Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 100X Zoom Review: How Detailed Can It Get?

Karamchand Rameshwar - Feb 23, 2020

I had the opportunity to try the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra's 100x zoom capability and here are my thoughts about Galaxy S20 Ultra's most heavily advertised feature.

One of the most heavily advertised features for the new Galaxy S series is Space Zoom 100x. If previous smartphones were limited to 60x zoom, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra takes the throne with a 100x zoom capability.

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First of all, it should be noted that in this year's S20 Series, only the S20 Ultra will achieve 100x zoom capability and this is also the phone with the largest size and heaviest in the lineup. The reason for the larger size is because Samsung has inserted a periscope lens to further increase the zoom ability in comparison to the other two smartphones and that explains the increase in weight on the S20 Ultra.

However, according to what I experience, this weight is not a problem, and it event helps me to hold the camera more firmly when I want to take a photo at a far distance. It would be very hard to take photos at 100x zoom. That's why you often see birds, wildlife or sports photographers all need a tripod. Even with a tripod, pressing a button to take the photo would cause simple vibrations that shake the camera and cause some blur.

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Because I wanted to see how the OIS (optical image stabilization) feature works, I hand-held the phone and zoomed at 100x during a walk in San Francisco.

And here are some photos taken during the experience. I personally believe that when zooming at 30x or more, it will be very shaky so you need to hold your hand firmly or lean on something. It is best to put the device on something like handrails, tables ... the 100x zoom will lose a lot of detail, so the device’s AI will play a supporting role to fix that, but it was still only at an acceptable level.