Introduction
It's amazing how little the €900 Galaxy S20 sacrifices compared to its €1,000+ bigger sibling and even the S20 Ultra, which starts at €1,300.
The S20 and S20+ are so incredibly similar that the choice between the two comes down to size preference. Especially if you are in no rush to hop on the 5G early-adopter bandwagon since the vanilla S20 is only available in a 4G configuration. Similarly, if you are not a photography buff, or the type of person to always go for the best out there, the S20 Ultra isn't the sensible choice.
Samsung Galaxy S20
- Body: 151.7 x 69.1 x 7.9 mm, 163g; curved Gorilla Glass 6 front and back, metal frame; IP68 rating; Cosmic Grey, Cloud Blue, Cloud Pink, Cloud White, Aura Red color schemes.
- Screen: 6.2" Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 1440x3200px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 563ppi; 120Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sensing; HDR10+ support.
- Chipset (market dependent): Exynos 990 (7nm+): Octa-core (2x2.73 GHz Mongoose M5 & 2x2.50 GHz Cortex-A76 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G77 MP11. Snapdragon 865 (7nm+): Octa-core CPU (1x2.84 GHz Kryo 585 & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 585 & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 585); Adreno 640 GPU.
- Memory: 8GB RAM, 128GB built-in UFS 3.0 storage, shared microSD slot.
- OS/Software: Android 10, One UI 2.1.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 12MP, 1/1.76" sensor, 1.8µm pixel size, 26mm equiv., f/1.8 aperture, PDAF, OIS. Telephoto: 64MP, 1/1.72", 0.8µm, f/2.0, PDAF, OIS, 3x hybrid optical zoom. Ultra wide angle: 12MP, 1/2.6", 1.4µm, f/2.2, fixed focus.
- Front camera: 10 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 1/3.2", 1.22µm, Dual Pixel PDAF.
- Video recording: Rear camera: 8K 4320p@24fps, 4K 2160p@30/60fps, FullHD 1080p@30/60/240fps, 720p@960fps. Front camera: 4K 2160p@30/60fps, FullHD 1080p@30/60fps.
- Battery: 4,000mAh, 25W fast charging support over Power Delivery 3.0 (25W charger supplied in the box).
- Misc: Fast Qi/PMA wireless charging 15W; Power bank/Reverse wireless charging 9W; Ultra-sonic under-display fingerprint reader; NFC; FM radio (USA & Canada only); Stereo loudspeakers; Samsung DeX support (desktop experience).
The S20 Ultra has been getting all the attention lately. It's inevitable - Samsung announces a new flagship lineup, and not long after, tech blogs are all preoccupied with picking apart the very best in the new litter. That comes with some unfortunate consequences like inflated focus on a particular device that is either too extravagant or expensive to be a viable option for the average buyer. Yes, we are referring to both the ever-growing average price point of modern flagships and the disproportionate attention towards the S20 Ultra gets.
Well, we are about the fix the latter point by turning our attention to the Galaxy S20 instead - a great compact phone for those of you looking to downsize.
Samsung Galaxy S20 in official photos
Armed with that in mind, join us on the following pages as we take a deeper look at the vanilla Samsung Galaxy S20. Most of our findings for it will apply to its bigger S20+ sibling as well.
Unboxing
First, we'll take a few brief moments to unbox the S20. The packaging is a standard affair - a perfectly sturdy, two-piece box with a nifty cradle inside. Unfortunately, you don't get a case with the S20. On the flip side, you do get the same 25W PD, PPS-enabled charger. The exact same one, like with the S20+ and S20 Ultra. The PPS part is rather important, as we've already explained in the past, so definitely hold on to the wall adapter. Plus, since it is Power Delivery and uses a Type-C interface, it is pretty versatile, as far as current device charging trends go.
You also get a nice, thick Type-C to Type-C cable. We should stick to using it as well since not all Type-C cables are created equal, both in actual conductor quality and current rating, as well as internal circuitry (e-marking and such).
Last, but not least, Samsung also throws in a pair of Type-C AKG earbuds. Nothing too fancy, but definitely well made.
Design
Refinement has pretty much been the name of the game in camp Samsung, as far back as the Galaxy S8. That flagship, in a broad sense, introduced the curvy design and footprint the Korean giant has been refining and experimenting with over the last few years. With only a few notable deviations, here and there, of course. The Galaxy S20 is not one of them, though. There is no major redesign to speak of here, apart perhaps from the new bigger camera bump. And out of the entire family, that is the least pronounced on the entry-level S20. All the other changes to the familiar body shape and overall silhouette are minor and aren't really debuting on the S20.
Left: Samsung Galaxy S20 • Right: Samsung Galaxy Note10
Quickly looking back at the Galaxy S10 and S9, that precedes it, we can easily spot a steady vertical expansion of the display, accompanied by a reduction in the top and bottom chins, or bezels, if you prefer that term.
With the S20, the panel looks almost pushed-up flush with the top of the device. Combined with the center-positioned and narrower punch hole for the selfie camera and the overall taller 20:9 aspect ratio, it all makes for a slicker, more futuristic, and somehow more symmetric look.
Having less empty space on the bottom chin can be troublesome from an ergonomic standpoint, since it means less space for thumb-resting and more heavy-lifting for the palm rejection algorithms. However, we didn't find that to be much of a concern on the Galaxy S20, in large part owing to Samsung's increased attention to UI placement, introduced with OneUI 2.0.
Left: Samsung Galaxy Note10 • Right: Samsung Galaxy S20
While still on the topic of the front and its ergonomics, we feel like we need to bring-up another subtle but important tweak Samsung implemented. Namely, a slight decrease in both the intensity and the surface area of the curved display part, compared to previous Galaxy S generations. While that might sound counter-intuitive at first, since it makes the effect of the curved display a lot less striking, it goes a long way in improving actual handling and swiping over said curved areas. These are no longer at a weird angle and often burrowed within your palm. Which, in turn, makes for less accidental touches and inputs.
Top: Samsung Galaxy Note10+ • Middle: Samsung Galaxy S20 • Bottom: Samsung Galaxy S10+
On the flip side, both literally and as a juxtaposition of this reduced "flamboyance" of the curved display, for lack of a better word, the S20 has a slightly tweaked back glass and metal frame. This is yet another change that is hard to catch without actually looking at a few of Samsung's recent devices side by side, but the short version is that the S20 line uses the new curvier and thinner approach, as seen on the Galaxy Note10.
The change is two-fold. For one, compared to the S10m the exposed part of the metal frame on the S20 is noticeably thinner. This is most apparent in the area where the power button and volume rocker are housed since that part of the bezel had to be widened a bit. All that extra space on the sides gets taken up by a wider and more aggressive curve on the back glass.
Thankfully, this doesn't have any major effect on handling. That is to say, Gorilla Glass is just as slippery and prone to smudges. The curvature, itself, doesn't really help with grip from a flat surface, but once in hand, it fits very snug.
Speaking of dimensions, the Galaxy S20 might trick the eye into seeing a thinner profile, but at 7.9mm thick, it is not that different from most of its siblings. The same goes for weight, with the S20 tipping the scale at 163 grams. For reference, the Samsung Galaxy Note10 weighs in at 168 grams and has almost identical dimensions to the Galaxy S20 - 151 x 71.8 x 7.9 mm on the Note10 and 151.7 x 69.1 x 7.9 mm for the S20.
Left: Samsung Galaxy S20 • Right: Samsung Galaxy Note10
As far as weight goes, we really can't complain, seeing how the S20 packs 4,000 mAh worth of battery, alongside pretty-much all the flagship internals of its siblings, minus a 5G antenna setup. Just a couple of years ago, the Galaxy S9 had to be both thicker at 8.5mm and weigh the same to just cram 3,000 mAh. Granted, it had a noticeably smaller footprint at 147.7 x 68.7 x 8.5 mm.
Left: Samsung Galaxy S20 • Right: Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
This leads us to a broader point about the Galaxy S20 and phones in general. They are getting bigger and bigger and specifically taller, in most cases. Like we already mentioned, the S20 is pretty much identical in size to the Note10. And while the jump from an S10 (149.9 x 70.4 x 7.8 mm, 157 grams) to the new S20 might not be extreme, people on a two-year update cycle, hopping-over from a Galaxy S9 (147.7 x 68.7 x 8.5 mm, 163 grams), will feel an extra bulge in their pockets.
What we are getting at here is that the Galaxy S20 is only a "compact" flagship in the context of its two siblings and the current state of the industry and 2020 trends.
You can consider that the S20 is a true flagship that fits pretty-much everything its bigger sibling S20+ has in a smaller body, without skimping on important details. From a simply exterior standpoint, beyond the identical design, you also get the same IP68 dust/water resistance rating. The same stereo speaker setup. And on the inside, things like the big battery, we already mentioned, 15W Qi fast charging, and FM radio, NFC, and a full array of sensors. All things that could have easily been compromised on in the name of shrinking the S20 further. And speaking of feature parity across the S20 family, that's just scratching the surface.
Before we move on to tests, a few quick words on controls are in order. Nothing major has changed in this department. The power button and volume rocker on the right-hand side and an empty bezel on the opposite end. Bottom-firing speaker on the bottom, which is accompanied by the amplified earpiece to achieve stereo output. Next to that - a Type-c connector and behind it - a fully-featured, fast USB 3.2 connection. On the top bezel - your typical dual Nano-SIM card tray, with one of the slots doubling as a caddy for a microSD card.
The under-display fingerprint reader is the same as on the Note 10 and the S10 before that. It's made by Qualcomm and still uses ultrasonic technology, instead of the faster optical alternative which the competitors use. Its accuracy is far from stellar, and we think it doesn't deliver a user experience fitting for a flagship phone.
Last and probably least, since we are sure it is going to come up, there is no status LED on the Galaxy S20. Instead, Samsung expects users to rely on ambient display.
6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display
Samsung's current display technology branding hardly rolls off the tongue. Still, that's about the only bad thing we can say about Dynamic AMOLED 2X as a whole and the incredibly crisp 6.2-inch unit found in the Galaxy S20. With a native resolution of 1440 x 3200 pixels, just like its bigger siblings and the smallest diagonal, it is technically the sharpest of the bunch, at around 563 ppi. Not that a few integer points of difference can really make any difference at this resolution and size, but we still like pointing this out.
The spotlight feature of this new generation of OLED panels is, of course, the 120Hz refresh rate. A feature that Samsung could have easily gotten away with skipping on the vanilla S20. But we are so glad this isn't the case. If you haven't experienced anything beyond 60Hz on a display yet, then 120Hz will feel like a major shift it perceived speed and performance. Honestly, it's hard to go back.
Display settings
As the Settings menu would be quick to tell you, a higher refresh rate does put a bigger strain on the battery. You can read more about that in the battery section of the review. That's probably the reasoning behind Samsung's rather infamous decision of disabling 120Hz at the full 1440 x 3200-pixel resolution of the phone. There are rumors that the limitation will be lifted with an update at some point, but that won't make using the mode any less straining on the hardware. Plus, honestly, the FullHD+ mode, which is Samsung's default setting, looks perfectly sharp enough. But we digress.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0 | 894 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 820 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 814 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 805 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 789 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 743 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 658 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 605 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 597 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 592 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 571 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 525 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 519 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 427 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 423 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 398 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 397 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 396 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 370 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 366 | ∞ | |
As far as performance on the Dynamic AMOLED 2X goes, Samsung has managed, yet again, to push another small, incremental, generational increase in numbers. The S20 didn't quite reach the impressive 894 nits of its S20 Ultra, and it maxed out at 814 nits. This figure was achieved in the default Vivid color mode, with automatic brightness enabled and in very bright ambient light.
Our test pattern is standardized at 75% screen area utilization. With a smaller white pattern, the S20 display can probably reach more than 1000 nits.
Disabling auto brightness and going with 100% on Vivid instead, only nets around 397 nits. Just in case you were wondering, setting the color mode to Natural, lowers the maximum brightness slightly (30 nits or so).
Color profile settings
Speaking of color modes, the Natural moe is what you definitely want if you are after the most accurate DCI-P3 pallet. At a 100% brightness, in this mode, the S20 managed an average deltaE of 2 and a maximum of just 3.3. That is considered color-accurate. In Vivid mode, which is what most users will likely favor, due to the familiar and desirable OLED "pop," the S20 managed an average deltaE of 4.9 and a maximum of 11.2. The latter attributed to an over-saturated red channel. Again, it might be wrong from a color-grading perspective, but it just appeals to most of us better. The S20 does also offer manual white point adjustment, but you probably can't do any better than the Natural profile even if you tried.
All that brightness, technically infinite contrast and color-prowess are put to good use with HDR10+ support. This hardly comes as a surprise on a top-dog flagship from Samsung. HDR support here is as real as they come. Also, there are no concerns regarding content availability, Widevine levels, and the like. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube - they all work great with the S20 detecting the HDR stream and adjusting accordingly.
Speaking of the general multimedia experience, the only thing we found slightly distracting at times, jumping from one service to another, was the different way some of the apps handled expanding and cropping the content to the entire display. Notably, Netflix insists on treating the area where the selfie cut out is as a taskbar and not expanding over it. YouTube does the opposite. This can be tweaked if it bothers you. As for which one is better, it all comes down to personal preference, but you have to work around the cut-out both figuratively and literally one way or another.
Samsung Galaxy S20 battery life
The Samsung Galaxy S20 packs a pretty beefy 4,000 mAh battery compared to past Samsung flagships. A rather impressive boost, if we make a direct comparison to the Galaxy S9, with its 3,000 mAh, and the S10, at 3,400 mAh.
We went into the battery test with a sort of mixed feelings and expectations, though, mainly because the Exynos chipset uses a less-efficient external Exynos Modem 5123 even for our LTE-only review unit.
The actual numbers we got out of the Galaxy S20 are a mixed bag. With a combined endurance score of 78 hours, the S20 falls in line with its S10 and S9 predecessors. That, however, isn't really the bar to strive towards. And that's especially considering the increased battery capacity.
While standby numbers aren't extremely bad, call endurance is the thing really dragging the S20 battery life down. As for Wi-Fi web browsing and offline video watching - things really aren't that bad, with solid numbers across the board. This particular S20 scorecard can be viewed as a good thing, especially if, like many modern users, your particular usage pattern does not include that many calls. In fact, this seems like the perfect opportunity to remind you of a much-ignored tool on out site, which you can use to tune-in your usage and get more accurate, personal battery numbers for devices we review.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSer App. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Samsung Galaxy S20 for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Bumping the refresh rate up to the new 120Hz setting takes its toll on the battery even more. Frankly, we expected even worse degradation. What this means in practice is that you should be able to comfortably go through a lengthy high refresh rate gaming session on a single charge, or, alternatively, a day of regular use (fingers-crossed).
The S20 does do its best to redeem the imperfect battery endurance situation with an array of charging options, as well as improved speeds. Just like its two bigger siblings, it ships with a 25W, Type-C, Power Delivery charger, right in the box. Like we already mentioned in the unboxing section, this fairly versatile charger does differ from most mass-market options with the support of PPS, so you should probably hold on to it for the best results. You can read more about that here.
For actual charging speeds, we tested the S20 from a fully-depleted off state, for the best possible charging scenario. In just 10 minutes, it managed to pump 23% of juice inside the 4,000 mAh pack. The half-hour mark had 55% in the tank, with a full top-off taking just around or a couple of minutes over an hour. Pretty neat.
In case you don't have your S20 charger with you for some reason, it is also great to know that Samsung's old Adaptive Fast Charging adaptors still work with the S20 at their full capacity. That is to say, right around 12W. The S20 still says it is charging fast with one of these attached, but ideally, you would still be better off with a higher wattage Power Delivery source. Even one without PPS.
The final option for charging the phone is Qi/PMA wireless charging at up to 15W. And the S20 is even kind enough to act as a power bank for reverse charging - wirelessly, for accessories like the Galaxy Buds and wired for anything else, at up to 9W of output.
Speaker test
Just like its two bigger siblings, the vanilla Galaxy S20 has a stereo speaker setup. It is what you call a hybrid one, with the earpiece doubling as one of the channels. Even so, the overall loundess it is impressive both in terms of loudness and its frequency response curve.
Thanks to our new test and the accompanying widget, you can hear and judge for yourself. The vanilla S20 managed to score just a tab below the S20 Ultra in terms of loudness, but still within the "Very Good" grade. Makes sense, even just considering the bigger body of the Ultra. It's an upgrade over the Galaxy Note10 as well and manages to be a bit louder than the iPhone 11 Pro.
In terms of frequency response, the S20 expectedly comes quite close to the S20 Ultra. Since we already mentioned Apple's flagship, it is worth noting that its sound reproduction is noticeably different, with better bass reproduction probably standing out as a prominent point.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
OneUI 2.1
Frankly, we're not exactly sure where Samsung is going with this new-found numbering convention of its. Honestly, it doesn't really matter all that much, since OneUI has maintained a pretty impressive level of consistency. Even the "major" redesign that 2.0 brought about remained mostly familiar in terms of general layout and even muscle-memory friendly. It just polished everything up nicely, all the while bumping the UI size up just a slight bit, for extra comfort.
All of this is very much true for OneUI 2.1. The decimal version change, as you can imagine, translates into very slight actual UI changes. Honestly, the most major tweaks we noticed are an extra-large Dark mode setting, now on the top of the Display setting menu and a quick shortcut to the power menu in the quick toggles area.
Home, launched, dark mode and new power button in toggles
OneUI 2.0 brought in gesture navigation options for Samsung devices. There are a few different variations to choose from - the newer method has a swipe-in from the sides act as 'Back' and a swipe up from the bottom take you Home. You can also choose to swipe up from the left, middle, and right sides of the bottom of the screen to mimic the respective buttons that would have otherwise been there with traditional navigation. Which, by the way, is still an option you can opt for if you prefer the old-school nav bar better. The latter does feature a quick keyboard swap shortcut, which is missing from the gesture schemes.
Navigation settings
Biometric security on the S20 comes in one of two variants - fingerprint authentication and facial recognition. We mentioned our subpar experience with the ultrasonic fingerprint reader, but let's just say that it if doesn't work for you, the face recognition will offer a more convenient (if not as secure) access to your home screen.
Security and biometrics, face unlock
The basics of the UI are the same as on any other Samsung rocking One UI 2 and very similar to One UI One ones. We couldn't help but notice the recent relocation of the all-important option of having the brightness slider visible on the first pull of the notification shade to the 'Quick panel layout' menu inside the toggle settings. The brightness settings screen remains unused as seen on the last screenshot below.
Home screen • Folder view • App drawer • Notification shade • Quick toggles • 'Show on top' setting moved
Gone are the days of good multi-window UI with Android Pie ruining it for everybody by requiring extra taps for something that used to take a long press on the task switcher button. Anyway, Samsung's trying to find a working solution and between v2.0 and v2.1 has relocated the menu next to the app icon you need to tap anyway - it's on the bottom of the screen in the previous version of the UI. Neither is great.
Multi-tasking
'Edge panels' is a well-known, long-standing feature that's gotten a minor redesign for the S20s, getting more rounded corners, but it still offers the same functionality. It gives you quick access to apps, actions, tools, etc. with a single swipe from the side. You can choose which side the handle is located on, as well as adjust its position along the edge of the phone. In the Edge screen sub-menu, you will also find Edge lighting - a feature that can light up the outline of the UI in an ever-growing selection of glow types to gently alert you of any new notifications.
Edge screen
Some small changes in software include the addition of Google Duo to the Phone app, letting you initiate video calls straight from the dialer. Quick Share is Samsung's latest name for the company's sharing solution based around Bluetooth for device discovery and Wi-Fi direct for actual data transfer that works with Samsungs only (all the way to the Note 3 we had on hand, where it's called Quick Connect).
One of the more intriguing 'sharing' options brought by the S20is Music share. Enabled by Bluetooth 5, it lets you connect the S20 to a BT speaker and use the phone as a hub for other phones to connect to the speaker. Yet another example of a feature that could have easily slipped under the radar on the vanilla S20, but Samsung went the extra mile to include it as well. To reiterate - great job on the feature parity.
Google Duo baked in • Quick Share • Music Share
Synthetic benchmarks
As per the typical Samsung flagship setup, the S20 is available in two distinct chipset flavors - one courtesy of the Korean giant, while the other - a Qualcomm product. The latter is most commonly found in the US, while the former gets the Global badge and worldwide availability. In this particular case, just like its bigger siblings, the vanilla S20 comes equipped with either an Exynos 990 chipset or a Snapdragon 865. Both made on an efficient 7nm+ process, but, on the flip side, both also hooked-up to external cellular modems and lacking internal ones.
This does hurt battery efficiency quite a bit. The unit we ended up testing has the Exynos 990. We would have loved to check out the Snapdragon 865 instead, but it seems that we will have to wait for another day. That doesn't mean, however, that the particular Exynos 990 setup inside this Galaxy S20 is boring since it is identical to the one inside the S20 Ultra, we already rested. The similarities are there and overwhelming, but there is the small matter of the particular modem setup, since, unlike the S20+ and the S20 Ultra, the regular S20 is not available in a "true" 5G version. Meaning Sub6 support only and no mmWave. There is also a 4G-only S20 version. This definitely raises questions as to its network modem and antenna setup.
We did quite a bit of snooping around on that front, and frankly, the clues were already there, but we can now say with a fair amount of confidence that the Galaxy S20 is equipped with the exact same Exynos Modem 5123, as found in the S20+ and S20 Ultra. The modem is very-much capable of full-featured 5G, but disassembling the S20 reveals that it is definitely lacking some of the bulky and expensive 5G antenna hardware. In other words, Samsung's approach to delivering a 4G-only Galaxy S20, with an Exynos 990, was to use the same modem, just for its 4G LTE connectivity. Definitely a sensible approach in terms of overall development costs, but not really ideal, given the lower power efficiency of an external modem solution. Which, in the particular case of the LTE S20 we are testing, is devoid of the potential 5G benefits. That being said, we can only assume that using the Exynos Modem 5123 in LTE mode, as opposed to 5G mode is a less power-hungry setup. But, even so, we can't help but feel a little annoyed that from an internal engineering standpoint, this solution is not the optimal one in power or space efficiency.
The flip side to that argument is that you are still getting the cream of the crop of Exynos chipsets right now in every Galaxy S20. If Samsung had, say, decided to step down to the Exynos 980 instead, for the sake of its integrated modem, it would also mean stepping down to slower LPDDR4X RAM speeds, a noticeably less-potent GPU (Mali G76 MP5, instead of the Mali G77 MP11) and forego the two customized high-performance Exynos M5 cores, clocked at 2.73GHz. Just to name a few potential compromises. Make of that as you will.
GeekBench 4.4 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 11 Pro
5483 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G
5005 - Samsung Galaxy S20
4958 - Samsung Galaxy Note10
4544 - Samsung Galaxy S10
4543 - OnePlus 7T
3644 - Huawei P30 Pro
3270 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10
2536
GeekBench 4.4 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 11 Pro
13829 - Samsung Galaxy S20
12557 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G
12191 - OnePlus 7T
11394 - Samsung Galaxy Note10
10353 - Samsung Galaxy S10
10174 - Huawei P30 Pro
9649 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10
6737
And speaking of CPU cores, it is high time we start discussing the S20's performance under synthetic loads. We are happy to report that, as far as these figures go, the smaller form factor of the vanilla S20 doesn't seem to be choking the internals and numbers are just as impressive and even a smudge better at times than those scored by the Galaxy S20 Ultra.
GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 11 Pro
1333 - Samsung Galaxy S20
931 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G
910 - Samsung Galaxy Note10
819 - OnePlus 7T
776 - Google Pixel 4
623
GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 11 Pro
3466 - OnePlus 7T
2858 - Samsung Galaxy S20
2750 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G
2728 - Google Pixel 4
2542 - Samsung Galaxy Note10
2241
AnTuTu corroborates these findings. The Galaxy S20 is perfectly capable of rubbing shoulders with the best of them. We are looking at what are essentially 10-17% better CPU numbers than the Exynos 9820, inside the Galaxy S10+. Perhaps even higher than that, depending on which version of GeekBench you choose to believe.
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
528631 - Samsung Galaxy S20 (120Hz, 1080p)
525029 - Samsung Galaxy S20 (60Hz, 1440p)
515538 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
514485 - OnePlus 7T
485585 - Samsung Galaxy Note10
452400 - Google Pixel 4
395351 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10
256717
GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 11 Pro
66 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
51 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
51 - Samsung Galaxy S20 (60Hz, 1440p)
51 - Samsung Galaxy S20 (120Hz, 1080p)
51 - OnePlus 7T
48 - Samsung Galaxy S10
43 - Google Pixel 4
39 - Huawei P30 Pro
29 - Samsung Galaxy Note10
28 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10
17
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 11 Pro
57 - Samsung Galaxy S20 (120Hz, 1080p)
44 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
43 - OnePlus 7T
41 - Google Pixel 4
31 - Samsung Galaxy Note10
28 - Huawei P30 Pro
27 - Samsung Galaxy S20 (60Hz, 1440p)
26 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
25 - Samsung Galaxy S10
23 - Xiaomi Mi Note 10
15
No surprises in GPU prowess from the Mali G77 MP11 either. For the sake of thoroughness, we did run all the benchmarks with a GPU component in both QHD display mode at 60Hz and FullHD at the new 120Hz. Take that into consideration when looking at the on-screen numbers.
Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy S20 (120Hz, 1080p)
27 - OnePlus 7T
27 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
26 - Samsung Galaxy Note10
19 - Google Pixel 4
17 - Samsung Galaxy S20 (60Hz, 1440p)
15 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
14 - Samsung Galaxy S10
13
Aztek OpenGL ES 3.1 High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy S20 (120Hz, 1080p)
33 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
32 - Samsung Galaxy Note10
29 - OnePlus 7T
28 - Google Pixel 4
22 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
19 - Samsung Galaxy S20 (60Hz, 1440p)
19 - Samsung Galaxy S10
16
One thing that needs to be noted, though, is that the Galaxy S20 has a tendency to get toasty under load. A bit toastier than its S20 Ultra sibling, which isn't exactly cool under pressure either. Not a huge surprise, considering the size difference.
Running a throttling test on the S20 showed that its throttling behavior is far from the worst we have seen and follows a gradual and controlled decline. Remember, every passively-cooled smartphone will eventually thermal-throttle. What separates the overachievers from the rest is how gradual that effect is going to be on frequencies and, conversely, things like real-world gaming experience during prolonged sessions. We have little beef with the S20 in this regard. Samsung did its best to cool its internals within the given size limitations, which also meant driving away a bit more heat from the components and to the surface of the unit. The unfortunate consequence being hotter hands.
3DMark SSE OpenGL ES 3.1 1440p
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy S20 (60Hz, 1440p)
6723 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
6713 - Samsung Galaxy S20 (120Hz, 1080p)
6610 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
6593 - OnePlus 7T
6296 - Samsung Galaxy Note10
4889 - Google Pixel 4
4294 - Samsung Galaxy S10
4263
3DMark SSE Vulkan 1440p
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy S20 (120Hz, 1080p)
6398 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
6308 - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
6249 - Samsung Galaxy S20 (60Hz, 1440p)
6248 - OnePlus 7T
5540 - Samsung Galaxy Note10
4862 - Samsung Galaxy S10
4238 - Google Pixel 4
3760
That being said, we reiterate that in real-world use, in our tests, the S20 handled temperature increases with impressive grace, scaling performance back gradually. So, unless you are running benchmark tests back to back on it, you likely won't notice the thermal-throttling battle going on behind the scenes during daily use.
A brand new triple camera setup
As the proverbial "runt" of the S20 family, the vanilla model, naturally, has to settle with the smallest camera count of the bunch. Its setup consists of two 12MP snappers and a 64MP one. That being said, the S20+ only adds a "DepthVision Camera" on top of that, with the sole purpose of improving portrait shots and bokeh performance. We would consider the latter nice to have, rather than a major upgrade. So, unless the S20 Ultra is on the table at all, you can definitely curb your fear of missing out, seeing how the S20 really doesn't skimp on anything important the camera department.
Looking at this new camera setup on a surface level doesn't really excite all that much. Comparing it to Samsung's last generation array in something like the Galaxy Note10, a bump in the telephoto resolution does stand out, but also the decrease in the megapixel count for the ultrawide and the absence of Samsung's signature dual aperture tech for the 12MP main snapper.
Of course, we need to look a bit deeper than that to notice the upgrades in this new generation camera. Starting with the main Samsung S5K2LD 12MP sensor, behind an f/1.8 aperture lens. What you get with this snapper are nice and big 1.8µm pixels, adding up to a 1/1.76" sensor. Quite a decent upgrade over the last generation 1.4µm pixels and type 1/2.55" sensor. And in terms of other extras, this new SAMSUNG ISOCELL sensor still has Dual Pixel PDAF tech and OIS.
The 12MP, f/2.2, Samsung S5K2LA ultrawide camera has also grown in size for this generation of Samsung flagships. A pixel size of 1.4µm doesn't sound nearly as impressive as the one on the main camera, but compared to the Galaxy Note10 and its 1.0µm, it still constitutes a big upgrade. Just like last year, the ultrawide is the S20's first choice when it comes to capturing its rather impressive Super Steady video. But, more on that later.
Finally moving on to what is likely the most interesting new addition to the S20 and one already striking-up controversy left and right due to Samsung's marketing, as well as a bit of confusion. The 64MP, f/2.0 Samsung Bright S5KGW2 sensor, with its 1/1.72" size and 0.8µm pixels is the hardware behind Samsung's "3x hybrid optical zoom" marketing for the S20. Sounds good enough on the surface, but as it turns out, the actual optical zoom level the lens provides is practically insignificant, compared to the main 12MP camera. This means that Samsung is using cropping, combined with some advanced processing algorithms, to pull off its "hybrid optical zoom", up to an impressive-sounding 30x magnification. Using "optical" in the name is hence technically correct, but understandably a bit deceitful. Even so, like the saying goes - if it works, it is not stupid. So, we definitely approached the zooming capabilities on the S20 with an open mind, giving the tech the benefit of the doubt in our tests. Plus, the Samsung Bright S5KGW2 does sound interesting with its Tetracell pixel setup and OIS.
Camera hardware, experience and features
Before we move on actual camera and video samples and quality discussions, we want to mention a few things regarding the current state of Samsung's camera interface. Honestly, it has been a rather mixed bag for us. One the one hand, certain things have definitely been simplified, like the removal of manual HDR toggles from the main UI. Instead, it's either AutoHDR or nothing.
Samsung Galaxy S20 camera UI
On the other hand, the camera UI still feels a bit cluttered and clunky in many areas. For instance, the quick aspect toggle on the left-hand side, not only switches between the already rather confusing 4:3, 1:1, 16:9 and Full modes, but in the particular case of the S20, you can also select a 64MP mode from here. The latter flips over from the main 12MP camera to using the new 64MP camera for stills. A great feature, but probably one that could have been positioned a bit better. And in video capture mode this menu is equally as confusing, offering options for - 1:1, 16:9, Full and then 16:9 8K, with no actual indication of what resolution the other modes are using. Again, not a major deal and we do understand why Samsung decided to do things this way, but we still find mixing aspects and resolutions in a single toggle an imperfect solution. Plus, things get more confusing still when you add zooming into the mix, but more on that in a bit.
What we will say about Samsung's actual zooming controls is that while these do end up having a few confusing aspects to them, their overall execution is clean and makes sense, for the most part. You get convenient toggles for zoom levels on the right, with the maximum level depending on your current shooting mode. Stills can go up to 30x in regular mode and 10x in night mode and video goes up to 12x. Of course, since Samsung is achieving this zoom via cropping, any setting in between these levels is also possible, works just as well and can be achieved by pinch zooming the UI.
Camera main settings
Beyond the main camera UI, there is the settings menu, which is pretty well laid out. Nothing really stands out as being confusing or hard to understand. The more advanced and some times experimental things, like HDR10+ video capture are confined within their own Advanced menu, which is a nice touch. The Zoom-in mic is enabled by default.
Video resolution settings
Video resolution selectors are pretty intuitive and generally do a decent job of disabling options that are not available in a given moment. For example, neither the 64MP camera or the ultrawide can capture video at 60 fps. Hence, when you switch to the ultrawide, the 4K and FullHD 60fps options in the resolution selector menu get grayed-out. By the same logic, if you first go into settings and select a 60-fps capture mode, the zoom toggles get disabled. This is done since the S20 uses its main 12MP camera to shoot regular videos, but flips over to the 64MP one if you want to do a zoom-in video or 8K.
There is a workaround if you really want to capture zoom videos at 60fps. You need to select a 30fps mode first, then zoom in and then go in the settings again and flip over to 60fps. The camera will actually remember your zoom settings across most settings changes. Hence, you will end up with a zoomed-in 60fps mode, but it will be cropped from the main 12MP camera and the results look quite disappointing. Still, if you really want to, the option is kind of there.
Samsung Galaxy S20 video capture interface
Super Steady video capture is only available at FullHD resolution, which is no surprise. That is also the case on the S20 Ultra. What is surprising to see on the S20, in particular, is that unlike the ultra, which uses the ultrawide for both Super Steady zoom levels, the vanilla S20 actually leverages its regular camera for the zoom mode. Hence, you still get the benefits of autofocus from it.
Selfie tone settings • Mode settings
Finishing some of the advanced settings options off, we have a nifty interface to fine tune the overall selfie skin tone you would like to see from the 10MP front snapper. You also ger more than a few additional shooting modes, hidden away under "More" in the camera UI, by default. You can freely pick and rearrange the options in this menu as you see fit.
Single Take • Motion photo • Filters
Single Take is a new feature, which is great if you find all these camera options a bit overwhelming or too much for your taste. What it does is actually capture both photo and short clips from all of the phone's cameras simultaneously, all the while encouraging you to try different angles and pan around. After that, you get an Ai-curated album full of the best shots out of the bunch from the different cameras, including some stylized ones, animated gifs and short videos. It works surprisingly well and is naturally best suited for capturing dynamic moments and subjects that move around, like kids and pets or even both together. We kind of get why Samsung has found a place for Single Take on the main camera mode selector.
If you just want a short clip with your stills, the much simpler Motion photo is still present. So are filters, for that extra flare. The camera app actually includes a nifty feature for creating custom filters, based on the look of any photo you feed into the algorithm. Not a bad idea.
Beauty mode
Of course, a full-featured Beauty mode is also present, with all the Sims-like sliders your heart desires.
AR zone • AR Doodles
And to spice up your videos in particular, Samsung has some of its older generation headlining features, or gimmicks, depending on how you look at things still present. Like the ability to craft and overlay an animated avatar in AR mode or simply draw something that maintains its place within the frame.
12MP Main camera quality
Kicking things off with the 12MP primary camera of the Galaxy S20, we find an all-round competent flagship snapper. Not that we expected anything less from Samsung.
Samsung Galaxy S20 main 12MP camera samples
Samsung Galaxy S20 main 12MP camera samples
Resolved detail is on point, so is noise suppression. Auto HDR is kicking in just right and helping with things like the sky. Although, we do wish Samsung had tuned it to recover shadows just a bit more aggressively. While definitely a bit on the "sharper" side, as per Samsung tradition, the S20 definitely does not go overboard in terms of processing. We would definitely call it mature, especially in scenes with plenty of light and easily recognizable subjects, so the scene detection AI can really do its thing. Colors have a bit of extra "pop", for the lack of a better word, here and there, but are never really oversaturated. Samsung has definitely honed their particular photo look that appeals to its customers over the years and is not really doing any drastic changes to it.
In fact, while shooting samples with the Galaxy S20, we also went the extra mile and brought the Galaxy S20 Ultra along with us for comparisons, to see just how much of the camera experience you are theoretically missing out on, going for the cheaper flagship. We also took some shots with the Galaxy Note10, as a representative of Samsung's 2019 flagship camera setup. Here you can see their 12MP main camera stills in action, keeping in mind that the S20 Ultra uses its new nona-cell 108MP snapper to capture these.
Tip: On a desktop web browser, you can compare any two camera samples fullscreen by using the icon on the bottom right of each set of images.
Samsung Galaxy: S20 • Note10 • S20 Ultra • S20 • Note10 • S20 Ultra
Samsung Galaxy: S20 • Note10 • S20 Ultra • S20 • Note10 • S20 Ultra
Samsung Galaxy: S20 • Note10 • S20 Ultra • S20 • Note10 • S20 Ultra
The Galaxy S20's photos are almost indistinguishable from those by the Note10. And while the S20 Ultra has some
But taking photos of buildings on a bright sunny day is hardly a challenge for any modern smartphone, let alone these flagships.
12MP Ultrawide camera quality
So let's see how the ultrawide camera performs. The Samsung S5K2LA ISOCELL sensor, behind an f/2.2 lens, is shared across the S20 family, all the way to the Ultra.
Samsung Galaxy S20 ultrawide 12MP camera samples
As you can expect, performance is shared as well. It is definitely not the most impressive ultrawide we have seen to date but is still solid. In relative terms, of course. That is to say, you will still notice a distinct lack of detail throughout the shot and a fairly good, but not great dynamic range. That's just how things generally are with ultra wides right now.
Samsung Galaxy S20 ultrawide 12MP camera samples
Colors are nice and punchy, which we do like. Also, the camera software does a pretty decent job of correcting for barrel distortion out of the box. If you are willing to sacrifice a bit of the frame, there is a toggle in the settings to get even straighter lines. Some shots did end up a bit too noisy for our taste, which seems to be the result of the noise suppression algorithms and some sharpening. It's nothing too disappointing though.
And once again, here are the same shots captured with the S20 Ultra and the Note10 for comparison.
The Galaxy S20's ultra-wide camera produces sharper images than the Note 10's, with less noise, better geometric adjustment and less purple fringing in the extreme corners (though the fringing is not thoroughly absent either).
Samsung Galaxy Note10 ultrawide 16MP samples
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra ultrawide 12MP samples
The Galaxy Note10 is rocking a different ultrawide, with a higher 16MP resolution, but smaller pixels, at 1.0µm , compared to 1.4µm in the S20 and S20 Ultra. Just so you don't have to look that up.
64MP Telephoto camera quality
Like we already mentioned, the Samsung Bright S5KGW2, 64MP, ISOCELL snapper is probably the most intriguing of the bunch of cameras on the Galaxy S20. Hopefully, we already addressed the whole "telephoto" and "hybrid optical" zoom situation enough in the previous camera section. Optical zoom-wise, if you do the math, the difference between the focal length of the 64MP camera and the main camera's works out to just 1.07x. So much for optical zooming. What they are clearly doing is cropping either the full 64MP image or reducing the active capturing area of the sensor. Either way, if they are not upscaling to a higher resolution after that, we can agree they are providing a lossless zoom. But bear in mind this is a tetracell sensor so it's meant to produce 16MP images. Any higher than that and you are not using it for pixel binning as it's designed to so the level of the detail will suffer.
Before we get to zoom samples, though, let's just take a step back and examine the 64MP camera in its full native resolution. Shooting in 64MP sounds counter-intuitive because it's a Tetracell sensor as we already explained. Typically, you don't really want to use such sensors without pixel binning or at least you would do so only in very good light.
Samsung Galaxy S20 64MP samples
Surprisingly enough though, not only can you do so on the Galaxy S20, but the camera app actually actively encourages you to do so with on-screen prompts to switch over to 64MP and get more detail in the shot.
Honestly, we were skeptical at first too, but the 64MP snapper in its native mode produces some really impressive shots in daylight conditions. Perhaps just a bit noisier and slightly more processed than what you get with the 12MP main camera, also with just a tad narrower dynamic range, but definitely impressive.
The 64MP snapper starts sounding even more impressive when you realize it is actually both the backbone behind the S20's zooming functionality and its 8K video capture. It raises the question as to why Samsung even bothered to include the 12MP main camera in the first place since the 64MP one is such a heavy lifter. Well, as good as the 64MP snapper is, it really isn't on the same level as the main camera and definitely starts to struggle in sub-optimal light conditions. The focusing, in particular, takes a hit in low light.
But back to zooming. Optical, hybrid or otherwise, the S20 has plenty of options and offers a surprisingly wide range of zoom levels. Of course, that is definitely not to say that the end results will be great across the entire range. Still, the options are there.
Samsung Galaxy S20 zoom: 2x, 3x, 4x, 30x
Like we already mentioned in the camera software section, Samsung did put some hard limits to the amount of zoom you can apply, depending on your shooting mode. Regular shots can go up to 30x on the S20, while night mode is capped at 10x and video goes up to 12x. Aside from the settings trick we already discussed, generally, this entire range is handled by cropping and manipulating parts of the 64MP frame. There are some presets, in case you are wondering (0.5x, 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 10x, 12x for video, 20x, 30x), but you can also pinch to zoom on any intermediate level.
Samsung Galaxy S20 zoom: 2x, 3x, 4x, 30x
Samsung Galaxy S20 zoom: 2x, 3x, 4x, 30x
In good light photos remain usable up until 10x, where they are good enough for use on social networks. For anything else, we would limit ourselves to 4x at the most. At the maximum 30x, the resulting shots are mostly good only for checking out remote objects. And that's in great lighting conditions. If you want to see modern art interpretations of what the algorithm thinks is in the frame, flip on over to the low-light zoom section.
Samsung Galaxy S20 zoom: 2x, 3x, 4x, 30x
Samsung Galaxy S20 zoom: 2x, 3x, 4x, 30x
And, once again, for your quick and easy comparison convenience, we are including the same scenes, as captured by the 48MP periscope telephoto camera on the S20 Ultra and the 12MP one on the Galaxy Note10. Keep in mind that the former has a native optical zoom of 4x, which we conveniently matched up with one of the zoom levels of the S20 samples we took. The Note10, on the other hand, has a native optical zoom of 2x. There is a direct set of comparison shots for it, as well.
The 4x and the 30x photos by the Galaxy S20 Ultra are much sharper than the S20's simply because the Ultra makes use of a real 4x telephoto lens whereas on the S20 crops the output from its 64MP camera with a meager 1.07 zoom.
The 2x comparison between the Galaxy S20 and the Note 10 surprisingly gives the upper hand to the S20 as the photos have more fine detail when inspected from up close. There is visible noise on its photos, though, whereas the Note10's camera proficiently wipes any traces of it.
Tip: On a desktop web browser, you can compare any two camera samples fullscreen by using the icon on the bottom right of each set of images.
Samsung Galaxy Note10 zoom: 2x
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra zoom: 4x
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra zoom: 30x
Lat, but not least, before we move on the low-light samples and more comparisons with the S20 Ultra and Note10, we also shot out test patterns with the S20. Both using its main 12MP camera and the 64MP one. You can use our extensive photo database to compare the results below.
Samsung Galaxy S20 vs Samsung Galaxy Note10 and the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra in our Photo compare tool
64MP: Samsung Galaxy S20 vs Realme X2 Pro and the Xiaomi Redmi K30 in our Photo compare tool
12MP Main camera low-light quality
The main camera on the Galaxy S20 definitely holds its own in low-light conditions. Dynamic range is great, sources of light are rarely blown out. The detail is plenty and noise is well contained. Plus, the S20 exhibits admirable consistency between shots.
Samsung Galaxy S20 main 12MP low-light camera samples
The S20 does also features a dedicated Night mode. It definitely works as intended, brightening the shadows and making the exposure more even. The photos are also much cleaner due to the improved noise reduction.
Night mode: Off • On
It should be noted, though, that if the phone decides the scene isn't dark enough, then even while in the dedicated Night mode, it will automatically choose to simply skip the extra steps and processing. Conversely, if you leave the coinciding toggle in the settings menu enabled, the S20 will decide when to automatically trigger night mode too.
Samsung Galaxy S20 main 12MP Night mode camera samples
You can tell when Night mode is enabled from a little moon icon that shows up in the upper right corner of the camera UI. Alongside that, the S20 actually puts an estimate of how long its long-exposure HDR capture process will take. That is all controlled dynamically and in our testing, the S20 did a pretty good job of managing its exposure times. You should know that a photo can take anywhere from as little as 3 seconds to as much as 15 seconds. So, prepare to keep as still as possible, if you really want to capture that perfect low-light moment.
Here are some night shots from the Note10 and the S20 Ultra for comparison.
The Galaxy S20 low-light photos are indistinguishable from those by the S20 Ultra regardless whether Night mode is engaged or not.
Compared to the Galaxy Note 10, the S20 gets you better detail, slightly less noise, and slightly more saturated colors - obviously the benefit of the newer sensor. These changes, however, are only visible when you are inspecting the photos at 100% magnification. Otherwise, they would probably look the same to you on the phone's screen because the overall rendering of the scene is similar.
Samsung Galaxy Note10 low-light samples: Night mode off • Night mode on
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra low-light samples: Night mode off • Night mode on
12MP Ultrawide camera low-light quality
Ultrawide shots from the S20 actually come out looking rather nice. If you really look more closely, you will definitely find that the photos are soft, with somewhat low contrast and not very saturated colors.
Samsung Galaxy S20 12MP ultrawide low-light samples
The Night mode improves these shots to a varying extent depending on the scene but its effect is always noticeable. You get sharper images with more saturated colors. Taking the time to shoot with the Night mode on this camera will definitely be worth it.
Samsung Galaxy S20 12MP ultrawide Night mode samples
And here are a few ultrawide camera samples from the Galaxy Note10 and the S20 ultra, for comparison.
Compared to the Galaxy Note 10, the ultra-wide camera on the S20 is miles ahead. The low-light images have a substantially higher level of detail both with and without Night mode. However, it’s worth noting that the color rendition and dynamic range are pretty much on par between the two.
Just as with the low-light photos by their respective main cameras, the ultra-wide photos by the S20 Ultra and the S20 are completely identical which is less surprising here as the two cameras are identical hardware-wise.
Samsung Galaxy Note10 ultrawide low-light samples: Night mode off • Night mode on
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra ultrawide low-light samples: Night mode off • Night mode on
64MP Telephoto camera low-light quality
Moving on to the interesting 64MP camera, you can definitely use it in low-light conditions as well. Unfortunately, its PDAF falls woefully short of the Samsung Dual Pixel tech in the main snapper. Both in terms of speed and actual accuracy. Of course, if you are shooting scenery, this won't really be a problem, but for anything else, be sure to take plenty of shots and pay close attention to focus.
Samsung Galaxy S20 64MP low-light samples
Unfortunately, you can't enable Night mode on the 64MP camera. That is to say, not without also adding zoom on top. Kind of an odd omission, but not a major loss. Speaking of zoom, you can definitely do that in low-light. In fact, Samsung isn't even limiting you automatically. If you don't forcefully enable Night mode, you can go all the way to 30x zoom.
Samsung Galaxy S20 low-light zoom: 1x • 2x • 3x • 4x • 10x • 30x
Samsung Galaxy S20 low-light zoom: 2x • 3x • 4x • 10x • 20x • 30x
It should really come as no surprise that you wouldn't want to zoom that far. Unless, of course, you are curious to see what the algorithm will come up with and draw for you, based on the contents of the viewfinder.
Samsung Galaxy S20 low-light zoom: 2x • 3x • 4x • 10x • 20x • 30x
Night mode zoom is clearly deliberately and justifiably capped at 10x. You can definitely expect some long capture times when using this particular settings configuration. Then again, depending on the situation, I could be worth it.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Night mode zoom: 2x • 3x • 4x • 10x
Samsung Galaxy S20 Night mode zoom: 2x • 3x • 4x • 10x
Finally, a few zoom low-light shots from the Galaxy Note10 and the S20 Ultra for some extra comparison.
The Note 10's 2x zoom camera delivers slightly more fine detail than the 2x lossless zoom on the S20 (especially in the shadows). However, the S20's photos have less noise and more contrast. The Note 10 has a slight upper hand in sharpness when you turn on Night mode but otherwise, the two cameras are a tie here.
Things don't look so bright when we compare to the Galaxy S20 Ultra. The S20 4x zoom is a noisy mess compared to the S20 Ultra, which really shines at this native zoom level.
Samsung Galaxy Note10 low-light zoom 2x samples: Night mode off • Night mode on
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra low-light zoom 4x samples: Night mode off • Night mode on
Video capture quality
The Samsung Galaxy S20 is a pretty capable video capture device. Something understandably aggressively advertised by the Korean giant. Especially the 8K recording part.
Before we go into deeper detail about the S20's 8K video recording, we should go over some of the capabilities and reiterate a few specifics of the S20 video capture in the lower resolutions.
The S20 offers a surprisingly versatile selection of recording options. First off, you can choose between two zoom levels in the UI, just like on the S20 Ultra. Unlike the S20 Ultra, which uses its telephoto camera for both,
Beyond the choice of which camera to use, you also get a fairly versatile set of recording resolutions. Besides the rather odd, 1:1 (1440 x 1440 pixels) and Full (2400 x 1080 pixels), there are also 720p@30fps, 1080p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 2160p@30fps, 2160p@60fps and of, course - 8K, 4320p@24 fps. The latter merits some dedicated attention of its own.
By default, the S20 captures videos in AVC format, alongside a two-channel, AAC, 48 kHz audio stream. Pretty standard stuff. You can also opt to use the more efficient HEVC codec and save some space. The difference in quality between the two isn't really noticeable without pixel-peeping, so doing so does make sense. Still, as per our usual practices, we opted to stick with the default MP4 container and AVC, plus AAC setup, to ensure the best possible results.
Dropping the resolution down to 1080p still left us with perfectly usable footage. Flagship-grade, if you prefer that designation. We also experimented with the two 60fps modes available. Those don't really result in a doubling of the capture frame rate, though. Instead at 1080p, it goes from around 14Mbps to 21Mbps. 4K has it a bit better, with 30fps at around 38Mbps and 60fps at 69Mbps. Hence, you are still, technically, losing a bit of quality opting for the higher frame rate. But, it is hardly noticeable in practice and there is no other substitute for the effect. If that is what you are after.
The ultrawide can also switch between 1080p and 4K. It has no option for 60fps capture, which is traditionally the norm with ultrawide snappers. It seems these simply can't be read from at such a high rate. The level of consistency in colors and general processing across the regular camera and the ultrawide is pretty impressive. The latter does appear to have a slightly narrower dynamic range and shows signs of corner softness. Even, so, the clips it produces are impressive.
Zoom video capture quality
Zoom video capture is definitely something you can do on the Galaxy S20. In fact, the zoom can go up to the impressive 12x. You also get the familiar set of presets, including 2x, 4x, 10x and 12x. Just like in photo mode, there is a "hidden" 3x preset as well, accessed by simply pressing the tree icon in the camera app. We really do wish Samsung organized these in a more coherent manner.
Then again, just like with stills, all of these video zoom levels are simply handled by the 64MP, technically telephoto snapper, via cropping and while making good use of both its OIS and some additional EIS stabilization. Especially at higher zoom levels.
Just like the ultrawide, the 65MP camera can't really do 60fps capture. So, you are limited to 30fps, with the other options conveniently grayed-out in settings when you toggle a zoom mode. Another, less logical limitation, is that there is no apparent, easy way we managed to find to shoot "un-zoomed" 4K video via the 64MP camera, like you can do with sills. The best you can do is to use just the tiniest bit of pinch zoom, until you see the viewfinder flip from the 12MP camera to the 64MP one. Doing this, you still get a crop from the 64MP, so it's not exactly what we are after.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Super steady video capture quality
Samsung has already chewed through a few iterations of its Super steady video technology and the improvements definitely show. What you end up with is surprisingly visually-similar to actually using a gimbal stabilizer, compete with plenty of "floaty" movement and the occasional controlled shift in framing.
Loosing some of the frame is par for the course, of course. It is also great to see that Super steady can also be used with the ultrawide camera.
Samsung Galaxy S20 8K video capture quality
Enough beating about the bush. 8K video recording across the Galaxy S20 family is definitely one of the spotlight features, as per Samsung PR. Hence, we definitely couldn't glance over it. That being said, there is a fairly good case to be made about the mostly PR nature of this particular push to 8K. Before you light your torches and head to the comment section, with discussion about the usefulness of 8K in general, though, we should clarify that this is not what we are referring to here.
OK, let's start picking apart one of the 8K videos, as captured by the Galaxy S20. Visually, it looks pretty great. In terms of overall quality and processing, there is no immediately apparent compromise to point out, compared to 4K capture. Dynamic range looks comparable, even if not exactly identical, which does make sense, considering that 8K footage comes from the 64MP camera, not the primary 12MP one.
Screen grab left: 8K (downsized to 4K) • right: 4K
There even seems to be a tab bit more fine detail in the 8K footage. Also, something to be expected, given the higher resolution. However, that difference isn't really earth-shattering. The more cinematic look, which comes about as an unintentional circumstance of the 24fps cap of the 8K clips, does make for slightly different pans and moving objects. These, arguably, allow for a bit more definition to shine through in the moving objects themselves. More of a perception, thing, really and again, not that major.
So, what's going on then? Why isn't 8K four times better than 4K? Failing that, why isn't it at leas twice as better? Well, there really is no simple answer to that, unfortunately. Looking at the metadata in an S20 8K clip, a few things stand out. The resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixel is definitely there, correct and sounds truly outrageous, if you happen to remember a time when 800 x 600 was considered high visual fidelity on a PC.
Looking over at the actual bitrate of the video, we find it hovering just shy of the 80Mbps mark. And, recalling the S20's 4K@30fps bitrate was just around 38Mbps. Before somebody points it out, yes, we are aware that this is not an "apples to apples" comparison, since our 4K bitrate is taken from a h264 video, while the S20 force HEVC for 8K capture. Fair enough, inspecting a 4K@30fps clip from the S20, also captured in HEVC gives us a bitrate of 22Mbps. So, quick napkin math - 8K is four times the number of pixels of 4K, plus accounting for the 6 frames per second, or so, less in the 8K feed, the bitrate multiplication numbers, actually, kind of check out. That being said, while there is no official goal or yardstick to aim for when it comes to video bitrates, 80Mbps is still a bit low for 8K. An estimate, courtesy of the folks at the 2019 8K Video Summit puts desirable bitrates at a minimum of 84Mbps and a recommendation of 120Mbps.
At the end of the day, however, none of these numbers strike as particularly outrageously bad or insufficient. Even if you decide to really dig deep into things like interlacing. The simple fact is that without a proper, functioning 8K infrastructure end to end, we can't realistically say whether we are pushing against some limit of diminishing returns or not. For that to happen, we need more and better standardized 8K capture, the proper encoding, decoding and most-important bandwidth to carry those streams and displays capable of natively displaying the content. While all of these things might exit in isolation, they are far from commonplace. Even the S20 family, with its PR focus on 8K doesn't have native 8K displays to play said content back. Samsung's current idea of how to make use of your 8K footage involves, ideally in their mind, shelling out for a Samsung 8K TV and then consuming the content locally.
To be fair, progress is progress and every step along the way is important. Plus, strides are already being made all around the place. For example, we had practically no issue uploading the S20 8K samples you YouTube and having these streamable to you.
Samsung Galaxy S20 low-light video capture quality
Since we already went all-out for the camera section of the S20, we definitely couldn't skip on some low-light video samples.
The Galaxy S20 definitely keeps its cool and produces pleasant results. There is no extra "magic" going on behind the scenes either to account for the lack of light. 4K video still leverages the main 12MP camera, while 8K switches to the 64MP one, for its extra resolution.
There are some notable differences between the clips produces from the two. The 8K footage seems to be a bit noisier and struggles slightly more with dynamic range, especially when both very bright light sources, like headlights and very dark sports are present in the frame. The 64MP camera also seems to blow-out light sources a bit more. All of these are merely observations and minor nitpicks on what is otherwise impressive footage, through and through.
Technically, you can capture zoomed video at night as well, but you probably won't like the results.
Here is the S20 in our extensive video compare database as well.
4K: Samsung Galaxy S20 vs Samsung Galaxy Note10 and the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra in our Video compare tool
We made sure to include 8K frame grabs in there as well. Though, it should be noted that not many other devices have been able to contribute to the still select group of 8K video recording. So, there isn't really much to compare at the moment.
8K: Samsung Galaxy S20 Telephoto vs ZTE nubia Red magic 3 and the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra in our Video compare tool
Samsung Galaxy S20 10MP selfie camera quality
Circling back to photos, for a bit, we do need to say a few words about the 10MP selfie camera on the S20. As reported by our unit, it uses the Samsung S5K3J1 sensor. The same one, apparently, found in the Galaxy S10e. Though, not really identical in other aspects. The S20 has it placed behind a darker f/2.2 lens. Oddly enough, despite an identical pixel size of 1.22µm, it the S20 it is marketed as having a slightly different overall size of 1/3.2". Probably a rounding issue in marketing. But we digress.
Samsung Galaxy S20 selfie samples
Quality-wise, we have little to actually complain about. Dynamic range is quite impressive and colors and vibrant. Autofocus is great to have and works well, overall. Working in conjunction with some artificial bokeh algorithm, however, leads to the occasional inconsistency in the presence and amount of blur in the background.
Background blur comes and goes
We really don't get Samsung's ongoing insistence it offering a cropped field of view in selfies by default. You can always switch back to the "wider" option, but it feels like that is an extra click in most occasions, not one click less.
Samsung Galaxy S20 selfie: default • wide • default • wide *default • wide
Naturally, or rather unnaturally so, there are plenty of beauty filters to apply to selfies as well. The same full array of slider, like on the main camera, in fact. Plus, a general skin tone slider, which we already mentioned in the camera settings section.
Beauty filter selfie samples
Samsung Galaxy S20 Live focus mode
Last and probably least, given the enormous expanse of features and options to delve in on the Galaxy S20, there is a portrait mode, or as Samsung calls it - Live focus. You can use it for both stills and videos and there is a large number of effects to choose from. Each with an adjustable intensity.
Life focus mode options
Shots generally come out looking good with the Live focus effect. Though, it should be noted that unlike its two siblings, the vanilla S20 lacks any dedicated depth-sensing camera hardware. Its absence does show from time to time, in this one very particular use case. The algorithm can mistake parts of the background. Some effects also look better than others.
Live focus samples
Still, if you are patient enough and take your time to ensure the algorithm got the subject separation right, you can get really nice shots.
Competition
The Galaxy S20 positions itself as a compact flagship offering on the current smartphone scene. With the average screen size experiencing a steady growth spurt in recent years, like it or not, the S20 is what is now considered a pocket-friendly powerhouse.
The combination of the relatively compact size and the powerful internals means that it's a hard task singling competing phones that match what the S20 offers. In fact, the only other compact phone that can rival it is perhaps the Apple iPhone 11 Pro. It delivers a comparable, even if vastly different user experience. It's worth noting that the S20 has a bigger and faster display, a bigger battery, and more charging options (faster, too). On the flip side, though, the iPhone 11 Pro almost certainly outshines the S20 in the camera department and offers noticeably better battery life.
Apple iPhone 11 Pro
Verdict
Delivering an industry-leading flagship user experience while juggling tech innovations, marketing strategy and pricing at the same time is a daunting task. It is no longer enough to put out a solid phone - you have to present it to the world just right and you have to price it accordingly. The S20 Ultra is a fine example where the overly-ambitious marketing and the eye-watering price tag resulted in a disappointment.
The S20 avoids that pitfall. Samsung's marketing has been quite straightforward in describing the upgrades it brings and the phone manages to deliver a solid and consistent experience all at more palatable pricing. In fact, the exuberant pricing on the Ultra makes the S20 look a pretty good deal in comparison. Which may have been the strategy all along.
But even with all the clever marketing psychological tricks in the world, once you actually stop and think about it, EUR 900 is not cheap by any standard.
But when you consider that the Galaxy S20 delivers the same specs as the more expensive S20+ and that this price will inevitably go down in a few month's time and we think it may very well be the best seller in the Galaxy S20 trio.
Pros
- Excellent build quality and bill of materials. IP68 rating.
- You get all the flagship features the S20+ has
- Familiar, yet modernized design and control layout.
- Superb 120Hz AMOLED display.
- Speedy charging solutions, incl. a 25W charger in the box
- Very good stereo speaker setup.
- Excellent flagship performance.
- Versatile triple camera setup, with impressive image quality and consistency.
Cons
- The fingerprint sensor performance is behind the competition.
- The S20 gets toasty under load but even then, CPU throtling is inevitable.
- Unimpressive battery endurance.
- Zoom camera is not as sharp as the S20 Ultra's at 4x or 10x.
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