SAMSUNG GALAXY S20 ULTRA
A bludgeoning hammer blow to Android rivals – that comes with a hefty price tag
The latest uber-flagship from Samsung smashes all challengers into submission. But is it worth the cost?
From £1,199 samsung.com
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is, technically, the best Android phone on the market today. It is a phone with an impressive, versatile camera system, hyper-premium internal hardware suite, futureproofed, next-gen 5G connectivity and a huge and immersive screen.
How it achieves its dominance, though, is quite base. These tech weapons are wielded in a rather unrefined way, and in some cases feel powerful but a bit rough round the edges and/or complete overkill. The price of this tech is also incredibly high, making it a bit of a niche proposition to our minds.
The S20 Ultra’s camera system is probably its biggest unique selling point, and so we will begin our analysis of the phone here.
Samsung speaks about its rear camera array as a “signature design element” – something that helps make the phone’s overall look and allows it to be easily identified. And, when you flip the phone over, the one thing it does is stand out.
The noticeably pronounced rectangular array (which will have to be protected by a case to avoid scrapes and nicks in our opinion) houses a seriously powerful quad-camera system, with a 108MP wide-angle main snapper joined by 48MP telephoto, 12MP ultra wide and time-of-flight DepthVision lenses.
And, while we’re talking about the rear array’s selection of lenses, the phone’s new Single Take shooting mode makes use of them all. In this mode all the lenses are used when a shot or video is taken and then, post shot, the user is presented with a variety of differing options (10 shots and mini-videos), which sit all under one entry in the phone’s image gallery.
The S20 Ultra also comes with some pretty impressive zoom functionality. From the furthest out ultra-wide setting to 1x, through 5x, 10x, 30x and up to 100x, you have plenty of range at your disposal when shooting. And fidelity remains decent at most zoom levels aside from 100x, which seem to take on a soft-focus watercolour finish. With a proper tripod, we’re sure you could get some half-decent images from it, but we question its everyday usability.
Elsewhere, though, the S20 Ultra’s camera system really does flex its muscles. The amount of shooting modes on offer is quite remarkable. As well as a maximum freedom Pro shooting mode, you’ve got a strong panorama option, as well as dedicated settings for food, nighttime and live focus. As you would expect, you can shoot in a variety of aspect ratios, too.
In terms of video, you can shoot at a wide variety of resolutions up to 8K, while the Ultra also delivers a Pro video shooting mode, as well as slow-mo, super slow-mo and hyperlapse options. But while the 8K video shooting is a technical achievement, and very nice to have, the vast majority of people will not get to enjoy it, as you’d need an 8K screen to play it back at full fidelity – though creating 4K video from this 8K source looks just excellent.
As you would absolutely expect, the S20 Ultra delivers very strong camera images, no matter what you’re shooting. Colour balance in particular seems to be a strong point and vibrancy is good, although there is no getting away from the fact that Samsung still seems to be leaning towards quite heavy post-processing. It’s a tad clumsy in our opinion and can lead to sharp edges appearing a little soft.
Lastly, in terms of camera system, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra comes with a 40MP front-facing selfie camera. This bad boy can, if you so wish, capture your lovely mug in 40MP glory with or, for the brave, without beauty mode activated.
The big screen
Pick up the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and the first thing that you notice is how large its screen is. At 6.9 inches, it is a match for even the gargantuan Samsung Galaxy Note 10+, which comes with a 6.8-inch screen. Side-by-side these two phones look essentially the same in terms of size; however when you pick them up there is a noticeable weight difference, with the Ultra feeling
heavier (221g) and denser than the king-sized Note (196g).
In terms of design, though, we’re very much in the same ballpark. The main visual difference, at least from the front, is that the Galaxy S20 Ultra has more S-series wider frame curves, giving it a slightly softer look.
When it comes to the display, you cannot but be impressed by the size and clarity of the Dynamic AMOLED screen. It has a refresh rate of 120Hz, which even outguns the gorgeousness of the OnePlus 7T and OnePlus 7T Pro panels, which are 90Hz, and that along with HDR10+ and a sharp 1440x3200 resolution means that anything you display looks stunning.
That 120Hz refresh rate means that scrolling, app switching, UI navigating and all animated elements are liquid-butter smooth, and in partnership with the slickness of Android 10.0 and Samsung’s best-inclass One UI 2 skin it truly delivers a top-tier general usage experience.
Overall, the phone looks damn good from the front – even though there is basically no lovely waterfall curve to its screen – and pretty ropey from the back, largely thanks to that bulky rear camera array.
In terms of internal hardware, as you would expect from the rangetopping new hotness in a fresh Samsung phone line-up, the Galaxy S20 Ultra is stacked. It comes with Samsung’s rapid Exynos 990 CPU (a Snapdragon 865 in the US), an Adreno 650 GPU, a simply incredible 16GB of RAM (in max-spec) and a chunky 512GB of internal storage space (which can be expanded by microSD).
Despite not being a dedicated gaming phone, it has more than enough power to run even the most graphically demanding Android games without breaking sweat.
Of course, such a ginormous phone needs a large battery, too, and thankfully Samsung has actually made a decent stab at handling this, as the S20 Ultra comes loaded with a very large 5,000mAh battery. This is one of the largest battery capacities on the market today in a mainstream phone.
So if you use it on its fresh out of the box settings, which lock the screen at a 60Hz refresh rate, with medium usage you get a solid day-and-a-half to two days usage out of the phone on a single charge. If you turn on the Ultra’s 120Hz mode, though – and you really will want to – then that battery life is reduced. With 120Hz on, you’re very much looking at a day to a day-and-a-half usage on a single charge with medium usage.
Other tech of note included an underscreen fingerprint reader that works just as well as these Samsung units have been doing for the past few phone releases, 5G support (there is no just 4G version of the Ultra, with the one handset supporting all network connections up to and including 5G) and AKGtuned stereo loud speakers.
And, finally, before we reach the verdict, let’s talk OS. The S20 Ultra comes running Android 10 and Samsung’s own One UI 2.0 skin. The One UI remains the best-in-class Android skin on the market and, as you would expect, when partnered with the super-slick and streamlined Android 10 delivers a superb mobile usage experience.
Loadsa money
As you’ve probably realised by now, this really isn’t a phone for everyone, and for more users than not, it will simply be too much phone and too much money to be worthy of serious consideration. Unsurprisingly, you really don’t need to spend north of £1,199 (max spec is £1,399!) to get a quality smartphone experience.
To beat the Ultra up due to its very high price point seems to miss the point somewhat. Shock horror, a super expensive phone targeted at Android phone enthusiasts isn’t for everyone! But when you compare what the S20 Ultra delivers to the other hyper-premium and flagship handsets on the market, and for what cost, it crashes into the real world somewhat.
These phones offer over 95% of the experience that the S20 Ultra delivers and do so for less money. This takes nothing away from the S20 Ultra’s abilities, but it does raise the important question of just how much money one is prepared to pay for that last few per cent.
Overall, it’s impossible not to recommend the S20 Ultra, which sets a new benchmark for 5G Android phones. But we’d also say this is one of the most niche variants of a mainstream product Samsung has ever made, and only tech enthusiasts and serial first adopters should consider it.