Galaxy S21 Ultra: Samsung's upcoming flagship will allegedly come with two telephoto lenses, support for S Pen inputs, and more

The torrent of Galaxy S21 series leaks that we've seen in the past few weeks almost certainly confirm that Samsung plans on releasing it early (mid-January 2021, by some estimates) this time around. Several leakers have emphasized that the devices will come with a flat display, with the notable exception of the Galaxy S21 Ultra, which will feature a 'slightly' curved screen, if a new leak is to be believed.

Twitter leaker @not_koh suggests that the Galaxy S21 Ultra's display will be more or less identical to that of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra with marginally better color accuracy and support for Dolby Vision. As foretold by several reports, the Galaxy S21 Ultra will be the first of its kind to support S Pen inputs. Whether or not it will ship with an S Pen out of the box remains to be seen. The screen might even be able to run at 1440p 120Hz, but that remains unconfirmed. Support for variable refresh rate operation is allegedly in the books, too. Another leaker weighs in stating that it will have a diagonal length of 6.8-inches. Both tipsters agree that the Galaxy S21 Ultra will cost around US$1,300.

Samsung appears to have taken a page or two from Huawei's playbook while designing the Galaxy S21 Ultra's cameras. The primary 108MP ISOCELL HM2 Bright sensor will be assisted by a 16MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 10MP (2x optical zoom) telephoto lens, and a second 10MP (5x optical zoom) periscope telephoto lens. Unfortunately, we have to wait a bit longer for an under-display camera, as the Galaxy S21 will use the tried-and-tested hole-punch approach to house the 40MP selfie shooter. As is the case with new Samsung releases, the entire Galaxy S21 series will come with some new camera features such as the ability to capture 4K video at 60 FPS on all cameras, WDR support along with HDR, and more. The features will eventually make their way to older devices via the One UI 3.1 update.

Not much seems to have improved on the storage/memory front. The Galaxy S21 Ultra will come in three variants with 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB of storage coupled with 12/16GB of RAM. Much like its predecessor, the smartphone will come with a 5,000 mAh battery. The smartphone will come with a 25W charger out of the box and support fast charging up to 45W. Despite one report stating otherwise, Samsung doesn't plan on bringing back the headphone jack with the Galaxy S21 series.

Prima facie, the Galaxy S21 Ultra seems like a marginal upgrade over its antecedent. Most of the specifications are identical across the board, with minimal improvements in the camera and battery department. However, the phone's Exynos 2100 SoC promises to deliver a significant performance boost over last year's Exynos 990. The leaker rounds things off by saying that that the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold series is where the real upgrades will be at.