultra-wide is likely to be the same too.

There's been talk about the changes to the main 108-megapixel camera, with reports that this is a new generation of sensor which might bring some performance improvements. But the addition of laser autofocus - as seen in the Note 20 Ultra - aims to address the focus pain points of the S20 Ultra, so that's likely to be a better experience.

There's also a shift in the arrangement of telephoto lenses, with the S21 Ultra thought to offer two telephoto cameras rather than one on the S20 Ultra. That aim here will be to improve zoom performance, likely with a 3x optical, and 5 or 10x optical offering.

Big zoom was one of the features of the S20 Ultra and it looks like the S21 Ultra is going to up the ante for better long-range shooting, but giving dedicated lenses for mid and far range shooting.

Of course, some of the big improvements will come from computational photography, but from a software point of view this could be equally applied to both devices.

Conclusion

A shift in design gives the S21 Ultra a refresh in a device that appears to be much the same size and build as the previous version. There are clear improvements targeted on the camera and they're very welcome, because the S20 Ultra was just a little oversold in its capabilities.

New hardware internally will bring a performance boost with a new generation of hardware, while the display changes will make for a more versatile device thanks to S Pen support - and please those wanting faster refresh rates.

The experience of using these phones is likely to be similar - and we still have no idea on pricing. Yes, the new phone will be more attractive, but the biggest real change to the experience is likely to come from S Pen support.

We'll update this feature once we have confirmed spec following the Galaxy Unpacked launch on 14 January - until that time, the S21 Ultra details remain unconfirmed.

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