[Hardware ] Galaxy S20 Ultra review

[Dark-ImmoRtal^]

Galaxy S20 Ultra review: Camera is amazing but battery life and design aren't
Excellent camera features aren't quite enough to overcome an awkward design, questionable battery performance and a sky-high price. Cheaper Galaxy S20 models will have broader appeal.

There's no denying that the Galaxy S20 Ultra is something bold. Something special. It exists to show off its camera features. There's the 108-megapixel sensor, capturing scenes for detailed crop-ins that invariably make you say "wow!" Then there's the 100x zoom lens that reveals lettering, faces and architectural details you can't see from afar with the naked eye. And the beautiful 40-megapixel selfie camera that won't spare your feelings when you turn off beauty mode.

 

I never got over my distaste for its thick, heavy design. And I can't ignore its uneven battery performance, especially when the superfast screen refresh option -- which makes scrolling, animations and some content liquid-smooth -- appears to slash battery reserves.

Despite the S20 Ultra's camera prowess, I find myself reaching for the more refined Galaxy Note 10 Plus and more interesting Galaxy Z Flip foldable phone. For me, the Ultra is simply less fun to use.

Here's another conundrum. Without being able to fully test the S20 Ultra side-by-side with the cheaper, smaller Galaxy S20 and S20 Plus, it's hard to say which one is the "best" overall. Samsung sent journalists the S20 Ultra for review first, leading with its priciest model. The three phones share core software and hardware, but they have different camera specs and battery reserves. 

At the time of writing this review, the S20 and Plus are still days away from going on sale. I can't yet speak to how performance compares, but I can say that the S20 Ultra leaves the door open for the standard Galaxy S20 ($999) or S20 Plus ($1,199) to be the smarter buy for most.

In fact, I've declared the smallest Galaxy S20 as the best value of all three new phones. See our photo comparison with the Galaxy S20 Ultra and iPhone 11 Pro here. Read on for my Galaxy S20 Ultra highs and lows. If you're on the fence about buying Samsung's priciest model, my advice is this: wait. The best S20 for you may not be quite so Ultra.

 

Learning to love the S20 Ultra's 108-megapixel camera setting

 

First things first. The Ultra's 108-megapixel camera is its most enticing feature. It promises wildly detailed photographs with bright color that you can crop for maximum detail. 

You won't take most of your photos in 108 (let's call it 108 for the sake of simplicity). This is a photography setting you have to choose, and these images take up to eight times the amount of storage space as a default photo, at least in my experience. In automatic mode, photos resolve to 12-megapixel shots.

What? How? Through a long-extant concept called "pixel binning," every nine "pixels" becomes a superpixel. The idea is to make photos brighter and sharper by making each of the 12 "pixels" larger and therefore able to draw in more light. In theory, more light means better photos.

 

 

I was largely impressed with pictures I took in 108, especially once I learned this mode's sweet spot. Some photos taken in 108 made photos unnaturally saturated and flattened shadows and details -- both when viewed on the phone and on the computer.

Mid-distance and far-away shots produced more detailed imagery when I cropped in, but I got a lot less detail when trying to use the setting too close up. If you want to simulate a macro, getting as close as you can to the center of a flower, fascinating knot of wood or brand logo is just as likely to introduce more image noise, not less, when you crop in tight or zoom in on the phone or laptop screen.

But use it with the mindset of "shoot now, edit later" and you may find yourself ecstatic with the results. You can (and should) check out some of my favorite sample photos.

Again, I wouldn't recommend using 108 for every photo, but when you do -- like when I grabbed that photo hanging out the car window, or when you don't have time to get closer to the thing you want to shoot -- you may find yourself pleasantly surprised.

 

 

 

8K video recording is cool, but doesn't matter
The S20 phones all capture videos in 8K resolution. These files are huge. Samsung says every minute shot will take up 600MB of storage. You also have to stand alarmingly far away from your subject to fit it into frame. 

8K video is the future, but there are few platforms available right now, like TVs (even Samsung's) and social media sites, where you'll be able to view the content. YouTube has technically supported 8K video since 2010. 

The main benefit is about the same as 108 photos. It'll let you retain detail when cropping into a video. This will give you the same effect as zooming in. I tried it on several videos I shot. Samsung made editing 8K video easy on the S20. It's also easy to drop the resolution down small enough to share on, say, Twitter, which allows videos of up to 1080p. 

It's nice that edits and resolution changes create a new file that doesn't overwrite the original footage. You can tweak to your heart's content. 

Here's more on the pros and cons on the Galaxy S20 and why it's important to the future of phones. 

 

 

Samsung's 120Hz screen: Ultrafast battery slayer
In addition to the camera, the Galaxy S20 phones have a standout feature in the 120Hz screen. This number refers to the screen pixels refreshing 120 times a second, which doubles the standard speed of 60 times a second, or 60Hz.

Flagship phones from OnePlus and Google, and gaming phones from Razer and Asus, all have 90Hz or 120Hz refresh rates as an option, especially one that's intended to make scrolling and gameplay much smoother.

I'm an atrocious gamer, but I could immediately tell the difference with the 120Hz screen turned on. Even wiping out at nearly every turn on Riptide GP2: Renegade, I still managed to come in first place against a bunch of game bots, on a harder level than I'd ever attempted (cough, level 2, cough). 

It felt as if time slowed down. I was Neo in The Matrix, dodging bullets by mani[CENSORED]ting my surroundings. I was a time bandit, and it felt good.

Unfortunately, keeping 120Hz on full-time also drained battery like a thirsty vampire. One day, I went from 100% to 15% in a mere nine hours, admittedly after heavy use that included three hours of Google Maps navigation. Another day, battery life drained from 100% to 12% in 10.5 hours after use that included tethering to my laptop for an hour and streaming Netflix for three hours. But keeping the phone on 60Hz gave me better than all-day life regardless of what I did.

 

On 4G, the S20 Ultra is a 5,000-mAh battery beast
With the screen on its default mode, I got the all-day longevity I expected from the S20 Ultra's massive 5,000-mAh battery. For reference, the Galaxy Note 10 Plus has a capacity of 4,300 mAh and lasts me from 6 a.m. through 2 a.m., with more to spare. I don't even get nervous until I'm down to at least 12%. 

By comparison, the S20 has a 4,000-mAh capacity and the S20 Plus comes in at 4,500 mAh.

In CNET's looping video drain test of a 1080p video on 120Hz in airplane mode, the battery lasted 24 hours, which is dramatically different than my real-world experience. This video test isn't the best example because the video itself doesn't play back at 120 frames per second, so I suspect it isn't triggering the screen's doubled refresh rate, which will affect battery life. We have more lab tests to come that will better simulate real-world performance.