Samsung brings its ultra coolest
The Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G’s biggest draws are camera, battery, but price is a turnoff.
When Samsung launched its 2020 smartphones earlier this month, the Galaxy Flip Z — a folding phone in the style of a flip phone — stole much of the thunder. But cool as it is, the pinnacle of Samsung’s prowess is found in the flagship device atop the lineup of more traditional devices — the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G, a sprawling slab of glass with a beautiful 6.9 inch display that is 5G-ready (even if most 5G service isn’t really ready).
Its pricing is not the for the faint of heart or light of wallet — it lists at $1,400 for the 128gigabyte version and the 512GB model is $1,600. It’s available March 6, but you can pre-order now, and there are likely deals that will take it well below its inflated list price.
The Ultra is one of three in the S20 line. For the most part, the size of the displays and the camera features are the main differentiators. The others are the S20 ($1,000), with a 6.2inch display, and the S20+ ($1,200), with a 6.7-inch display. All three screens use active-matrix organic lightemitting diode (Amoled) technology.
Oh, and none of them have a standard headphone jack. Bluetooth is the future, and the future is now. Get with the program.
I was loaned the the S20 Ultra for this review. Here’s how it fared in a variety of categories.
• Display. The screens on Samsung’s flagship phones have always been spectacular, and the S20 Ultra rises to the standard. It’s Amoled with the blackest black I’ve ever seen on a phone and a razor-sharp resolution of 3,200-by-1,440 pixels. The size of the display and this resolution makes it perfect for streaming movies and TV shows on the go.
The display is set at a 60-Hz refresh rate by default, but you can kick it up to 120 Hz, which Samsung says results in smoother scrolling and better performance in gaming. I was hard-pressed to tell the difference when scrolling, but the higher refresh rate makes perfect sense for games. However, 120 Hz takes a toll on battery life. More on that later.
• Size & feel. If you’re used to packing a bigger phone — say, a Galaxy Note or an iPhone 11 Pro Max — then the size of the S20 Ultra won’t surprise you. That said, I’m a Pro Max user and I found the extra height (it’s close to the same width) noticeable. If you’re used to a standardsized phone, this one may feel overwhelming.
• Performance. I have yet to find an app that doesn’t open almost immediately on the S20 Ultra. You can chalk a lot of that up to its Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor with 64 cores and the phone’s 12 gigabytes of memory. But there are some features native to the the S20 Ultra that can be maddeningly slow. The worst offender is its face recognition for unlocking the device. In fact, it probably only works half the time. I broke down and set up its fingerprint-unlock feature, which uses an ultrasonic scanner under the screen. It’s much faster and more reliable.
• Camera. As is usually the case with modern flagship phones, the cameras are the big draw. To one-up the iPhone 11 Pro line, Samsung has packed four cameras into a massive bump on the back of the S20 Ultra, and one camera on the front. The rear cameras include a 48-megapixel with a 10X optical lens; a 108-MP camera; a 12-MP ultra-wideangle camera; and a time-offlight camera for judging distances in augmented reality applications. The front selfie camera is 40 MP. Video can be shot at up to 8K resolution.
The 48-MP camera is the default, but you should change this to the 108-MP camera before you start shooting. Its detail is astounding, and that many pixels means the camera can capture a lot more visual information.
One of the coolest features is Single Take, which grabs up to 10 seconds of stills and video from multiple cameras, then uses artificial intelligence to present the best image or video clip. It works pretty well, and I can see it getting plenty of use on kids’ soccer fields.
• 5G. I tested the T-Mobile version of the S20 Ultra, which works with the 5G network that carrier recently lit up in Houston. The speeds, as they were in my review of T-Mobile’s 600-MHz 5G service using a OnePlus phone, so far are only moderately better than 4G.
• Battery life. So far, I’ve been impressed. With moderate usage, I went a day and a half without having to put the S20 Ultra, which has a massive battery, on a charger. When I ramped up the usage by watching video, using the GPS and lots of web surfing I ended the day with about a 70 percent charge. I used the device almost exclusively in its 60-Hz display refresh rate; jumping to the faster 120-Hz rate will dramatically reduce battery life, so it’s best to save that for gaming. Regardless, I can easily say the S20 Ultra has the best battery life of any phone I’ve tested, and that’s saying a lot.
• Is it worth it? At $1,400, the S20 Ultra 5G is going to be a tough sell for a lot of users, even those who like having the top-of-the-line model. Yes, there will be deals and discounts that will make it more palatable, and if you need more storage, I’d recommend snapping up the 128-GB model and expanding the storage with an SD card (the phone can take up to 1-terabyte cards).
The primary reason to buy this device is for its cameras. Others who want high-end Samsung smartphones may want to look at the less-expensive S20 or S20+. They’re not cheap, but they don’t quite take a bite out of your budget like the S20 Ultra will.