In less than a month, Samsung will unveil its 2021 flagship phones and the Galaxy S21 Ultra will be the star of the show. Several leaks have been floating around, and today’s has been published by WinFuture. Leaks of Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S21-series phones have been landing almost daily and today’s is in the camera department. Samsung is clearly coming for the iPhone 12 Pro Max in every aspect so let’s dissect what the Hexa (six) camera combination is capable of.
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The S21 Ultra will reportedly offer 3x and 10x telephoto cameras (72mm and 240mm equivalent focal lengths, respectively), both with optical image stabilization. That’s one additional rear-facing camera compared to the S20 Ultra’s three rear sensors.
The S21 Ultra’s 10x lens will use a folded optic design like that of the S20’s telephoto camera. We expect that Samsung will once again offer hybrid zoom that reaches much farther than that 10x optical range.
108 Megapixel sensor makes a come bad
The primary camera of the S21 Ultra will be a 108-megapixel camera that will be upgraded to a slightly wider 24mm (versus 26mm) equivalent lens. It will also get laser-assisted autofocus: something that the S20 Ultra didn’t offer but the Note 20 Ultra later introduced. And WinFuture says that despite the main camera sensor’s on-paper similarities to the last generation, this is a new sensor that should offer better image quality than the last.
Samsung will need every advantage to compete with the Huawei Mate 40 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max on the market today. In the past, Samsung has taken more of a hardware-heavy approach to mobile imaging, increasingly using its own house-made sensors rather than grabbing Sony’s off the shelf, and being early to adopt dual- and triple-lens cameras on its devices.
Samsung cannot keep up with Apple and Google’s computational photography prowess and has thus leaned so hard into advanced hardware. Only recently has it come up to par with features like Night Mode. But now it’s another year, and there’s more work to be done to catch up to the Huawei Mate 40 Pro and the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Video may prove to be grounds for Samsung to level the playing field with the competition, too. It’s one area where software can only do so much without the right hardware behind it. Samsung has usually had big specs to tout when it comes to video — the S21 Ultra will offer 8K recording to the 12 Pro Max’s 4K — but the proof will be in the footage. Samsung says it’s committed to continuing to push its capabilities in this area.
No Wall Charger in the box
The WinFuture’s report also spilled some non-camera related details. These specs confirm a 6.8-inch display with variable refresh rates from one to 120Hz, a battery-saving move also adopted from the Note 20 Ultra. There’s also S Pen support, which will be sold separately.
Apple early this year shipped its latest iPhones with no wall chargers in the box and Samsung will also do the same with the S21 devices. We expect the company to copy Apple’s reasoning and cite environmental benefits as the motivation for this change. But the reduction of e-waste is no doubt a good thing, and Samsung’s use of USB-C rather than a proprietary connector scores it even more environmental bonus points since most Android phones use a similar port.
There’s no confirmed launch date or pricing yet for the S21 Ultra, though reports point to an announcement on January 14th.
