Google Pixel 6 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra

Compared to the aesthetically conservative iPhone 13 Pro, both the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and Google Pixel 6 Pro are impressive with ambitious new design flavors. The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra boasts a nearly bezel-less and unbroken edge-to-edge display with a discreet punch-hole selfie camera at the top center and a new rear camera module. This slopes smoothly into the phone’s top-left shoulder, making the phone look more well-balanced than it has any right to be with four camera lenses.

The Pixel 6 Pro is also attractively novel and sleek. Ditching the plastic backs of previous Pixels, the shiny glass back incorporates a horizontal camera bar. This not only looks different, but it also harmonizes nicely with the rest of the phone, its stylishness accentuated by the Pixel’s multitoned color scheme.

One design difference worth pointing out is that the S21 Ultra is noticeably heavier (by more than half an ounce) than the Pixel, while it’s also a touch taller. Given that both are large phones, this extra mass may make the Samsung a little more uncomfortable to hold for extended periods.

Moving to the display, the Galaxy S21 Ultra packs a sizeable 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED screen with a resolution of 3200 x 1440 pixels. This provides you with 515 pixels per inch, which married to a 120Hz refresh rate really does look the business. Luckily for Google fans, the Pixel 6 Pro almost nearly matches its sumptuousness, offering a 6.71-inch AMOLED display that also supports a 120Hz refresh rate. However, the 120Hz rate does encounter issues with jittering, particularly when using third-party apps, while its in-screen fingerprint sensor isn’t entirely consistent. As such, it loses a few points, even if its display is otherwise excellent.

Both phones carry an official IP68 rating, meaning they can cope with submersion in up to 1.5 meters of water for as many as 30 minutes. Despite this equality, the jittering issues affecting the Pixel’s display mean that the S21 Ultra just about wins this round.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra

The Galaxy S21 Ultra ships with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, which uses a 5nm manufacturing process for its transistor. This allows it to fit more transistors into the same space, which in turn means it runs faster than previous generation chips. This is also what you get with the Pixel 6 Pro, whose Google-made Tensor chip also uses 5nm transistors, making it noticeably faster than previous Google devices. On top of this, both phones contain a hefty 12GB of RAM, so either is more than capable of handling the latest games and running apps simultaneously.

Both phones are also nearly identical in terms of internal storage. They both start with models offering 128GB of memory and can be upgraded — for an extra cost — to 256GB and 512GB. Neither gives you a microSD card slot, so data management is probably a must if you get the basic models.

Pixels had long managed to be great camera smartphones without mouthwatering specs, so it’s an interesting treat to see that the Pixel 6 Pro really goes for broke this time around. It features a triple-lens rear setup, comprising a 50-megapixel wide lens, a 12MP ultrawide, and a 48MP telephoto lens with 4x optical zoom. The wide and telephoto lenses benefit from optical image stabilization, while the continued presence of Google’s highly capable software makes for some truly impressive photography. Indeed, shots look delightfully natural and vivid without being oversaturated or overdone, while the increased size of the main wide lens makes for some striking bokeh effects.

As for the S21 Ultra, it opts for a quad-lens setup, comprising a 108MP wide lens, a 10MP periscope telephoto lens, a 10MP telephoto lens, and a 12MP ultra-wide lens. The 10MP periscope telephoto lens allows for 10x optical zoom, meaning you can take some high-grade zoomed shots with the phone. If that weren’t enough, the phone’s main camera is even more usable than with previous models, offering much better balance and some superb HDR effects.

Looking only at the core functionality of each phone’s camera, you’d say they were more or less equal. However, we’re going to give this round to the Pixel 6 Pro, since its use of some special software features — such as the Magic Eraser and Action Pan mode — makes it more versatile and fun to use overall.

Winner: Google Pixel 6 Pro

Both the Pixel 6 Pro and the Galaxy S21 Ultra support 5G. This includes the basic sub-6Hz frequency range as well as the faster mmWave band, while both devices are also supported by all major carriers on this front, so you should be able to get the fastest download speeds no matter who you go for.

The Google Pixel 6 Pro starts from $899, with the 512GB version reaching $1,099. It can be ordered directly from Google, and it will also be widely available elsewhere and supported by all major networks.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G begins at $1,200 for 128GB model, before rising to $1,250 for the 256GB model and to $1,380 for the 512GB version. It’s supported by all major carriers and can be bought from most major online retailers.