Samsung’s latest flagship phone, the Galaxy S21 Ultra, misses one major feature found on less expensive models.
Samsung’s new Galaxy S21 Ultra misses one key feature present on less expensive versions.
Getty Images for Samsung
All three members of Samsung’s new Galaxy S21 range come with impressive cameras but, surprisingly, the most expensive ‘Ultra’ model seems to be the most capable when it comes to video shooting. slow movement.
All three Galaxy S21 phones are capable of delivering 960fps slow motion video, but the Galaxy S21 Ultra cannot record at this speed. Instead, the flagship model records at 480fps and then uses a software-based upgrade to achieve a 960fps output.
The difference, published in a footnote on the Samsung S Galaxy comparison page:
“On Galaxy S21 5G and S21 + 5G, users can record around 0.5 seconds of video captured at 960 fps with around 16 seconds of playback. On the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G, users can record around 1 second of video captured at 480 fps and digitally upgrade the video to 960 fps with approximately 32 seconds of playback. ”
The slow motion capability of the Galaxy S21 Ultra is an unfortunate side effect of the smartphone’s 108-megapixel Isocell HM3 main camera sensor. Talking to Android Police, Samsung has confirmed that this sensor works at a slower combined speed than the main camera sensors found in the smaller S21 models. Instead of artificially limiting the S21 and S21 + to 480 fps, Samsung instead opted to let them run at full speed and offered a 960 fps mode with artificial boost on the S21 Ultra instead.
This means that ultra-slow performance is not as good on the S21 Ultra. However, unless you think slow motion is really essential, the S21 Ultra offers a much more capable camera overall, thanks to higher resolution and advanced zoom performance.
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