Technology
It’s called a phone, but Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Ultra is more notable for its photographic smarts.
It’s called a phone, but Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Ultra is more notable for its photographic smarts.
It’s turning out to be a subdued year for technology releases with Covid-19’s spread hitting trade shows and product launches. Samsung’s answer? Release its biggest most feature-packed phone ever. With a 6.9-inch screen, the Galaxy S20 Ultra is a beast. It also boasts Samsung’s most elaborate camera set-up to date, its largest battery, 5G support and a slew of features that make it the most advanced smartphone on the market.
But it comes at a price: $2199. You’d pay as much for a high-end laptop. The question Android phone lovers considering upgrading in 2020 need to ask is whether it is worth going big this year.
The answer comes down to how much you value your phone’s camera, because it is here that Samsung separates itself from the pack.
With the S20 Ultra, Samsung has totally reengineered its cameras to include a 108-megapixel rear camera set-up. An industry first, it enables the capture of higher resolution images than ever, meaning more detail and colour accuracy, which will suit those who love high-quality photos without having to lug around a stand-alone camera.
The camera sensors powering the four lenses on the rear of the S20 Ultra are all larger than previous models, allowing in more light. That offers better definition and lifelike images, particularly in low-light conditions. The S20 Ultra’s night mode is the best Samsung has delivered, a necessary upgrade after Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max raised the bar for decent shots in the dark.
The phone has a 48-megapixel telephoto lens capable of 10x lossless zoom and up to 100x digital zoom. Again, this is a unique phone feature. Zoomed-in objects can be seen in fine detail, even if you’ll probably never use the zoom to its full extent because of the inevitable camera shake.
An industry-first 108-megapixel rear camera enables the capture of higher resolution images than ever.
Anew photography feature is Single Take. In this mode, the S20 Ultra takes a number of videos and photos in the space of a few seconds: an ultra-wide shot, a wide shot, a live focus image, a video and a black and white version. The phone’s artificial intelligence then selects the best shot to post to Instagram, for example.
S20 Ultra users have reported experiencing a lag with the phone’s
autofocus, which Samsung has issued a software update to correct, a rare slip-up that takes the shine off an otherwise exceptional camera offering.
The other selling points for the S20 Ultra sound great but will have little practical value for some time. It is a 5G handset, so can access the higher data speeds of the latest generation of mobile networks. But with 5G phone coverage so far limited to Vodafone in parts of the main centres, you won’t have much use for that.
The camera also supports 8K video, the highest resolution available on a phone. Like me, it’s unlikely most readers would have an 8K TV to view videos on. However, a Samsung demonstration of video shot in the format was impressive, although it will be a few years before the eye-pleasing effect is standard.
What is now the norm, and a welcome feature of the S20 Ultra’s crisp display, is a 120Hz refresh rate, which sees the screen redrawn 120 times a second. That makes video and gaming content optimised for the format look smoother.
Appearance-wise, the S20 Ultra doesn’t offer much to get excited about. It looks a little dull, particularly with its large camera bump on the back, which makes it unstable on a flat surface. But that’s unavoidable with all the high-performance technology inside.
And if it seems excessive, the good news is you’ll get much of the same functionality in its smaller Galaxy siblings, the S20 and S20+, significantly cheaper.
In Single Take mode, it records a number of videos and photos and then uses AI to select the best.
Price: $2199 (S20 $1499, S20+ $1899)