Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 14 Pro

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (with Exynos 2100) that was released on January 14, 2021, against the Apple iPhone 14 Pro, which is powered by Apple A16 Bionic and came out 1 year and 8 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

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Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
  • The rear camera has a 10x optical zoom
  • Comes with 1800 mAh larger battery capacity: 5000 vs 3200 mAh
  • Has a 0.7 inch larger screen size
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Has 33% more RAM: 8GB versus 6GB
  • 12% higher pixel density (515 vs 460 PPI)
  • Reverse charging feature
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 14 Pro
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • Delivers 77% higher peak brightness (1790 against 1013 nits)
  • 40% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1501K versus 1074K)
  • Shows 10% longer battery life (24:20 vs 22:05 hours)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • The phone is 1 year and 8 months newer
  • 2x faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2961 and 1486 points
  • Weighs 21 grams less

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and Apple iPhone 14 Pro crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
DeviceFacts Score
Final comparison evaluation
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Value for money (Beta)

To get an accurate value-for-money index, update the default prices with actual prices from your country’s retailers (for the selected memory configs) and press the "Calculate" button.
Currency
8 / 128 GB
VS
6 / 128 GB
32.0
(Mediocre)
Value Index
83.0
(Good)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.8 inches 6.1 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3200 pixels 1179 x 2556 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 19.5:9
PPI 515 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (10-120 Hz) Yes (1-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 1500 nits 2000 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR - 1600 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus -
Screen-to-body ratio 89.5% 86.6%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space - 99.8%
PWM - 240 Hz
Response time - 1 ms
Contrast - ∞ Infinity
Screen space comparison
Galaxy S21 Ultra
6.8″ (20:9 ratio) = 17.3 in2
iPhone 14 Pro
6.1″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 14.2 in2
~22% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
1013 nits
1790 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 165.1 mm (6.5 inches) 147.5 mm (5.81 inches)
Width 75.6 mm (2.98 inches) 71.5 mm (2.81 inches)
Thickness 8.9 mm (0.35 inches) 7.85 mm (0.31 inches)
Weight 227 g (8.01 oz) 206 g (7.27 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Silver, Gray, Blue Black, Silver, Gold, Purple
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and Apple iPhone 14 Pro
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 2100 Apple A16 Bionic
Max clock 2900 MHz 3460 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2.2 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 3 cores at 2.81 GHz: Cortex-A78
- 1 core at 2.91 GHz: Cortex-X1
- 4 cores at 2.02 GHz: Sawtooth
- 2 cores at 3.46 GHz: Everest
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC
Lithography process 5 nanometers 4 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Yes Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Mali-G78 MP14 5 core Apple GPU
GPU shading units 448 640
GPU clock 854 MHz 1398 MHz
FLOPS ~765.2 GFLOPS ~1789.4 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and Apple iPhone 14 Pro
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
23942
Compute Score (GPU) 6870 23942
Single-core score 1486 2961
Multi-core score 3800 7133
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
1501273
CPU 420330 382796
GPU 186151 467517
Memory 193925 178501
UX 273776 472459
Total score 1074182 1501273
Samples [11 tests] [7 tests]
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability - 77%
Graphics test - 16 FPS
Section 1 - 20 FPS
Section 2 - 16 FPS
Section 3 - 12 FPS
Graphics score - 4289
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability - 72%
Graphics test - 20 FPS
Graphics score - 3340
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-06 (Nurik)AnTuTu 12900228
📘 2026-09-30 -> fh_hxx19AnTuTu 121191592
📘 2026-09-30 -> fh_hxx19AnTuTu 121191592
📘 2026-07-22 (Squizzyyy)AnTuTu 11857016
📘 2026-06-02 (My name)AnTuTu 111271841
Apple iPhone 14 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-15 (Tannery)AnTuTu 111335615
📘 2026-09-26 (Peltsi74)AnTuTu 111477304
📘 2026-09-21 (Атомная бомба)AnTuTu 111772840
📘 2026-08-31 (LORDroid)AnTuTu 111445126
📘 2026-08-16 (Ronaldo)AnTuTu 111626008

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 6 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR5
Memory clock 2750 MHz -
Channels 2 4
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 11 (Can be upgraded to Android 15) iOS 16 (Can be upgraded to iOS 27)
ROM One UI 7.0 -
OS size 26.4 GB -
OS updates 2 years 6 years
Security updates 4 years 6 years

Battery

Capacity 5000 mAh 3200 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 23 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (7.5 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Bypass charging - No
Fast charging Yes (54% in 30 min) Yes (60% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:11 hr 1:41 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 07:58 hr 09:41 hr
Watching video 13:59 hr 16:03 hr
Gaming 05:14 hr 05:38 hr
Standby 111 hr 112 hr
General battery life
22:05 hr
24:20 hr

Main camera

Matrix 108 megapixels 48 megapixels
Image resolution 12000 x 9000 8064 x 6048
Zoom Optical, 10x Optical, 3x
Flash Dual LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 24FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 108 MP
2) Telephoto: 10 MP
3) Telephoto: 10 MP
4) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 48 MP
2) Telephoto: 12 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
4) Depth
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 108 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.8
Focal length 26 mm 24 mm
Sensor Samsung S5KHM3 Sony IMX803
Sensor size 1/1.33" (≈ 0.75 inch) 1/1.28" (≈ 0.78 inch)
Pixel size 0.8 micron 1.22 micron
Autofocus Laser autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 10 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/4.9 f/2.8
Focal length 240 mm 77 mm
Sensor Samsung S5K3J1 Sony IMX713
Sensor size 1/2.65" (≈ 0.38 inch) 1/3.5" (≈ 0.29 inch)
Pixel size 1.22 micron 1 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 13 mm 13 mm
Sensor Sony IMX563 Sony IMX633
Sensor size 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch)
Pixel size 1.4 micron 1.4 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Bokeh 70 80
Preview 67 91
Zoom 106 139
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone 14 Pro from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 40 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 7864 x 5200 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.2 f/1.9
Focal length 26 mm 23 mm
Sensor Samsung S5KGH1 Sony IMX714
Sensor size 1/2.65" (≈ 0.38 inch) 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch)
Pixel size 0.7 micron -
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No Yes
DxOMark front camera
Photo 133 139
Video 140 154

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.2 5.3
Bluetooth features LE, A2DP LE
USB type USB Type-C -
USB version 3.2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- USB-Host mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort - Yes
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 -
Type of SIM card Nano eSIM
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 24 20
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness
89.5 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced January 2021 September 2022
Release date February 2021 September 2022
Launch price (MSRP) $1200 $999
Successor - Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra - Apple iPhone 17 Pro
SAR (head) 0.71 W/kg -
SAR (body) 1.58 W/kg -
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
Bundled charger - Not included
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPhone 14 Pro is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
74 (63.2%)
43 (36.8%)
Total votes: 117

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