Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra review

28 Feb 2020


Sort by:

  • D
  • AnonD-843592
  • pc7
  • 29 Feb 2020

Anonymous, 29 Feb 2020That's the problem with Samsung. What they do is to put use... moreExactly this. For that brain dead price they should support it for at least 5 years. Also for that price the phone should be 100% perfect at everything that was put into it. As it stands now its total garbage and only worth maybe 500 dollars maximum.

Again Samsung makes an epic fail and they lie and scam as much as they can. Such greedy bastards. I sincerely hope that they won't sell many of the them. They don't deserve that after they lied both with the s20 ultra and with the flip phone. Such bad business ethics.

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • uH}
    • 29 Feb 2020

    Anonymous, 29 Feb 2020It is not. Isocell is always weaker than exmor counterpar... moreIt is a myth that Exmor is better than Isocell.

      • .
      • .alpha
      • ytx
      • 29 Feb 2020

      Just buy an iPhone 11 Pro Max or Note 10+. 11 Pro Max is my daily phone and I've used Note 10+ for a month back in September and both are better than S20 Ultra. I played with an Ultra yesterday in store and it is really just a Note 10+ with bigger camera hump

        higher, 29 Feb 2020The problem is that you're pretty ignorant. Samsung has no ... moreI'm ignorant? Seriously? Well I don't talk with newbies much as they are packed with very little knowledge what you already showed here.. Samsung obviously had good reputation in manufacturing microprocessor that's why do make others chipset as well. But how Mongoose is underperformed even it has to power hunger as all performance cores have to be more power hunger because of throttling the performance of any device.. Or why would Samsung give the secret design patterns to anyone as these were intended to make for custom uses (personal) Does Qualcomm access their custom cores design for anyone? NOPE! So why does Samsung for others and Intel for AMD (X86 architecture)? Really man little knowledge is dangerous.. No tech sites or famous reviewers did complain about their cheating on benchmark. Even I heard it for the first time from this comment section from two ****.. And what specs you are talking about unknowingly? Clock speed? Hahaha du*b! So according to clock speed why Apple placed in top with their lower specs cores (lower clock speed than Cortex A76, Kyro 485 or Mongoose M4.. In geekbench Samsung is ahead because their performance cores are truly powerful enough since years.. And geekbech cheating would be possible only by the manufacturers or selected characters.. Not by everyone.. And since when a performance core (A76/A77 or Kyro 485,585, Mongoose M4,M5) become a efficiency core? Did you test those cores individually by yourself? XDDDDD.. Even why a performance core has to be efficient when there six efficient cores are together through tri cluster setup now.. Samsung laid off Their R&D of SoCs in Austin because of they want focus more on fabrication rather than design it, when there already enough powerful and efficient processors are present now.. As Samsung's custom cores are more powerful but failed to hold its lead since S9 because of lack of optimization and disadvantages of Mali GPU compared to Adreno.. And as my background is from EEE (microarchitecture) I know how these work together in term of high, heavy and complicated calculations for programming and how much the optimization is needed for better and efficient performance.. Even taking about ARM's cores, almost all processors using in today's smartphones are ARM based.. Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung all do their design of cores or chipset with ARM instruction set.. Nothing specially to differ them like illiterate.. Yes it's sad to see the end of Samsung's custom cores because of the late failure of optimization and ARM sh*t GPUs.. That's why they're thinking to use AMD's GPU in future.. They obviously cost billion for their entire microprocessor industry, not only for R&D of their custom cores with 300 employees in Austin.. By reading your comment I think I surely have more knowledge on Microarchitecture than you (newbie).. While the announcement ARM promised that Mali G-77 would be 30% of more powerful than last generation GPU and Qualcomm promised that Adreno 650 would be 25% more powerful than last year Adreno 640.. Where the Adreno 640 was 20-30% faster than G76 in every benchmark category. Qualcomm obviously showed their laziness before but still Mali isn't catching Adreno by now.. And for Qualcomm's laziness Apple beat them in multi cores score although these scores doesn't effect much for any low powered device (ARM based)..

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • 3Sq
          • 29 Feb 2020

          Out of the mind with a price.

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • XRg
            • 29 Feb 2020

            AnonD-914443, 29 Feb 2020Huh to enabling that mode on s10 Exynos version you have to... moreThe fact that you say rooting is not safe Tells me how technically challenged you are.

            Rooting in fact can make your device way more secure (if you know what to do with it).
            As both Android and iOS are a lot less secure out of the box. Atleast on Android, you can take security in your own hands. Rooting allows you to install certain apps which allow granular controls over security that is not possible on stock ROM.

              AnonD-914443, 29 Feb 2020But in India google Pixel and other brand does not do that. Because Google does not its own SoC division, unlike Ssung which has a Huge SoC division, one part of which made its own custom (Mongoose) cores too. That's the same reason Samsung uses its own Image Processors too.

                Anonymous, 29 Feb 2020It is not. Isocell is always weaker than exmor counterpar... moreAbsolutely not. Show me one smartphone/competing smartphones that uses the Processor (SoC), and one Samsung and one Sony sensor with noticeable difference in quality. The difference in quality is mostly due to processing and also due to the Exynos processors' handling of image processing.

                  • D
                  • AnonD-914443
                  • X{Y
                  • 29 Feb 2020

                  The Last Oracle, 29 Feb 2020To save costs. The Samsung Image Sensor is as capable as th... moreBut in India google Pixel and other brand does not do that.

                    If Samsung is reading this, it needs to fix the following in the cameras:
                    1. The HDR is NOT using the complete capabilities of combining Tetracell HDR and Multi-Frame HDR well enough. It needs to use Both of them. Phones with lesser processing power can be forgiven for doing this, but phones with the Snapdragon 865 and 12Gb of RAM have absolutely no excuse for underutilizing the HDR capabilities.
                    2. The Noise reduction on Tetracell is not the same as on regular CFA Image Sensors. Samsung needs to tweak the Computational Photography Algorithms accordingly.
                    3. The issue with lowlight video not being better most likely has to do with poor management of the Tetracell exposure, and also relying solely on it. Samsung needs to sort this out.
                    4. The cameras are great, but very inconsistent, with exposure, focus, HDR levels, colour balance etc.
                    6. The S20 Series needs better customization and options in the camera app, much like the one on the Pixel 4 phones. It needs to have HDR sliders to adjust brightness and shadows when you compose. Also, there should 2-3 Strengths of HDR from Low, Medium to High, allowing more frames to be composed into the final image.
                    7. Like Panasonic's ILC PreBurst and a similar implementation on the iPhones, Samsung needs to start saving frames for HDR, as Soon and the Camera App is opened and, BEFORE the actual shutter is pressed. This should include Atleast 1 second of buffer frames (15-60 frames, depending upon the sensor's full frame readout speed). This will ensure that the quality of photos is even better and the processing is much faster.

                    I wish Samsung would reduce the price of the S20 Ultra by $149, if it meant NOT giving any freebies in the packaging
                    OR
                    Have a superb trade-in plan program
                    OR
                    have a 0% loan option for buyers.

                    Along with a 2 year updates roadmap (with another $50 paid one for 3 full years) and 100% damage protection for 1 time replacement of screen and back.

                      • D
                      • AnonD-914443
                      • X{Y
                      • 29 Feb 2020

                      Anonymous, 29 Feb 2020Lol enabling camera2api is a 2 minute trick. Besides, I am... moreHuh to enabling that mode on s10 Exynos version you have to root it. That is not safe.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • LQu
                        • 29 Feb 2020

                        The Last Oracle, 29 Feb 2020To save costs. The Samsung Image Sensor is as capable as th... moreIt is not.
                        Isocell is always weaker than exmor counterpart.
                        Exmor costs more and still Huawei, Apple, OnePlus, Google, Lg and HTC choose to use exmor as main camera.

                        Iphones 11 series does not use them like 7, 8, X and Xs.

                          chester, 29 Feb 2020No problem with the Snapdragon version... everyone likes it... moreI couldn't agree more.

                            AnonD-914443, 29 Feb 2020I saw Samsung only uses Exynos processor and its own camera... moreTo save costs. The Samsung Image Sensor is as capable as the Sony ones, but its the Exynos processors, that have been slowly getting worse at Performance and Battery management. Samsung needs to push the Exynos to as few markets as possible, and mainly concentrate on the Snapdragon models.

                              • ?
                              • Anonymous
                              • XRg
                              • 29 Feb 2020

                              AnonD-914443, 29 Feb 2020Then Exynos version of Samsung s10 doesn’t have camera 2api mode.Lol enabling camera2api is a 2 minute trick.
                              Besides, I am using Custom ROM, so everything was enabled out of the box.

                              The gcam may not work great for videos but it is superb for nighttime photos.
                              Some users have reported portrait mode not working, but I don't use that mode.
                              I use gcam for night time pics not for videos or anything else.

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • DkY
                                • 29 Feb 2020

                                Really nice writeup. Makes one to stick with the reading.

                                  The Last Oracle, 29 Feb 2020Rhe amount of hate here would make people believe it's a te... moreNo problem with the Snapdragon version... everyone likes it...but Samsung pushes out their Exynos that everyone hates to all the markets except for US & South Korea...

                                  Exynos is not capable and not on same level as Snapdragon chips...

                                  This time they'll loose coz more ppl know the poor performance of their Exynos and there's more noise...a lot of ppl are not buying this expensive Exynos $hit...

                                  I'll rather import there US version or buy a Sony with SD865 then get this poor Exynos phone...

                                  They are already reporting low pre-orders & guess whose fault is it...lol

                                    • D
                                    • AnonD-914443
                                    • X{Y
                                    • 29 Feb 2020

                                    Anonymous, 29 Feb 2020Camera2api is available. Gcam fully functional. Can alrea... moreThen Exynos version of Samsung s10 doesn’t have camera 2api mode.

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • XRg
                                      • 29 Feb 2020

                                      AnonD-914443, 29 Feb 2020If there is camera 2api mode unavailable on a device. That ... moreCamera2api is available.
                                      Gcam fully functional.
                                      Can already click RAW images.

                                        • D
                                        • AnonD-914443
                                        • X{Y
                                        • 29 Feb 2020

                                        The Last Oracle, 29 Feb 2020Rhe amount of hate here would make people believe it's a te... moreI saw Samsung only uses Exynos processor and its own camera sensor for my country India. But for other country they uses Sanapdragon and Sony camera sensor. Why ?

                                          16 of 27