First impressions of the Galaxy S20 Ultra - Samsung's flagship for 100 thousand rubles

In February, Samsung introduced the new flagship Galaxy S20 line of smartphones. It includes three models: S20, S20 + and S20 Ultra. The latter got the most impressive characteristics and a price of 100 thousand rubles. Let's figure out what a smartphone can surprise with from the very beginning of use.

Design

When you take the S20 Ultra in your hand, you immediately think about how big and heavy it is. The 6.9-inch screen size is more suitable for tablets, although the elongated aspect ratio and thin bezels reduce this similarity. A smartphone fits into a pocket of tight jeans, but it significantly hinders movement.

The main design element is a huge block with cameras - something we haven't seen since the Nokia Lumia 1020. It protrudes from the body by a couple of millimeters, which is why the smartphone staggers when placed on a flat surface. It is worth getting a case to hide the ledge, as well as to protect the glass back.

A subtle but important difference from last year's flagships Galaxy S9, S10, Note 9 and Note 10 is the lack of an additional button for the Bixby voice assistant. It was located opposite the lock key, which often led to annoying accidental presses. However, some may miss the opportunity to reassign it for other functions.

Screen

We are greeted by a Dynamic AMOLED display with QHD + resolution. By default, the system has Full HD + resolution enabled, but you can set the honest 3,200 × 1,400 pixels in the settings. However, in this case, it will not be possible to turn on the refresh rate of 120 Hz, which has become a key feature of the new line of smartphones.

Also, the default is "Saturated" screen mode, which makes the image so acidic that AMOLED screens from 2013 pop up in memory. We immediately switch to "Natural Colors" and get a calm picture.

At first glance, the display has no shortcomings. Nevertheless, matrices with Super AMOLED technology suffer from high-frequency backlight flicker (PWM), and with them the eyes of users suffer. We'll tell you how things are in the S20 Ultra in a full review.

The front camera is hidden in the upper part of the case: it is located in a round hole in the center. If you wish, you can hide it with a black fill, but at the same time, the status bar moves down, and the area on the sides of the camera is not used in any way.

A fingerprint scanner is also built into the screen. It works with errors, however Samsung promises that recognition becomes more accurate over time. We will check.

Sound

As in previous flagships, the S20 Ultra has stereo speakers, the sound of which was tuned by the engineers of the Austrian company AKG. The volume reserve is very large, there is no overload even at maximum values. In terms of sound quality, the smartphone will compete with many laptops.

Samsung killed off the 3.5mm audio jack back in the Note 10, so it's not a surprise here. The set includes AKG headphones with USB Type ‑ C, which sound very decent for an out of the box solution.

Cameras

The most important thing about the S20 Ultra is the four-camera system. The main one is equipped with an ISOCELL Bright HM1 sensor with a resolution of 108 megapixels. It maintains nine pixels in one pixel alignment, thereby increasing sensitivity and reducing noise. Also on board there is a periscope module with optical 5x zoom, a wide-angle camera and ToF (Time-of-Flight) depth measurement sensor, which is used for blurring in portrait mode.

Samsung is praising its zoom with might and main, promising 100x zoom. However, it is only needed for show: a photo with such an approximation does not differ in detail, but it is amplified a hundred times shaking is not even able to compensate for the two-level stabilization, in which the lens and the refractive prism.

Let's take a closer look at the camera's capabilities in the review. There will be examples of photos taken in different conditions, a comparison of 108 megapixel and 12 megapixel images, selfies and 8K video shooting. It is interesting to check how Samsung's promises are true.

Other features

The smartphone runs Android 10 with One UI 2.1 proprietary shell. Although the interface retained the basic logic of the "green robot", outwardly it differs significantly from the pure version of the OS. Samsung is also focusing on integration with its other products, such as wireless headphones. Galaxy buds and smart watch Galaxy Watch.

The novelty also supports wireless charging, including in reverse mode, so you can recharge your headphones or watch by simply putting them on the back of your smartphone.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra is equipped with an eSIM chip that will help eliminate physical SIM cards in the future. True, now only one Russian operator works with this technology - Tele2. And eSIM can be connected only at several points in Moscow.

In addition, the smartphone is equipped with a 5G modem supporting the Sub-6 frequency range. It is important to understand that in Russia the bands for fifth generation networks have not yet been determined: if the spectrum of 24.5-29.5 GHz is allocated for them, the S20 Ultra will not be able to work with Russian 5G.

Other interesting features: USB 3.1, Samsung DeX desktop mode for working behind a monitor, HDR10 + video playback and recording, and a 5000 mAh battery with fast charging support.

Subtotals

All aspects of the Galaxy S20 Ultra have yet to be sorted out, but one thing is clear now: Samsung relies on uncompromising performance, thereby trying to justify the price of 100 thousand rubles. Is it worth it or not - we'll tell you in a detailed review.

Buy

The author thanks the company Samsung for the device provided for testing. The company had no way to influence the test result.