Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Review Rundown

The Galaxy S20 Ultra is one of the best devices that Samsung has put out yet. The camera system on the device is excellent, and you are going to get a good shot pretty much irrespective of lighting conditions. Video recording maxes out at 8K for the primary camera and 4K 60fps for the selfie shooter. It packs in top-notch performance, but also warms up under load. The phone is a bit too bulky for comfortable day-to-day use.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra is the single fastest, most responsive, and most fluid phone I’ve had the pleasure to use, quite far ahead of any second contender. The combination of a 120Hz screen with the new Snapdragon 865 is a match made in heaven. There’s still a lot of work to do until we get the full review finished, notably still waiting on the Exynos variants.

One year from launch and the Galaxy S20 Ultra is actually a better 5G phone than it was initially. US wireless networks have expanded their support for sub-6GHz-flavored 5G. It's a good camera phone, but not a great one. The biggest issue is that it's still notoriously slow to focus, and focus is a touch soft.

Samsung's Galaxy S20 Ultra is almost everything you could ask for in a high-end smartphone. With 128, 256, or 512GB GB storage and 12 or 16 GB RAM, you'll not want for anything while gaming, multitasking, or using the Ultra in your day-to-day. Top that off with 5G support for all the major U.S. networks, and you have an entertainment and work powerhouse.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has a very capable camera system, both front and back. It has an amazing image quality before you factor in ghost touches and the inability to run 120Hz at the max resolution. Live focus (aka Portrait mode) is good most of the time, even if sometimes it does go crazy with misinterpreting what's going on in the bordering regions of subject separation. The screen is also among the biggest on anything that can reasonably be called a'mainstream' flagship smartphone.

The fivefold optical zoom really makes composition a pleasure - and delivers really beautiful photos in good lighting conditions. Samsung does not give enough priority to exposing the faces in an ideal way, making them appear poorly lit in bright environments. The 100x zoom is a nice party gag and at best useful for reading the time at the church tower.

Samsung has packed either 12 or 16GB of RAM into the S20 Ultra, depending on whether you choose a model with 128 or 256 or 512GB of storage space. In Europe and other selected markets, all S20 models are equipped with Samsung's own Exynos 990. In the USA, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865 eight-core processor is used. Samsung has gone big on the camera this year and there are a lot of numbers to tackle.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is a superb gaming device. Its Mali-G77 GPU performed significantly faster than its own predecessor. Only after extensive gaming sessions did we ever notice minor lags and stuttering. The two speakers make for a decent audio experience at medium volume. It supports dual audio and can play music on two connected devices.

, but focus still takes too long to lock. The camera lets you take photos before the focus has locked, which means trouble if you're too quick on the trigger. Samsung still needs work to catch up with Apple and Google on low-light performance. The Galaxy S20 Ultra is the first US phone to record 8K video.

There just aren't enough superlatives for how incredible the S20's display is. It reached an eye-piercing 1,350 nits with auto-brightness enabled. Samsung is using UFS 3.0 storage on all S20 models. Every handset is packed with at least 12GB of LPDDR5 memory.

The S20 Ultra is not a phone that most people should buy. It's too big for most people to afford, too ugly for the remaining few to ever want to show off its technical achievements. Still, at best it's capable of outclassing every competing flagship, even if it's maddeningly inconsistent and struggles in closeups. The 120Hz refresh rate is the crowning jewel to what might be the best phone right now.

-rate and zoom versatility – you get 20x video zoom in 4K, whereas you're stuck at 6x in 8K. You can also clip 33MP photos on the Galaxy S20 Ultra while recording, or in post if you're shooting 8K video. Samsung's One UI 2.0 software reskins Android 10 with a one-hand-friendly layout.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra is a no expense spared, no stop un-pulled kind of phone. Samsung set out to show that it could outdo every other Android phone on the market. It's fast, powerful, beautiful, and has a battery that lasts. The main justification for that expense is the all-new camera system.

On paper the Galaxy S21 Ultra seems like a clear winner. It has a hybrid zoom with 3x and 10 x optical lenses, support for Samsung's S Pen stylus, plus an extra year of Android and security updates. Samsung is also trying to build better experiences into the S20 line, starting with Google Duo integration. On top of Android 10, which includes new features like Smart Reply and enhanced privacy and notification controls.

The One UI 2.1 software on the S20 Ultra is one of the best you'll find. Customisability is key here, whether it’s changing how the phone performs while you’re gaming to how fast or high-res the screen is. DeX mode remains for allowing you to connect the phone to a Mac or PC to access info and apps from the phone. A new direct share function is a bit like AirDrop – letting you quickly send files, via Wi-Fi Direct, to other S20 devices.

The S20 Ultra has a massive 6.9in QHD+ AMOLED Infinity-O screen. Samsung claims it can capture three times more light than ever before. Wireless charging speeds are faster over the Galaxy S10 models, thanks to Fast Wireless Charging 2.0. The phone will be on sale from March 13th in Europe.

The S20 Ultra's camera is undoubtedly one of the most versatile available today. The presence of a 5G modem didn't enhance my everyday experience of using the phone. Don't buy this phone just because Samsung touts 8K or 5G. It's just not a good deal for the price of a good Android phone.