Samsung was extra ambitious this year launching the
souped-up S20 ultra alongside a more conventional pair of flagships. In our
review though the ultra turned out to be an impressive but impractical device.
Most people should clearly consider something more sensible like the regular
S20s. The S20 and S20 plus have the same smooth displays and 5G support as
their larger sibling. As well as cameras that aren't as excessive. That's fine
because they're not as expensive either. At $1,000 and $1,200 respectively, the
S20 and S20 plus are at least in the same ballpark as other flagships. After testing a week, the S20 ultra switching to the S20 and S20 plus felt like blessed
relief to my arms and fingers. The smaller hand sets are much more manageable
both in terms of weight and screen size. My personal preference is the 6.2 inch
S20, which is much easier to type on with one hand but those with bigger hands
probably won't mind the 6.7 inch S20 Plus.
Also know : Redmi Note 9 Pro Review,launched in India
This year's flagships are slightly
curvier and have softer lines than the boxy as tense which makes them easier to
hold. There are not the most inspired designs but these are still the classiest
Android flagships you'll find right now. The oneplus 7T pro has an attractive
finish but lacks the subtle curves and the pixel phone’s minimalist design is
unique but it doesn't feel as premium. Huawei's p series might be the only
phones barring iPhones that offer a similarly elegant build but you can't buy
them in the US. The S20 is also best most existing android flagships with their 120 Hertz screens. So
far only the Asus Rog phone 2 - and Razer phone 2 - offers means this fast and
both of those are niche devices with a focus on gaming. Some mainstream options
like the pixel 4 and oneplus 7T Pro hit 90 Hertz but nearly every other device
sticks with 60 Hertz.
Why does that matter, faster refresh rates means smoother
animations and more fluid video but there's a caveat like the ultra the S20 and
S20+ only support 120 Hertz at a 1080p resolution not the native 1440p. This is
less of an issue on the smaller as 20's where the difference in resolution
isn't as noticeable because they're not as big these panels are more pixel
dense and look better than the ultras 6.9 inch display. The effects of the 120
Hertz rate also seemed more obvious on the S20. Still I didn't find myself
missing the faster speeds compared to that pixel 4 or even the pixel 3. Refresh
rates aside, the S20 screens are gorgeous. Samsung continues to excel at
building displays and his latest flagships have two deep blacks and rich colors
that I've come to expect from a galaxy device. I could make out Nick Offerman's
straggly strands of hair even in a pitch-black forest in a scene from devs and the
screen is bright enough to read in
sunlight. One of the compromises you'll be making by choosing an S20 and S20+ instead of an ultra is getting a less
advanced camera system. The ultra smart key feature is a 100 times space zoom
that combines a 4 times optical zoom with some digital wizardry to try and
improve clarity. The S20 and S20+ meanwhile just go up to 30 times with a three
times optical zoom system. You also won't find the 108 megapixel sensor that's
on the largest flagship. Instead the primary camera here shoots at a maximum of
64 megapixels but frankly you're not missing out on much.
The S20 ultra's picture quality was pretty bad when zoomed in beyond 10x and the full
resolution 108 megapixel pictures were surprisingly noisy. Plus Samsung had to
issue a software update after several reviewers complained about issues with
the autofocus while I didn't notice the autofocus problem on my S20 ultra. I
did see the S20 and S20+ struggle as I was framing up shots. It's strange the
camera would spend a few seconds shifting in and out before finally focusing or
just giving up entirely. I haven't received the software update that's supposed
to fix this yet and Samsung said it's still the works. Space Zoom remains an
impressive sounding but not particularly useful feature. I got great photos at
1x and using the ultra wide-angle camera but when I zoomed in on a bus map
across the street the resulting images were a disaster. All I could make out
from the muddy photo was the general shape of the buses route. I couldn't see a
single word. I did like Samsung's night mode on the new flagship though. The
algorithm uses more information than before capturing more frames at varying
exposures to stitch together brighter pictures in low light. The difference is
night and day .Even though photos I took of night scapes weren't very dark without
night mode enabled I still got better cleaner results when I did activate it.
Night mode on the S20 and S20 Plus is pretty much the same as it is on the
Ultra as are new features like 8k video capture and single take mode.
The
latter snaps a variety of photos and clips through the different lenses as you
shoot your subject for a few seconds and then it applies filters effects or
soundtracks to them. It's fun but not helpful enough that I'd use it more than
a few times. The front-facing camera is also different from the ultra, rather
than a 40 megapixel sensor you get a 10 MP one in the S20 and S20+ in general I
didn't notice a huge difference in quality especially since the S20 ultra
shoots selfies at 12 megapixels by default. When 40MP mode was enabled the
super sharp images definitely had more detail that the S20 and S20+ delivered
but I didn't miss the extra clarity except in low-light. The cameras are
perhaps the biggest difference between the S20 Ultra and the S20 and S20+. All
three phones pack the same snapdragon 865 processor with 12 gigs of RAM. There
is an upgrade at Ultra with 16 gigs but that's kinda overkill especially when
laptops usually come with between 8 and 16 gigs of RAM.
As I jump between
editing a picture and playing a game or chatting with some friends the S20 and
S20 plus didn't so much as hiccup. The S20 also kept up as I shot 8k video
while downloading a 1.4 gate app over LTE so it did get quite warm in the
process. I even found the in screen fingerprint sensors surprisingly fast.
Samsung uses ultrasound scanners as opposed to the optical reader in the Oneplus
7T Pro and I haven't noticed a significant difference in speed. It's worth
noting though that some reviewers have been frustrated by the S20s reader. My
main issue has been in trying to locate where to place my finger to unlock the
phone when it's screen is off. I wish Samsung had gone for Qualcomm's new
larger fingerprint sensor instead so it would be easier to find. One of the
things Samsung is calling attention to on the S20 lineup is 5G support across
all three devices. It's a signal that the next-gen networking standard is
getting ready to go mainstream that's a nice story to tell the public but it's
incomplete. Yes 5g is here but coverage isn't very comprehensive yet. I use the
S20+ and ultra on 5g network, it's really fast but coverage is very limited. I
test that the S20 on t-mobile's network and the story is largely the same. T-mobile
offers both sub 6 and millimeter wave 5g in New York but spots with a much
faster millimeter wave are few and far between. Not to mention that the S20
doesn't support them. Only the plus an ultra model do but 600 megahertz
connectivity appears more widely available. There was an issue with my S20 SIM
card and I never got to connect 5G at all so there's not much I can say now
about t-mobile's network speeds. T-mobile didn’t say that in some places 600
megahertz 5G will be a lot faster than LTE in others customers won't see a
dramatic difference. On average though the carrier said there should be a 20
percent download speed boost over its LTE network.
Also know : Honor 9X Detailed Review
What was noticeable on the
S20 and S20+ was there long lasting batteries. Thanks to their large 4000 mAh
and forty five hundred million bar cells, the two phones lasted surprisingly
long despite power draining features like high refresh rate screens and 5g. I
set the displace a 120 Hertz and consistently got close to two full days out of
both flagships. On our battery tests which involves looping a full HD video the
S20 clocked a little more than 12 hours while the S20+ hit 15 hours, that's
longer than the ultras 11 and a half hour mark. The S20 and S20+ are basically
the same phone, aside from their differences in size, battery and millimeter
wave support. The S20+ also has an additional depth sensor on its back for a
slightly better portrait mode and AR effects. Are those features worth the
extra $200 for the larger phone. Only if you really want a bigger screen extra
long battery and superfast 5g on t-mobile. So your decision will also depend on
what carrier on. For most people though the base S20 is plenty of phone.
Also know : Realme 5i Review
In the
case of this year's S20 trio smaller is so much better. I felt like the ultra
was overkill when he came to size is camera features and most importantly price.
At $1,000 the S20 costs about the same as his competitors though the S20 plus
still comes in at a premium but they're also the best-looking Android flagships
around with speedy performance and long battery life. For that money you will
also be getting excellent displays and blazing 5g speeds we're available. If a
thousand dollars is too much for you, you might want to wait for other options
like the rumored pixel 4A or consider the S10 series which could offer most of
what you need for a fraction of the price. Right now though the S20 and S20+
are the best Android phones, money can buy. For more reviews of Android phones,
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