Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G Beaten by Galaxy S20 Ultra in DxOMark Camera Ratings

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G has been beaten by Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra (both Exynos variants) in DxOMark's overall smartphone camera ranking. The former has got 128 points for the camera, 76 points for zoom, and 98 points for video performance. The Galaxy S21 Ultra features a quad rear camera setup that includes a 108-megapixel sensor with an f/1.8 lens. It is accompanied by a 12-megapixel Dual Pixel sensor with an f/2.2 lens, a 10-megapixel sensor with an f/2.4 telephoto lens and 3x optical zoom, and another 10-megapixel sensor with an f/4.9 telephoto lens and 10x optical zoom. Further, the camera supports 100X Space Zoom. At the front is a 40-megapixel snapper with an f/2.2 lens.

As per the smartphone camera rankings by DxOMark, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G got 121 points in the overall camera score, as compared to 126 points for the Galaxy S20 Ultra. It is placed above Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro Premium Edition (121), Huawei Mate 30 Pro (121), as well as Samsung's last year's Note flagships Galaxy Note 20 (120) and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra (120). The handset has got a lower score than Honor V30 Pro (122), iPhone 12 (122), iPhone 12 Mini (122), Huawei Mate 30 Pro 5G (123) and iPhone 11 Pro Max (124).

As per DxOMark, “a little” unstable HDR processing with noticeable variation between consecutive shots of the same scene, decrease of saturation in low light, slow autofocus system in low-light and high-contrast scenes as well as texture/noise trade-off are some areas where the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G leaves room for improvement. As per the smartphone testing platform, there is a noticeable loss of fine detail when shooting indoors and in low light.

Samsung has been promoting the Galaxy S21 Ultra's zooming capabilities, and as per DxOMark, the phone achieves a good score for preview. It is capable of capturing good quality tele images, but given its impressive dual-tele configuration with a 240 mm equivalent reach, “a little more” was expected. This is in line with our review as well. “Image quality is noticeably sharper at the native optical zoom levels, compared to any level in between. At 100X, image quality is comparatively much weaker but AI processing does help in getting usable shots,” we found during our review process.

Is Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra the most complete Android phone yet? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.