At the super-high-end, the Galaxy S21 Ultra still maintains its position as the best outright device in the market right now. US readers have seen prices again go back down to $999 at time of writing. The S21 Ultra has seen competition from the Pixel 6 Pro, the new Google phone definitely competes very hard in terms of the camera performance, however does have compromises when it comes to battery life and screen quality compared to the S21 Ultra, as well as offering less performance compared to the Snapdragon variants of the S21.
At the high-end, the Pixel 6’s extremely attractive pricing of $599 or 649€ makes this new Google phone a extremely easy buy for North-American users as it under-cuts the competition by a lot. It’s definitely not a phone that has all bells and whistles, but the value that can be had here is great. For global users, availability remain an issue with Pixel phones. If you can get your hands on one, it’s a consideration, but otherwise the Galaxy S21 series are still more solid phones, albeit a bit more expensive.
Generally, this segment right now is at the end of the yearly product cycle, and given prices haven’t been much lower than fresh devices in spring, I would recommend users to consider waiting on the next-gen devices in a few months’ time, as you can get a newer generation phone for similar prices, and your investment will hold value for longer time.
Global mid-range is still dominated by the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G at only 319€, it’s an excellent phone for the price.
In the US mid-range, the Pixel 5a with 5G remains a top recommendation, and has seen a price drop of $50 to $399. Samsung’s A52 5G went back to $399 from $325 in our last guide iteration, generally I recommend the Pixel instead, and there’s few other good options here.
At the low-end in most markets the new Redmi Note 10 Pro should be the go-to choice, if available. The high-light here is a new OLED display even in this price segment, vastly augmenting the user experience. US users have to fall back to a 2020 Motorola G Power given the lack of alternatives.
Best Mega-Flagship: Galaxy S21 Ultra
The S21 Ultra is defined by an industry leading 1440p 120Hz OLED screen: It features a new generation OLED emitter, a polysilicon backplane, and software as well as hardware variable refresh rates. It literally checks off every feature list that a display can have today, and it gets extremely bright, and is extremely power efficient, leading to great battery life.
Samsung’s new camera setup this year iterates on the previous generation. While there’s still quirks with Samsung’s unorthodox module setup, it also some of the biggest strengths in the market right now. In our review, we weren’t quite satisfied with the processing of the cameras, however Samsung does have a track record to continuing to iterate and improve things through firmware updates throughout the device’s first year.
The S21 Ultra remains one of the best phones of the year. In the US, the price is back to around $999, which is competitive. European prices have been hovering at 1062€, which is still fair, however people might want to consider waiting a couple of months for the S22 series.
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