Samsung announced its flagship smartphone Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G on February 11, 2020. The smartphone is the next high-end device the Galaxy S20 series, which also includes the Samsung Galaxy S20 and Samsung Galaxy S20+ devices. The S20 series is the successor of last year’s S10 series.

The Galaxy S is one of the two high-end smartphone lineups of Samsung, the other one is the Galaxy note series. For years, Samsung has always given the S series the latest, most advanced technologies and features, and hefty price tags too.

At the price of Rs 99,890, the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G, a lot more expensive than the standard Galaxy S20 (Rs 69,000) and the Galaxy S20+ (Rs 77,999).

Display

This smartphone sports the biggest screen on an S-series phone, a Dynamic AMOLED 2X 6.9-inch screen. Besides, it features a screen resolution of 3200x1440 pixels and a pixel density of 511 ppi, with the Infinity-O design that boasts the front-facing camera at the top-center of the display. All three Galaxy S20 devices come with this display design.

Dynamic AMOLED 2X is the second generation of HDR10+ compatible display technology developed by Samsung. The first-gen version of this tech was used on the Galaxy S10 series last year. Dynamic AMOLED 2X allows for a refreshing rate of up to 120 Hz, which is also the most impressive thing about the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G screen, ensuring smooth swipes and images on the screen as well as an excellent viewing experience.

The screen also supports 240Hz touch sensing that’s currently available on only the ROG Phone II as well as a few Black Shark 2 phones in the world. While the difference in the sharpness between 60Hz and 120Hz is not easily noticed by the naked eye, the refresh rate is more apparent.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G has one of the brightest screens on the market with an 894-nit adaptive brightness mode, around 70 nits higher than the iPhone Pro Max. In terms of gaming, the screen is generally smooth, according to gaming tests, the frame rate mostly maintains at 60 frames per second. However, you will notice several frame drops to 59 fps or even 57 fps, but even then the images in the game still look and feel smooth.

Chip

The Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G is powered by the Exynos 990 processor for the global variant and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 in the US market. Both of these are 7nm+ chipsets with an external modem, which theoretically affects the phone’s efficiency. This turns out true, at least for the Exynos variant. And the 5G factor also has an influence.

The GeekBench 4.4 multi-core score of the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G with the Exynos 990 is 12191, which is much lower than the iPhone 11 Pro Max (13870). Its single-core score is 5005, still lower than the iPhone 11 Pro Max (5476). The Exynos 990 processor has got several negative comments from users too.

When it comes to gaming, reviews show that this chip is even worse than the Snapdragon 855, a predecessor to the latest Snapdragon 865. Samsung’s Exynos processors have long outperformed by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon rivals in overall performance, especially in gaming. This is probably because Snapdragon chips often come with better GPUs.

Storage

In terms of RAM and ROM, there are three options for you to choose from. The first variant is 16GB RAM and 512GB internal storage, the second one is 12GB RAM and 256GB onboard memory, and the third one of 12GB RAM with 128GB of internal memory. This will result in different prices, you may want to keep that in mind.

With a capacity of 16GB RAM, this is larger than the hardcore gaming phone Black Shark 3 Pro, and even with 12GB RAM, the S20 Ultra 5G’s capacity is equal to that of the Black Shark 3 Pro too. This much RAM capacity should handle games well. Indeed, the Galaxy Ultra S20 5G can let you enjoy any mobile game title you want without producing much heat.

Battery

This premium device packs a 5,000mAh non-removable Li-Po battery. Testing shows that the phone can last 12 hours and 53 minutes of video playback, or 10 hours and 32 minutes of continuous web browsing, and 24 hours of 20 minutes of talk time over 3G connectivity. Besides, there is support for 45W fast charging, 15W wireless charging, and 9W reverse wireless charging.

To compare, the standard Galaxy S20 phone comes with a 4,000mAh battery while the battery capacity of the Galaxy S20+ is 4,500 mAh.

Several users have reported overheating issues on the Galaxy S20 like the phone heats up quickly just by browsing social media or playing videos. However, the problem was found to be irrelevant to the battery but more likely due to the Mali GPU in the Exynos 990 processor.

Camera

In terms of cameras, the handset sports a 108MP wide-angle lens with an f/1.8 aperture, a 48MP periscope telephoto with an f/3.5 aperture, a 12MP ultra-wide-angle lens with an f/2.2 aperture, and a time-of-flight sensor. On the front, there is a single 40MP wide-angle lens with an aperture of f/2.2.

The camera system on this smartphone is like no other. One of the most impressive things about it is an imager called Nonacell by Samsung. This combines 9 pixels into one to make use of the extra data. This takes the Quad Bayer approach one step further and should benefit the noise performance along with superior HDR output.

Overall, the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G produces good daylight photos with high-frequency detail not rendered very pleasingly. However, solid color areas like the skies aren’t interfered with noise and the reflection of the sky on the windows is beautiful.

You’ll be happy to know that this phone delivers amazing night photos like it should. It captures excellent low-light shots at 12MP resolution, displaying nice detail and the noise is contained very well. Color rendition makes another advantage for the cameras on the phone and it retains saturation in cases that other phones cannot. It also boasts a good dynamic range. Sadly, selfie photos are not as good as you may expect from a high-end device.