The spec sheet for this phone looks very ultra—but is it more ultra than last year's model? Or is it basically an S20 Ultra in a mask? Judge for yourself:

6.8" Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity-O Display (3200x1440, 515ppi), variable refresh rate up to 120 Hz

Snapdragon 888 processor paired with 12 GB of LPDDR5 RAM (16 GB optional)

128 GB flash storage (256 or 512 GB optional)

5,000 mAh battery

Five cameras: 12 MP ƒ/2.2 ultra-wide; 108 MP ƒ/1.8 wide-angle; 10 MP ƒ/2.4 telephoto; 10 MP ƒ/4.9 periscope telephoto, and a 40 MP ƒ/2.2 selfie camera

If you read our S20 Ultra teardown and think you're seeing double, you're not alone. But let's dig a little deeper to see if more than just the numbers line up.

Before we dismantle the phone, we first dismantle the box and accessories. Obviously, there's a cable and a wall charg—

All kidding aside, it's not a surprising about-face from Samsung—and it's a small step in the right direction for reducing e-waste.

Design-wise, this year's Galaxy S-series sports a less-rounded edge (although it's not as dramatic a flattening as Apple gave the iPhone).

Meanwhile, the camera bump has spread all the way to the Ultra's aluminum edge, creating a smooth transition for the eyes (and fingers).

Camera bumps may be here to stay, but expandable storage has gone the way of the dodo—the microSD tray is missing in the S21 series.

Before we bust out the tools, let's put on our Ultra-vision goggles and get a glimpse inside, courtesy of our friends at Creative Electron. What fun stuff can we find, compared to the S20 Ultra's X-ray shot?

The vibration motor and the SIM card tray have traded places at either end of the phone. This seemingly makes room for a slightly larger earpiece speaker.

The periscope telephoto camera is also noticeably larger, likely for extra optical zoom levels.

Lastly, the wireless charging coils got a minor makeover. The outer charging coils are thinner, elongated, and got a few extra windings. This may help with better efficiency over a bigger charging area. The inner coils now have a two-gauge setup—the fine gauge windings might help charge smaller items (like Galaxy Buds) more efficiently.

Like a terrible (or genius?) physician, we take one glance and immediately prescribe a dose of heat and slicing to get the rear panel off. We've got patients to see!

After the heat treatment, it's time to make our incisions around the perimeter.

Operation successful! The rear panel comes off without any stray cables attached to it.

The same large adhesive gasket holds both the back cover and camera bump in place—but the bump can be carved off separately, making for some interesting DIY customization possibilities.

With the back panel removed, we can gawk at how humongous this phone looks next to our tiny Minnow Driver Kit.

The guts seem a slight iteration over last year's S20 Ultra, with minor changes to the wireless charging coil and upper antenna assemblies.

The earpiece speaker comes out with the antenna assembly this go-round, which is an updated design we first saw in the Note 20—as opposed to being separately adhered to the frame in prior phones like the S20 Ultra.

After we delicately yank the motherboard out, we make a beeline for the camera assemblies, where we're greeted by a familiar friend from the S20 Ultra, the 12 MP ultra-wide.

Also making a reappearance is the main 108 MP ƒ/1.8 wide-angle camera, but this year he slimmed down from a 26 to 24 mm equivalent focal length (beach season is coming!).

The periscope telephoto camera makes a return as well, albeit with a complete makeover, sacrificing some features in favor of others:

One big change to the camera array: The DepthVision camera from the S20+ and Ultra has packed up and moved out, making room for a 10 MP ƒ/2.4 70 mm telephoto camera as the periscope's new roommate.

Also new: this laser AF module, which is awesome AF (at focusing). It's like a miniature golf rangefinder—perhaps you can use it as a miniature golf rangefinder?

Do these boards look like howling dogs? Anyways, let's check out what makes this phone tick:

Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 layered beneath Samsung K3LK4K40CM-BGCP 12 GB LPDDR5 RAM

Samsung flash storage KLUDG4UHDC-B0E1 128 GB

Qualcomm SMR526 5G modulator

Maxim MAX77705C power management IC

Qualcomm QPM5825 power management IC

Qualcomm QDM5872 and QDM4820 Front-End Module

Cirrus Logic CS35L40 audio amplifier IC

This right board looks like a suspicious dinosaur. Here are some more chips:

Qualcomm SDR868 RF transceiver

WACOM W9020 IC (the little secret behind the S Pen) digitizer controller (likely)

Qualcomm PM8350C power management IC

Qualcomm PM8350 power management IC

Samsung SM3080 power management IC

Qualcomm QET5100 envelope tracker IC

Cirrus Logic CS35L40 and CS40L25 audio amplifier IC

IC identification, continued:

STMicroelectronics STM32G071K8T6 32-Bit ARM Cortex-M0 Microcontroller w/ 64 KB Flash

Renesas (formerly Integrated Device Technology) P9320S Wireless Power Receiver

NXP Semiconductor SN110T Secure Element

Samsung 0444D1 Bluetooth Module (likely)

ON Semiconductor NCP59744 3A LDO Regulator

Skyworks SKY77368-11 Power Amplifier Module

Broadcom (Formerly Avago) AFEM-9146 RF Front End Module (likely)

We hear your insatiable desire for more chip ID, so here are the sensors on the board:

STMicroelectronics LSM6DSL 3-axis accelerometer/gyroscope (likely)

STMicroelectronics LPS22HH pressure sensor

Austria Micro Systems ambient light/color/proximity sensor

Knowles SPH0655LM4H-1 MEMS microphone (likely)

Familiarity breeds contempt. That couldn't be more glue true as we begrudgingly pull out our isopropyl alcohol and get to work extracting the battery.

Speaking of familiarity, this power pack looks awfully familiar...

No wonder! It's very nearly the same battery from the S20 Ultra, with just a couple tiny updates.

This puts the iPhone 12 Pro Max's 14.13 Wh battery to shame—along with, oddly, the Note 20 Ultra's seemingly-gargantuan 17.46 Wh power pack. Samsung, your product positioning, it confuse.

Holy fingerprint sensor, Batman! The new in-screen sensor on the S21 Ultra (right) is a whopping 77% larger than the S20's now-puny-looking one.

We peek through a cutout and spot the display chip. We'll leave the display ungluing ceremony for a real repair guide.

As seen from our X-ray shot earlier, the SIM card reader has moved from the top of the phone—where it was connected to the motherboard—to the bottom of the phone, now connected to the daughterboard, right next to the USB-C charging port.

Squeezed into the corner of the frame is a new antenna, perhaps of the UWB variety? This isn't the first Samsung device with UWB, but it's the first Galaxy S phone to include the tech, which is pretty interesting.

Samsung is known for pushing the boundaries of what’s possible for a smartphone, but this seems more like a maintenance year for the Galaxy series—keeping the things that worked and getting rid of the nice-tries, resulting in a refined product.

With that said, the repairability of the S21 Ultra certainly hasn’t been refined from previous generations…