The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the most premium phone in the S21 series, and it’s also the one that comes with the biggest battery.
Equipped with a massive, 5,000mAh battery, and benefitting from the latest and most power efficient, 5nm chips, as well as dynamic refresh rate screen, the S21 Ultra goes above and beyond in terms of battery life.
So how long will the S21 Ultra battery last users in the real world?
Galaxy S21 Ultra Battery Life
Web Browsing Test (Wi-Fi, 200 nits brightness)
YouTube Test
On our second test, streaming YouTube videos from the same playlist at the same, 1080p quality, the S21 Ultra once again shows it can last. It’s not quite as far ahead in this test, and we would say that it lasts roughly as long as the iPhone 12 Pro Max and the Pixel 5.
3D Gaming Test
Last but not least, we have our gaming test, and if you enjoy games like Call of Duty, PubG and Minecraft, look closer, this is the test you should care about. While the other two tests strain the CPU, this one pushes the GPU to the max and shows how effective it is.
And once again, the Galaxy outlasts rivals by quite the margin. Notice, however, that running this same test at 120Hz with compatible games like Minecraft, they do drain a lot more of the battery, so if you want a balance between performance and battery life, it really makes sense to game at 60Hz.
And here is how the battery sizes compare for all Galaxy S21 series phones, and a few other recent Galaxies:
- Galaxy S21 Ultra battery: 5,000mAh
- Galaxy S21 Plus battery: 4,800mAh
- Galaxy S21 battery: 4,000mAh
- Galaxy S20 Ultra battery: 5,000mAh
- Galaxy S20 Plus battery: 4,500mAh
- Galaxy S20 battery: 4,000mAh
- Galaxy Note 20 Ultra battery: 4,500mAh
S21 Ultra Charging Speeds
So what charger is the best charger for the S21 Ultra? The phone supports up to 25W charging speeds (disappointing, considering last year’s model could charge at up to 45W). With no charger in the box, most people would probably still be best off with the compact and affordable 25W Samsung fast charger sold for $35 (but currently discounted for $23 at Best Buy). We tested the phone with this charger and a full top-up takes around an hour and a half. With other phones by OnePlus and Xiaomi being able to fully charge their flagships in around 40 minutes, this looks really slow.
