Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 11 Pro

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Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 11 Pro

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (with Exynos 2100) that was released on January 14, 2021, against the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, which is powered by Apple A13 Bionic and came out 16 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
  • The rear camera has a 10x optical zoom
  • Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
  • Comes with 1954 mAh larger battery capacity: 5000 vs 3046 mAh
  • Has a 1 inch larger screen size
  • Modern USB Type-C port
  • Delivers 28% higher peak brightness (1023 against 798 nits)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.2)
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5 2750 MHz
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • Thinner bezels – 7.7% more screen real estate
  • 12% higher pixel density (515 vs 458 PPI)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  • Apple releases software updates and supports their phones a few years longer than Samsung
  • Weighs 39 grams less

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and Apple iPhone 11 Pro crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation

Value for money

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.8 inches 5.8 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3200 pixels 1125 x 2436 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 19.5:9
PPI 515 ppi 458 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes No
Max rated brightness 1500 nits 800 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus Tempered glass
Screen-to-body ratio 89.8% 82.1%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space - 99.4%
PWM - 290 Hz
Response time - 7.4 ms
Contrast - ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
1023 nits

Design and build

Height 165.1 mm (6.5 inches) 144 mm (5.67 inches)
Width 75.6 mm (2.98 inches) 71.4 mm (2.81 inches)
Thickness 8.9 mm (0.35 inches) 8.1 mm (0.32 inches)
Weight 227 g (8.01 oz) 188 g (6.63 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Silver, Gray, Blue Silver, Gold, Gray, Dark gray
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Tests of Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and Apple iPhone 11 Pro in the benchmarks
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 2100 Apple A13 Bionic
Max clock 2840 MHz 2650 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2.2 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 3 cores at 2.81 GHz: Cortex-A78
- 1 core at 2.91 GHz: Cortex-X1
- 4 cores at 1.6 GHz: Thunder
- 2 cores at 2.65 GHz: Lightning
Lithography process 5 nanometers 7 nanometers
Graphics Mali-G78 MP14 Apple A13 GPU
GPU shading units 896 256
GPU clock 854 MHz 1230 MHz
FLOPS ~1530.4 GFLOPS ~629.8 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
AnTuTu Benchmark 10
CPU 236566 226983
GPU 255535 280289
Memory 157504 156860
UX 183564 189422
Total score 833650 857444
3DMark Wild Life Performance
Max surface temperature 40.8 °C 44.2 °C
Stability 69% 74%
Graphics test 31 FPS 44 FPS
Graphics score 5221 7455

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12, 16 GB 4 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR4X
Memory clock 2750 MHz -
Channels 2 2
Storage
Storage size 128, 256, 512 GB 64, 256, 512 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 11 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) iOS 13 (Can be upgraded to iOS 17)
ROM One UI 5.1 -
OS size 26.4 GB -

Battery

Capacity 5000 mAh 3046 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 18 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (7.5 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Fast charging Yes (54% in 30 min) Yes (55% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:11 hr 1:42 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 10:13 hr 10:19 hr
Watching video 15:32 hr 12:57 hr
Gaming 05:26 hr 05:52 hr
Standby 98 hr 102 hr
General battery life

Camera

Specs and camera test of smartphones
Main camera
Matrix 108 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 12000 x 9000 4032 x 3024
Zoom Optical, 10x Optical, 2x
Flash Dual LED -
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 24FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 120°
Lenses 4 (108 MP + 10 MP + 10 MP + 12 MP) 3 (12 MP + 12 MP + 12 MP)
Wide (main) lens - 108 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 0.8 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.33", Samsung S5KHM3 (ISOCELL Plus CMOS)
- Laser autofocus
- Optical stabilization
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.55", Apple iSight Camera (CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
Telephoto lens - 10 MP
- Aperture: f/4.9
- Focal length: 240 mm
- Pixel size: 1.22 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.65", Samsung S5K3J1 (ISOCELL CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.0
- Focal length: 52 mm
- Pixel size: 1 micron
- Sensor: 1/3.4" (CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
Ultra-wide lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.55", Sony IMX563 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.4
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Sensor: 1/3.4" (CMOS)
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone 11 Pro from DxOMark
Selfie camera
Megapixels 40 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 7864 x 5200 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm -
Pixel size 0.7 microns -
Sensor type ISOCELL CMOS CMOS
Sensor size 1/2.65" -
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS

DxOMark camera tests

Generic camera score

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
Bluetooth version 5.2 5
Bluetooth features LE, A2DP LE, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C No
USB version 3.2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- USB-Host mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS
NFC * Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM * 2 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support * Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat * 24 18
5G support Yes No

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced January 2021 September 2019
Release date February 2021 September 2019
SAR (head) 0.71 W/kg 0.99 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.58 W/kg 0.99 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
* Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is definitely a better buy.

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