Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G Review & Comments

All I saw was
‘If you have an 8k tv’ 🤣🤣🤣🤣


All I saw was reviews of old referring to apple this and apple that and that was just a speed read.

The bad

Too Big for some - Or perfect for those that knew it would be a big phone ;)
Camera may be overkill - Or not for those that knew it would be like this when they ordered it.

For a phone as stunning as this I think 8/10 is pretty poor.


Grabs popcorn and awaits the barrage of abuse incoming from the apple fanboyz
 
Too Big for some - Or perfect for those that knew it would be a big phone ;)
Camera may be overkill - Or not for those that knew it would be like this when they ordered it.

agreed, I bought it just for those attributes of "camera overkill" and it is large, although it doesn't feel that large as it has got a lot taller rather than wider, it is heavy, but again knew that beforehand.

For the camera, it is good, but if people expectations are clear 100x zoom clarity for pictures, then they will be disappointed, up to 10x zoom is good and beyond it progressively deteriorates as one would realistically expect. Video quality is hard to assess and need to experiment more on what options I prefer.
 
It records video with HDR and that looks fantastic.
 
Has anyone ordered the ultra and hasn't received it due to being out of stock?


I've pre ordered from vodaphone and had a message this morning saying no stock, real bummer
 
Ordered direct from Samsung and got it 2 hours later than requested.
 
What I am interested in is the quality of the camera.

Most of reviews that I have read are not particularly impressed with the camera on the S20 Ultra - even with the firmware updates applied.

The underlying hardware sounds good with large sensor sizes for all the cameras. Larger sensors capture more light delivering better image quality. Also incorporating a 4x optical zoom is useful.

Samsung have made a couple of strange decisions. Why go for a 108 mp sensor but with a 3x3 bayer filter which reduces colour resolution. (The true resolution of the Samsung 108 mp sensor is nowhere near as high as say a 108mp sensor in a D-SLR.) Why not simply have a 12MP sensor of the same size? (I assume the answer is marketing as some people will assume that a 108mp camera is better than a 12mp one.)

I also wonder why they decided to push a 4x optical zoom to a 100x? At that level of cropping you are only using around 1/500th of the sensor area.

More importantly why did Samsung not put any optical zoom at all on the S20/S20+ at all. :(
 
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I think the 100x zoom is simply bragging rights, Huawei's P30 Pro offers a 50x zoom, so this outdoes them - bigger is better, etc.

but no actual zoom on the 20 and 20+ is really odd. I guess they are confident their digital zoom software is fine for moderate zooming
 
Detail is pretty good at 30x while 100x is a bit blurry. Photos taken at 1x then 30x then 100x:
20200313_114152.jpg

20200311_080456.jpg

20200311_080607.jpg
 
I was up early, and took these photos before 5am.

the dark one was just a normal picture, i couldn't see anything, then switched to night photo and took a wide view; then 1x followed by 5x all from the same position. I rested the camera on piece of furniture, so no hand held.
20200312_051915.jpg
20200312_051949.jpg
20200312_052026.jpg
20200312_052105.jpg
 
Detail is pretty good at 30x while 100x is a bit blurry. Photos taken at 1x then 30x then 100x:
errrr....
oil canvas are sharper than this.
We all knew that this 100x zoom is marketing BS and calling it anything else really won't change that.
 
Wow, a lot nicer than my boring TV aerial pics :D
actually i thought yours was a good example, most people know what a tv aerial is; but in the 1x it is tiny! So your 100x picture really puts the zoom capability into perspective.
 
I'm struggling to lift mine, it's one heavy unit :) 🏋️‍♀️ Screen size wise, i think we've peaked - can't imagine wanting anything bigger than this that's not foldable. Upgraded from the S10+.
 
Texted by EE offering to upgrade my S9 to the S20 with no early upgrade fee. Sounds as though sales are sluggish already.
 
I think those zoom sample shots are pretty good, I don't really believe the point of super zooms is to generate a great image you could print (one day maybe), I think it's more that if you see something far off, you can zoom in and get a better idea of what it is.

Shots below from a P30 Pro, in order, 10x (hybrid optical), 30x and 50x Only the first one is printable, but there is still some value from zooming in more on a distant object, even if the quality drops
IMG_20200313_134624.jpg

IMG_20200313_134645.jpg
IMG_20200313_134656.jpg
 
Still getting to know my S20 Ultra, but really pleased with it.
Was there any updates when you switched the phone on?...I heard there's an issue with the autofocus, in some early reviews ( although those units must have been from a month ago
 
There was an update, yes. Not sure if it was the rumoured auto focus fix, as I (stupidly!) pressed the update button without reading the release summary.
 
There was an update, yes. Not sure if it was the rumoured auto focus fix, as I (stupidly!) pressed the update button without reading the release summary.
Actually, you are able to view the last update details and this one does indeed mention camera improvements, as below:

Screenshot_20200314-075355_Software update.jpg
 

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