It's been about a month since I started using the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. I said a lot about him, good and bad, until that June day when I took him out of the box. Someone in the comments suspected me of bias and bias-bad attitude towards the company. This is not so, and I have been using her products for a long time, although I cannot say that she is very close to me now. Nevertheless, it produces very cool gadgets, including the acclaimed Galaxy S20 Ultra. After a month of using it, I feel a little strange, but I will not say yet if I am ready to use it further or refuse it. Any story must be consistent.
There are no special complaints about the appearance. It is impossible to make the camera not stick out.
First impression of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
When I took the smartphone out of the box for the first time, I was very surprised (to be honest) how big it is. Compared to everything I've gotten used to before, it's just huge. You can irony about the size for a long time, but in terms of dimensions it even surpasses the Galaxy Note 10 Plus, which, by definition, should be large.
All because of the huge screen with a diagonal of 6.9 inches. And because of the battery with a capacity of 5,000 mAh hours, it also weighs a lot. However, without such a battery it would be completely sad, but more on that later.
The body is large and heavy.
Many of those who reviewed or used the device spoke extremely negatively about the device, especially against the background of its price, which now starts at 100,000 rubles in the official store, but this is for the 12/128 GB version. In general, not so bad, but 128 GB for such a device is somehow not serious. If you need more, then the next step is already 130,000 rubles and 512 GB, but with the royal 16 GB of RAM. Seeing 16 GB, I understand why the smartphone is placed in a separate Ultra line, but 12/128 GB does not give me such an understanding. Even against the background of the fact that other models of the line only have 8 GB.
Is it convenient to use a large phone
The large size even prevented me from using the wireless charger that this smartphone has. I have a stand with a built-in charger on my desk, and the case is so large that the coils simply do not match, and I had to put it on its side. But it is precisely the standing position that is the main advantage of such charging – you always see the screen.
What's nice is that there is no Bixby call button on the body, which used to be very easy to press and call a function that is not needed at the moment. Now a long press of the Power button is responsible for calling the assistant, but it still works for us only conditionally, so it's good that the design is not overloaded with unnecessary elements.
S20 Ultra appearance
Many criticized the body colors, but on the contrary, I liked them. I have a gray smartphone and I still think, even after a month, that it looks beautiful. But I perceive the protruding camera module as inevitable. At first, they grew in length and the cells were in one row. Now they simply could not help but increase in width. How long can you grow in length?
The camera module sticks out quite hard.
I would also like to note that something is shaking inside the smartphone. If you shake it, a distinct thud is heard. Most likely, this is something from the stabilization systems and I came across this on my Lumix G80, but this cannot be ignored. It still annoys me a little
There are no complaints about the sound quality and volume. True, sometimes I closed the bottom speaker while playing or watching a video and immediately realized that only the speaker was sounding. In normal stereo mode it is imperceptible and the sound is really loud and high quality.
Charging via USB Type-C. Everything is standard.
How the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra works
The in-screen fingerprint scanner is pretty cool, but Samsung needs to do something with it. It works slower than other manufacturers. The difference is really felt, especially when compared directly. In the Galaxy S20, it is ultrasonic and this is its Achilles heel. You can use the camera for face recognition (I chose this method for myself), but the scanner should still work well and quickly.
The in-screen fingerprint scanner has a lot to strive for.
Otherwise, there are no questions about performance. My smartphone runs on an Exynos processor, like all that are officially sold in Russia. When I wrote about the Samsung Galaxy S10 last year, I was even told in the comments that a person bought a smartphone in Russia, was disappointed in the processor, sold it and ordered a new one from the USA. I do not think that such actions will be justified for ordinary people.
In reality, the smartphone's performance in tests is very good, and I was even a little surprised how it performs games – I expected less. However, I admit that Snapdragon is better suited for many tasks. Perhaps, it is in this smartphone that the difference is not so critical due to the fact that it has a fast RAM, which adds to the overall performance in many tasks.
For the average user, this phone is enough. And many people love OneOS very much.
The smartphone is running Android 10 and there is no doubt that it will receive and Android 11, although not immediately. The proprietary OneUI shell was rolled on top of it, the advantages of which it makes no sense to list in this article. I'm not a big fan of this shell, but in a month I somehow even became akin to it. True, not with the one-handed control mode, which does not work everywhere, especially in third-party applications.
As for the battery life, it simply cannot be bad with a 5,000 mAh battery, but there is one “but”. This does not apply to situations where the refresh rate is set to 120 Hz. In this mode, charging is really enough for a maximum of a day, and if you play games all day, then even less. Therefore, if autonomy is important to you, it is better to set the screen to lower values in advance.
Screen of the new Samsung
In general, the screen is very cool. It's 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED with refresh rates up to 120Hz. The only, but not so insignificant disadvantage is the rather noticeable PWM. It is generally inherent OLED, but recently it has become very noticeable on smartphones again and this does not apply only to new Samsung.
The screen is bright and juicy, and the hole is almost invisible.
The brightness of the picture, as usual, is at its best, and what is especially pleasant is the absence of curled edges. Somehow they got bored and the release of smartphones without them is very good.
100x zoom camera
I have only one question for the camera. This is exactly a question, not a complaint, since the function can simply not be used. But I still don't understand why you need a 100x zoom. This is just a picture so stretched that nothing is clear on it. Someone said that you can photograph the moon, but the pictures are very weak. It’s even incomprehensible if this is really our companion or a greased cookie on a blue tablecloth.
Otherwise, everything is fine and even seems to have solved those focusing problems that were at the start of sales. At least I didn't run into them. The camera itself, as is customary, has an ultra-wide module, a wide one and a telemodule. True, the latter is sometimes confusing when you want to zoom in on something, but you have a fivefold increase right away.
The front-end is very small.
Usually the shots come out good, but sometimes the automation decides something and makes them a little strange. They come out either oversaturated or simply incorrectly exposed, but it is always best to check the result after taking the photo. A couple of times I got photos that were not very pretty for my taste. First of all, this referred to oversaturation of colors.
I only used 8K shooting to see what it was. As a function OK, but I would not use it in everyday life. The space is clogged just instantly (especially 128 GB), there is nowhere to watch it, and for editing, the quality of the picture is not much superior to the usual 4K. Personally, I still consider FullHD 60fps to be the most optimal option and I use this particular mode. Due to the high frame rate, the picture seems much sharper, and such a video takes up relatively little space.
There is nothing to add about the front camera of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. This is an ordinary, good camera. Front-end cameras rarely differ from smartphone to smartphone (if they are in the same price category). Everything is fine here, but wide angle does not work in third-party applications and this must be taken into account.
The original photos can be downloaded from this link. In the article, they are concise.
Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
It is impossible to answer this question unequivocally. The smartphone turned out to be both good and dubious. It has jambs, but there are also clear advantages, such as a good camera or a large number of supported SIM cards (besides two physical ones, there is also an e-sim). Tell us in our Telegram chat if you have ever used an electronic SIM card.
Combined card tray.
Its main disadvantage is the price. More affordable models of the Galaxy S20 family are almost in no way inferior to the flagship, but at the same time they cost several tens of thousands of rubles cheaper. If for 100,000 rubles they would give at least 256 GB, which can be found in devices for 40,000 rubles, I would be much more loyal. Of course, in a month I did not fill this memory, but the feeling of limitations was still there. Especially when shooting video. And I also used my smartphone during self-isolation, when it was impossible to go anywhere and there was nothing to shoot.
The main design element of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra.
I am a little less categorical than many of my colleagues, but I am still convinced that if the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra were cheaper, it would be much more attractive. It just has no analogues that would offer everything the same, but cheaper. Perhaps hence the price.