hey friend brandon here i’ve been using the samsung galaxy s2 ultra for over a month now and there are some outstanding things about it and some things that aren’t my favorite or even not so great while i can say that this phone overall is a fantastic phone no phone is perfect so here are my top 22 plus best and worst things about the samsung galaxy s2 ultra by the way this video is sponsored in part by epson and their super small but powerful epson epic vision mini ef 12 smart streaming laser projector it’s also powered by android tv we’ll talk about more later on in the video but you can find out more about it right now by clicking the link in the description it’s a bit of a cliche by now but every year samsung puts their latest and greatest displays into their smartphones and the samsung galaxy s22 ultra is no exception it has vibrant and exciting colors with the option to have a more natural look if you don’t like the oversaturated look the contrast levels are fantastic and hdr content looks
phenomenal on it one thing that is pretty crazy is how stinking bright it gets it has a peak brightness of 1750 nits compared to the apple iphone 13 pro max that has a peak brightness of 1200 nits but keep in mind you might not see the peak brightness unless you’re watching acr content or you’re looking at the screen outside but here’s a little tip if you go into the display settings there’s a setting called extra brightness that will brighten up the screen just a little bit more i also love having the 120 hertz refresh rate screen that makes the usage of the phone feel a lot faster and smoother but also drops down to as low as one hurt to conserve battery life while the samsung galaxy s2 ultra has a fantastic
display i’m still not a fan of its curved screen it makes it incredibly hard to find good screen protectors for it every screen protector is underwhelming other than this white stone dome glass i have installed my phone there’s a link for this in the description it also makes it a lot easier to scratch because things rub against and scrape against the edges of your phone the most and when your screen is the edge it makes it a lot easier for your phone’s screen to scratch actually my phone scratched within hours of me owning this phone and that’s before my screen protector came in because well it’s hard to have those screen protectors ready to go right at launch but thankfully the white zone dome glass one fills in the scratches so i don’t see them anymore now to be fair i don’t see much distortion on the edges like we used two years ago with curved screens and i haven’t had any accidental touches so that’s great
for so many years samsung software used touchwiz and it’s generally been seen as an iphone rip off and overall a pretty awful experience compared to stock android recently samsung changed over to one ui and in its current iteration i actually think it’s quite great it’s a much cleaner design than before and it’s a lot easier to use and navigate than ever before what’s especially crazy is that samsung has managed to execute on having a more stable operating system than google has with the google pixel 6 and 6 pro i know android 12 has been one of the biggest changes to android in a long time so it makes sense that there would be a lot of bugs and issues with the operating system but it somehow seems like the google pixel 6 pro is the vehicle for finding all of them while samsung has managed to execute on rolling out a phone with android 12 that is pretty dang stable and mostly bug free how did samsung beat google that’s just crazy while the samsung galaxy s2 ultra software is
overall quite great one of the things that bothers me about samsung phones that is not an issue on a google pixel or an iphone is a bloatware even if you get the samsung galaxy s2 ultra unlocked so you don’t have any carrier bloatware it has spotify pre-loaded on it has netflix pre-loaded on it youtube music and microsoft apps and then there’s duplicate versions of the apps compared with android already provides like the photos app calendar mail browser bixby and more it’s just a bit redundant in fact there are actually two tv apps which are exactly the same thing but with a different name and a splash screen i’m actually confused why there needs to be two of these samsung tv apps thankfully most things you can uninstall and if you can’t you can at least hide the apps that you don’t want to see anymore and to be fair there isn’t as much bloatware as in the past with the samsung galaxy phones and one ui you can do a ton of different things with all the various features and customization options some of my favorites are the extra dim or extra dark options the protect battery feature that lends your charge to 85 so your overall battery life span is protected the ability to keep the apps open so they don’t automatically close when the system tries to free up ram the ram plus option where you can use your storage space for more
ram and a whole bunch more honestly it’s crazy how much you can do with this phone and i have a whole entire 36 minute long video going over 58 tips and tricks for the samsung galaxy s2 lineup which also works for most android devices i guarantee that you’ll find at least one thing there that you didn’t know about or forgot about you can check it out by clicking the card up here the truth is this is definitely the phone to get if you want to tinker with your phone so the samsung galaxy s2 ultra says that it can accept fast charging up to 45 watts which can sound pretty significant but one of the weird things about it is that i’ve never been able to hit charging speeds at high you see i have this fancy charging cable that has this little screen on it that tells me how fast my phone is charging even with my 100 watt charger and the official 45 watt samsung charger i cannot seem to reach charging speeds close to 45 watts by the way if you want to find out more about this neat charging cable and many other accessories for the samsung galaxy s2 lineup and many other android phones you can check out the card up here one thing that is hard to deny is that the samsung galaxy s20 ultra flies it’s super smooth
launches apps quickly and scrolls around really well in most cases this is likely because of the software optimization as well as the latest qualcomm snapdragon 8 gen1 processor but the reality is that processors have been more than enough for a number of years already but it is also true that having the latest processor is obviously great for future proofing especially if you have your phone for more than three or four years but the amount of headroom you have to really push it just keeps going higher and higher when the usage of that power struggles to keep up and you know what that’s pretty fantastic it’s great that we have so much room to grow on our phones an unfortunate thing that has been discovered recently is that samsung has been throttling apps or limiting the performance of some apps and not just a few apps but like a lot of apps there’s at least ten thousand this is something affecting many popular apps like instagram tiktok netflix microsoft and google apps and even samsung’s own apps but the area that hurts the most is gaming games are being throttled which is a shame when you have a powerful chip like the snapdragon 8gen one in it and ironically samsung isn’t throttling benchmarking apps which is a bit cruddy to do because you could think that you’re getting all the performance you’re paying for
when you run these apps but samsung is choosing for you when you get to use that performance but being the kind of person i am i have to ask why would samsung do this i imagine they do it to save better life as well as balance cpu and gpu performance so that your phone doesn’t overheat so instead of having proper cooling to prevent overheating or a processor that was designed to be more power efficient and capable of running without generating as much heat samsung is just throttling things inside so that’s a bummer one of the best things about the samsung galaxy s22 is upgrades for years one thing that makes the iphone great is that apple provides software updates for some of their oldest phones their average is about six to seven years of software support which is incredible on android the story hasn’t been so great with updates typically lasting for maybe one or two years even on the google pixel 6 pro but samsung is actually an outlier in the android community not only have they managed to move to android 12 without all the stability and bug issues that the google pixel 6 has had but they’re
going to provide four years of software updates for their phones that’s super uncommon in the android sphere and would cover the majority of people who only upgrade their phones occasionally so good job samsung one of the most painful things about smartphone experiences lately has been the battery life while these phones become more and more capable and more and more powerful these features and the processors are demanding more and more power than ever before and efficiencies are not advancing as far as the power draw unfortunately the samsung galaxy s2 ultra is not immune to this despite their efforts to use panels that can go down to one hertz or throttling apps to conserve power and reduce heat for me i might be able to get like five to six hours of screen on time and i do end up having moments where i have charger anxiety where i just have to top up my battery because i’m afraid it’s not going to make me through the day in my experience the best battery life in a modern mainstream smartphone is the apple iphone 13 pro max i really hope we can get an option as good as that on the android side of the fence soon there’s no way someone can deny that samsung is one of the best in terms of hardware build quality for android phones with their metal designs nice finishes super nice and clicky buttons that aren’t
loose and seams are impeccable the samsung galaxy s2 ultra really stands out i love it when phones are matte finish instead of glossy even beyond that the s22 and s22 plus has a great looking camera bar with chamfered rings around the lenses and even looking at the sides instead of being sharp and flat like the iphone 13 pro max this has a slight curve to it so it feels better in the hand samsung really gets build quality down in my opinion they have matured in their craft in great ways in the past two generations there’s one quirk that still drives me a bit nuts about the samsung galaxy s2 ultra that has been present on previous galaxy note devices and it’s the fact that i cannot lay the phone down flat that means i cannot leave my phone laying down on the table and write on it without it moving around and rocking on me i just find that really frustrating thankfully this can often be mitigated by putting a case on it and most people will probably put a case on their phone so not the worst thing in
the world one of the most underrated features for the samsung galaxy lineup is dex mode this is seriously like having a desktop computer-like experience where you can use a keyboard and mouse drag and drop files view websites in full screen and even play games it’s all ready to go just by plugging your phone into a monitor now that sounds like a lot but with the snapdragon 8 gen 1 it has plenty of power so you get a lot done with a really smooth experience you can even use decks with a projector with this video sponsor epson and the epic vision mini ef-12 smart streaming laser projector this thing has a really small compact and clean design so it doesn’t take up a ton of space but don’t let the size fool you there’s a ton of power packed into such a small package it is capable of outputting a massive 150 inch image which is four times bigger than a 75 inch flat panel and that makes it really awesome for the basketball season watching movies live streams presentations work and more this also has
epic micro laser array technology built into it so that gives you a brighter image with enhanced black destiny it’s also powered by android tv which is definitely my preference for an operating system because that means that you have access to a ton of streaming services and apps that you’d expect you can also control it with your voice because of the google assistant and it was a breeze that set up because i was able to use my smartphone to easily log in now i used to set up concert stages with lights line arrays and projectors and we often had to spend hours with a team of people getting our projectors framed and in focus on the screen just right with grid pattern lines and all this other crazy stuff the fact that this has auto keystone autofocus and auto color correction for natural image built into it is insane it automatically kicks in when you change the position of your projector when you add in the fact that it has some surprising sound out of such a small package with the speakers powered by yamaha this thing is really convenient for getting something set up really fast and easy so you’re spending less time setting everything up and more time enjoying if you’d like to check out the epic vision mini ef-12 check out the link in the description and thanks to epson for
sponsoring this portion of the video so there’s been this really weird thing about the haptics on the samsung galaxy s2 ultra and s22 lineup the haptics are both a lot better and a lot worse you see the apple iphone has the best haptics in any smartphone out there there’s no contesting that and the google pixels 4 xl had what i think is the best haptics out there on an android phone samsung has often been decent but not as far as the google pixel 4 xl in my opinion but this new version is a bit more like an iphone than ever before on a samsung device and that’s because the vibrations feel more precise and controlled than the typical spinning piece of metal spiraling like crazy which is honestly more common in cheaper android phones and because of this that means you can have more precise and unique vibration patterns so while that all sounds good why does it suck samsung changed the vibration direction from screen to back into frame to frame and that means the vibration is shockingly weak feeling both in the pocket and when you interact with it it also means it makes less noise when it’s set on a surface and you get something like a
phone call it’s so bad that samsung had to add a feature into the vibration settings to make an artificial vibration noise through the speaker when you get a phone call so you don’t miss it one of the best things about the samsung galaxy s2 ultra is the ecosystem when looking at apple it can be really hard to deny how robust and nice looking the ecosystem is with everything working together but what if you don’t want to be in the apple walled garden that’s one of the areas that samsung has been working on for a long time and they actually do have a fairly robust ecosystem of their own they have trackers like the smart tag plus that uses ultra wideband which allows you to find items with a great level of precision and even gives you an augmented reality view of your surroundings and where the tracker is then you have earbuds like the galaxy butts pro they have additional features that can only be used on a samsung phone like low latency gaming mode there’s a galaxy watch 4 which is a great smart watch that integrates really well with a bunch of samsung apps and features with added benefits like soup tracking ecg
body composition and blood oxygen levels that only work if you pair with a samsung phone and then you add in their laptops and tablets that you can text and receive calls from they just have a lot going on that you can’t even find in google’s own products with the rising cost of everything due to supply chain and inflation it’s really easy to become price sensitive to things and the samsung galaxy s2 ultra is no exception it was hard enough when phones reached a thousand dollars but the galaxy s20 ultra launched at an insane price of 1200 or more for the base model that only has eight gigabytes of ram which is less than last year’s model and 128 gigabytes of storage if you want 256 gigabytes of storage you have to pay an additional 100 thankfully if you’re patient you can often wait a couple months for sales to start and that will bring down the price more and samsung’s trade-in program is honestly the most generous out there so that can also knock off a ton of money off the sticker price if you do plan on purchasing a galaxy s22 ultra or any other samsung product check out the link in the description as it often has a
special deal associated with it and it also helps support the channel the samsung galaxy s2 ultra is definitely a phone filled with options and one of the areas for that is the camera there’s not one there’s not two there’s not even three cameras there’s four cameras on the back you get the main wide sensor the ultra wide a telephoto camera and an internal periscope telephoto camera that has a 10x optical zoom that’s a lot of options and each focal length has its own characteristics that can be used both for convenience and for artistic purposes and that’s just really neat to have on one phone given how expensive the samsung galaxy s20 ultra is it’s a bit disappointing that they’re ads on the phone yes there are some awful ads that you can get in a notification that you can opt out of if you pay attention when you set up your device but honestly most people miss that and it’s not always the easiest way to find how to opt out of that later on after the fact the fact that you can get a notification to buy the phone that you’re holding in your hand is just kind of wild also the autocrat keyboard is powered by grammarly which is clearly a brand
partnership it just kind of stinks knowing that this is all on your phone that you paid 1200 for one thing i wish was more common on more android phones especially on the google pixel 6 pro is an option for pro mode the samsung galaxy s2 ultra allows you to manually control a lot of settings that you have on a full dslr or mirrorless camera like iso shutter speed aperture exposure and more this is just so cool when you want to control what your camera is doing and know what everything does instead of having the camera decide everything for you this makes more artistic shots a lot more interesting fun and possible also you can choose from multiple different frame rates which is something that google has still stubbornly refused to give to us google come on while the samsung galaxy s20 ultra has an incredible amount of capabilities for the camera i do have to admit that the look of the image and the processing isn’t exactly my preference it’s not bad but i can find that the sharpening is a
bit much and it can sometimes make things look a little bit crunchy in comparison to something like the google pixel 6 pro which is a bit softer and natural looking which i personally prefer and that’s the important point this is a preference you may like the more sharpened look and if you do that’s great the samsung galaxy s20 ultra is a good fit for you and i’m always happy to help people find the best fit for them rather than force my preferences on others one of the best strengths for the samsung galaxy s2 ultra is its video quality while the google pixel 6 pro exists it still hasn’t had the dramatic leap forward in terms of video all the other options haven’t really blown me away and really haven’t given the iphone a run for its money the samsung galaxy s2 ultra is the only phone that i think provides competition to the iphone for the camera and video stabilization is really great you have tons of focal ranges frame rate options and the colors exposure and clarity are actually pretty dang good for a smartphone but a little disclaimer it’s not always consistent and sometimes it just doesn’t look very good other times i’m just blown away you also have an 8k mode which is insane and allows you to get tons of
detail if you need to zoom in it does crop a bit which is a bummer but if you’re trying to get closer anyways this is a neat little hack to get closer while having a higher resolution also the galaxy s20 ultra front facing camera has a natural depth of field or bokeh on it that looks really great that i really love the look of now i know this may be controversial and to be clear this is all subjective in an opinion but i find the design of the galaxy s2 ultra to be a bit outdated which is made more obvious when you look at the galaxy s22 plus when you look at the transition from the note 20 ultra to the s22 ultra it seems like a natural progression when you look at the s21 ultra and the s22 plus it seems like a natural progression in this context the s22 ultra looks like a holdover design of what samsung was planning to release but that didn’t actually come out and said they took a year off and merits a galaxy note in galaxy s lines and it seems like they just used what they already worked on and called it a s22 ultra
rather than updating the design to match what we’re seeing on the s22 plus it honestly looks out of place and i hope they have a more unifying design across the lineup next year one of the best things about the samsung galaxy s7 ultra is the s pen and all the abilities that comes with it it allows you to easily annotate documents and screenshots take notes draw and my personal favorite easily make animated gifs on whatever is on your screen they can post on social media or anywhere else you can also use it to interact with the camera in really cool ways like changing what settings you’re on and even use it as a way to take a picture of you or a group of friends without having to hold the phone yourself all you have to do is click the button on the s pen and it either takes a picture or starts recording a video here’s something i really bummed out about the s22 ultra this is more nuanced opinion on the samsung galaxy s2 ultra which is still a great phone but is a bit of a bummer for those who want a flagship phone you see the s22 ultra is essentially a galaxy note device
but with a different name and a different launch time than in the past with that comes a boxy design the curved screens and the s pen and believe it or not there are some people that do not prefer the boxy design and the curved screen or the s-pen but they still want a flagship device the issue is that the only option given to people for a current generation samsung phone that doesn’t have a note design is s22 and s22 plus and those do not have a qhd plus display but an fhd plus display also the resolution is lower it can’t go down to one hertz to save better life and it doesn’t have the many cameras of the s2 ultra oh and you also don’t have the option for a larger battery which is usually associated with an ultra device people who don’t prefer the note design are stuck with a lower tier device if they want a different design and it stinks they have less of a choice i actually made a whole video about this issue and possible solutions you can check out in the card up here so what are your best and worst things about the samsung galaxy s2 ultra what do you hope samsung adds to the s23 lineup let me know in the comments and this is tech today community discord chat server we’d love to have you thanks for watching this is tech today until next time
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