Samsung’s latest and greatest is out and it’s time we had an in-depth look at it. As expected, the Galaxy S20 Ultra is an amazing device, undeniably an improvement over last year’s flagship and a reason to switch. But the price is higher as well – $1400. So, is it worth it?
Samsung is taking it’s line a step further this year by going for a super-high-end model, a model destined for enthusiasts and fans, people who want the best of the best and don’t care about the price, the “Ultra”.
At a glance
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
Score: 94/100
An amazing display and the highest-end hardware combined with the best camera that Samsung has to offer and a battery that can easily take you through your day.
Pros
– design and build quality
– top performance
– 100x camera zoom
– high quality display
Cons
– 120 Hz not always on and drain on battery
– slow in-display fingerprint sensor
– no headphone jack
-price
Hardware and design
The Galaxy S20 Ultra is a massive phone measuring 166.9 x 76.0 x 8.8 mm and weighing 220 grams. Some might not like it, but for those there’s always the S20 or S20+ so no reason to complain, there’s plenty of options.
If you’ve got small hands or are unsure of the size of the device it’s better to go into a store and feel it first otherwise you might be unpleasantly surprised when you receive your order.
In terms of design, there’s not much new compared to the previous series. Of course, Samsung has showed us what it can do in terms of hardware with their Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Z Flip, but when it comes to the Galaxy S lineup they choose to make only small improvements on an already proven successful design.
The phone features Corning’s latest Gorilla Glass 6 curved on the sides plus a metal frame. Add to that a huge camera contraption on the back of the phone as the only distinctive element between this series and the previous one and that’s about all that can be said about the new device. In fact, if it weren’t for the new camera, you probably couldn’t tell it apart from the previous series.
The device feels solid and it’s build quality is top-notch as you’d expect from a Samsung flagship. The only drawback for this device is the huge camera bump on the back. It’s not just it’s thickens, but also it’s width and height, even compared to the already massive size of the phone. This leads to a certain awkwardness when placing the phone down on a flat surface or when it vibrates. For this reason, it’s probably best if you get a case for it in order to minimize the effects of the camera bumper.
Display
There’s simply nothing wrong with it. It’s a Dynamic AMOLED 2X with 551ppi and HDR10+ and it’s perfect in every aspect – colors, viewing angles, brightness – Samsung did a great job in this department. In terms of size we have a slightly larger display than on the Galaxy Note 10+, making it Samsung’s largest display ever, measuring 6.9 inches.
One major difference compared to previous series in the 120 Hz refresh rate which makes the phone feel even faster. It’s most noticeable when scrolling trough lists but you can definitely feel it when switching apps or during fast animations as well. You don’t fully realize the difference until you switch back to a 60 Hz display.
There’s a caveat to it though. While the device supports a QHD+ resolution, the 120 Hz mode is only available in FHD+ which is the default setting when you get your device out of the box.
Software and performance
With 12 GB of RAM (LPDDR5) on board and a Snapdragon 865, the device is more than able to handle anything that you can throw at it. While testing there wasn’t any lag or slowdown in anything that I tried. For those of you who want more there’s also a 16 GB variant.
The new series comes with Android 10 and One UI 2 on top of it which is the same software that also got pushed recently to the previous two Galaxy series. So if you already own a Galaxy S9 or S10, you should have no trouble switching to this newer model.
Speaker sound quality is what you’d expect even at high volumes. You get the same combination of loudspeaker and ear-piece trying to make for stereo sound as on the previous series, but I don’t mind.
In terms of internal storage you get to choose between two options: 128 GB or 512 GB without any 256 GB variant in the middle. If you however need more, you can also add a microSD card of up to 1 TB.
Good things aside, there are two drawbacks. One which some won’t mind: the lack of a headphone jack – which Samsung already tested with it’s latest Note series – and the in-display fingerprint sensor. It’s the same sensor as in the Galaxy S10 – and that one didn’t work at all so I’m surprised that Samsung decided to make the same mistake twice, this time in the Ultra version of their flagship model. It’s slow, and it almost never recognizes my fingerprint compared to a Huawei P30 which also uses an in-display fingerprint sensor and has none of these issues.
Battery life
All this hardware is powered by a 5000 mAh battery which is a welcomed increase of the Galaxy S10+. Though, how much it lasts is entirely up to you and what display settings you choose.
120 Hz mode can easily decrease your battery life by 20% to 30% over the course of a day. You will have no troubles getting through your day with it off, though if you do decide to enable it expect to have to recharge it after about 12 hours of usage.
Those numbers are pretty bad for a 5000 mAh battery which is why the 120 Hz mode is not enabled by default. You enable it yourself knowing the downside.
Charging is lightning fast. Withe the in-box charger you get your first 60% in 30 minutes and the rest up to 100% in another 35. That’s 1 hour and 5 minutes for a full charge, though you can speed it up even further with a 45W charger. Besides this, as you’d expect, the device also supports Fast Wireless Charging 2.0 and Wireless PowerShare.
Camera
We’ve already complained about the huge camera bump, so let’s see why it’s required. Underneath it you have a 108 MP main camera, a 48 MP telephoto camera with 100X hybrid zoom (what Samsung calls Space Zoom), a 12 MP ultra-wide camera and a depth sensor.
It’s a massive improvement over the previous series and a radical change for Samsung as they change their camera sensor in favor of a larger one capable of capturing even more light. Despite the change however, the camera is not that amazing though that might change with future software updates as it did in the past.
Colors, detail and dynamic range are all excellent, though there’s still occasional issues with out of focus images and the night mode – which doesn’t deliver as I would expect.
On the front, the phone features a 40 MP camera which performs great in daylight but – again – struggles in low light scenarios; but that’s something that we expect from such a tiny sensor. By default it will capture 10 MP photos (using 4 to 1 pixel binning) but if you’re confident in your photography skills you can force it to capture 40 MP images.
Video
On the video front we have 8K recording at 24 fps and 4K at 30 and 60 fps. Both come with “Super Steady” video stabilization which handles perfectly even situations where you walk or ride a bike with very little dropped frames.
To buy or not to buy
With the Galaxy S20 Ultra, Samsung decided to make a flagship of the flagships, but with a price.
While the phone feels every bit worth the money, it has a few shortcoming which you wouldn’t expect from a device positioned like this one. I mean, I am pretty sure people buying at this price range wouldn’t have minded paying $100 more at this point just to get a decent fingerprint sensor.
That being said, you can’t really get a better device overall. Of course, you can get a phone with a better camera, or one with better specs, but in the end we’re looking at the whole package, at things build quality, performance, display, sound and even software. And I don’t think there’s currently anything better out there.
So it’s really up to you if you really need it and the price point doesn’t bother you. If you do, you can do so using the link below.
