From S21 Ultra to Find X9 Ultra - it's wonderful
Got my new X9 Ultra here in Bulgaria from one of our telecoms for 1125 € with the charger. Got very lucky with that deal and with the phone (after and exhausting nearly 3 week waiting).
My old Sammy phone is still great. Had it since June 2021, changed its battery in December 2024, and that might have gotten me 1-2 more years out of it, but software updates stopped, and now it will be passed to my son so he can play on it and shoot silly home videos.
So, compared to it, the X9 Ultra is better or on par everywhere I tested in these almost 3 days I've had it.
Battery is a beast. Yesterday at 16:00 it was on 100%. I went to a football game that went to overtime and penalties, there were celebrations 1 hour after the end, and I shot tons of photos and videos. Today, still shooting everything like a small child, at 11 AM it's at 40% and will easily last me until I get home after work.
Sound is better than the S21. Probably 10% louder and with a bit more bass. Nothing super special, but more than enough to listen to a podcast in the shower.
The display on the S21 is great, here - greater. It's smarter at adapting the brightness. The fingerprint scanner is impeccable and super fast. The game yesterday was a rainy one and at times I was absolutely soaked, yet I could write on the display with wet hands and it was ridiculously good.
The cameras are a delight. I went on a pixel-peeping binge in the last 2-3 months trying to find my next phone. Saw hundreds of hours of reviews and comparisons, had doubts. But at the end of the day I won't be watching most of my shots and videos on a display larger than my laptop's, and most of the time they won't be side by side with something marginally better.
They are superior in every way to my S21 Ultra. But most importantly, with decent light I can get a great picture and video at every distance, from 0.6x to 20-30x zoom, with no loss of quality. With the S21 Ultra there were many limitations to getting a great shot, even on a perfect sunny day, let alone with artificial light or at dusk, for example.
It's not much heavier or bigger. I have bigger hands than most and it's possible to use it one-handed (with a case) like the Samsung phone. Shooting ultrawide will include my finger in the shot for the foreseeable future though, because my finger naturally rests on the bottom of the camera bump, but I'll get used to it.
Software-wise, it takes some time to get used to something a bit different, but nothing scary so far. My banking app's KYC was asking me to take a photo of my ID card and it switched to the 10x camera, so I needed to shoot it while standing on a chair, which is stupid, but I loved it.
Will write more in the coming days, but wanted to share my perspective. Ask questions if you think I missed something.