How is the February update on S21 Ultra?

[realmm99]

Hello friends, how is the performance of your device's camera after the February update (G998BXXU1AUB3)? Do you still have the problem of overheating? What about the problem of camera lag and Video 4k 60fps lag? Are the problems solved? 

[Raph06]

The problems are not solved on my S21 Ultra. None of them.
And battery life is still appalling.

[Adamksc]

Nothing improved battery life now is very bad ,I need flash my phone with previous software AUAB few hours after update

[Gman123z]

I don't recommended updating it on the base S21, idle drain is high and you lose about 20% overnight... Might want to hold out until the next patch comes in

[Joeeye]

I found it tries to push the device too hard in certain apps. It feels the same system efficiency wise. Camera I noticed is worse now in certain low light conditions, there's times where a lot of noise is showing as it's trying to extract detail and the whole image looks horrible compared to older generation Samsungs (S20U, Note 10+). This is in extreme low light however so it's somewhat minor, but I do hope they fix it as it was not doing this in the older firmware.

[Kieranlake]

my phone is hot since yesterday its kinda scary don't no what to do

[ironass]

I must say, that I am loving this new firmware release, AUB£, with the February Android Security patch, that is now rolling out to the S21 Exynos devices worldwide.

My phone is running cool in idle, 25C-32C, and has not experienced any temperature spikes that some are complaining of.

Battery life in normal use is easily 26hrs+ with an SoT, (Screen on Time), of circa 7-8hrs. 

Benchmark tests are very good and the fastest I have ever experienced and on a par with those published for Snapdragon.

The camera has, IMHO, improved but is still noisy in low light I am told and I understand that Samsung are continuing to work on this.

All-in-all, I would absolutely recommend this update. and am loving my Galaxy S21 Ultra. 

What the update will not do, is rectify any issues caused by users apps and settings... no update can do that.

[smiley]

@ironass  Did you clean install everything ?  I did sync some of my previous apps from phone after performing a clean up of the apps that i didn't want.   I don't see a great SOT to be honest (approx 4 to 5hours), but I get a days use... before it is probably around 20% by the end of the day. I don't get any heat issues particularly, apart from a little warming effects.   

I am tempted to factory reset with the new update, and only transfer essential phone numbers etc... and then start again from a fresh install.  

Kind Regards

Smiley 😀

[ironass]

Hi smiley!

I set my phone up from scratch upon receipt, no Smart Switch or copying apps and settings from an older or different phone, as bitter experience has shown me that this causes issues.

I always sync my contacts, calendar, tasks and notes with my gmail and use that when setting up, (I prefer Google Contacts, Calendar and Keep Notes as I use them on several devices). 

I simply connected my previous phone, Galaxy S20 Ultra, to my PC via USB and copied the entire contents of that phone's memory to a folder and when setting up my new S21 Ultra, I just copied and pasted my own documents, photos and music across. No previous apps or settings whatsoever.

All apps were downloaded afresh from the Play Store and re-set up again. 

Luckily for me, I had already identified some Play Store apps that were causing issues with Android 11, on my S20 Ultra when I updated that to Android 11, (a large number of apps have still not been updated by their developers in spite of 9 months notice), and removed/replaced them. As you probably know, these incompatible apps can run like crazy in the background, using CPU, causing lags and draining the battery and generally affecting performance. I traced them by going to... Settings > Developer options > Running services.

That's it. 

My creed is.. "Never install or transfer apps and settings from an older, different, phone"

[smiley]

@ironass Thanks... great advice there.  I am going to spend the time and factory reset the phone, and perform only essential calendar / contacts entries.  

More of a test to see if there is any improvement.  I can get a day use, but nothing like some of the published numbers on here.  I have also spent some time attempting to optimise / deep sleep / perform other battery saving, but still at best probably achieved 5 hours SOT.  

For me, it is worth a try... and see if this either confirms any significant improvement, or doesn't make much difference. 

I am not disappointed with my experience by any means, but many do seem to get better ! 😀

Perhaps manufacturing variances... perhaps something i have neglected, or made worse by sync.

Thanks

Smiley