Samsung Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra with Exynos SoC now getting update that improves autofocus

19 March 2020
The over-the-air rollout should commence imminently.

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  • AnonD-762416
  • d$y
  • 23 Mar 2020

Original-Jamaican, 23 Mar 2020Ok I stand corrected. I thought because the pre-orders were... moreNow you're simply making things up to support your negativity.

    AnonD-762416, 23 Mar 2020Sold isn't preorders. The issues mentioned in reviews has b... moreOk I stand corrected. I thought because the pre-orders were maxed out I thought you assumed they were sold out.

    Either way quite a few reviewers concluded that at such a price point these issues shouldn't have existed due to insufficient testing on Samsung's part and yes even though Samsung released early firmware updates some S20 Ultra owners probably missed out on great photo/video opportunities for a situation or event that may never happen again. Updates don't reach everybody instantly as well.

    If you have the tool in your hand it should work right away the right way especially when there's great emphasis on the camera during the official announcement. Thanks for your input nevertheless.

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      • AnonD-762416
      • d$y
      • 23 Mar 2020

      Original-Jamaican, 23 Mar 2020That probably wouldn't have been the case if the customers ... moreSold isn't preorders. The issues mentioned in reviews has been fixed with early firmware updates.
      Only Samsung knows how many they've sold, but considering it launched simultaneously everywhere it's safe to say they've sold more than a handful.

        AnonD-762416, 19 Mar 2020The Ultra is sold out almost everywhere, so, do you mean th... moreThat probably wouldn't have been the case if the customers saw the reviews first and exactly how many S20 Ultra was pre-ordered? Pre-order doesn't necessarily mean the customer will end up taking it.

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • Kg%
          • 22 Mar 2020

          Nick Tagataka, 20 Mar 2020"And Huawei never had anything good before" "The real ques... moreMy Mate 10 Pro captures subpar daylight images to my brother's Pixel phone. It doesn't have defects on the camera and is updated with the latest software and security patch. I have to use the Pro mode all the time to take decent photos.

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            • AnonD-754814
            • 6p}
            • 22 Mar 2020

            Nick Tagataka, 21 Mar 2020I decided to make this comment separate from the first one ... moreHere , a comparison between iPhone and the S20 Ultra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pwNCNBAaYU
            Look how good s20 ultra is with it's incomplete software.

            I like the way these 2 guy review camera on their channel
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giYZRi0iN5s
            also watch this.

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              • AnonD-754814
              • uNV
              • 22 Mar 2020

              Nick Tagataka, 21 Mar 2020I watched your video and stated my observation in my previo... moreOMG ! Why are you giving example with S20 ultra for fast moving focusing ? Everyone knows how much S20 ultra suffers for AF even for still object. And didn't you talk about the S10 and all previous Samsung phone as you said " they always sucked at capturing moving object" ? Why giving example with S20U now ?
              Now get to the suggestion part.
              Yeah you said about that in a line that it might or might not come with the best camera in the market.

              I'm sorry I missed line. I didn't notice it. I apologize for that.

              With journalist topic I meant Most of the Youtubers don't have any experience on tech related subject. They are generally Humanities/Business background.
              I was giving example by me. That as a Engg student I know how other non-techie people see tech as we see it. I'm giving two latest video reference, Just see these review and think how good is their way to review even if it's just a casual type review. The way they review, simple tricks make them different from others.
              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTChDJVyji8
              and
              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlbAQArT7YQ

              I don't think in Youtube none is better than SuperSaf for comparing phones camera on a regular basis. Here
              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DborQY7z4kI I don't see your P20 pro any better in low light as I mentioned earlier as it tends to capture image with no color in them. Like I said earlier , of course a QB sensor will get wider dynamic range in ideal situation. But in real life one can get these ideal situation less than 20% time.
              I'm not saying the P20 pro was bad or anything. But it wasn't upto the level with other 3 brand.

              And for your reference article. Please never refer anandtech or any review which is done by a Woman. I hate these two.
              Now DxOMARK didn't really have a great trackrecord to review fairly.
              Now read this article... https://www.notebookcheck.net/OnePlus-Flagship-Smartphone-Camera-Test-OnePlus-7-Pro-v-Samsung-Galaxy-S10-Plus-v-Xiaomi-Mi-9-v-Huawei-P30-Pro.423822.0.html
              Now you you care to know about notebookckeck you will find that their review system is among one of the the best and unbiased.
              Now with the P30 pro Huawei came to the real competition. But it certainly wasn't the best.
              The advantage with P30pro is low light and the zoom but for less than 2x zoom the telephoto image was worse and in dark situation I don't even need to mention it.
              But the Huawei fans like to say that P30 pro is the best. This is where i don't like it.

              Now lets get back to techie and non techie part. Most of the reviewers review without any tools to compare the camera which concludes in a result which is their preference , not the actual result.
              Now let's talk about GSMARENA review. I came here to read the news mostly, I don't like the way they review camera. They never gave the device a rank nor marks. They always rely on some words like excellent, fantastic, nice bluh blah which tends to change over time. So, no way to get any clear picture. If we check the sample image directly on laptop(this is what I usually do), It also doesn't give a strong evidence as the two review might have been with different light condition in different season. So, no way to know for sure.
              But when they compare directly(like the link you provide) that's the real comparison in GSMARENA. The review you gave from GSMARENA is very simple review, not a detailed review. The P30 pro had better night shot. I never denied it. But if you see the first day sample, Galaxy s9 plus clearly wins for dynamic range. The Guy who reviewed this just liked the contrasty image from Huawei that's all. see this https://www.notebookcheck.net/OnePlus-Flagship-Smartphone-Camera-Test-OnePlus-7-Pro-v-Samsung-Galaxy-S10-Plus-v-Xiaomi-Mi-9-v-Huawei-P30-Pro.423822.0.html

              In a stand-alone review they are always just confusing.
              For example if you read both s20 ultra and s20 review you will find that,
              If you read s20 ultra review you will think S20 ultra is the worst.
              But when you read S20 review, you will realize that, oh wait ! S20 ultra is better in many cases than s20. The ultra can certainly become the best after the Software update.

              Now for exynos part. Comparing with Qualcomm the exynos 9820 and 990 both is a disaster.
              The 990 is more disaster as Samsung decided to make it more adreno level rather than making it more competitive for CPU.
              Mali GPU is crap and I don't understand why Samsung was trying to bring it up to adreno level rather than bringing up CPU frequency. They certainly could top the 2 high perf core over 2.9Ghz if they had chosen to use 9 G77 core rather than using 11 core.
              I think Samsung has done the right thing to shut down the custom core division and move the resources to GPU research division with AMD.

              Now let's do some future talking. Your Huawei P40pro will cross 1100$ mark for sure.
              If it gets Google Service then make it 1200$. Not so much cheaper than S20 ultra then.

              SN: I don't know when I tried to judge your thought.

                AnonD-754814, 20 Mar 2020First of all, did you watch the video that I have mentioned... moreI decided to make this comment separate from the first one for one reason: The P40 Pro topic. First of all, I did mention the camera of P40 Pro when I made a suggestion to her(or him), I told her:

                "it might or might not come with the best camera in the market. It hasn't been announced yet, so who knows what it will have and what will exactly happen to that phone?"

                This was a very vague statement and I didn't jump onto any sort of conclusions when I said it. It could have an excellent camera or end up being an overhyped total failure, but we don't have any method to know how it will actually turn out to be. Also, I intentionally avoided going into the details of its camera because P40 Pro surely won't come with GMS therefore the risk of getting one must be emphasised at all costs. NOT because I think it will have an absolutely best camera. I don't. You're not a psychic, don't be pretentious and judge other people's thoughts next time.

                Unlike some people on this website, I'm not one of those who can live without Google services, which means if there's no way of installing one manually or making it work then I simply won't get that device. Recently I saw the news of some Mate 30 Pro units getting rejected from accessing Google Play Store, this further lowered my chance of getting P40 Pro and now I'm inclined to get Mi 10 Pro more than ever. Last year I bought P30 because I had liked their cameras on Mate 10 Pro which I used to own, but if other companies are capable of delivering similarly good experience, I don't have any problem with switching to them. Mi 10 Pro with GCam port sounds like a great deal to me, and it's cheaper than most other brands' offerings, too.


                "I don't see it"
                Yeah, if you compare the pure sensor capability you need to compare in RAW (With that said, however, the direct comparison is still difficult because Find X2 Pro's sensor turned out to be smaller than I expected). I'm sure I was saying the same thing when I was talking to you on this topic before. The difference in detail or noise you see on JPEG is coming from the different post processing from the two companies therefore not an indicative of how competent those sensors truly are. And I was talking about the *potential* (=theoretical) benefits of Nonacell over Tetracell/Quad Bayer at that time, remember?

                Anyway, I'm glad to know you're being very fair with your argument and don't have any brand bias. Some people intentionally try to hate on certain companies and their products and love others for no logical reason, and it's good that you're not one of them.

                  AnonD-754814, 20 Mar 2020First of all, did you watch the video that I have mentioned... moreI watched your video and stated my observation in my previous comment. It's true that Mate 30 Pro has a tendency to land on a colder side of WB as made clear by the portrait and Lamborghini store shots (at 4:34 and 7:10 mark respectively), but I don't agree with Linus' assessment on detail capture he made at 8:02. Full resolution samples provided by GSMArena and Anandtech suggest that it's consistently the best in terms texture retention during the day and achieves great balance between noise and details in lower lighting conditions.

                  "Being a Engg student I'm not really going to trust a Humanities student when the talk about tech"
                  Would you mind clarifying what you really mean by this? Are you implying that you trust a tech expert more than a journalist when it comes to camera review? If so, why?

                  As for P20 Pro, I was referring to Android Headline's review, as well as GSMArena's and PCWorld's camera comparisons. I'll put down the links below:
                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Cfv8YNycww&list=PLJw2-YrAPHYEA1uimd6P7oqtZGCItycAN&index=4
                  https://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_p20_pro_vs_samsung_galaxy_s9_plus-review-1755p3.php
                  https://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_p20_pro_vs_samsung_galaxy_s9_plus-review-1755p4.php
                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x47k0ValtL4
                  The detail level on P20 Pro was quite decent and certainly not as bad as you describe. S9 had an upper hand in sheer resolution due to native 12MP sensor, but during the day the sharpening was aggressive enough to introduce very strong halo around edges and make natural objects such as tree or grass look unnatural. HDR triggered more consistently on S9, definitely, but the one on P20 Pro was very effective when it worked.
                  Low light was easy win for Huawei, though. Less noise, higher amount of details, better highlight retention and better corner to corner sharpness than S9 on almost every single scenario like shown in GSMArena's camera comparison.
                  Also, P20 Pro didn't exactly have a face "smoothening" issue - it was not an aggressive noise reduction that was causing the problem, it just exposed the face higher than it should have, and a combination of fixed focal length lens and relatively large sensor made it difficult to get your face in perfect focus and resulted in loss of facial details. With that said, that was something Huawei should've addressed before releasing the product worldwide: the same goes for its poor 4K video performance.

                  "Care to share any evidence on oil painting issue"
                  https://www.dxomark.com/apple-iphone-11-pro-max-camera-review/
                  https://www.anandtech.com/show/14072/the-samsung-galaxy-s10plus-review/13
                  https://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_mate_30_pro-review-1995p7.php
                  Those websites provide full-res photos that you can inspect by fully zooming in. Notice how Note 10+/S10+ always smudges away fine textures with strong noise reduction and introduce softness towards the corners? To be fair, Snapdragon variant fares much better than the Exynos variant in this regard.. but then most countries received Exynos, so there's that.

                  "No smartphone is very good at moving object like a standalone Camera"
                  Some phones handle moving objects gracefully unless you're shooting in a dark. Just go to store and see how S20/S20 Ultra handle fast moving objects compared to the newest iPhone, Pixel or Huawei (if you don't own any of them, just take your friend who has one with you). This is something you need to see yourself.

                  Image processing is not just about colours, it's a combination of that and exposure management, WB, detail retention, noise reduction and suppression of artifacts, etc. For instance, iPhone 11 Pro is an excellent all rounder which also occasionally messes up colours, especially when there's sky in a frame or shooting backlit portraits. S20 Ultra's WB and exposure is spot on though it struggles in detail and can't handle fast moving objects. Mate 30 Pro renders supurb amount of details and has one of the most effective noise reduction, but exhibits issues with colour balance as illustrated in the video you linked, and dynamic range is a bit weaker than other two like you say (unless you're taking a photo of a person, there it activates stronger HDR for better face exposure). Am I saying Huawei has absolutely the best camera from every single aspect, in all situations? No way. But it shines in a few way and is easily one of the best you can find on the market along with Apple and Google, all things considered. I'm sorry but I don't think it's overrated, their camera system definitely deserves praises for where it does a great job with.

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                    • AnonD-754814
                    • uNV
                    • 20 Mar 2020

                    Nick Tagataka, 20 Mar 2020"And Huawei never had anything good before" "The real ques... moreFirst of all, did you watch the video that I have mentioned ? You should watch that and see how good your Huawei is. He's(the youtuber) among the very few who is actually a tech expert rather than a journalist/self video maker. Being a Engg student I'm not really going to trust a Humanities student when the talk about tech.
                    Let's start with P20 development time.
                    I didn't talk about p20 pro only, I talked about both P20 and P20 pro.
                    What if they didn't give much time with P20 and gave more time in P20 pro ?

                    Now get to the P20 pro vs other flagships. Where did you find your info that you gave ? Here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DborQY7z4kI
                    The only area where P20 pro shined was Night mode. Though it had issues, It captured dull image with better detail. I am not going a use a image which looks like early 20 century image with better details.
                    And for dynamic range, Huawei was never in the business and still is out. iPhone is the best here.
                    The s9 plus had better dynamic range than P20 pro in all scene if you take 40MP but If you take 10MP it's kinda close. Also remember that the 10MP was less detailed compared to s9 plus and with aggressive white balance. And the face smoothing in P20 pro is far aggressive even if you turn beauty mode off. That's just scary.
                    We also should not talk about the embarrassing video performance of P20 pro. Samsung is a clear winner here.
                    Now let's talk about the image processing and oil painting thing.
                    Care to share any evidence on oil painting issue except the S20 ultra ? (Xiaomi is famous for oil painting and Samsung J series.). The moving object thing you mentioned No smartphone is very good at moving object like a standalone Camera. I always knew the dual Pixel focusing is very fast. The moving object issue is really a first time for me. Never heard it since S7.
                    Now let's get into the processing. Samsung has been there for a long time. Apple has always been their main rival. Different people like different processing. Some like warm color, some like true to life color and a few like cooler color.
                    iPhone is with the true to life color. Samsung has been doing warm and more saturated color since almost the beginning. And Huawei on the other hand is on the cooler side with aggressive white balance just like other Chinese brand.
                    Huawei never had a good Dynamic range. Even their latest Mate 30 pro suffers.
                    Don't talk about easy shot. Of course a quad bayer sensor will capture more DR when the scene is very easy. {You should watch the video I have given you.} . Huawei camera is the most overrated camera in the market.
                    Now on P40 pro topic. You told that lady(probably as 'Emeline Shaw' is a confusing name) to wait for P40 pro and she should buy it if she doesn't care about Google Service without even mentioning about checking the camera. I felt you were sure that P40 pro will be the best.
                    You know that you are not good at talking about future. Remember about the Samsung HM1 sensor topic where you talked about it's bayering and the other topic where you mentioned How good the Oppo find X2 pro will be with it's large sensor ?
                    I don't see it. It's not even better than last year's flagship. And the low light performance is a mess.

                    Now about the Samsung S20 ultra and being soft on Samsung. People are too hard on it. Just think about how many pricey sensor they are using, 3 flagship sensor. About Ultra's value, I will never use the Ultra even if someone gave it free. For two reason, I don't like the 100x written on the back which is a disgrace and the size. The last flagship I used was Samsung S7 as it was compact and the larger one didn't provide anything better. So, I could feel I have the best. But now a days it's completely different story. To get the best you need to choose bigger.

                    I'm also hating the new strategy from Samsung, specially with the A series. Their move with the M series was good. But the A series , It did make more profit but Samsung really don't have a premium feeling midrange with excellent built and good camera. I don't really can differentiate the A series with M series. They are also releasing many phones with almost same specs just like Huawei. This is what I hate the most.
                    I'm not on anybodies side like most other users here. I like Samsung because they are the one who give the best to the people with very limited profit percentage. Even Huawei and Oppo gets more profit percentage than them. iPhone gets the most here.

                    Mark my word. If the new mobile division head stays more than 3 years, Samsung is going to loose it's reputation. It will definitely going to hurt them in the long run even if they get more profit in these years.

                      Emeline Shaw, 19 Mar 2020Thank you sooooo much my friend for taking your time to hel... moreYou're welcome :)

                        AnonD-754814, 19 Mar 2020I think if you take HDR photos, those problems don't happen... moreUhh.. what do you mean? I was referring to the auto HDR, by the way.

                          AnonD-754814, 19 Mar 2020The problem with you is, you never get the point. Samsung... more"And Huawei never had anything good before"
                          "The real question is 'was it better than other flagships?'"
                          Their smartphone cameras have been very competent since P10 series. Mate 10 Pro performed really well in daylight and was one of the best night time shooter alongside Pixel 2 and Galaxy S8, and while succeeding P20 series had its own set of issues (mainly strong sharpening by today's standard), it was still among the best in terms of detail capturing, dynamic range and low light performance at that time, mostly due to thier large sensors.

                          You say it as if there's not much room for Samsung to improve in the camera department because it always has been good before, but that's simply not true. There are many areas where they can do better. S series has been known for taking "processed" looking photos (though last year's Exynos S10 was on a whole other level with hideous oilpainting effect), and they always sucked at capturing moving objects. Those are the prime examples of where Samsung could've better utilised Ultra's larger sensor - faster SS settings and one-shot HDR in auto to reduce motion blur, less aggressive noise reduction for finer details, etc.. Frankly speaking, at this stage their image processing isn't really that good anyway, so they at least should've done something about that on Ultra.

                          Look, I wouldn't have brought this whole thing up if S20 Ultra's camera wasn't any WORSE than its cheaper siblings in so many areas. After all, consumers are paying more for the "Ultra" model, and they deserve a better camera system.

                          "About the development time, I didn't talk about the p20 pro only"
                          So you were talking about S20 Ultra as well??

                          "You also told a user something like P40 pro camera will obviously be better than others"
                          I mean I obviously expect the image quality to be great on P40 Pro, and I do remember having a conversation with one guy on S20 Ultra and P40 Pro's zoom performance. But I never said it would be ahead of its rivals in all areas or anything like that.

                          I don't understand why you're being so pessimistic about Huawei's camera performance while softening your stance a lot on Samsung's, the latter obviously has worse track record in last 1-2 years especially when it comes to still image quality. What I also don't get is LTT's evaluation on Mate 30 Pro's camera in the video you linked: I can see that it has some minor issues with WB (as illustrated by the outdoor portrait shot) but unlike Linus says detail degradation in low light is never a problem with its camera, which is evident if you take a look into GSMArena's or Anandtech's reviews.

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                            • AnonD-476622
                            • Nwp
                            • 19 Mar 2020

                            Not just the AF that needs fixing, its the over-processed IQ, the waxy smeary details that also needs fixing, Samsung have taken a step back since the S9/N9 range in terms of processing...photos look too unnatural, especially when looking at detail a bit closer.

                              • ?
                              • Anonymous
                              • Kxr
                              • 19 Mar 2020

                              Anonymous, 19 Mar 2020I think ultra has more accurate colors!. Samsung as usual w... moreDoesn't matter what you think, Oppo gets 100% color accuracy. Tons of ppl who reviewed the phone said the same thing. Ultra produces typical punchy vibrant output (completely changing color of sky in night, etc.) while Find X2 pro is most color accurate irrespective of night or day.

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                                • AnonD-754814
                                • 6p}
                                • 19 Mar 2020

                                Emeline Shaw, 19 Mar 2020Thank you I will take a look:)Anyway. Another suggestion.
                                If you don't care about telephoto and main target is main cam.
                                Why don't you buy Pixel 4a or iPhone 11 ?
                                You're welcome BTW.

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                                  • AnonD-754814
                                  • 6p}
                                  • 19 Mar 2020

                                  Emeline Shaw, 19 Mar 2020You just said I should kiss you to which I answered no and ... moreYou also didn't say 'random people'. You said 'random men' .
                                  I might be a female.
                                  Your name is quiet interesting though. ;)

                                    AnonD-754814, 19 Mar 2020Why would you think when there is evidence ? Oppo find X2 p... moreThank you I will take a look:)

                                      AnonD-754814, 19 Mar 2020When did I say " Why not(kiss me)" ? I don't remember it.... moreI don't remember either:)

                                      I just saw the Oppo review on GSM-arena and the photos look very dull. No color in them.

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                                        • AnonD-754814
                                        • 6p}
                                        • 19 Mar 2020

                                        Anonymous, 19 Mar 2020I think ultra has more accurate colors!. Samsung as usual w... moreUltra does better when it's brighter and also darker. Oppo does better with moderate light because it has aggressive white balance. The low light photos are even worse than last year's flagships.

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