The mammoth cameras combined with great hardware
Samsung S series lineup smartphones are made to focus on newer technologies with a flagship-grade processor and many new features. Last year Samsung launched the S10 series which includes the S10e, S10, S10+, and later the S10 Lite was launched.
The S10 series of the lineup was a major upgrade over the S9 series which included a newer design, better cameras, and much more.
So this year Samsung seems to bring many more upgrades to its new S20 series lineup of smartphones.
The Galaxy S20 series consists of the S20, S20+, and the massive S20 Ultra. The Galaxy S20 and the S20+ are almost similar except for the screen sizes and coming to the S20 Ultra, the cameras are its major talking point as the primary camera is the 108MP sensor and also the most hyped 48MP telephoto camera with the 100x space zoom, larger battery, a larger screen, and with these features the smartphone defines the word flagship to a new level.
So here we will look at the Galaxy S20 Ultra and see is it the ultimate flagship of 2020? Let's head to the review.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Design:
The S10 series of smartphones had a great build and design and the Galaxy S20 series lineup continues the same form factor. The Galaxy S20 Ultra has an almost bezel-less display on the front with a punch-hole display.
The front of the display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6. Coming to back, you get a huge camera bump which houses the 108MP primary sensor with three other cameras.
The front glass is less curved around the sides making it easy to hold and the back is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6. The huge screen size is the differentiating factor from the S20 and the S20+. The weight distribution is done well.
The front of the display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6. Coming to back, you get a huge camera bump which houses the 108MP primary sensor with three other cameras.
The front glass is less curved around the sides making it easy to hold and the back is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6. The huge screen size is the differentiating factor from the S20 and the S20+. The weight distribution is done well.
On the top, there is a secondary noise-canceling microphone with a hybrid SIM card slot which accepts two Nano SIMs or one Nano SIM card with a microSD card.
To the sides, on the right, you get a power button with the volume rockers, and thankfully the Bixby button has been removed.
To the sides, on the right, you get a power button with the volume rockers, and thankfully the Bixby button has been removed.
At the bottom, you get a loudspeaker vent with a USB Type-C port. Sadly there is no 3.5mm headphone jack which is being omitted in some of the major smartphones in 2020.
At 220g, the smartphone is slightly on the heavier side but the weight distribution has been done perfectly and shouldn't feel much heavy. In fact, it is lighter compared to iPhone 11 Max Pro which weighs at 226g. The massive battery even contributes to the overall weight of the smartphone.
At 220g, the smartphone is slightly on the heavier side but the weight distribution has been done perfectly and shouldn't feel much heavy. In fact, it is lighter compared to iPhone 11 Max Pro which weighs at 226g. The massive battery even contributes to the overall weight of the smartphone.
The Galaxy S20 Ultra has the IP68 rating which means submerging this smartphone into freshwater won't be an issue. The back of the smartphone-like its predecessor can charge other smartphones wirelessly called the Wireless Power Share and also has wireless charging.
Overall the build and design feel solid but it all depends on the usage of how you handle such a large device.
Overall the build and design feel solid but it all depends on the usage of how you handle such a large device.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Display:
The biggest talking point of the Galaxy S20 Ultra is about its massive 6.9 inches display making it the largest display in the S20 series. The screen size is equivalent to the screen on the Galaxy Note 10+. The screen is a 6.9 inches Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED (3200 x 1440 pixels) with a screen to body ratio of 20:9.
With the older S series generation, the AMOLED display always impressed and it isn't different from the Galaxy S20 Ultra. With AMOLED you get deep blues and blacks and the viewing angles are also good.
Now the most important thing about this display is the whopping 120Hz refresh rate. In 2019 many smartphones came up with a 90Hz refresh rate and now even the budget smartphones like POCO X2 (Review), Realme 6 have a higher refresh rate displays.
With the 120Hz refresh rate, the Galaxy S20 Ultra feels very smooth to use. However, the only caveat is that this 120Hz refresh rate is limited to full HD+ resolution which can be switched easily from settings. The Galaxy S20 series gets 240Hz touch-sensing which means smoother scrolling and faster inputs as we have seen on last year's Asus ROG 2.
On the display, the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner is very fast and accurate and a little bit faster compared to the Galaxy S10+. The face unlocks also work pretty well and then there is also the intelligent scan that uses the iris of the eyes to unlock.
There is support for Widevine L1 and the Galaxy S20 Ultra can play HDR videos as it is HDR10+ certified, so watching videos will be a good experience. The Galaxy S20 Ultra display is easily visible under direct sunlight and in the night the screen can go dim thus preventing the blue light from straining the eyes.
Overall with the massive display and that 120Hz refresh rate, the Galaxy S20 Ultra makes a statement thus making it one of the best displays present in a smartphone to date.
With the ToF camera, the Galaxy S20 Ultra feels almost similar to the one found on the Galaxy Note 10+. The portraits come out really good as the main camera takes the photo and the depth camera helps in providing the background blur and helps in edge detection.
There is also the Live Focus to give that extra ease of taking portraits by adjusting the background blur. The photos with 2x zoom work great and come out sharp and detailed.
On the front, you get a massive 40MP camera that uses pixel binning resulting in 10MP photos. The level of detail in the photos is excellent, the dynamic range works well and the colors are well saturated.
The Galaxy S10+(Review) had a 10MP front camera with an 8MP depth camera and worked pretty well for selfies and portraits. There is some skin smoothening in the photos of Galaxy S20 Ultra but isn't noticed.
The selfies and portraits come out almost similar to the Galaxy S10+. However, during the night, the front camera struggles a bit and lacks the focus but still, you get pretty good photos.
Coming to videos, the Galaxy S20 Ultra is the first smartphone to get an 8k video recording at 24fps. There is also the support for 4k@60 and 30fps. The video footage in 4k and 1080p@60fps comes out well stabilized.
Using the telephoto camera, the Galaxy S20 Ultra can take 4x, 5x, and 10x videos at 4k but after that, there is a considerable loss in detail. With 8k videos, the OIS does help but still, there is very much distortion in the video and it needs to be fixed.
With the older S series generation, the AMOLED display always impressed and it isn't different from the Galaxy S20 Ultra. With AMOLED you get deep blues and blacks and the viewing angles are also good.
Now the most important thing about this display is the whopping 120Hz refresh rate. In 2019 many smartphones came up with a 90Hz refresh rate and now even the budget smartphones like POCO X2 (Review), Realme 6 have a higher refresh rate displays.
With the 120Hz refresh rate, the Galaxy S20 Ultra feels very smooth to use. However, the only caveat is that this 120Hz refresh rate is limited to full HD+ resolution which can be switched easily from settings. The Galaxy S20 series gets 240Hz touch-sensing which means smoother scrolling and faster inputs as we have seen on last year's Asus ROG 2.
On the display, the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner is very fast and accurate and a little bit faster compared to the Galaxy S10+. The face unlocks also work pretty well and then there is also the intelligent scan that uses the iris of the eyes to unlock.
There is support for Widevine L1 and the Galaxy S20 Ultra can play HDR videos as it is HDR10+ certified, so watching videos will be a good experience. The Galaxy S20 Ultra display is easily visible under direct sunlight and in the night the screen can go dim thus preventing the blue light from straining the eyes.
Overall with the massive display and that 120Hz refresh rate, the Galaxy S20 Ultra makes a statement thus making it one of the best displays present in a smartphone to date.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Performance:
Coming to performance, the Galaxy S20 Ultra gets this year's flagship chipsets. So there will be either a Snapdragon 865 or the Exynos 990 chipset depending on various regions. Both chipsets are based on the 7nm process and support 5G.
The Snapdragon 865 has 1x2.84 GHz Prime Core + 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 585 based on Cortex A77 architecture and the lower 4x2.42 GHz Kryo 585 Silver cores based on Cortex A55 architecture.
The chipset brings in support for 5G which is a great move considering the future. It also supports the sub-6Ghz band of 5G. The smartphone also ships with 12GB/16GB LPDDR5 RAM so handling applications and games won't bother.
With the newer chipset, there is around 25% more increase in performance and gaming. So any high-end games like PUBG Mobile, Asphalt 9 play smoothly at the highest resolution.
The 120Hz refresh rate also makes all games supporting this frame rate feels smoother on the smartphone. Then there is the faster UFS 3.0 storage which helps in faster read-write speeds and applications open faster.
Coming to benchmarks, in GPU based like Antutu, the S20 Ultra scores 415976 and in CPU intensive benchmarks like Geekbench 5.1, the single-core score is 904 and multi-core score is 2697 which is slightly better than the Kirin 990 and the last year's Snapdragon 855 chipset.
The Galaxy S20 Ultra is future proof with the 5G and it all trickles down whether which region will get the 5G or the no-5G.
All Samsung smartphones of 2020 have got the latest software update, the OneUI 2.1 which is almost similar to the first version but with some improvements. Since Android 10 runs out of the box, you get the system-wide dark mode, and then there are the navigation gestures that first came with the Android 10.
There are a couple of pre-installed applications from Microsoft which may be useful and very little bloatware which can be removed and uninstalled.
With OneUI 2.1, you get the integration of Google Duo with the dialler allowing for video calls with others which seems a nice addition. There is also the support for Samsung DeX and full version of the Samsung Pay.
The Edge panels work pretty well with any Galaxy device as you can easily access applications from the edges.
There are improvements in the camera application, especially the Night and the Pro Modes. The small tweaks to battery life are also seen on the OneUI 2.1. With the 120Hz refresh rate and OneUI, the Galaxy S20 Ultra feels easy to use.
The Snapdragon 865 has 1x2.84 GHz Prime Core + 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 585 based on Cortex A77 architecture and the lower 4x2.42 GHz Kryo 585 Silver cores based on Cortex A55 architecture.
The chipset brings in support for 5G which is a great move considering the future. It also supports the sub-6Ghz band of 5G. The smartphone also ships with 12GB/16GB LPDDR5 RAM so handling applications and games won't bother.
With the newer chipset, there is around 25% more increase in performance and gaming. So any high-end games like PUBG Mobile, Asphalt 9 play smoothly at the highest resolution.
The 120Hz refresh rate also makes all games supporting this frame rate feels smoother on the smartphone. Then there is the faster UFS 3.0 storage which helps in faster read-write speeds and applications open faster.
Coming to benchmarks, in GPU based like Antutu, the S20 Ultra scores 415976 and in CPU intensive benchmarks like Geekbench 5.1, the single-core score is 904 and multi-core score is 2697 which is slightly better than the Kirin 990 and the last year's Snapdragon 855 chipset.
The Galaxy S20 Ultra is future proof with the 5G and it all trickles down whether which region will get the 5G or the no-5G.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Software:
All Samsung smartphones of 2020 have got the latest software update, the OneUI 2.1 which is almost similar to the first version but with some improvements. Since Android 10 runs out of the box, you get the system-wide dark mode, and then there are the navigation gestures that first came with the Android 10.
There are a couple of pre-installed applications from Microsoft which may be useful and very little bloatware which can be removed and uninstalled.
With OneUI 2.1, you get the integration of Google Duo with the dialler allowing for video calls with others which seems a nice addition. There is also the support for Samsung DeX and full version of the Samsung Pay.
The Edge panels work pretty well with any Galaxy device as you can easily access applications from the edges.
There are improvements in the camera application, especially the Night and the Pro Modes. The small tweaks to battery life are also seen on the OneUI 2.1. With the 120Hz refresh rate and OneUI, the Galaxy S20 Ultra feels easy to use.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Camera:
The biggest talking point of the Galaxy S20 Ultra is its camera setup. The Galaxy S10+ impressed when it comes to photos and videos and with the Galaxy S20 Ultra, there is a mammoth 108MP main camera which is Samsung's own ISOCELL Bright HM1 sensor.
Samsung calls this camera to implement the Nonacell technology where Bayer Filter groups nine adjoining ones to capture the primary color so as a result, the image's default to 12MP images.
Samsung calls this camera to implement the Nonacell technology where Bayer Filter groups nine adjoining ones to capture the primary color so as a result, the image's default to 12MP images.
The camera setup of the Galaxy S20 Ultra has four cameras: 108MP f/1.8 main camera with OIS, 48MP f/3.5 telephoto camera with periscope zoom, and 10x hybrid zoom, 12MPf/2.2 ultrawide camera and a 0.3MP ToF sensor for portraits.
The 108MP camera takes very good photos during daylight as the dynamic range is good and there is less noise in the background. With the 108MP camera mode, the details in the photos come out good. However, the 108MP camera uses 9:1 pixel binning to produce 12MP photos.
During the night, the 108MP camera shines as it takes very detailed photos and with the dedicated Night Mode, the levels of noise are less and the details in the shadows come out good. The OIS further helps the camera capture photos with less noise in the background.
During the night, the 108MP camera shines as it takes very detailed photos and with the dedicated Night Mode, the levels of noise are less and the details in the shadows come out good. The OIS further helps the camera capture photos with less noise in the background.
The 12MP ultrawide camera is not so different as we have seen it on the Galaxy Note 10+(Review). The details during the day come out good and the focus works well.
However, during the night the ultrawide camera struggles as there is a little bit of noise and the focus doesn't work well. With the dedicated Night Mode, the camera improves and takes photos with plenty of detail.
However, during the night the ultrawide camera struggles as there is a little bit of noise and the focus doesn't work well. With the dedicated Night Mode, the camera improves and takes photos with plenty of detail.
The new 48MP telephoto camera is also one of the biggest talking points as it has 4x optical zoom which can go up to 100x through a mix of hybrid and optical zoom. It is the first camera to achieve this 100x zoom capability.
The photos during the day come out much detailed with a good dynamic range and the color saturation works well. The 4x zoom works well and till 10x, all the photos come out good.
At 100x, the objects don't come out clear but still, this is a good addition. At night, the telephoto camera needs a lot of improvement as it struggles with focus and the noise levels are high. This is due to the f/3.5 aperture which is almost half of the f/1.8 in the main camera.
Up to 2x zoom, the camera works well taking good photos but above that, the photos lack detail. Instead, the Galaxy S20 and the S20+ take much better photos through the telephoto camera. The focussing issue arises in the night and the quality when at 2x,4x seems good, and more than that the level of details in the photos looks weird.
Samsung will fix this issue in future software updates. The OIS does take in some less noisy photos but the photos during night need a lot of improvement.
The photos during the day come out much detailed with a good dynamic range and the color saturation works well. The 4x zoom works well and till 10x, all the photos come out good.
At 100x, the objects don't come out clear but still, this is a good addition. At night, the telephoto camera needs a lot of improvement as it struggles with focus and the noise levels are high. This is due to the f/3.5 aperture which is almost half of the f/1.8 in the main camera.
Up to 2x zoom, the camera works well taking good photos but above that, the photos lack detail. Instead, the Galaxy S20 and the S20+ take much better photos through the telephoto camera. The focussing issue arises in the night and the quality when at 2x,4x seems good, and more than that the level of details in the photos looks weird.
Samsung will fix this issue in future software updates. The OIS does take in some less noisy photos but the photos during night need a lot of improvement.
With the ToF camera, the Galaxy S20 Ultra feels almost similar to the one found on the Galaxy Note 10+. The portraits come out really good as the main camera takes the photo and the depth camera helps in providing the background blur and helps in edge detection.
There is also the Live Focus to give that extra ease of taking portraits by adjusting the background blur. The photos with 2x zoom work great and come out sharp and detailed.
On the front, you get a massive 40MP camera that uses pixel binning resulting in 10MP photos. The level of detail in the photos is excellent, the dynamic range works well and the colors are well saturated.
The Galaxy S10+(Review) had a 10MP front camera with an 8MP depth camera and worked pretty well for selfies and portraits. There is some skin smoothening in the photos of Galaxy S20 Ultra but isn't noticed.
The selfies and portraits come out almost similar to the Galaxy S10+. However, during the night, the front camera struggles a bit and lacks the focus but still, you get pretty good photos.
Coming to videos, the Galaxy S20 Ultra is the first smartphone to get an 8k video recording at 24fps. There is also the support for 4k@60 and 30fps. The video footage in 4k and 1080p@60fps comes out well stabilized.
Using the telephoto camera, the Galaxy S20 Ultra can take 4x, 5x, and 10x videos at 4k but after that, there is a considerable loss in detail. With 8k videos, the OIS does help but still, there is very much distortion in the video and it needs to be fixed.
The ultrawide camera is also capable of capturing stabilized videos and switching to Night Mode makes the videos come out better. The portrait videos are more or less the same compared to the Galaxy Note 10+. So you get a tone of customizations in the camera.
On the front, the camera takes good videos with good stabilization but at times it oversharpens the background a bit.
Consider the mammoth 108MP camera and the 48MP telephoto camera, the Galaxy S20 Ultra seems to be the hype for cameras but where the main camera takes very good photos and videos, on the other hand, the telephoto camera struggles while taking photos and videos at 10x and more.
Samsung needs to fix this issue and also need to work on the 8k video footage. Overall the cameras are worthy of the price but certain improvements are desired and the 100x space zoom is an exciting feature to have.
Samsung needs to fix this issue and also need to work on the 8k video footage. Overall the cameras are worthy of the price but certain improvements are desired and the 100x space zoom is an exciting feature to have.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Battery Life:
For the first time in an S series of smartphones, Samsung has packed a 5000mAh battery into the Galaxy S20 Ultra. The main reason they opted for this large capacity battery is one that the Galaxy S20 Ultra has 5G and the higher 120Hz refresh rate.
At 120Hz, the Galaxy S20 Ultra gives around 5-6 hours of screen on time which is good but switching back to 60Hz the screen on time estimated is 7 hours which is good considering the massive display.
With normal web browsing, social media, and 3-4 hours of extensive gaming, the Galaxy S20 Ultra can last for a maximum of two days with the 60Hz refresh rate.
With the Galaxy S20 Ultra, there is support for 25W fast charging with the charger provided in the box. It takes the smartphone from 0 to 58% in the first 30 minutes which is impressive almost similar to the Warp Charging on the OnePlus smartphones.
It takes around 62 mins to completely charge and also supports 45W fast charging. For that, you have to separately buy the charger.
Like all S series smartphones, the Galaxy S20 Ultra gets 15W wireless charging which may seem a little bit slow as the Huawei Mate 30 and 30 Pro get faster 30W wireless charging in the market.
There is also the 9W Wireless Power Share feature which can be used to charge devices that have support for wireless charging for example. the Galaxy Ear Buds, Galaxy S10+, etc.
Samsung seems to have addressed in the battery area by putting a larger battery in the Galaxy S20 Ultra.
At 120Hz, the Galaxy S20 Ultra gives around 5-6 hours of screen on time which is good but switching back to 60Hz the screen on time estimated is 7 hours which is good considering the massive display.
With normal web browsing, social media, and 3-4 hours of extensive gaming, the Galaxy S20 Ultra can last for a maximum of two days with the 60Hz refresh rate.
With the Galaxy S20 Ultra, there is support for 25W fast charging with the charger provided in the box. It takes the smartphone from 0 to 58% in the first 30 minutes which is impressive almost similar to the Warp Charging on the OnePlus smartphones.
It takes around 62 mins to completely charge and also supports 45W fast charging. For that, you have to separately buy the charger.
Like all S series smartphones, the Galaxy S20 Ultra gets 15W wireless charging which may seem a little bit slow as the Huawei Mate 30 and 30 Pro get faster 30W wireless charging in the market.
There is also the 9W Wireless Power Share feature which can be used to charge devices that have support for wireless charging for example. the Galaxy Ear Buds, Galaxy S10+, etc.
Samsung seems to have addressed in the battery area by putting a larger battery in the Galaxy S20 Ultra.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Audio Quality:
The Galaxy S20 Ultra has support for stereo speakers where the bottom-firing speaker combined with the earpiece on the top together combined provide a stereo sound effect. There is also the Dolby Atmos that enhances the sound quality depending on gaming, or while watching movies and listening songs.
The sound is quite louder while taking calls or viewing any content on the screen. However, you do miss out on the 3.5mm headphone jack which is seen on most flagship smartphones of 2020.
Verdict:
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is a complete flagship smartphone as it proves itself with some extraordinary features that make it stand from the rest of the crowd.
The 108MP camera being one of the strongest points that use the Nonacell technology and the 48MP telephoto camera that has the 100x space zoom.
The 120Hz refresh rate makes the massive display smooth to use and aids in smooth gaming. The Snapdragon 865/ Exynos 990 chipset with integrated 5G capability makes the smartphone future proof. With every S series, Samsung has improved upon the battery life and the Galaxy S20 Ultra gets a massive 5000mAh battery that supports the 45W fast charging which is insane. The performance and gaming remain top-notch.
However, there are some faults with the Galaxy S20 Ultra. The Snapdragon 865 chipset supports 8k video recording but the 8k footage isn't as good as the 4k videos and then the telephoto camera struggles a bit when it comes to 30x zoom and higher as it struggles and there is a slight loss in detail.
Coming to display, the 120Hz refresh rate makes the display smooth to use but there is one restriction that it works only in the Full HD resolution and not in the Quad HD resolution which needs to be fixed.
The smartphone is also priced slightly on the premium side when compared to other flagships in the market. The prices start at $1400 and at Rs.92999 in India which is slightly on the heavier side when compared to other flagships.
But if you want a true flagship smartphone with a massive display and those cameras then without any second thought, the Galaxy S20 Ultra is the one to go for. Surely with a great performance and the massive battery, it aims at those who want a powerhouse.
Well, there is a lot of competition in the market where we have strong contenders from Apple, Huawei, and some other brands. The Galaxy S20 Ultra seems to be a good fit in this flagship segment offering a great premium feel.
The Galaxy S20 Ultra seems to tick all the right boxes and definitely the word Ultra seems to prove it the beast of all smartphones in 2020.
Also check: Samsung Galaxy S10+ Review: Is it still a value for money option and worth in 2020?
Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Review: The luxurious smartphone that you need.
The 108MP camera being one of the strongest points that use the Nonacell technology and the 48MP telephoto camera that has the 100x space zoom.
The 120Hz refresh rate makes the massive display smooth to use and aids in smooth gaming. The Snapdragon 865/ Exynos 990 chipset with integrated 5G capability makes the smartphone future proof. With every S series, Samsung has improved upon the battery life and the Galaxy S20 Ultra gets a massive 5000mAh battery that supports the 45W fast charging which is insane. The performance and gaming remain top-notch.
However, there are some faults with the Galaxy S20 Ultra. The Snapdragon 865 chipset supports 8k video recording but the 8k footage isn't as good as the 4k videos and then the telephoto camera struggles a bit when it comes to 30x zoom and higher as it struggles and there is a slight loss in detail.
Coming to display, the 120Hz refresh rate makes the display smooth to use but there is one restriction that it works only in the Full HD resolution and not in the Quad HD resolution which needs to be fixed.
The smartphone is also priced slightly on the premium side when compared to other flagships in the market. The prices start at $1400 and at Rs.92999 in India which is slightly on the heavier side when compared to other flagships.
But if you want a true flagship smartphone with a massive display and those cameras then without any second thought, the Galaxy S20 Ultra is the one to go for. Surely with a great performance and the massive battery, it aims at those who want a powerhouse.
Well, there is a lot of competition in the market where we have strong contenders from Apple, Huawei, and some other brands. The Galaxy S20 Ultra seems to be a good fit in this flagship segment offering a great premium feel.
The Galaxy S20 Ultra seems to tick all the right boxes and definitely the word Ultra seems to prove it the beast of all smartphones in 2020.
Also check: Samsung Galaxy S10+ Review: Is it still a value for money option and worth in 2020?
Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Review: The luxurious smartphone that you need.
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