Samsung’s ULTRA Is not ULTRA Enough

Samsung’s Ultra needs to get better. After two days of covering cool in-person events, I was met with the reality that the “Ultra” is not an ultra phone. My storage is running low, and I cannot expand it. This means I need cloud storage or to use a flash drive/SSD, but that means the storage is not on-device. The battery life is abysmal, as is the camera speed. Let’s discuss.

Samsung’s high-quality video takes up a lot of storage — a lot. 512 GB is not cutting it. There are 1 TB models, but they are prohibitively expensive and rare, because the average person doesn’t need all that storage. But when you have an ULTRA phone, and you’re covering important events, interviewing people, and working out in the field with no camera, no laptop, and no place to put an SSD, the extra storage — or at least a microSD card slot — would be extremely useful.

Think of the Note 20 Ultra, one of Samsung’s masterpieces. It had a 6.9-inch screen and a microSD card slot, while the cheaper Note 20 did not. I would be fine with that approach. Give power features back to the power users. Speaking of power, the 5000 mAh battery is not cutting it anymore. On Friday I covered an event and needed my battery case to charge the phone. After the event was over and a short 10-minute drive, the phone was still at 15% battery and draining. The same thing happened when I was outside covering another event. I forgot my charger, so I had to buy a battery bank. I used 25% of that battery bank, but at the end of the day the phone was still at 15% battery. Let me be clear: the Ultra is NOT an all-day phone if you have more than moderate use — and it’s even worse when it’s hot outside.

Lastly, the cameras are lagging. Photos appear washed out, and the app takes some time to load. Maybe it’s because I use the phone to its maximum potential. Maybe it’s because I use it like a computer every day for its nearly 2-year life. But Samsung Ultras should be more ULTRA! God bless and Tech Talk To You Later!!!