Galaxy S23 Ultra vs Galaxy S21 Ultra: Should you upgrade?

The Galaxy S23 Ultra leads the charge when it comes to Samsung’s 2023 flagships and earns its Ultra moniker with a slew of hardware upgrades and software features that makes it an absolute beast. It’s admittedly an iterative upgrade over its predecessor, with a new primary camera and a faster processor being the noteworthy changes. However, with people holding on to their smartphones — flagships in particular — for longer, it’s not the most recent Ultra we look at. Instead, we compare Samsung’s latest with the S21 Ultra and see if it’s time to upgrade from the two-year-old phone. Here’s our take on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs Galaxy S21 Ultra battle!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy processor. The “for Galaxy” isn’t just branding, but is essentially an overclocked version of the standard processing package with a better GPU and improved connectivity chips. The S23 Ultra will undoubtedly outscore the Snapdragon 888 or Exynos 2100-toting S21 Ultra in benchmark tests, but there won’t be a huge difference in everyday performance. Unless you push things to a point where only the latest processor can handle things, the S21 Ultra remains very capable.

Helping the S21 Ultra’s performance is 12GB or 16GB of RAM, which is surprisingly more than the 8GB or 12GB options you get with the S23 Ultra. Samsung toned it down with the S22 Ultra last year and kept the same RAM configuration with its 2023 flagship. You get more storage with the newer phone, though. The S23 Ultra doubles the storage to 256GB with the base model and goes up to 1TB, compared to the older phone’s 128GB to 512GB storage range.

Despite a two-year difference between the two, plenty remains the same. Both phones have 6.8-inch AMOLED displays with a Quad HD+ resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. The S23 Ultra gets brighter, though, with a peak brightness of 1750 nits, compared to 1500 nits with the S21 Ultra.

Both are protected from the elements with an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. You’ll get better drop protection and scratch resistance with the newer phone and its Gorilla Glass Victus 2 panels on the front and back, while the S21 Ultra relies on Gorilla Glass Victus panels to keep it pristine.

The software experience is identical on both smartphones, too. The S23 Ultra comes with One UI 5.1 based on Android 13 out of the box, but the update is already rolling out to the S21 Ultra in some countries. Both get Samsung’s commitment of four major OS upgrades and five years of security updates. But the S23 Ultra has the advantage simply by being newer. The S21 Ultra has a couple of OS updates to go. And while the update speed will slow as the 2021 series becomes less of a priority, Samsung has done a great job with its older phones so far. By the time the S21 Ultra stops getting software updates, you’ll be looking for a phone upgrade anyway.

A final difference between the two quite similar phones is the S Pen. While the stylus can be used with the S21 Ultra, it doesn’t have a built-in slot to store it like on the S23 Ultra. In fact, it was an add-on accessory you had to buy while also needing one of Samsung’s cases with a slot to store the stylus.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra and S21 Ultra come with 6.8-inch displays. Both have the same 8.9mm thickness and weigh practically the same. But the slight difference in the aspect ratio — 19.3:9 (S23 Ultra) vs 20:9 (S21 Ultra) — makes the latter a couple of millimeters taller and less wide. Differences like a less curved screen and more rectangular corners on the S23 Ultra aren’t noticeable unless you’re looking for it.

You’ll have to turn to the back to see any major design changes. There are still four cameras and a flash. But the contour cut design for the camera bump on the S21 Ultra has now been replaced with the individual islands for every camera element on the S23 Ultra. It’s a design change Samsung introduced last year and decided to not only stick with it for the Ultra, but bring it to the standard S23 and S23 Plus as well.

I prefer the S21 Ultra’s look for the splash of color it brings, particularly with the dual-tone colorways. It wasn’t a standout design, but the S23 Ultra seems even duller in comparison. The fact that Samsung’s new entry-level phones, like the Galaxy A14, have a similar design isn’t great, even if the cheap phone has a less sophisticated plastic look.

The one exciting upgrade we’re looking forward to is the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s new 200MP camera. It’s the first change in three years, with previous generations, including the S21 Ultra, featuring a 108MP primary shooter. It’s not just the megapixel count that changes. Improved hardware capabilities and updated software features make for a compelling smartphone camera setup.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra can record video at 8K/30fps, 4K/60fps, and 1080p/120fps. Samsung also says there are significant improvements to low-light photography and better stabilization to make the 30x and 100x zoom photos look great. We’ll have to test the Galaxy S23 Ultra camera thoroughly before passing a final verdict. But there’s plenty to be excited about.

The other three cameras remain the same, though. Both phones have a 12MP ultra-wide shooter, a 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom, and another 10MP telephoto camera with 10x optical zoom. The S23 Ultra’s hardware and software refinements should make for better photos when using these modes. But we can’t tell how much difference it’ll be without testing the latest Samsung flagship. It might just be a case of “why fix what isn’t broken” because the Galaxy S21 Ultra takes excellent photos with all cameras.

However, what appears to be a surprising downgrade on the newer flagship, at least on paper, is the selfie camera. The S23 Ultra’s 12MP front-facing shooter loses the specs battle to the S21 Ultra’s 40MP front camera. But the megapixel count isn’t everything. And the 12MP camera, backed by software enhancements, should comfortably cover your selfie and video calling needs.

The similarities continue in the battery department. Keeping both phones running is a 5,000mAh battery, and the battery life experience should be similar. In our Galaxy S21 Ultra review, we said that the phone comfortably lasted a couple of days with mild usage and a little over a day with heavier use. We saw similar results with the S22 Ultra, which also has the same battery. So we can expect battery life to be along the same lines with the S23 Ultra. If anything, there’s a chance it could be better, given the more power-efficient nature of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra is a couple of years old at this point. So you won’t get the same battery life as you did at launch because of battery degradation. In fact, you might have to consider replacing the battery if you plan to hold on to the phone for a few more years.

The new phone gets the leg up with wired charging speeds, though. The S23 Ultra supports 45W fast charging and should take less than an hour to charge fully. It’s not the quickest charging we’ve seen in a world where some phones take less than half an hour to charge fully. But it’s certainly faster than the S21 Ultra’s 25W charging. Both phones support 15W wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging to top up accessories like wireless earbuds and smartwatches.

Samsung hasn’t changed the US prices of the Galaxy S23 series this year. So the S23 Ultra costs the same as the S21 Ultra did at launch, albeit with different configurations of RAM and storage. That means that if you go for the base version of the S23 Ultra you get double the storage compared to the base variant of the S21 Ultra at 256GB, but also less RAM (8GB vs 12GB).

You can pre-order the Galaxy S23 Ultra now, and it will go on general sale from February 17. As always, there are some enticing pre-order deals you can take advantage of. Samsung is offering a free storage upgrade and an additional $100 store credit if you buy the phone from Samsung’s website.

Unfortunately, Samsung discontinued the Galaxy S21 Ultra, so you can’t buy the device from official channels anymore. You can find second-hand sales on Amazon and other third-party resellers at significant discounts.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra is the better of the two phones. But that’s the least you’d expect when pitting a current flagship against a two-year-old device. But it is more of the same, but better. Yes, the new 200MP primary camera is excellent, but the other three remain the same. You get faster charging with the latest phone, but the battery capacity is identical. Both phones have S Pen support, but the S21 Ultra doesn’t have a built-in storage slot. The S23 has a faster processor and more storage, but the S21 Ultra has more RAM. The display is essentially the same, but the S23 Ultra’s screen gets brighter.

Of course, these are all excellent changes and a testament to how refined the S23 Ultra is compared to previous generations. It is an impressive step up. After all, every generational update can’t be significantly different, and the S23 Ultra ticks all the right boxes when it comes to expected upgrades.

All of this is to say that if you have the Galaxy S21 Ultra, you don’t necessarily need to upgrade right now. Especially with Samsung’s software commitment, you can easily hold on to the older phone for even a couple of years, barring any battery issues. And by then, we might get the major overhaul that won’t make every update feel so iterative.