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Camera quality gets me thinking to switch to another phone.. Any inputs?

Hi all,
So it has been a week that have XZ1 Compact, but as most of you aware from the forums camera is not very satisfying. I got a chance to use Galaxy S8 for two months prior to XZ1C, which is also a great phone, however I get the XZ1C just like most of us here; for the phone being in a compact size.
So with the disappointing camera, I am very torn between keeping the phone and wait for an update maybe for the issue to be fixed, or return the phone and get the taller S8.
I wonder what other fellow XDA users think on this issue whether the camera quality can be fix or why should I stay with XZ1C or leave it for S8?

i have the s8 and the XZ1C.
in my opinion, the only thing s8 really has that is special is the camera. i also think this is very overblown. most people don't use their camera that much, but it has become a strong focal point of choosing which phone to buy.
s8 has a slew of issues, including the rounded edges on the screen, the laggy interface, incompatible aspect ratio, bluetooth & wifi issues, poor battery life and a locked bootloader.
before asking if the camera is worth going to, ask yourself if the camera really matters that much. sony camera isn't as good as s8, but then again none are. if the camera means that much to you, then you are forced from here on to only buy samsung products. they really do always have the best cameras, but they pretty much suck at everything else. i don't ever miss my s8 now that i've switched. hell, i enjoy my OP5 more than the s8.
EDIT: you wanna buy my s8? lol (not joking)

The XZ1c is a great compact phone. There isn't any other compact comes close. I bought it because it fits in m pocket and I can drive it with one hand. That's why I love it.
Sure I am disappointed that it can't do close up's, but I have been using the camera a couple of weeks and for all the outdoor stuff and landscapes, it's brilliant. I think people have made too much of an issue about the distortion.
If you're asking the thread if you should get another phone, why not ask yourself what you're going to do with the phone.?
Is it going to fit in a pocket?
Are you going to be taking close up pictures of keyboards?
The sound chip is outstanding, as is the video camera and there's nothing comes close to out performing the battery life, there are so many things that this phone does right.
£500 for qualcomm 835, you're not going to beat that.

I find the issue with the camera is that you can't "just get it out and snap a pic" then expect the result to be something good every time.
With the S8 (and S7, and recent iPhones, and the Pixels) you can do that and most of the time you have a very decent picture.
On the flip side if im careful when taking the picture (mainly making sure there is zero shaking, exposure being correct, etc), the result is generally of higher quality, as long as it's not in low light. I can't easily reproduce the results with the S7/8/iPhone at least.
I suspect that whenever this gets OIS (or they somehow do even better magic with the EIS) this might solves most of this.. (XZ2C?!) but so far, it's not really as good in the "snap and boom decent pic" area.
Finally, I currently own a S7 and while the pic quality is a little less good than the S8 it performs admirably. I'm very tempted to switch full time to the XZ1C and sell the S7 though, because as other said, the XZ1C is better *everywhere else*.

I own XZ1c for 4 days now and annoyed by the camera too. 2 problems on the camera which I found followed by its solution:
1) Distortion problem. I have read various sources, it is due to wide angle lens that caused this, and this issue found too in other phones like Samsung S7 or LG G6. There is 2 solutions from what I know which is a) a software update from Sony that adds an additional step in post photo processing that corrects the distortion, and b) manual correction via software like Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop with 'lens correction' tool.
2) Dark photos during low light environment, in superior auto mode. I managed to get better photo by a) adjust 'colour and brightness' in the setting, or b) switch to manual mode and increase the 'EV' attribute.
Hope it helps.

WaxysDargle said:
i have the s8 and the XZ1C.
in my opinion, the only thing s8 really has that is special is the camera. i also think this is very overblown. most people don't use their camera that much, but it has become a strong focal point of choosing which phone to buy.
s8 has a slew of issues, including the rounded edges on the screen, the laggy interface, incompatible aspect ratio, bluetooth & wifi issues, poor battery life and a locked bootloader.
before asking if the camera is worth going to, ask yourself if the camera really matters that much. sony camera isn't as good as s8, but then again none are. if the camera means that much to you, then you are forced from here on to only buy samsung products. they really do always have the best cameras, but they pretty much suck at everything else. i don't ever miss my s8 now that i've switched. hell, i enjoy my OP5 more than the s8.
EDIT: you wanna buy my s8? lol (not joking)
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Click to collapse
I have the S8, have it set up with Nova Launcher, turned all animations to.05 & set the speed on Nova Launcher to the fastest. Got rid of all the bloat ware. This phone flies. It's a great phone with a little doctoring. Saying that I'm still getting the XZ1 Compact, the phone is the perfect size. Just wish the damn phone had FM Radio & more internal storage. 32 just isn't enough for today's apps.
Vinny [emoji631]
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

The distortion is annoying if you tafe photos that are straight like a building for example. in other cases you wonto notice unless its a close up foto. So yes, it is annoying. there is a rumor sony will improve this, but thats it, just rumor.
Overall the xz1c makes fotos almost as good as the s8 in daylight conditions. You can prove my statement useing the compare tool from gsmarena.
It is in the night that the thing goes bad to the Xz1c. But anyway im still kinda satisfied with its capability in night mode. definetly not good as the s8 i8, but its not bad either. You have to think how important is that to you.

vinnyjr said:
I have the S8, have it set up with Nova Launcher, turned all animations to.05 & set the speed on Nova Launcher to the fastest. Got rid of all the bloat ware. This phone flies. It's a great phone with a little doctoring. Saying that I'm still getting the XZ1 Compact, the phone is the perfect size. Just wish the damn phone had FM Radio & more internal storage. 32 just isn't enough for today's apps.
Vinny [emoji631]
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i also noted a big improvement on my s8 after some extreme debloating via ADB. performance was definitely not the worst thing about the phone. i can deal with occasional hiccups.
for me, the worst thing is the screen. my ear pressing buttons while on a call, accidental grazes on the edges and loss of the corner utility because of the roundness and curved nature. looks cool, but not practical once used. it's a beautiful device, but i never could figure out exactly how to hold it securely and still remain functional.
oh, and the speaker on that thing! i've heard mouse farts that could drown out max volume on the s8.

The only thing I don't like with the camera is the slow autofocus. The feature of holding the shutter button to take many pictures quickly apparently focuses between each shot, so why can't the first single shot have a faster autofocus?

I've just looked at my pictures on the computer and holy ****, the quality is horrible for anything not taken outdoors. Just wow. The one thing holding me from unlocking the bootloader was what I thought were the camera improvements by Sony's DRM keys, but since that does nearly nothing to the quality of the pics, I may just do it whenever there's an AOSP rom available.

android_fury said:
I may just do it whenever there's an AOSP rom available.
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Click to collapse
They've been available for a while now.

legendnexus said:
Hi all,
So it has been a week that have XZ1 Compact, but as most of you aware from the forums camera is not very satisfying. I got a chance to use Galaxy S8 for two months prior to XZ1C, which is also a great phone, however I get the XZ1C just like most of us here; for the phone being in a compact size.
So with the disappointing camera, I am very torn between keeping the phone and wait for an update maybe for the issue to be fixed, or return the phone and get the taller S8.
I wonder what other fellow XDA users think on this issue whether the camera quality can be fix or why should I stay with XZ1C or leave it for S8?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you don't like the phone, just get another one. You won't find one where you like every aspect, so you'll have to priorize.
Regarding fixing the issues, yes, that's entirely possible.
The distortion comes from the wide-angle lense used and can be corrected in software.
The blur and loss of detail is part of Sony's smoothing algorithms and could be turned off in software.
Also, regarding the distortion: https://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xper...as-serious-distortion-issue/m-p/1271268#M7658

4rz0 said:
If you don't like the phone, just get another one. You won't find one where you like every aspect, so you'll have to priorize.
Regarding fixing the issues, yes, that's entirely possible.
The distortion comes from the wide-angle lense used and can be corrected in software.
The blur and loss of detail is part of Sony's smoothing algorithms and could be turned off in software.
Also, regarding the distortion: https://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xper...as-serious-distortion-issue/m-p/1271268#M7658
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, that message sounds promising. Lets see what the update has to bring us

In the XZP oreo update, aside from camera distortion fix, there is also addition of 3D scan feature which previously only limited to XZ1 series. And if this is the update pattern, to let all recent series capable of running the sama feature, I am sure camera fix for XZ1 will come in next update.
The other thing I really hope for in next update is tap to wake feature, which shall very handy in real life usage experience.

General Snapdragon 888 vs Exynos 2100 after latest updates

I know there are already a few threads for the same discussion ,
But I am making this thread for a healthy discussion on what's better between Snapdragon 888 and Exynos 2100 after the latest software updates for both models .
There are youtube reviews that are contradictory to each other
1) Mrwhosetheboss says Snapdragon is way better and Exynos is heating like crazy.
Also in camera sd>exynos
2) The tech chap on the other hand says Exynos to be faster and cooler .
Let's discuss

I am planning to buy the s21 ultra over the OnePlus 9 pro just because I am getting it at the same price as OnePlus 9 pro ,
Also the software on OnePlus is always going to be buggy and an update to fix one issue will create more bugs .

aj7400 said:
I know there are already a few threads for the same discussion ,
But I am making this thread for a healthy discussion on what's better between Snapdragon 888 and Exynos 2100 after the latest software updates for both models .
There are youtube reviews that are contradictory to each other
1) Mrwhosetheboss says Snapdragon is way better and Exynos is heating like crazy.
Also in camera sd>exynos
2) The tech chap on the other hand says Exynos to be faster and cooler .
Let's discuss
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After my experience with the Exynos, I'm far more inclined to believe the Tech Chap. I've had no issues with thermal throttling, and my phone sits most of the time at between 28 and 32 degrees when being used under normal circumstances (browsing, light camera use etc). I've also run the benchmarks he ran and got pretty much the same results. I'm very happy with it.
I strongly suspect that boss geezer just had bad luck and picked up an Exynos model with a bad SOC. The difference between the two is he didn't buy another to rule that out.

Beefheart said:
After my experience with the Exynos, I'm far more inclined to believe the Tech Chap. I've had no issues with thermal throttling, and my phone sits most of the time at between 28 and 32 degrees when being used under normal circumstances (browsing, light camera use etc). I've also run the benchmarks he ran and got pretty much the same results. I'm very happy with it.
I strongly suspect that boss geezer just had bad luck and picked up an Exynos model with a bad SOC. The difference between the two is he didn't buy another to rule that out.
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What's the ambient temperature in your area?

aj7400 said:
What's the ambient temperature in your area?
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Like both Youtubers in this thread, I'm in England so it's not hot at the moment.
Ambient temp makes a difference, but my experience of mobile phones in the UK over the last 25+ years, not massively so.

Beefheart said:
Like both Youtubers in this thread, I'm in England so it's not hot at the moment.
Ambient temp makes a difference, but my experience of mobile phones in the UK over the last 25+ years, not massively so.
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I live in a area where the temperatures are like 40°C for like 8 months and 10°C for 4 months ..
At 40°C ambient temps even apple iphones break their sweat and throttle.

aj7400 said:
I live in a area where the temperatures are like 40°C for like 8 months and 10°C for 4 months ..
At 40°C ambient temps even apple iphones break their sweat and throttle.
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Click to collapse
You say even Apple iPhones but they're dogs**t when it comes to thermal dissipation, in particular the more recent ones.
All I can say is that this phone is no worse than any others I've had when it comes to thermals, and seems to be better than most of them.

After I contemplated a lot, I went for it and purchased the EXYNOS version as I live in Europe and the Snapdragon seems to be Single SIM, so no point ordering it from Amazon.
Mrwhostheboss either had a faulty unit or at the time of his video, the update he put wasn't enough to fix the software issues.
Mine works fine, no overheating (gets a bit warm when doing heavier tasks, ~22c ambient room temps), no camera problems or glitches, all seems good. The camera quality is pretty fine too, although it did definitely improve further after I installed the last update. When I tested the camera out of the box, it was all weird.
Battery life for me is quite fine as well. At the time of writing this message I got SOT 1h45m and battery is at 78%. Plenty of apps installed, Dual SIMs active. AOD active.
I also have the Dr. Ketan ROM with root, AFWall and etc. So I slightly debloated the useless stuff.
I am satisfied with the EXYNOS, and although I have no way to test them next to each other, I'm sure that If the SNAP is better in some ways, it is NOT in others, like NO DUAL SIM.... And for sure if there is anything left to fix on the EXYNOS, they will fix it with the upcoming updates.
But again, if you buy an EXYNOS, make sure you do it right. Start it, install all your apps, make sure you update it to the latest firmware version and then start testing it. If it has problems, factory reset it and return it for a new one.
Good luck!!!

babyboy3265 said:
After I contemplated a lot, I went for it and purchased the EXYNOS version as I live in Europe and the Snapdragon seems to be Single SIM, so no point ordering it from Amazon.
Mrwhostheboss either had a faulty unit or at the time of his video, the update he put wasn't enough to fix the software issues.
Mine works fine, no overheating (gets a bit warm when doing heavier tasks, ~22c ambient room temps), no camera problems or glitches, all seems good. The camera quality is pretty fine too, although it did definitely improve further after I installed the last update. When I tested the camera out of the box, it was all weird.
Battery life for me is quite fine as well. At the time of writing this message I got SOT 1h45m and battery is at 78%. Plenty of apps installed, Dual SIMs active. AOD active.
I also have the Dr. Ketan ROM with root, AFWall and etc. So I slightly debloated the useless stuff.
I am satisfied with the EXYNOS, and although I have no way to test them next to each other, I'm sure that If the SNAP is better in some ways, it is NOT in others, like NO DUAL SIM.... And for sure if there is anything left to fix on the EXYNOS, they will fix it with the upcoming updates.
But again, if you buy an EXYNOS, make sure you do it right. Start it, install all your apps, make sure you update it to the latest firmware version and then start testing it. If it has problems, factory reset it and return it for a new one.
Good luck!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In india there is nothing as return ..
Once paid the device is yours till it has some major issues and they are just repaired ,
Unfortunately We cannot return it for a refund here in india .
That is why thinking twice before buying .

I have no overheating problems with my Exynos unit. Phone idles at around 25-30degC.

Yo bro,
Listen, avoid YouTube reviews. Bro these ppl are just benefiting from these kindda arguments and stuff.
I had the s21 ultra 512 and i sold it coz i have literally watched every single review out there and was too worried i might have been scammed or made the wrong choice.
After talking to some ppl here i bought it again and this time i made sure i cleared my search history lol and never ever to watch a thing.
It is not SD888 but it is close, it has good battery, cameras are barely any difference between them. If you game a lot you should really just buy a different phone just for gaming.
The screen is phenomenal.
Bro i live in Kuwait, temps here reach 55°....until now i have not experienced any extreme heating issues.
My advice to you, don't listen to anything, the device is amazing...yes it lacks behind the SD888 but for me it's the better pick.. i get warranty for a year and a trade on later or i can even sell it and not lose while the imported is basically non sellable here.
So weigh things out and decide, once you decide do not regret. Do not hesitate it's just a phone, if you have a slight doubt avoid it and wait for a different phone.
Goodluck.

aj7400 said:
I know there are already a few threads for the same discussion ,
But I am making this thread for a healthy discussion on what's better between Snapdragon 888 and Exynos 2100 after the latest software updates for both models .
There are youtube reviews that are contradictory to each other
1) Mrwhosetheboss says Snapdragon is way better and Exynos is heating like crazy.
Also in camera sd>exynos
2) The tech chap on the other hand says Exynos to be faster and cooler .
Let's discuss
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Camera has improved on the exynos with updates, personally I still feel low light video and photos are just ok, but anything in decent light is great, and I don't have anything other than a pixel 3 to compare to, so not a fair fight as the camera tech on that is old.
In regards to the video, mr whos the boss was using antutu for temperatures and it's well known that at that time it couldn't read exynos temps properly. When I had antutu, it showed around 40 degrees, but CPU monitor was around 25 degrees
I've got the exynos and had no real issues to date, battery life is sometimes great, sometime ok, but more than enough to do me from morning to night with my usage. Other than that can't complain at all

Should wait for the xiaomi's launch today?
mtm1401 said:
Camera has improved on the exynos with updates, personally I still feel low light video and photos are just ok, but anything in decent light is great, and I don't have anything other than a pixel 3 to compare to, so not a fair fight as the camera tech on that is old.
In regards to the video, mr whos the boss was using antutu for temperatures and it's well known that at that time it couldn't read exynos temps properly. When I had antutu, it showed around 40 degrees, but CPU monitor was around 25 degrees
I've got the exynos and had no real issues to date, battery life is sometimes great, sometime ok, but more than enough to do me from morning to night with my usage. Other than that can't complain at all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Berserker900 said:
Yo bro,
Listen, avoid YouTube reviews. Bro these ppl are just benefiting from these kindda arguments and stuff.
I had the s21 ultra 512 and i sold it coz i have literally watched every single review out there and was too worried i might have been scammed or made the wrong choice.
After talking to some ppl here i bought it again and this time i made sure i cleared my search history lol and never ever to watch a thing.
It is not SD888 but it is close, it has good battery, cameras are barely any difference between them. If you game a lot you should really just buy a different phone just for gaming.
The screen is phenomenal.
Bro i live in Kuwait, temps here reach 55°....until now i have not experienced any extreme heating issues.
My advice to you, don't listen to anything, the device is amazing...yes it lacks behind the SD888 but for me it's the better pick.. i get warranty for a year and a trade on later or i can even sell it and not lose while the imported is basically non sellable here.
So weigh things out and decide, once you decide do not regret. Do not hesitate it's just a phone, if you have a slight doubt avoid it and wait for a different phone.
Goodluck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

mtm1401 said:
Camera has improved on the exynos with updates, personally I still feel low light video and photos are just ok, but anything in decent light is great, and I don't have anything other than a pixel 3 to compare to, so not a fair fight as the camera tech on that is old.
In regards to the video, mr whos the boss was using antutu for temperatures and it's well known that at that time it couldn't read exynos temps properly. When I had antutu, it showed around 40 degrees, but CPU monitor was around 25 degrees
I've got the exynos and had no real issues to date, battery life is sometimes great, sometime ok, but more than enough to do me from morning to night with my usage. Other than that can't complain at all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That temp thing with Antutu makes sense, I was worried when I first got my phone as it was listing my CPU temperature in the low 50s but then I installed CPU Monitor and it showed it was around 30 degrees. Maybe MrWhosTheBoss should have done a bit more research.
It's funny reading the comments on that video. Thousands of people talking about the S21 Ultra being rubbish on Exynos without having the first clue what they're talking about. It goes to show how a badly made video can really effect how a phone is perceived.

Beefheart said:
That temp thing with Antutu makes sense, I was worried when I first got my phone as it was listing my CPU temperature in the low 50s but then I installed CPU Monitor and it showed it was around 30 degrees. Maybe MrWhosTheBoss should have done a bit more research.
It's funny reading the comments on that video. Thousands of people talking about the S21 Ultra being rubbish on Exynos without having the first clue what they're talking about. It goes to show how a badly made video can really effect how a phone is perceived.
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Click to collapse
Exactly and there is me researching this from a week before buying it .
Also tried to stress the camera on the demo unit at a samsung store , but it was warm to touch but not at all hot ..
By the way , as OnePlus markets their 9 pro with 5 layer cooling system , how's the cooling on s21 ultra?

JerryRigEverything did a teardown, but it's the SD varient. I'm not sure if the cooling solution on Exynos differs.

aj7400 said:
Exactly and there is me researching this from a week before buying it .
Also tried to stress the camera on the demo unit at a samsung store , but it was warm to touch but not at all hot ..
By the way , as OnePlus markets their 9 pro with 5 layer cooling system , how's the cooling on s21 ultra?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Samsung is much more aggressive with its thermal throttling than the mi 11 (A good thing or a bad thing depending on what you want in a phone), don't know about the oneplus or how effective it's cooling system actually is (could just be a gimmick/branding, but I don't know).
I would say from what I've seen, s21u has better battery, genuine adaptive refresh, marginally photos cameras but much more versatile camera array, better software.
Mi11 better charging and sustained gaming
Early oneplus reviews have middling battery life, but an educated guess that they haven't enabled the variable refresh yet on the pro, as it seems to last the same amount of time as the base model.
In all honesty, if you aren't sure, wait a month or so for the 'long term' reviews, then you will get a better idea of the final product

mtm1401 said:
The Samsung is much more aggressive with its thermal throttling than the mi 11 (A good thing or a bad thing depending on what you want in a phone), don't know about the oneplus or how effective it's cooling system actually is (could just be a gimmick/branding, but I don't know).
I would say from what I've seen, s21u has better battery, genuine adaptive refresh, marginally photos cameras but much more versatile camera array, better software.
Mi11 better charging and sustained gaming
Early oneplus reviews have middling battery life, but an educated guess that they haven't enabled the variable refresh yet on the pro, as it seems to last the same amount of time as the base model.
In all honesty, if you aren't sure, wait a month or so for the 'long term' reviews, then you will get a better idea of the final product
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am getting the s21 u e2100 today .. let's hope I get a good silicon compared to what some people have got

I seriously have a feeling that both versions of the phone are nearly identical in performance and camera quality. The primary reason why we see so many threads regarding heat issues, app crash issues or battery issues are not necessarily due to the versions of the phone that are being used (Exynos or Snapdragon)... But instead, I think that this is mainly due to the fact that a lot of Samsung's phone sales are to people who aren't very tech friendly....at all...
I mean, think of Apple's iPhone market. What percentage of their customers are tech geniuses who know everything about complete device care and optimization? I'd say, near me in the US, maybe about 3-5% of their customers... And with that said, you have to keep in mind that Samsung is the most Apple equivalent company in sales numbers for Android devices in the US. So probably only about 1-2% of their phone customers actually know what the heck they're doing.
So (internally thought lol) truth be told, I don't think one variant is better than the other. I just think that we need to keep in mind the fact that the Samsung phone market is packed to the gills with customers who don't know much at all regarding the technology that's used or how it works/can be optimized or made better. Luckily for us on this particular thread, we probably don't run into the aforementioned issues as we're likely all people who actually know how to use, care for and optimize a damn smart phone lol.
Side note: this was a long comment, so my apologies.
*Edit* - To respond to @aj7400 without wasting more post space :
The US isn't really a particularly cold area. It's just a much bigger area. So there are certainly some states where the temperature stays cold for a while... But there are tons of other places where it stays over 23°C all year round (and a few states where it stays above 33°C all year). So overall, I still believe that these issues are just coming up due to a severe lack of knowledge =(. But the good thing for you is that you actually appear to know what the deal is, hence why you're here on XDA. Thanks for being here =). But ya see what I mean? You were aware of the slightly warmer temperature of the S21U and you were aware of the fact that you live in a hot area. Therefore, you're not constantly complaining about the phone being borked out of the box, but instead, you're looking for potential solutions. Kudos!

NippleSauce said:
I seriously have a feeling that both versions of the phone are nearly identical in performance and camera quality. The primary reason why we see so many threads regarding heat issues, app crash issues or battery issues are not necessarily due to the versions of the phone that are being used (Exynos or Snapdragon)... But instead, I think that this is mainly due to the fact that a lot of Samsung's phone sales are to people who aren't very tech friendly....at all...
I mean, think of Apple's iPhone market. What percentage of their customers are tech geniuses who know everything about complete device care and optimization? I'd say, near me in the US, maybe about 3-5% of their customers... And with that said, you have to keep in mind that Samsung is the most Apple equivalent company in sales numbers for Android devices in the US. So probably only about 1-2% of their phone customers actually know what the heck they're doing.
So (internally thought lol) truth be told, I don't think one variant is better than the other. I just think that we need to keep in mind the fact that the Samsung phone market is packed to the gills with customers who don't know much at all regarding the technology that's used or how it works/can be optimized or made better.
Side note: this was a long comment, so my apologies.
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That's allright ,
But imo apple is from day 1 producing good chips and their optimization is top notch ,
And samsung in US is just offering Snapdragon .
That's the main reason people are not complaining about both , and they don't care what are the specs in their phone .
Also US is a relatively cold area so not much is going around throttling issues .
I live in india where highest temps reach 45°C , where the real problem of thermal throttling arise .
So I care much about these things .

This will be my first Samsung in a while

here's the minireview (after i bought it so late, knowing there's no Note21 coming, and written some summary about rooting):
Looks: who cares, it's hidden in the case, every phone nowadays looks the same. Thou naked, Note10 is the hottest phone, and this one looks similar to it. How does it help? You can enjoy it on the internet, like a window shopper. Your ugly case will decide its fate! For truly unique look,. get a foldable.
Body: heavy as hell, what can I say. Ultraultrathin case on the way to compensate. You have three choices: X-Level case, pitaka case, or give up. I miss the Bixby button to program it in Xposed Edge and there's no Lockdown option anywhere. On 1+ I could use unique wakelock geatures or unique fingerprint menu to trigger some stuff. Here there's no immediate shortcuts unfortunately.
Battery: hesitated for a month reading horror stories about battery. With A11, root, usual wakelocks (AOD, dt2wake, raise2wake), bluetooth & location tracking & VPN running nonstop and 1:1 data and 200 apps as on all past phones, and even without 1+ aggressive RAM cleanup, i must claim the battery is fantastic on Exynos. 3 days easy with my relaxed usage, which is just like OnePlus 6-7-8 I used to have.
Charging: pretty fast for a single battery. You saw the results on gsmarena. Not bad for an emergency topup. Highly compatible with many chargers (unlike 1+). Of course it can't match 8T or 1+9 speed, but very close to 8Pro. But you have tons of chargers around the world at your disposal. Shame on 1+ for this "Apple" type of strategy. In my huge collection of cables and USB testers I have just one of each which supports "Warp". I charged each 1+ at 8W thanks to this as I refuse proprietary methods. Still I did have their Qi charger to celebrate the addition of Qi, and interestingly Note20 won't charge from it.
Fingerprint: better than S10, potentially faster than Oneplus, however it's killed by a massive sluggish response to unlocking. Simply put, finger is recognized very fast but then there's a huge delay til screen is unlocked or app accepts it!
Camera: took an hour to carefully analyze few pics made in the same place, under 2x zoom I couldn't fault it and only found issues on 1+ side. The 1+ 8Pro, which is my reference flagship of 2020, featured issues: yellow tint, massive hair artifacts which look like compression, massive transition artifacts (like a botched Bokeh on a picture which is not even portrait mode!), less detail in each pic, lot of extra noise, highlight clipping. On the other side, this Note didn't have any issue. I'm bit shocked, i expected more balanced battle. Not like 10:0 for Samsung. It's just one mode tested: AUTO on main camera. Nothing else matters because thats how pics are made by people (that's what Xperia owners don't get: "but but you need to use the Pro mode" ). I don't make pics, but i can see the phone will be inheritable within family very easily as they love cameras.
Software: bloated into oblivion, had a lot of work with the guide so expect some serious time burnt on debloating this monster as 1+ owners laugh into your face. Rooting and updating will be only with cable and via Odin, as you can't even enter recovery and DL mode without PC anymore. So the sd card will not save your arse when abroad. However unlocking bootloader is without "agreement", so the warranty is still valid in EU. As bragged earlier, lot of functionality forces you to login and the account demands even your phone number aaaaand I couldn't even fake email and phone! They're so dedicated to capture your real identity so it's best to stay logged out. Even the frikking wallpapers which are ugly this season cannot be changed. But on the other side, the OneUI OS gives you way more than bland 1+ or Xperias, there's always some extra for you. Like the hints in Settings, one hand use, the SmartStay, the cool magnifier, the Spen actions, voice control of camera, camera minivideos, the kid mode, the notif reminder, e-z split screen, the conversation bubbles, richer AOD, rotating wallpaper, Bixby routines, Edge panel etc. Notifbar is full of shortcuts which usually indicates how rich OS is. There are even apps, like video or song browser, something that no longer exists in many OS. Notably the firewall is missing. So overall, after debloating it's stronger perhaps more productive than those vanilla OSes. I love the split screen can be done with dragging from Edge panel.
Speed: massive improvement vs s10 generation i'd say. For the first time, i see Samsung device can be snappy. But don't expect 1+ speed, it's not THAT fast. It's still just Exynos. I even noticed lagging animations here and there, but it's not nonstop like on gen10.
Display: 8Pro and Note20 were rated as the best displays by several ranking agencies and im not paranoid enough to claim their rankings are bogus. Just like i don't hate Dxomark or even positives boasting DisplayMate. Having quite many flagships in past I can see Samsung is always more readable than any other brand. I appreciate the brightness during the day and night. It doesn't force you to increase brightness manually every single night. Now the dark environment use: the backbleeding isn't obtrusive like on Tab S* or OLED TVs, it doesn't have status bar burnt like 8Pro, and it's pretty uniform. With gray color and low brightness I could see the screen blink once which was scary but couldn't replicate it anymore. Well in any case, we do NEED new display technology to replace this pulsating OLED nonsense. No problem with swiping like on Xperia5ii or ZFlip, not many mistouches, the curve is gentle. The resolution is limited at 120Hz but I will say it again: i cannot see more pixels or any detail better under physical magnifier. FullHD is better than Xperia1ii [email protected] any time that's why I couldn't buy that Sony. I do lower resolution on every phone, incl 8Pro which can run 2K @120Hz.
Network: another improvement since S10 is improved network, just like notebookcheck reports, it's in back to top league with 8Pro. WAN speed averages for me: 482/290 on Note20U, 440/234 on 1+8Pro, 481/147 on S10. Pure WiFi AC speed averages were 600/709, 648/706, 610/696 respectively. Making S10 quite good for LAN despite initial horrible S10,S10+,Note10,Note10+ results on notebookcheck, well i'm testing them in same exact position at the same time, so my results are more real at this point.
SD card: nothing exciting here happened over a decide except when they remove this feature. No advancements were made to utilize UHS2 or UHS1+ speed of Extreme cards. Benchmark is 61MBs, so it's not capped like Xperia to 30MBs. Again, can't use sd card to recover your ROM, but rather to store encrypted backups (from OAndbackup currently as 3C can't encrypt and TitaniumBackup is dead).
Overall gen.10 Samsung owners (S10,S10+,Note10,Note10+) have every reason to update their midrangers. Others will buy S21 as it's finally got a decent Exynos. I personally won't buy 227 frikking gram brick without sd card. For 1+ owners it's a preference of freedom to root, (insert "irrational" in EU) fear of losing warranty, "i'm tired with Samsung", properietary charging (1+), sd card, too much bloat, lot of extras vs vanilla etc. Both are strong flagships, didn't expect such good battery and camera result here. After disappointing Z Flip and Xperia5ii, and a decent pause in Samsung ownership (I didn't keep Note9 and S10 for myself so my last longterm device was S8) i'm keeping this as a main driver. I can clean it up very well, there's no snitching, there's zero Samsung connections active and battery clearly proves it. So for rooted users this device is a gem. Nema problema.

Thanks for sharing.
Keep in mind that it's just your personal opinion, and other users might have different opinions.

There is a note 21 coming. Not sure where you got that from but they said it some timr ago when rumors started circulating that a new note IS comimg
And how the hell are you getting 3 days of use?! When i use my phone super light for two days i barley make it to thr second night and even somethimes i need to give it few mins of juice in thr car or somwhere just so i can make it. And that id with very light use.
What bloat are you reffering too, do tou have a contract pgone or sim free? I have sim free and the only bloat i have is the odd sammy software that i occasionally rven use.
Ps. OneUI is not an OS but skin.
Re speed i am an owner od s10, note21 and s21 and i see verry little differrnce between thr s10 and note21, although i do not play games but i use photoshop, lightroom, drawing software and some other similar there is not much difference to say it is massive. There is, it is normal but not massive for sure and all 3 phones feel snappy as hell. Started using sammy with the s7 again and from that point on one from each generation and all felth at their time spanny and very goos.
The only bad thing i have expirianced with my s10 is wifi connectivity, it was poor compared even to my older phones, and with the note 20 ultra 4G is very VERY poor. Or the regular pgone signal. I constantly loose wifi or 4G in places where my other friends do not on all 3 of my phones since the s10 including my note 20 ultra.
As a previous one plus owner i can tell you that the only difference in quality for comparing Oneplus and samsung is thr camera. Nothing else. Onepkus makes solid phones, and they are getting expensive to a point where you comoare them with the top hitters of samsung but the camera is light years behind, there are not even in the same ballpark to compare there.

It_ler said:
Thanks for sharing.
Keep in mind that it's just your personal opinion, and other users might have different opinions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No harm in having different opinions we are all different people after all.

tixooo said:
There is a note 21 coming. Not sure where you got that from but they said it some timr ago when rumors started circulating that a new note IS comimg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well..that's a rumor agains rumor
tixooo said:
And how the hell are you getting 3 days of use?! When i use my phone super light for two days i barley make it to thr second night and even somethimes i need to give it few mins of juice in thr car or somwhere just so i can make it. And that id with very light use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah im also lightly using the phone.. but it's nonstop connected to PC and watches, VPN, location tracking, all typical wakelocks on. After time, I'd say it's the same as you describe, 3rd day so so. But it's way better than as people described on the forums "horrible Exynos battery". It scared me away from buying for a good month.
tixooo said:
What bloat are you reffering too, do tou have a contract pgone or sim free? I have sim free and the only bloat i have is the odd sammy software that i occasionally rven use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well there was a link to debloat. Of course, Samsung is still the leader in bloatware. Heavily bloated like always.
tixooo said:
Ps. OneUI is not an OS but skin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
let's not nitpick. We could say the same about Linux distros etc. The whole user facing solution is the OS.
tixooo said:
Re speed i am an owner od s10, note21 and s21 and i see verry little differrnce between thr s10 and note21, although i do not play games but i use photoshop, lightroom, drawing software and some other similar there is not much difference to say it is massive. There is, it is normal but not massive for sure and all 3 phones feel snappy as hell. Started using sammy with the s7 again and from that point on one from each generation and all felth at their time spanny and very goos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had S7 to S10, but it wasn't snappy at all. This is first time it feels that way, thou vanilla OSes like Oxygen are snappier and stutterless. Sure enough i will like newer CPU on newer models, but I just did a sanity check - it is quite snappy.
tixooo said:
The only bad thing i have expirianced with my s10 is wifi connectivity, it was poor compared even to my older phones, and with the note 20 ultra 4G is very VERY poor. Or the regular pgone signal. I constantly loose wifi or 4G in places where my other friends do not on all 3 of my phones since the s10 including my note 20 ultra.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, that was one problem fixed with Note20. No more moaning from my family about Wifi once upgraded S10->Note20. Connectivity good overall.
tixooo said:
As a previous one plus owner i can tell you that the only difference in quality for comparing Oneplus and samsung is thr camera. Nothing else. Onepkus makes solid phones, and they are getting expensive to a point where you comoare them with the top hitters of samsung but the camera is light years behind, there are not even in the same ballpark to compare there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's only one difference. The main difference for me is the software. This is where OnePlus saves money, by not inveting a penny to enrich the experience and add some productivity gains. This is where OneUI OS shines.

You made a good choice.
The only other one I would consider is the N10+.
I use the SD card as a data drive. You need a V30 rated card for top transfer speeds.
Sorry Sammy, no SD card, no sale

blackhawk said:
You made a good choice.
The only other one I would consider is the N10+.
I use the SD card as a data drive. You need a V30 rated card for top transfer speeds.
Sorry Sammy, no SD card, no sale
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have an SD card, in one of Note20 and Ultra, and it's slow just like in every other mobile (apparently there's no device/appliance with higher speed than 90MBs UHS1 cap other than PC/DSLR - e.g. Sandisk Extreme a.k.a. UHS1+ or UHS2). I mean V30 is very slow to me, both sequential and random access. Given the terrible latency a.k.a. 4K speed, i wouldn't use the SD card for anything but backups and static dead files like music/videos. SD cards are a complete joke versus UFS. Also 60Hz screen, not for me, but OK for the person who received Note20 after S10 and never experienced the 120Hz heaven))

doggydog2 said:
i have an SD card, in one of Note20 and Ultra, and it's slow just like in every other mobile (apparently there's no device/appliance with higher speed than 90MBs UHS1 cap other than PC/DSLR - e.g. Sandisk Extreme a.k.a. UHS1+ or UHS2). I mean V30 is very slow to me, both sequential and random access. Given the terrible latency a.k.a. 4K speed, i wouldn't use the SD card for anything but backups and static dead files like music/videos. SD cards are a complete joke versus UFS. Also 60Hz screen, not for me, but OK for the person who received Note20 after S10 and never experienced the 120Hz heaven))
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the N10+ the V30 is around it's top transfer speeds, the N20 is probably good for more.
The N10+ comes with Pie so no scope storage or the other Q nasties.
Lol, 60hz is 30hz faster than I was raised on being a 60's TV child... I'm not greedy

doggydog2 said:
well..that's a rumor agains rumor
yeah im also lightly using the phone.. but it's nonstop connected to PC and watches, VPN, location tracking, all typical wakelocks on. After time, I'd say it's the same as you describe, 3rd day so so. But it's way better than as people described on the forums "horrible Exynos battery". It scared me away from buying for a good month.
well there was a link to debloat. Of course, Samsung is still the leader in bloatware. Heavily bloated like always.
let's not nitpick. We could say the same about Linux distros etc. The whole user facing solution is the OS.
Had S7 to S10, but it wasn't snappy at all. This is first time it feels that way, thou vanilla OSes like Oxygen are snappier and stutterless. Sure enough i will like newer CPU on newer models, but I just did a sanity check - it is quite snappy.
Hmm, that was one problem fixed with Note20. No more moaning from my family about Wifi once upgraded S10->Note20. Connectivity good overall.
Well, that's only one difference. The main difference for me is the software. This is where OnePlus saves money, by not inveting a penny to enrich the experience and add some productivity gains. This is where OneUI OS shines.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where are you from, and is your phonr sim free or not?because my pgone is sim free and i have close to zero bloat (except the odd sammy rmail, web browser etc. That i do not consider bloat). For me personally everything google is bloat that you cant remove (i do not like google as you can see )
Unless you are not sim free the phone it self was pretty clean when i purchased it no adds, no usless software (except 1-2 samsung things that i do not use and cant remove) but that is their pgone... It is to be expected to see their software on it.
Re the battery... To be fair i stopped listening to reviewers and people on the net lomg time ago, turns out many are biased towards this or that and tou cant really get the true story. I am extreamly happy with my battery and my camera, two points that are heavily criticized on the forums anywhere and by reviewers.
I still own s7, s8 and s10... And even now if they are not packed with software they hry are not that bad, but during their prime time they were as snappy as ever dor me. Might be a sim free vs not i do not know. All my phomes are sim free.

tixooo said:
Where are you from, and is your phonr sim free or not?because my pgone is sim free and i have close to zero bloat (except the odd sammy rmail, web browser etc. That i do not consider bloat). For me personally everything google is bloat that you cant remove (i do not like google as you can see )
Unless you are not sim free the phone it self was pretty clean when i purchased it no adds, no usless software (except 1-2 samsung things that i do not use and cant remove) but that is their pgone... It is to be expected to see their software on it.
Re the battery... To be fair i stopped listening to reviewers and people on the net lomg time ago, turns out many are biased towards this or that and tou cant really get the true story. I am extreamly happy with my battery and my camera, two points that are heavily criticized on the forums anywhere and by reviewers.
I still own s7, s8 and s10... And even now if they are not packed with software they hry are not that bad, but during their prime time they were as snappy as ever dor me. Might be a sim free vs not i do not know. All my phomes are sim free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From EU, we don't have any locks by law. Still even such Samsungs are full of processes that waste memory, batter, keep connection, and kill privacy. It's not just what you see as icons. It's Bixby, Samsung Cloud, Find, Galaxy Friends, Pay, push service, logging, debugging, location tracking, knoxx, wifi snitching, Phone assistance, and finally sponsored vendor crap with boosted battery priorities. Can't believe you didn't notice until now There must be tons of threads about this.

doggydog2 said:
From EU, we don't have any locks by law. Still even such Samsungs are full of processes that waste memory, batter, keep connection, and kill privacy. It's not just what you see as icons. It's Bixby, Samsung Cloud, Find, Galaxy Friends, Pay, push service, logging, debugging, location tracking, knoxx, wifi snitching, Phone assistance, and finally sponsored vendor crap with boosted battery priorities. Can't believe you didn't notice until now There must be tons of threads about this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Half of those i use, if not more. So do my friends. As i said define bloat. To me bloat is google everything and thr inability to get rid if it easily. To me bloat is not something you buy and you get the brand services, but other services you do not want likr carier services or others like microsoft/google etc.

It_ler said:
Thanks for sharing.
Keep in mind that it's just your personal opinion, and other users might have different opinions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That response,

doggydog2 said:
From EU, we don't have any locks by law. Still even such Samsungs are full of processes that waste memory, batter, keep connection, and kill privacy. It's not just what you see as icons. It's Bixby, Samsung Cloud, Find, Galaxy Friends, Pay, push service, logging, debugging, location tracking, knoxx, wifi snitching, Phone assistance, and finally sponsored vendor crap with boosted battery priorities. Can't believe you didn't notice until now There must be tons of threads about this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed, that's why a Samsung 4500mAh battery will never be as comparable as lets say a OnePlus' 4500mAh.
First thing one must do, ADB uninstall the hell out of all the Samsung garbage apps and such. For every Google spyware on ONE UI there is also an equivalent Samsung process running.

I was considering getting this phone but Samsung screwed up with the CPU heatsink big time on some of the same variant and it's random, unpredictable. Only observation of abnormal poor heat dissipation or a tear down can reveal which heat sink is used.
Russian heat sink roulette, perfect
I don't have the patience for this kind of poor quality control. It's getting to be a hallmark of Samsung. Why the hell didn't Samsung use only the copper vapor cooling solution on all of it's models? A sick, expensive joke that can't be easily retrofitted or cure by firmware.
Really?
If yours is running hot this may be why.
Here’s Why Some Galaxy Note 20 Phones Have Overheating Problems & There’s Nothing One Can Do
This is unacceptable.
www.mensxp.com

General Offloaded my S21 U.

Gonna miss the camera though, but sadly that's pretty much it for a $1300 device. Most of my frustration lately regarding this phone is about an excessive amount of advertising on part of Samsung.
I was getting constantly interrupted with adds prompting me to do this or that or, to consider some of their(Samsung) ideas with apps that would “enhance my Samsung experience” etc...etc... I mean, what is this? They don't own my phone, I paid for it so why do they think they're entitled to push all that crap on me over and over again? They're using all kind of tricks like a mandatory permission requests and if they don't get it then they would cripple your device like a smartwatch for example, depriving you of the watch ability to function normally.
That's OK, the lesson learned – I'm going to use my active watch 2 at the minimal capacity now, w/o the Health app - what's left on the watch is good enough for me, I'm still able to monitor my heartbeat rate to know if I can push myself harder while biking or 'power' walking.
Anyway, right now I'm flagships free! Yay! I'm left with my Pixel 4a5G which I'm liking a lot but I'll be looking for some other high end, quality phone. Galaxy S21 U is a superior device right now no doubts about it, though it has some issues: battery life and a lack of sufficient heat dissipation – those are the two top negative ones imo. Will see, but right now my hope goes to 2022 with better than 888SOC.
Experia 1 III/5 III at first looked promising then the pic samples came in and killed it for me, same SOC and it runs hot as well, supposedly.
Too bad that Sony, a camera powerhouse makes so disappointing phone cameras, it's a shame. I'll tell everyone who feels offended by my above opinion: go take a good look at the low-light pictures.
ps.Got a really good money for my 16/512GB S21 U that puts me way ahead of the usual Samsung trade-in quotas, apparently it's a hot item right now, considered to be a “rare find”.

mzsquared said:
Gonna miss the camera though, but sadly that's pretty much it for a $1300 device. Most of my frustration lately regarding this phone is about an excessive amount of advertising on part of Samsung.
I was getting constantly interrupted with adds prompting me to do this or that or, to consider some of their(Samsung) ideas with apps that would “enhance my Samsung experience” etc...etc... I mean, what is this? They don't own my phone, I paid for it so why do they think they're entitled to push all that crap on me over and over again? They're using all kind of tricks like a mandatory permission requests and if they don't get it then they would cripple your device like a smartwatch for example, depriving you of the watch ability to function normally.
That's OK, the lesson learned – I'm going to use my active watch 2 at the minimal capacity now, w/o the Health app - what's left on the watch is good enough for me, I'm still able to monitor my heartbeat rate to know if I can push myself harder while biking or 'power' walking.
Anyway, right now I'm flagships free! Yay! I'm left with my Pixel 4a5G which I'm liking a lot but I'll be looking for some other high end, quality phone. Galaxy S21 U is a superior device right now no doubts about it, though it has some issues: battery life and a lack of sufficient heat dissipation – those are the two top negative ones imo. Will see, but right now my hope goes to 2022 with better than 888SOC.
Experia 1 III/5 III at first looked promising then the pic samples came in and killed it for me, same SOC and it runs hot as well, supposedly.
Too bad that Sony, a camera powerhouse makes so disappointing phone cameras, it's a shame. I'll tell everyone who feels offended by my above opinion: go take a good look at the low-light pictures.
ps.Got a really good money for my 16/512GB S21 U that puts me way ahead of the usual Samsung trade-in quotas, apparently it's a hot item right now, considered to be a “rare find”.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wish you all the best buddy. Hope you find a device you like. The Pixels are just around the corner so they may be worth waiting for. Every other flagship is running on the same nuclear reactor.

You just have to know what options to select in order to avoid any advertising.
I have a US unlocked-from-samsung S21U and I don't see any ads because I when setting up the device and when going to samsung.com (my account page), I made sure to turn off all ads and marketing. Plus, I went to their CCPA page to turn everything off as well.

mzsquared said:
Gonna miss the camera though, but sadly that's pretty much it for a $1300 device. Most of my frustration lately regarding this phone is about an excessive amount of advertising on part of Samsung.
I was getting constantly interrupted with adds prompting me to do this or that or, to consider some of their(Samsung) ideas with apps that would “enhance my Samsung experience” etc...etc... I mean, what is this? They don't own my phone, I paid for it so why do they think they're entitled to push all that crap on me over and over again? They're using all kind of tricks like a mandatory permission requests and if they don't get it then they would cripple your device like a smartwatch for example, depriving you of the watch ability to function normally.
That's OK, the lesson learned – I'm going to use my active watch 2 at the minimal capacity now, w/o the Health app - what's left on the watch is good enough for me, I'm still able to monitor my heartbeat rate to know if I can push myself harder while biking or 'power' walking.
Anyway, right now I'm flagships free! Yay! I'm left with my Pixel 4a5G which I'm liking a lot but I'll be looking for some other high end, quality phone. Galaxy S21 U is a superior device right now no doubts about it, though it has some issues: battery life and a lack of sufficient heat dissipation – those are the two top negative ones imo. Will see, but right now my hope goes to 2022 with better than 888SOC.
Experia 1 III/5 III at first looked promising then the pic samples came in and killed it for me, same SOC and it runs hot as well, supposedly.
Too bad that Sony, a camera powerhouse makes so disappointing phone cameras, it's a shame. I'll tell everyone who feels offended by my above opinion: go take a good look at the low-light pictures.
ps.Got a really good money for my 16/512GB S21 U that puts me way ahead of the usual Samsung trade-in quotas, apparently it's a hot item right now, considered to be a “rare find”.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish I could disagree with you on more points, but for the most part you nailed it.
Not getting any kind of ads here, cleaned most of the garbage with adb, fiddled with power saving and the likes until I'm at a point where I can live with this phone long term.
It all depends on your use case...so far it fits mine,but that doesn't mean it doesn't drive me insane for not being able to get my trusty email client check my work mail every 30 min during day. It does it at 31, 45, 56.....anyone's guess between 30-59 min. That's with an app excempt from battery management, no power saving, etc.
So yea...far from perfect for 1200$....fortunately I paid a lot less so that lessens the pain.

enigmaamit said:
Wish you all the best buddy. Hope you find a device you like. The Pixels are just around the corner so they may be worth waiting for. Every other flagship is running on the same nuclear reactor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I am fine w/ 4a5G, was using it more then S21U as a phone, but for pics & vids there is no comparison between these two with the range of things cameras could do. Will see what kind of a promise they'll paint for us in a bright colors before new models release and how it's going to look like in the real life.

nixnixnixnix4 said:
You just have to know what options to select in order to avoid any advertising.
I have a US unlocked-from-samsung S21U and I don't see any ads because I when setting up the device and when going to samsung.com (my account page), I made sure to turn off all ads and marketing. Plus, I went to their CCPA page to turn everything off as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ipse_Tase said:
I wish I could disagree with you on more points, but for the most part you nailed it.
Not getting any kind of ads here, cleaned most of the garbage with adb, fiddled with power saving and the likes until I'm at a point where I can live with this phone long term.
It all depends on your use case...so far it fits mine,but that doesn't mean it doesn't drive me insane for not being able to get my trusty email client check my work mail every 30 min during day. It does it at 31, 45, 56.....anyone's guess between 30-59 min. That's with an app excempt from battery management, no power saving, etc.
So yea...far from perfect for 1200$....fortunately I paid a lot less so that lessens the pain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was blocking some of that but they(Samsung,Google) have their sleeves full of tricks anyway. If I didn't have the watch I would probably never go to Samsung store. With the watch and their sh**load of widgets and apps they get you to visit that store anyways like 'a must go to the XIX Century company store'.

Samsung has really taken a dumpster dive this year, obviously following Android Android 11's lead in a full afterburner high G flat spin, crush depth crash dive down the perverbial toilet.

mzsquared said:
Gonna miss the camera though, but sadly that's pretty much it for a $1300 device. Most of my frustration lately regarding this phone is about an excessive amount of advertising on part of Samsung.
I was getting constantly interrupted with adds prompting me to do this or that or, to consider some of their(Samsung) ideas with apps that would “enhance my Samsung experience” etc...etc... I mean, what is this? They don't own my phone, I paid for it so why do they think they're entitled to push all that crap on me over and over again? They're using all kind of tricks like a mandatory permission requests and if they don't get it then they would cripple your device like a smartwatch for example, depriving you of the watch ability to function normally.
That's OK, the lesson learned – I'm going to use my active watch 2 at the minimal capacity now, w/o the Health app - what's left on the watch is good enough for me, I'm still able to monitor my heartbeat rate to know if I can push myself harder while biking or 'power' walking.
Anyway, right now I'm flagships free! Yay! I'm left with my Pixel 4a5G which I'm liking a lot but I'll be looking for some other high end, quality phone. Galaxy S21 U is a superior device right now no doubts about it, though it has some issues: battery life and a lack of sufficient heat dissipation – those are the two top negative ones imo. Will see, but right now my hope goes to 2022 with better than 888SOC.
Experia 1 III/5 III at first looked promising then the pic samples came in and killed it for me, same SOC and it runs hot as well, supposedly.
Too bad that Sony, a camera powerhouse makes so disappointing phone cameras, it's a shame. I'll tell everyone who feels offended by my above opinion: go take a good look at the low-light pictures.
ps.Got a really good money for my 16/512GB S21 U that puts me way ahead of the usual Samsung trade-in quotas, apparently it's a hot item right now, considered to be a “rare find”.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you first the get phone you can opt out of all advertising from Samsung / Google. You can also go to the settings and stop the advertising as well if you didn't opt out.
I also have 0 ads on my S21 ultra 512gb

blackhawk said:
Samsung has really taken a dumpster dive this year, obviously following Android Android 11's lead in a full afterburner high G flat spin, crush depth crash dive down the perverbial toilet.
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Click to collapse
Yup, each generation of 'flagships' brings new wave of marketing hype stirred up by manufacturers being quick to avertise upcoming developments in technology. No doubt a progress is happening, but the end products based on those new advances don't always deliver the goods as promised: “oh yes, this year we'll put a fantastic SoC into your phone, 5nm node – lightning fast and able to run at 20% less power then the previous one” --- wait a minute, that's great but you said exactly same words about 7nm and 10nm before that. So, comparing the power usage demands, S21 should be using only about 40% of the required CPU power needed to run Galaxy 8? Why are the batteries bigger now but lasting less and why can't you get a better control of devices heat?

chungdae said:
When you first the get phone you can opt out of all advertising from Samsung / Google. You can also go to the settings and stop the advertising as well if you didn't opt out.
I also have 0 ads on my S21 ultra 512gb
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How often do you go to the Galaxy Store?

mzsquared said:
How often do you go to the Galaxy Store?
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Every morning to update apps. I don't have any ads beyond that. Same as the Google play store

mzsquared said:
Yup, each generation of 'flagships' brings new wave of marketing hype stirred up by manufacturers being quick to avertise upcoming developments in technology. No doubt a progress is happening, but the end products based on those new advances don't always deliver the goods as promised: “oh yes, this year we'll put a fantastic SoC into your phone, 5nm node – lightning fast and able to run at 20% less power then the previous one” --- wait a minute, that's great but you said exactly same words about 7nm and 10nm before that. So, comparing the power usage demands, S21 should be using only about 40% of the required CPU power needed to run Galaxy 8? Why are the batteries bigger now but lasting less and why can't you get a better control of devices heat?
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There's faster memory and CPU but it's weighted down by the useless scoped storage and a more bloated OS. The MS/Intel paradox
My Note 10+ running on Pie get about 8%@hr battery usage on it's 4300mAh battery when browsing, 10% streaming vids.
No scoped storage so even with it's slower hardware... how much slower is it? It probably uses less battery as well. In actual use the 10+ doesn't lag and runs fast without getting hot unless it's a really CPU intensive task.
It's 96F out and I'm in the shade with a fan; my battery temperature is 95F. It's at least 92F where I'm sitting.
I can't afford the liability of a hot running device throttling back because it's system is a hog running needless CPU cycles to emulate Apple's lame scope storage ideas.
Gookill Android, the new green Apple

mzsquared said:
How often do you go to the Galaxy Store?
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I do it once every month or two. I'd never do it if the Galaxy apks didn't "time out". Sometimes Samsung screws them up with their lame graphics. Idiots.

mzsquared said:
How often do you go to the Galaxy Store?
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Use the shortcut to update your apps. Don't go to the main store.

never had a heating issue with mine and battery alot better than rivals as i have oneplus 9 pro and that what you call heating issues the phone disables itself till it cools down, for me best phone out there is s21u although i have 512gb 16gb version

mzsquared said:
Gonna miss the camera though, but sadly that's pretty much it for a $1300 device. Most of my frustration lately regarding this phone is about an excessive amount of advertising on part of Samsung.
I was getting constantly interrupted with adds prompting me to do this or that or, to consider some of their(Samsung) ideas with apps that would “enhance my Samsung experience” etc...etc... I mean, what is this? They don't own my phone, I paid for it so why do they think they're entitled to push all that crap on me over and over again? They're using all kind of tricks like a mandatory permission requests and if they don't get it then they would cripple your device like a smartwatch for example, depriving you of the watch ability to function normally.
That's OK, the lesson learned – I'm going to use my active watch 2 at the minimal capacity now, w/o the Health app - what's left on the watch is good enough for me, I'm still able to monitor my heartbeat rate to know if I can push myself harder while biking or 'power' walking.
Anyway, right now I'm flagships free! Yay! I'm left with my Pixel 4a5G which I'm liking a lot but I'll be looking for some other high end, quality phone. Galaxy S21 U is a superior device right now no doubts about it, though it has some issues: battery life and a lack of sufficient heat dissipation – those are the two top negative ones imo. Will see, but right now my hope goes to 2022 with better than 888SOC.
Experia 1 III/5 III at first looked promising then the pic samples came in and killed it for me, same SOC and it runs hot as well, supposedly.
Too bad that Sony, a camera powerhouse makes so disappointing phone cameras, it's a shame. I'll tell everyone who feels offended by my above opinion: go take a good look at the low-light pictures.
ps.Got a really good money for my 16/512GB S21 U that puts me way ahead of the usual Samsung trade-in quotas, apparently it's a hot item right now, considered to be a “rare find”.
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Your Pixel 4a can also easily install CalyxOS, which you might like if you value privacy and never want to see an ad again

Thank you all for kind words, I owe you an update on this subject: I've re-loaded!!! I'm back with a new s21U, I really need the camera on me, I spend a lot of time outdoors observing Nature(the only and truly positive result of covid) and there is no substitute for this phone camera ois zoom, I have decent 'regular' camera but can't use it for calling/texting/music etc... this phone pretty much does it all.
I'm trying to get rid of the bloat annoyance , didn't even sign-up to my Samsung account on this phone, though I've been using Buds pro and watch active 2 - everything works(w/ limitations - that's ok) I'll check for updates once a month maybe and that's all. I de-bloated most of Samsung related apps, no need to be spreading all the permissions more then once after Google already has it.
So, my current Samsung status reads: Underground

Google phones don't even support native dual / parallel apps. Rubbish.

General s21 Ultra G998U1 Opinions - Android 11 vs. 12

Opinions are like a-holes, so I thought I'd stay in character & post mine.
This is my first Samsung. Until now, 9 of 10 phones I've owned have been Moto - I used to work for the company and got stuck on them (even when they went to Google then Lenovo). All phones have been rooted since 2010 when I got my first Droid Razr. It's been about 6 years since I've been cutting edge - my last phone was so incredibly reliable I got stuck on it. I've never owned an iPhone & never will. This past December my house decided to overhaul our devices, so I got the s21 Ultra for ~850 USD after discounts. I've been on Verizon since 1999.
My primary uses for owning a mobile device are directly related to the Windows & Linux experiences I have in my life. I want something with maximum horsepower, something I can lock down the best I can, tweak, web/text/data etc., a cutting edge camera, quick & easy 24/7 webdav, and seamless connection/configurability to my NAS. I don't play games (yet) and don't use any social media apps. My machines have to do exactly what I say, quickly, and look good doing it.
There are plenty of people here who could flesh out the technical better than I, but the reason I wanted to share my thoughts here is because I absolutely love this phone & cannot stop talking about it. I love the feel of it, the weight, the screen, the speed & the camera. When I take the few extra seconds to frame & configure a shot, the photos/videos dust the iPhones everyone else uses in my house. One of the things I don't hear many talk about with this phone is how it feels in your hand & on your face when you're actually on a call. Never have I held such a quality device - it's less like a slab and more like a monolith. Anyone who has spent that extra money on say, a car, can attest to this. I really believe I got what I paid for and that's such a terrific feeling I seldom feel anymore.
So when I got the phone I flashed it out of the box to A12 XAA 4BUKF before I even simmed it. Because root was not available, I used ADB AppControl (phenomenal software) to tweak & script the changes I made. I am one of the lucky ones who was able to run 12 with minimal issues. After reading some of the thoughts on 12, I flashed back to A11 XAA 4AUJ7 to test it. Here are my general thoughts on Android 11 vs 12.
Quick notes: I do not use Bixby, I kept only the Samsung apps I ended up liking such as Gallery, Camera, Calculator, Keyboard & Voicemail. I ditched all the rest. I use Signal for texting, Edge for browsing and a few older misc. apps/widgets for everyday stuff.
FunctionEdgeCommentsData SpeedsTie80-150mbps 5G in the NW suburbs of ChicagoCall QualityTieBloatTieBoth are loaded with garbage. If for whatever reason I was restricted in my abilities to adb into this phone, I would not own it.Camera12• The stock camera app produces superior pictures on 12 imho, but both require manual iris intervention before every shot.
• If memory serves me right, the stabilizer "click" when you tilt the phone is not present like it is on 11. Can someone on 12 confirm this?Processing Speeds1111 is smoother and slightly faster.OneUI12• Real close but 12 edges out 11 because of the 85% charge option & ability to add an image to the peek/always on screen.
• Again I am one of the lucky ones as both were equally stable
*** As a new Samsung user, I'm floored by the customizability of OneUI and I love it. I could write pages about the changes I made in here. Bravo Samsung.Battery11Distant first place. The battery on 11 feels nearly twice as good. I get just at/under two days on a 100% charge with moderate use.Overall Personal Preference12But I am staying on 11 for now because of the battery, unfortunately. There is just no comparison.
*** Flashing this phone has been a seamlesss experience and not once has it *****ed at me about a single thing.
After weeks of research, attached are the apps I've frozen which produce no drain. I went much further than this, but reverted back to this in the end due to some perceived drain. Here are some pictures & a video I've taken with the stock app just for giggles - view settings can be changed to thumbnails using the icon on the top right of the page. These are untouched outside of the phone.
Outstanding phone, best I've ever owned, and I'm going to keep it for years. I would love to hear some counterpoints on what I've listed here.

Hi, thanks for the detailed review. Is that Exynos or Snapdragon?

ssj100 said:
Hi, thanks for the detailed review. Is that Exynos or Snapdragon?
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Totally. Snapdragon.

@burnxtc the one counterpoint that helps null Android is Samsung's going chintzy and removing the SD card slot. That combined with the new Google Android OS's new forced encryption and scoped storage the S21U is more Apple than Android.
Samsung hasn't been firing on all cylinders for way over a year. The N10+ was the last homerun flagship release Samsung made... in my opinion.
​

burnxtc said:
Totally. Snapdragon.
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Interesting that you also notice the "processing speeds" to be a bit slower with 12. I definitely noticed it with the Exynos here (have owned it since pretty much release). Since 12, I've also observed issues with:
Picture in Picture, Split Screen etc - Refresh Rate drops to 60Hz (EXYNOS)
Hi there, I'd not noticed this before the Android 12 update, but refresh rate appears to drop from 120Hz to 60Hz when using Picture in Picture or Split Screen views. Can anyone else reproduce this please? You can confirm this by going into...
forum.xda-developers.com
And certainly animation "jitteriness" not infrequently has suddenly become noticeable where it didn't really exist on 11.

ssj100 said:
Interesting that you also notice the "processing speeds" to be a bit slower with 12. I definitely noticed it with the Exynos here (have owned it since pretty much release). Since 12, I've also observed issues with:
Picture in Picture, Split Screen etc - Refresh Rate drops to 60Hz (EXYNOS)
Hi there, I'd not noticed this before the Android 12 update, but refresh rate appears to drop from 120Hz to 60Hz when using Picture in Picture or Split Screen views. Can anyone else reproduce this please? You can confirm this by going into...
forum.xda-developers.com
And certainly animation "jitteriness" not infrequently has suddenly become noticeable where it didn't really exist on 11.
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Click to collapse
The refresh rate stuff is definitely something missing from my review. I am all eyes when I've read about it on this forum and learning much more about it.

ssj100 said:
Interesting that you also notice the "processing speeds" to be a bit slower with 12. I definitely noticed it with the Exynos here (have owned it since pretty much release). Since 12, I've also observed issues with:
Picture in Picture, Split Screen etc - Refresh Rate drops to 60Hz (EXYNOS)
Hi there, I'd not noticed this before the Android 12 update, but refresh rate appears to drop from 120Hz to 60Hz when using Picture in Picture or Split Screen views. Can anyone else reproduce this please? You can confirm this by going into...
forum.xda-developers.com
And certainly animation "jitteriness" not infrequently has suddenly become noticeable where it didn't really exist on 11.
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Click to collapse
The forced encryption maybe but certainly the scoped storage is sucking away cpu cycles for nothing. It's like air drag on a jet fighter, you can jam in bigger engines but the drag is still there slowing it down and burning more fuel.
For what? I like my Androids fast and loose.

burnxtc said:
The refresh rate stuff is definitely something missing from my review. I am all eyes when I've read about it on this forum and learning much more about it.
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It's a big problem on all variable rate displays. All suffer from reduced color rendering to a greater or lesser degree.
Display reliability has also dropped it seems. That's a big reason I decided on buying a second N10+, probably the best display out there for color rendering, still. It slaughters the Apples too.
Still waiting for the newest model reviews but don't expect the color rendering index to increase much or at all; variable refresh rate displays are extremely hard to color calibrate, just too many variables. They are smooth but eat power. My SOT is 7-12%@hr with a 4300 mAh battery using 35-50% manual brightness. Ram usage almost never exceeds 5.3gb so it's snappy. The memory is roughly 20% less efficient than what you have.
So where's all the battery going on the newer models?
So pick your poison. For me it was choosing a phone over 2 years after it was first released. I have 2 N10+'s, the oldest will be 2.5 yo in March.
A Snapdragon variant 512/12gb running on Pie.
Current load will be 2 yo in June, still fast and stable, security isn't an issue. Only repair was a battery replacement back in April 2021. It looks and runs like new, zero detectable display degradation in this heavily used device. It's a beast. The reliability, display quality, battery life (trade offs: no 5G, variable refresh rate, and slower cpu/memory), form factor (7mm thick), SD card slot, the device is just stunning, and fun to use are some of the factors that made me go with a second one. I have twins...

blackhawk said:
It's a big problem on all variable rate displays. All suffer from reduced color rendering to a greater or lesser degree.
Display reliability has also dropped it seems. That's a big reason I decided on buying a second N10+, probably the best display out there for color rendering, still. It slaughters the Apples too.
Still waiting for the newest model reviews but don't expect the color rendering index to increase much or at all; variable refresh rate displays are extremely hard to color calibrate, just too many variables. They are smooth but eat power. My SOT is 7-12%@hr with a 4300 mAh battery using 35-50% manual brightness. Ram usage almost never exceeds 5.3gb so it's snappy. The memory is roughly 20% less efficient than what you have.
So where's all the battery going on the newer models?
So pick your poison. For me it was choosing a phone over 2 years after it was first released. I have 2 N10+'s, the oldest will be 2.5 yo in March.
A Snapdragon variant 512/12gb running on Pie.
Current load will be 2 yo in June, still fast and stable, security isn't an issue. Only repair was a battery replacement back in April 2021. It looks and runs like new, zero detectable display degradation in this heavily used device. It's a beast. The reliability, display quality, battery life (trade offs: no 5G, variable refresh rate, and slower cpu/memory), form factor (7mm thick), SD card slot, the device is just stunning, and fun to use are some of the factors that made me go with a second one. I have twins...
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That is absolutely incredible, I had no idea the N10+ was that right on the money - "Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect." No wonder they're still fetching that price.
Curious, did you do the battery replacement yourself & was there any degradation to the "structure" after you got it done? I've done batteries on a dozen phones/tablets, but taking my Samsung apart looks really daunting.

burnxtc said:
That is absolutely incredible, I had no idea the N10+ was that right on the money - "Visually Indistinguishable From Perfect." No wonder they're still fetching that price.
Curious, did you do the battery replacement yourself & was there any degradation to the "structure" after you got it done? I've done batteries on a dozen phones/tablets, but taking my Samsung apart looks really daunting.
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I like it's square display corners, only the N20U has those too but that damn cam hump. In person the square corners look so much better.
Being raised on CRTs, I'm sick of rounded corners
The Zizo Bolt case mates perfectly with the 10+ making it easier to use and has great drop protection... so I knew casing the second one be easy. These corner hitters need a case. The spen's Smart Capture and bt shutter release are hard to live without once you use them. Deciding took some time.
It was between the N10+ and the N20U as the SD card slot is mandatory for me. In the end the trouble free and snappy fun nature of the 10+ won out. Never thought I would have done that in 2019, thought for sure I be wanting the next Samsung flagship in 2022. Ummm, thanks Samsung?
Had a shop do the replacement as I was intimidated too. I watched and learned. Use a little anhydrous isopropyl in a syringe to help loosen the double sided tape on the rear cover (and heat) and battery. Not bad if you take your time and have the right tools... easy does it, no rush.
Get the OEM rear cover seal or a good aftermarket one. Lol, never test if it's water tight even with the factory done one.
In the end I realized I could do a better job myself, but that in person demo really helped a lot. And yeah, I was a menace, asking questions... got my money's worth