Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra review: This phone packs a punch

Note: This article was first published on 25 Feb 2020.

Look at that camera bump!

We're fresh off the launch of Samsung's latest flagship Galaxy devices, which means that all eyes are once again on the phone that will undoubtedly be in the running to be one of the best Android smartphones of 2020. This year, Samsung announced three different flavours of the Galaxy S20, with the Galaxy S20 Ultra sitting at the top of the pack.

Samsung pulled out all the stops with the S20 Ultra, packing more memory into it than some notebooks and strapping on a camera module that boasts up to 100X zoom. Of course, you get all the usual upgrades too, such as a faster processor, improved graphics, and a slick 120Hz display. But the fact that I'm talking so much about the hardware under the hood says a lot as well. Despite the generational leap in its name – the S20 instead of the S11– and the Ultra tag, Samsung's new phone is still very much an iterative upgrade on the Galaxy S10 series.

But outside of foldable devices like the nifty Galaxy Z Flip, this could pretty much be said of any smartphone to come out in recent memory. They're very familiar, but they're also slicker, faster, and better. And the Galaxy S20 is nothing if not a supercharged device, boasting beefed-up specifications that are likely to endear it to power users who just want the best. This is also the first properly mainstream 5G phone from Samsung, which makes it seem like we're closer to a wider rollout of 5G than ever.

My editor has a detailed video impressions piece, but for those of you wanting to know every shred of information there is to be known of the Galaxy S20 Ultra, read on after the jump:-

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Design

One of the first things you'll notice when picking up the Galaxy S20 Ultra is just how large and heavy it is. This phone has a heft to it that few other devices have, and at 220g, it is only slightly lighter than the iPhone 11 Pro Max. At 8.8mm thick, it is also a bit chunkier than the Galaxy Note10+, and it even has a bigger 6.9-inch display, so this isn't really a device that you can slip into the pockets of your skinny jeans. Similarly, if you want a phone for one-handed texting, this isn't it either.

That said, the S20 Ultra oozes quality at every turn, and the weight gives it a reassuring feel in hand that I really like. Samsung has stuck with aluminum frames on the Ultra model though, and it'd have been cool to see stainless steel used here just like on the iPhone 11 Pro. Nevertheless, the fit and finish of the phone is impeccable, and it gives off an impression of polish that not every device can be said to have.

My Cosmic Black review unit is quite simply gorgeous, and I love that the aluminum sides have been coated black as well to match the rest of the phone. The S20 Ultra also features Gorilla Glass 6 on the front and back, and rear edges curve up to meet the side rails. That's very similar to what you got on the Galaxy S10, and there haven't been any dramatic departures in terms of design language. However, Samsung has gone with less aggressive curves on the display, to the point that it is almost flat. I like this change a lot, since curved edges don't add a ton of utility to phones – in fact, they can even reduce the overall useable area of the screen – and they also don't look significantly better to my eyes. What's more, they make shopping for a good, full-coverage screen protector a real chore.

The lines of the side rails also now cut outwards to accommodate the power button and volume rocker, instead of simply running as a straight line along the entire length of the phone, as was the case on the Galaxy S10. I find the new look a little more modern, and it also allows for thinner aluminum rails along most of the length and the glass back to curve up more.

The other major change is to the front camera, which has been drastically shrunk down from a pill-shaped cutout in the top right corner to a hole-punch shooter in the centre. I appreciate the newfound sense of symmetry and the less intrusive nature of the smaller camera, and it really helps the display feel a whole lot more immersive.

The edge-to-edge display is otherwise uninterrupted by any speaker grille at the top, and audio is instead piped through a tiny slit just above the display. This is similar to what Samsung did on the Note10, and it is almost invisible, so narrow that you won't see it unless you're actively looking for it. This joins another dedicated speaker at the bottom for stereo audio output.

Samsung is also finally ditching the 3.5mm headphone jack on its Galaxy S series phones, and the S20 Ultra has just a single USB-C connector now. That brings it in line with just about every other flagship Android device today, but Galaxy S10 owners will probably be disappointed, especially since the S20 Ultra definitely looks thick enough to accommodate the 3.5mm jack.

There is no 3.5mm-to-USB-C dongle in the box either, which is unfortunate, particularly if you're upgrading from the Galaxy S10. Samsung gives you a pair of USB-C earbuds in the box, but I'm guessing most people will want to use their own. It's not all bad though, as Samsung is bundling the wireless Galaxy Buds+ for free with pre-orders of the phone, and it's likely to continue offering something similar even after pre-orders close. 

The S20 Ultra will take dual SIM cards too, in addition to up to 1TB of expandable microSD storage. You'll have to pick between the two, however, since the microSD slot doubles up as a second nano-SIM slot. While the phone does have eSIM support for you to technically support dual phone numbers and still use a microSD card, this is only possible if your telco of choice supports such a feature.

The button layout has been simplified as well, and both the power button and volume rocker now sit on the right. There is no longer a dedicated Bixby button, and I'm glad to see this go, since there's no reason to clutter up the phone's sides with a button dedicated to a smart assistant feature that not everyone will use. To be fair, Samsung did eventually let you remap the button to launch other apps, but I still think removing it is for the best. If you want to launch Bixby now, you just long-press the power button, which is a far more elegant solution; not to mention, voice activation option exists too.

The new position of the power button – or side key as Samsung calls it – is also better, and I'm able to reach it easily when gripping the lower half of the phone. If I'm unlocking the phone using the in-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, I can switch much more quickly to access the camera by double-tapping the power button.

However, while the S20 Ultra may look like quite the beauty when it's fresh out of the box, it won't stay that way for long. The glass back is a terrifying fingerprint magnet, and my unit already feels uncomfortably greasy. You'll want to put a case on it so you don't have to keep wiping it down, and also reduce the chances of it slipping out of your fingers when it's all oiled up. This is one heavy phone, and I do not want to imagine it hitting the floor naked, especially with that giant camera module. It'll survive being dropped into the shallow end of the pool though, with IP68 water and dust resistance. 

The camera module is another reason why you might want a case for the S20 Ultra. Saying it is big doesn't even come close to doing it justice – it is sprawling, it covers an expanse, and it sticks out a lot. This means considerable unevenness when you lay it on a flat surface, which is why you'll want a case to smooth things out.

Remember when we used to obsess over how much of a camera bump there was? Well, it seems like we're way past that now, and Samsung no longer even cares. But hey, at least the camera bump looks of cool, and people will know it means serious business. "Space Zoom 100X" is also helpfully etched on the back, in case anyone is wondering why exactly it's so big. 

Display

The Galaxy S20 Ultra features a large 6.9-inch Infinity-O display that is HDR10+ certified. This is to date the largest screen from Samsung so far, at least compared to its existing Galaxy S and Note devices. The flexible OLED panel is made by Samsung itself, and according to DisplayMate's testing, it's able to achieve a peak brightness of 1,342 nits, which is really, really bright. That said, Samsung rates the screen as capable of achieving a maximum brightness of 1,200 nits, in addition to offering 100 per cent coverage of the DCI-P3 colour space. 

Needless to say, these are all rather impressive numbers, and the display doesn't disappoint in person. The S20 Ultra is definitely bright enough for use outside, and unless you're standing in direct sunlight, the screen should remain very readable. Contrast is excellent, with deep blacks and detailed highlights. Colours are really vivid too, but you'll have the option to select the "Natural" screen mode if you prefer something more, well, natural looking. The latter mode tones the colours down somewhat so they don't pop as much, but I think most people will be pretty happy to stick with the default, especially if you're going to be using the phone outdoors a lot.

Samsung will also let you adjust the white balance of the screen in Vivid mode, so you can set the colour of white that you prefer. For instance, if you feel more comfortable with a warmer looking screen, that's possible here. There's a simple slider ranging from cool to warm, but there are also more advanced controls for tweaking each of the RGB channels.

The tiny hole-punch front camera is a big step up from the Galaxy S10, and it makes the display look a lot more seamless and immersive. There is still the option to hide the cutout by adding a black bar across the entire area, but I'm not sure why anyone would do this since the screen looks stunning as it is. That said, it could still come in handy if certain apps are not playing well with the cutout.

The display resolution sits at a crisp 3,200 x 1,440 pixels, which translates to a pixel density of 511ppi – slightly better than the Galaxy Note10+ – and a 20:9 aspect ratio. However, the most significant upgrade is probably its support for a high 120Hz refresh rate, which makes everything from scrolling to pulling down the notification shade appear super smooth. And when combined with the 240Hz touch screen polling rate, the phone just feels really slick and responsive. Mobile gamers will presumably appreciate the lower touch latency as well.

However, there are still some caveats, and the 120Hz refresh rate is only supported at the FHD+ resolution of 2,400 x 1,080 pixels. Fortunately, there are otherwise no weird brightness limitations as on the Pixel 4, which only runs at 90Hz when the screen is above a certain brightness level. Samsung probably did this because of battery life, but it'd still have been nice to have the option to have both a high refresh rate and resolution, at least on the S20 Ultra with its massive 5,000mAh battery.

The FHD+ resolution gives a pixel density of 381ppi, but while this seems markedly lower, it really isn't all that noticeable. What's more, the S20 Ultra actually ships to you at FHD+ by default, and you'll need to change the settings yourself if you want to go up to 1440p.

The ultrasonic fingerprint sensor at the bottom has been upgraded too, and it now features a bigger surface area and improvements to accuracy and speed. So far, I've had no issues with it, and it appears more sensitive as well and requires less force. Compared to regular in-display optical sensors, these are more secure. They read the ridges on your thumb in 3D, instead of just taking a picture, and should work even when your finger is wet or dirty. However, there's still a noticeable delay when using it to unlock the phone, but only when compared to something like Apple's Face ID or the Pixel 4's Face Unlock. 

Audio

The stereo speaker setup is reminiscent of the one on the Note10 phones, comprising one speaker at the bottom and another that pipes sound through a minuscule slit above the display. These are tuned by AKG, and they get pretty loud, enough to fill a small room. However, these are still a far cry from standalone portable speakers, and they're still generally lacking in body and bass. Vocals come through with acceptable clarity though, and they're good enough for things like movie dialogue. 

Software

The S20 Ultra comes bundled with Samsung's new One UI 2.1 software update, which is based on Android 10. Visually, there are few major changes compared to the previous version, and the biggest adjustments come in the form of Android 10's more fine-grained permissions, such as the ability to only allow an app to use your location when you launch it. 

Samsung has also incorporated Google's implementation of Dark mode into the new update, and while its own UI still looks the same, it does mean better support for third-party apps and widgets.

You do however get some small tweaks to the UI that make it a little more polished. For instance, the lock screen is now smarter and can detect dark and light areas of your wallpaper and change the text colour to be more legible. This means no more white font on a white background, which is great. 

Some stuff has been shifted around in the notification shade too, and the clock and date are now aligned to the left, instead of sitting in the centre. There are more quick toggles on display at once too, and you now get a 4x4 grid, instead of the default 3x4 grid previously. This change isn't necessarily for the better though, since it does make one-handed use more difficult as you now have to reach higher to hit the first row of toggles.

Elsewhere, you get a nifty built-in screen recorder, which Samsung first debuted on the Note10. This means you no longer have to download third-party apps, and it can even record audio played on the phone and even sounds picked up by the microphone. There is a dedicated quick toggle button to let you start recording, and a toolbar will also pop up after you take a screenshot, with the option to easily capture the entire length of a long page. 

That aside, another update I really like is the addition of new gesture navigation controls, where you swipe up from the bottom to go to the Home screen, and inwards from either side to go back. To view your recent apps, you just swipe up from the bottom and hold. You can also adjust the back gesture sensitivity to suit your preferences. 

This is based on what Google introduced on Android 10 and its new Pixel launcher, and it's a big improvement over Samsung's previous gesture system, which involved swiping up from different areas along the screen's bottom to go Home, back, or just see your recent apps.

I definitely recommend going into the settings and switching from the default navigation buttons to the new gesture control system. It's very intuitive and easy to get used to, and you free up more screen real estate by getting rid of the navigation buttons.

Finally, the power button is now a virtual one that lives next to the settings icon in the notification shade. That's mostly because Bixby is now accessed by holding down the side key that would normally serve as the power button. Fortunately, you can change this in the settings and still call up the power off menu by holding the side key down.

A study in excess

The camera is the most significant change to arrive on the Galaxy S20 Ultra, both visually and under the hood. It manifests as a very large and thick camera bump, which houses four rear cameras and the LED flash. 

Here's what the camera setup on the phone is like:

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

At first glance, this configuration is already nothing short of excessive. Highlights include the 103mm telephoto lens with its 100X Space Zoom, the super high resolution 108MP shooter, and the 40MP front camera. The fact that Samsung has included a 40MP shooter just for selfies says a lot, and the company is clearly making no compromises with the S20 Ultra.

It's debatable what exactly is the headlining feature of this camera though. Is it the 108MP camera, or is it the fact that you can zoom in on faraway objects and pick out details you wouldn't otherwise be able to see with a naked eye? I'm going to have to go with the latter, even if I have my doubts about its actual utility in real world use.

100X Space Zoom

Those of you who love to pore over spec sheets will have noticed that the telephoto lens on the S20 Ultra is seemingly inferior to the one on the S20 and S20+. It is "only" 48MP, versus 64MP on the smaller S20 phones, but the both of them still have 0.8µm pixels. However, the S20 Ultra is the only one that has a 102mm focal length, which lets it focus on objects that are insanely far away. 

But phones are very thin devices, and the focal length is limited by how close the sensor is to the lens. To get around this, Samsung uses a lens that resembles a periscope, where a prism is used to refract light from the lens to the sensor at a 90° angle. The sensor and lens array lie flat, instead of being stacked atop each other. By laying out the hardware horizontally, manufacturers have more space available to them and are not limited by how thin the phone needs to be. 

This is also referred to as a "folded" lens, and companies like Huawei and Oppo have employed this approach as well. Huawei most notably did so on the P30 Pro, which offers 50X zoom. The S20 Ultra is now topping that with its 100X Space Zoom, making it the first smartphone to do so.

You'll get 4X optical zoom on the S20 Ultra, and up to 10X "Hybrid Optic Zoom", which is still apparently lossless, according to Samsung. Beyond that point, things start to become more and more unforgiving as the slightest movements of your hand make it difficult to frame your subject and get it a clear shot. I was able to get some useable shots at up to 30X zoom though, but anything beyond that is a hit-and-miss. 

Do you need a 108MP camera?

Then there's the 108MP shooter, which uses Samsung's ISOCELL Bright HM1 sensor. A variant of this sensor is used in Xiaomi's Mi Note 10 phones, so Samsung isn't the first to trot out such a high resolution sensor. But while this is the main camera sensor, the S20 Ultra doesn't shoot at 108MP all the time. For one, these photos would be a lot bigger than usual and take up a lot of storage space. Another reason is the tiny 0.8µm pixels, which can collect less light and could possibly end up introducing more noise to the picture, which would then just obscure all the extra detail collected by having so many of them.

Samsung's sensor attempts to circumvent this problem with a process called pixel binning, and its default mode is to actually shoot 12MP photos. This involves combining 3x3 grids of nine pixels into a single big 2.4µm pixel, which is in turn bigger than those in many other smartphones. This is an evolution of Samsung's Tetracell technology, which turned four pixels into one big one. Samsung now refers to this as nona-binning, and the resulting larger pixels can capture more light more improved clarity. 

But in well-lit conditions, you can switch to the 108MP mode if you want that extra detail. Obviously, few of us require such detailed photos, but the idea is that you'll be able to crop these pictures and, well, make photos from photos without reducing the picture quality. In these cases, Samsung applies some re-mosaic tech that rearranges the colour pixels to bring out even more detail. The re-mosaic algorithm remaps pixels into a conventional RGB pattern, which Samsung says produces more detailed images in bright lighting.

This offers you a nice bit of flexibility, where you can take regular 12MP pictures while still getting the option to scale up to 108MP when you need it.

Single Take

Finally, Samsung is really leaning into software features to bolster its camera as well. A new addition called Single Take can throw up suggestions for photos and videos you take. It's pretty nifty actually, especially when applied to video, as the software will pick out objects that might possibly make a good picture, apply filters to it, and also create boomerang videos. Samsung says it can make up to 14 such suggestions, comprising 10 pictures and four videos, all snapped at one go. The main idea is that you don't have to choose what mode or filters to use, or if you should shoot a video or a still shot. Ultimately, Single Take removes the guesswork from capturing special moments so you don't miss them. 

To use it, you just switch to the Single Take tab while in the camera app and pan the camera around. It's been a little hit-and-miss for me, but I could see it being a fun party trick. You never know when it might capture something good. It can also apparently recognise cats, because when I pointed it at the furry brown critter above, text popped up informing me that it was "capturing cat pics and clips". 

Read next: Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra's camera performance and sample images

Benchmark performance

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has two processor variants, comprising either the Snapdragon 865 or Samsung's Exynos 990 chip. Territories outside of North America, China, and Japan will get the Exynos 990, which includes Singapore.

This is Samsung's flagship SoC for 2020, and it is built on the 7nm EUV process. Like the mid-range Exynos 980 announced last year, it also adds 5G connectivity, courtesy of a new Exynos Modem 5123. The phone supports both mmWave, which typically gives the fastest speeds, and the sub-6 GHz spectrum. In comparison, the Galaxy S20 5G only supports sub-6 5G. mmWave is faster because it utilises higher and less crowded frequency bands where there's more bandwidth available, so a phone that only supports sub-6 5G might not have access to the full potential of 5G.

On the CPU front, the SoC employs a tri-cluster design in the following configuration:

• 2x ARM Cortex-A76 @ 2.73GHz
• 4x ARM Cortex-A55 @ 2.5GHz
• 2x Samsung M5 @ 2.0GHz

Samsung has deployed its new Exynos M5 microarchitecture here, which is supposedly up to 20 per cent faster than the Exynos M4 in the 9820 SoC. These function as the "big" cores, and Samsung is mixing its custom CPU design with two "middle" Cortex-A76 cores and four "little" A55 cores.  

Elsewhere, the GPU is getting a big upgrade too in the form of the Mali-G77 in an MP11 configuration. This GPU uses ARM's new Valhall architecture, and Samsung is claiming performance gains of up to 20 per cent and similar improvements to power efficiency.

Exynos 990 also transitions from LPDDR4X memory to LPDDR5, which the S20 Ultra has a whopping 12GB of. This is more memory than some laptops and desktop PCs have, making the S20 Ultra a truly extravagant offering. Samsung's LPDDR5 chips offer some compelling benefits over LPDDR4X as well, including up to 50 per cent more bandwidth and 20 per cent lower power consumption.

To cap things off, the S20 Ultra will come with 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB of UFS 3.0 storage. The 512GB model even comes with 16GB of RAM, but only the 128GB version is available to buy locally. 

JetStream 2.0

JetStream 2 is a combination of a variety of JavaScript and Web Assembly benchmarks, including benchmarks that came before like SunSpider and Octane. It primarily tests for a system’s and browser’s ability in delivering a good web experience. It runs a total of 64 subtests, each weighted equally, with multiple iterations, and takes the geometric mean to compute the overall score.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra was on par with most other Android phones here, coming slightly ahead of the Galaxy S10+ and Note10+. It lost out to the Pixel 4 XL and OnePlus 7 Pro however, and like the other Android devices, was way behind the new iPhones. 

AnTuTu

AnTuTu is an all-in-one benchmark that tests CPU, GPU, memory, and storage. The CPU benchmark evaluates both integer and floating-point performance, the GPU tests assess 2D and 3D performance, the memory test measures available memory bandwidth and latency, and the storage tests gauge the read and write speeds of a device's flash memory.

The S20 Ultra did well in AnTuTu, surprisingly beating even the iPhone 11 Pro. This amounts to quite a significant improvement over last year's Note10+ too, and it was around 33 per cent faster.

Geekbench 5

Geekbench CPU is a cross-platform processor benchmark that tests both single-core and multi-core performance with workloads that simulate real-world usage. Geekbench 5 scores are calibrated against a baseline score of 1000, which is the score of an Intel Core i3-8100. As a result, Geekbench 5 scores are not comparable against those of Geekbench 4, whose baseline score is derived from an Intel Core i7-6600 processor.

The Exynos 990 in the S20 Ultra outpaces the Exynos 9825 in the Note10+ by around 26 per cent in the multi-core benchmark. In the single-core test, it was roughly 5 per cent faster. It is still quite a distance behind Apple's A13 Bionic chip though, underscoring Apple's lead with its mobile processors. 

3DMark Sling Shot Extreme

3DMark Sling Shot is an advanced 3D graphics benchmark that tests the full range of OpenGL ES 3.1 and ES 3.0 API features including multiple render targets, instanced rendering, uniform buffers and transform feedback. The test also includes impressive volumetric lighting and post-processing effects. We're running this benchmark in Unlimited mode, which ignores screen resolutions.

The S20 Ultra and its Mali-G77 GPU was around 32 per cent quicker than the Note10+, a decent improvement. The iPhone 11 Pro remains way ahead though, but this is otherwise a good showing for an Android phone. 

Battery Life & Charging

Our standard battery test for mobile phones has the following parameters:

• Looping a 720p video with screen brightness and volume at 100%
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on
• Constant data streaming through email

I tested the S20 Ultra at its full 3,400 x 1,440-pixel resolution, and battery life was still absolutely stellar. The beefy 5,000mAh battery kept it going for over 13 hours, and I don't think you'll have any trouble getting the phone to last you a full work day. It's the best performing phone so far, at least among the latest crop of phones we've reviewed.

The S20 Ultra ships with a 25W adapter, but it does also support an optional 45W charger that will juice it up even quicker. That said, the included charger is still plenty fast, and I got to around 63 per cent of charge in 30 minutes, and up to a 100 per cent in an hour flat.

One big Galaxy

The Galaxy S20 Ultra is all about extremes. First there's the Ultra moniker, which tantalisingly hints at what the phone is capable of. Then there's how heavy and big the phone is – it's got a 6.9-inch screen, and this isn't even a Note device! One also cannot look at the phone and not notice the camera bump. Like the rest of the phone, it is large and expansive, and it's probably the biggest camera module on a modern smartphone in recent memory. 

Turn your glance to the spec sheet, and you'll notice that it is peppered with big numbers too. It's got a 108MP main camera, 100X Space Zoom, and a 5,000mAh battery. Add to that a 120Hz refresh rate screen with a 240Hz touch screen polling rate. It can even capture 8K video. 

The price rounds out this collection of impressive numbers, but in a less palatable way. Only the 128GB version of the S20 Ultra is available to buy here, but it will still cost you a whopping S$1,898. Still, Samsung is pushing the limits in almost every direction it can, and I think it has paid off.

That said, the S20 Ultra is not a phone for everyone. Plenty of people still prefer smaller phones that they can use more easily with just one hand, and the bulky dimensions and camera bump may even strike others as clunky. However, for those who want a powerhouse device that can handle anything you throw at it, the S20 Ultra steps up to the plate wonderfully. The Exynos 990 SoC is a decent upgrade, and you get an excellent camera, great battery life, and a gorgeous display. If you're willing to pay the price for it, what's not to like? 

Read Next (1): Our Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra camera performance teardown!

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

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