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noticeably faster and more accurate than the sensor on the S10 and S20. On the
other hand, face recognition repeatedly failed to recognize my face (with or
without a mask).
The 6.8-inch, 3,200-by-1,440-pixel screen is covered in the new Gorilla Glass
Victus. It hasn’t scratched after a few days of testing, an improvement over the
Galaxy S20+ screen, which scuffed up quickly.
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ratio, and I can see the difference. Samsung’s screens have always popped, but
this one really stands out. You can set the screen resolution to 1080p or quad
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you’re looking at.
The Ultra is the only member of the S21 family that works with the Samsung S
Pen, the active, pressure-sensitive stylus previously reserved for the Note series.
I tried it with a Note 20 pen, a Note 9 pen, and a Note 4 pen; all of them
worked. If you don’t have an old Note, you can buy an S Pen for $40 or a bundle
of a pen and pen-holding phone case for $70.
The S21 has the same super-low 9ms latency as the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra,
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“clicks” on the screen, works, but Bluetooth functions such as making air
commands and using the pen as a remote camera shutter don’t. Samsung says a
special S Pen coming later this year will have those features.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT MODEL
As always, there are a bunch of different sub-models of the Galaxy S21, noted by
a letter at the end of the product number. We tested the unlocked U model,
which is destined for the US. The U model has a single SIM slot, a Qualcomm
Snapdragon processor, disabled e-SIM functionality, and all the appropriate
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Geekbench and elsewhere: