Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra camera review: 108MP and 100X zoom

Note: This article was first published on 27 Feb 2020 and is republished today because the phone is now available in retail.

Big camera bump, great camera?

The camera is arguably the most important part of any modern, flagship smartphone, and it is even more important to the Galaxy S20 Ultra. Samsung's latest flagship doesn't break any new ground in terms of design or other features, but its new quad-camera system upgrade housed in gigantic camera bump could possibly be its biggest talking point to set new benchmarks. The size of the bump almost demands that Samsung justify it with a truly excellent camera, and it sure is trying its best to do that with specs that sound really impressive on paper, including a 108MP main camera and 100X Space Zoom.

For a complete lowdown on how the camera system and sensors work, we've addressed it as part of our main phone review here. But here's a quick recap of the camera's specifications: 

Rear camera

• 12MP, 120°, f/2.2, 13mm (ultra-wide), 1.4µm
• 108MP, 79°, f/1.8, 26mm (wide-angle), 1/1.33", 0.8µm, PDAF, OIS
• 48MP, 24°, f/3.5, 103mm (telephoto), 1/2.0", 0.8µm, PDAF, OIS, 10x hybrid optical zoom
• 0.3MP, f/1.0, time-of-flight 3D, (depth)

Front camera

• 40MP, 80°, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 0.7µm, PDAF

I'll be comparing the S20 Ultra to other top Android devices in this article, including the Galaxy S10+, Huawei P30 Pro, and Google Pixel 4 XL. To begin, I'll start off with pictures shot with the 108MP main camera in the default 12MP mode before moving on to 108MP pictures, the wide-angle lens, Night mode, and the 100X Space Zoom. 

Sample images (Default 12MP mode)

In the shot of the bull below, the S20 Ultra produces the most saturated colours of the lot, even adding a slight blueish hue to the faint grey of the clouds in the background. In comparison, the Pixel 4 XL produced the most lifelike pictures of the lot, but certain sections of the sky were overexposed. 

On the other hand, the S20 Ultra has a tendency to crush details in the darker areas of the scene, such as the black underbelly of the statue. However, the larger sensor size on the S20 Ultra and P30 Pro helped them reduce noise in areas like shrubbery at the bottom of the bull. The S10+ and Pixel 4 XL both showed obvious graininess when zooming in, but the S20 Ultra still produced relatively clean images at close crops. This is something you'll notice across the board, and it looks like the nona-binning tech on the 108MP sensor and the resulting larger pixel size is coming in handy. 

The Huawei P30 Pro came up with the bluest sky here, but the S20 Ultra wasn't that far behind. However, the emphasis on the sky came at the expense of the greenery on the structures, which appeared rather muted in comparison the how it turned out on the Pixel 4 XL and the S10+. To my eyes, the Pixel 4 XL produced the most balanced picture here, producing a reasonably vibrant sky while exposing the greenery correctly. And as in the previous picture, the S20 Ultra also shows a tendency to omit detail in the shadows.

More sample images (Default 12MP mode)

The S20 Ultra exhibits a noticeably warmer colour tone, but I think it ultimately comes down to a matter of personal preference. The camera does a good job of resolving finer details in a complex scene like this one however, and you're better able to make out things like the edges of the leaves in the crowded foreground. 

The S20 Ultra leaves no doubt that its a Samsung phone in the picture below, gleefully dialing up the reds and greens in the image. There's even some natural depth of field to be had here, and there's an obvious softness to the background foliage around the flowers.

The S20 Ultra has the most vivid colours in this shot, and it manages to preserve detail on the boardwalk that the Pixel 4 XL doesn't retain. However, it still continues to smooth out detail in the shadows, as seen in the shaded trees here.

Detail aplenty

The 108MP main camera may be capable of taking super high resolution shots, but you're not meant to be doing that all the time. One of the reasons for that is obviously storage space – one picture generally takes up between 20MB and 30MB of space – but photos also take longer to capture. What's more, the pixels are really tiny when they're not being combined to form larger pixels in a process called nona-binning, and they're just 0.8µm across. This means that if the lighting isn't good, these tiny pixels could struggle to capture enough light and end up introducing more noise to the picture, which could then obscure the extra detail captured.

Instead, the 108MP camera is meant for the occasional well-lit scene, where you'd like to keep the option of cropping a specific area of the picture and not lose much detail. You can make a photo from a photo, if you will, although I'm still not sure how often I'll really have a need for this feature.

That said, here's a look at some shots captured at full resolution and what they look like after a 100% crop.

The tree outside is noticeably clearer on the higher resolution crop, and the text on the banners on the right are crisper as well. You probably won't be doing such a close crop if you're using this feature, but this example serves to illustrate the extra detail you get by switching over to 108MP. 

The image below shows a more reasonable crop, where the 108MP cropped image preserves more details in the buildings across the river. There's also a softness to the 12MP image which means it doesn't look quite as good even without zooming in to scrutinise the details. 

Taking a step back

The S20 Ultra comes with a dedicated ultra-wide lens that can capture a 120° field-of-view. There's still obvious barrel distortion at the edges of the photos, but I find that it creates gorgeous, dramatic photos that look very appealing. There's no mistaking whether or not a photo was taken with the wide-angle lens, and I think that's part of its charm. 

It also manages to capture good details and colour, particularly when the lighting is good. Maybe they won't look as good when you zoom in for closer inspection, but the whole point of an ultra-wide lens is the unique perspective it delivers, and I really like it.

While the highlights behind the skyline in the picture below are blown out – this actually happens a lot – the S20 Ultra ultimately produced the cleanest image of the lot. However, there are still some caveats attached to using the ultra-wide lens, especially when the lighting isn't quite ideal. In these scenarios, the camera starts to rely on slower shutter speeds, which can mean blurred photos if you don't have steady hands or there are moving subjects in the scene. 

More S20 Ultra ultra-wide images

Night mode

With companies like Apple, Google, and Huawei putting out phones with impressive low-light performance, Samsung has arguably been playing catch-up for a while. As it turns out, the Galaxy S20 Ultra takes the best night shots of any Samsung phone so far, largely thanks to the huge sensor that can capture even more light and detail. 

For simplicity's sake, I'll just be comparing the S20 Ultra to the Pixel 4 XL here, mostly because Google's phone produces the best low-light photos compared to the other two phones.

The S20 Ultra takes pretty good night shots, even without the dedicated Night mode. However, Night mode still makes quite a big difference, particularly in really dark scenes. The difference isn't as big when there's plentiful sources of illumination, such as from buildings and lamps. Compared to the Pixel 4 XL, the S20 Ultra produces slightly more natural looking shots with Night mode turned on, but the way they light up the scene differs quite a bit. 

Samsung's phone gives the impression that someone brought floodlights to a night shoot, and the added illumination is sometimes very, very stark. On the other hand, Google goes for a slightly warmer look that looks less harsh.

Do you really need such a long zoom?

The headlining feature of the S20 Ultra's camera is probably its 100X Space Zoom, which trumps the 30X zoom on the S20 and S20+ by a large margin. Sceptics will probably wonder whether or not this is some sort of gimmick – after all, 100X zoom seems ridiculous on a phone, and given that this is not true optical zoom, the images are just going to be super blurry past a certain point. These zoom levels also amplify even the smallest hand tremors, which makes framing and taking a useable shot of the object you want really difficult.

That said, I don't think the 100X zoom is all fluff. While you're not going to be sharing any photos taken at the higher zoom levels on social media, it has its uses, such as picking out details on something you otherwise wouldn't be able to see with your naked eye. And if you're at a concert, I could see this helping you take pictures of the celebrity on stage, which would still be super blurry, but better than nothing.

The S20 Ultra can do up to 4X optical zoom, and 10X hybrid lossless zoom, according to Samsung. Beyond that, things start to get a little tricky, but I was able to get some useable shots without a tripod at up to 30X. Past that, everything just gets super grainy and blocky, and you have to be far enough away such that actually glimpsing the object in question outweighs how blurry it's going to be. 

And even when I set the phone on a tripod and tried to shoot at 100X, there were still micro-tremors from people traipsing up and down the boardwalk I was sitting on. And yes, sometimes even tapping the screen to take the picture makes the frame shake.

In the example below, the camera was able to pick out the Customs House wording on the building across the water, which is pretty impressive. In the original image, you can barely even make out the building itself. The 10X and 30X images also retain a decent amount of detail, even without a tripod. 

And when compared to the Huawei P30 Pro at 30X and 50X magnification, the S20 Ultra images have visibly less noise and better detail retention. The P30 Pro's pictures look like they have a grey veil over them, and the Customs House text lacks definition as well. 

More S20 Ultra zoom images

Fun portraits

Samsung calls its Portrait mode Live Focus, and it comes with more options than you get on other phones. Instead of just blurring the background, you get different effects like Colour point, Zoom, Spin, and Big circle. I'm still more interested in the simulated bokeh effect though, which you can also adjust after the photo has been taken. 

The S20 Ultra has a DepthVision Time of Flight camera that can judge depth and distance, and this is supposed to help better differentiate between the foreground and background.

There's is good improvement compared to the S10+, and the S20 Ultra is able to come up with a far more pleasing bokeh effect. It also produced more flattering skin tones, and the resulting picture is warmer than the Pixel 4 XL, which has a considerably cooler cast (although some of that may be due to the sun's rays peeking out at that particular moment). 

Samsung's best camera yet

At the end of the day, the Galaxy S20 Ultra produces photos with that distinct Samsung look, which is to say it gives saturated colours and really blue skies. This is neither good nor bad, and when you're comparing the camera performance of flagship smartphones today, it generally comes down to a matter of taste. Maybe you like vivid, Instagram-ready shots that look like they're ready to go. Or maybe you prefer something a little more natural and life-like. Whatever the case, there's no doubt toward which end the S20 Ultra leans, and you'll find colours in your photos that really pop. 

One downside of the camera is that it ends to flatten details in the shadows, so certain photos may not appear particularly well-balanced. Samsung can over do its HDR processing at times too, blowing out highlights and making complicated scenes with a lot of colours appear almost overwhelming.

Low-light performance is pretty good, thanks to the large 108MP sensor. Night mode makes an obvious difference too, sweeping away shadows with ease, but its tendency to create the impression that the scene is flooded with white light can make photos appear a little too harsh at times. 

Fortunately, the headlining 108MP sensor and 100X Space Zoom are more than just big numbers on paper. You'll only want to shoot at 108MP when the lighting is good, but it'll let you crop in closer to far away objects without losing too much detail. This is probably not something that the average person will use every day, but it's potentially useful, and you never know when you might need it. 

Similarly, you're not going to be constantly trying to take pictures at 100X zoom all that often either, but when you need to take a picture of that thing that's really, really far away, you know the feature is there. Granted, pictures taken beyond 30X zoom are not worth sharing in any way, and anything you capture will probably just be for your own consumption. There is just enough resolution to make out the details of whatever it is you're after, such as the lettering on a building far away, or maybe the vague features of a famous person on the street (not that I'm encouraging stalking, no).

To cap things off, there's of course the ultra-wide lens, which is capable of taking some beautiful shots that are almost painfully dramatic. I'm quite enamoured with the wide-angle pictures the S20 Ultra produces, but the obvious distortion that is still present may not be to everyone's taste.

Ultimately, the S20 Ultra's camera is quite a comprehensive package that will make most folks pretty happy. Unlike the Pixel 4 XL, there are no glaring omissions, and the only thing you can really find fault with is Samsung's post-processing, which is mostly a matter of preference and opinion. Samsung has checked all the right boxes, and the super high resolution sensor and long zoom will help it stand out from the crowd.

Read Next (1): Our full performance review of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra!

Read Next (2): The best telco price plans with the Samsung Galaxy S20 series