Hands-On With Samsung's New S20 Ultra: Is It Worth $1400?

[ian87w]

Remember Huawei have two flagships, the pro line and the mate line. The pro line has the symmetrical camera design. The mate line has the square camera lay out.

The mate 20 came out in 2018 and had the square design which was later seen on the iPhone and Samsung phones.


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Yes, a square design at the center, not on the corner. Samsung could've done the same as they did a symmetrical design with the S10. But nope, let's put a huge block on the corner. Why? Probably because Apple did it on the corner.

I have high regards to Huawei. They actually did things that are quite innovative.

 

[Royksöpp]

The shade! You gremlins better drag her!

 

[n-evo]

Honest question: why would I need 16 GB of RAM on any phone at this point in time?

 

[organic bond]

Disagree. Nothing horrible about the hardware. Just nowhere near as performant and streamlined as an iPhone. A more expensive "clunky" experience.
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I'm curious why you'd finance the Android camp? Is it a better fit for you? You don't need the stellar cross-device experience offered by iPhone-AppleTV-AppleWatch-Mac?

What is stellar is their price, that's for sure.
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No phone is worth $1400, Android or iPhone.

Exactly! Finally somebody is saying it. Bravo!

 

[Shanghaichica]

Yes, a square design at the center, not on the corner. Samsung could've done the same as they did a symmetrical design with the S10. But nope, let's put a huge block on the corner. Why? Probably because Apple did it on the corner.

I have high regards to Huawei. They actually did things that are quite innovative.

Often the placement of the camera is more due to where it can fit due to having to fit other components. I think what the camera can do is more important than how it looks on the back of a phone. However I think Huawei were first with regards to the square design. Does it really matter if it were in the corner or the middle. Even Huawei seem to think Apple and Samsung have copied them in regards to camera design.

Whilst l’ll probably never get a Huawei phone in the current climate. However most of the things we are seeing like periscope zoom lenses and in display FPS were done by Huawei first. Huawei did the wide angle lens before Apple and Samsung but LG beat them to it by quite some margin.

 

[FixAppleMail]

The hardware of S20 in terms of design and experience is superior to the iPhone right now.

The screen is better, supports 120 FPS which makes the experience superior, the bezels are almost gone and there is no stupid notch.

S20 is making working and watching videos a please. My next smartphone as I think Tim would stick to huge bezels and a notch, Tim has an obsession with huge tick outdated notches and designs in order to please the share holders.

I will switch my iMac to a MacBook with bezeless external display just because I am sure the new iMac would have less thick but still giant bezels.

Tim is tricking the public by creating false expectations. Both phones and desktop computers look very outdated comparing to the flagship competition.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Honest question: why would I need 16 GB of RAM on any phone at this point in time?

Android as an OS is more resource intensive than iOS so will naturally need more RAM.

However more RAM is useful for things like split screen apps or holding apps open to n memory for long periods of time instead of refreshing after 10 minutes.

Samsung also has Dex, a desktop replacement. More RAM would be useful here.

 

[HandITOVER]

SMH.

 

[Mercifull]

Betteridge's law of headlines strikes again.

 

[femike]

To be fair, to me, the iPhone 11 Pro is not worth the price either.
The camera cluster on the Samsung S20 Ultra looks smaller in real life than the photo they showed in this article (due to the angle and lens it was taken with). It actually looks much better that the current 3 camera cluster on the iPhone 11 Pro's.
Samsung S20 Ultra a nice phone but it comes with Android and this downgrades the phone despite the hardware.

 

[BritishApple]

Until an Android phone, especially a Samsung model, out performs an iPhone in terms of UI fluidity I’ll continue to ignore them.

12GB of RAM is impressive, but the iPhone XS and 11 Pro with 4GB and their respective A12 and A13 Bionic chips offer a fast, fluid, and ultra responsive experience.

Sure it’ll most likely load apps quicker by a second or two depending on how large the app is (intensive game for example) but right now it looks like throwing the kitchen sink into a handset so that the spec sheet numbers justify the price hike.

 

[Keniutek]

We all laugh at the specs... but i would love for the iPhone, to have a biggar RAM. Freakin Safari, can't keep more than a few tabs open without reloading

 

[PickUrPoison]

LOL. Steve? Are you serious? Steve Jobs had a great eye for design, that's for sure, but looking at consumers? Like blaming people for holding the iPhone 4 wrong? Sure, looking at consumers first...

I don’t think he said what you think he said...

 

[ian87w]

I don’t think he said what you think he said...

Would a person who was supposedly "looking at consumers first" be blaming the same consumers for holding the flawed product wrong, instead of simply admitting the design flaw?

People are criticizing the current Apple, yet completely forgot that it's still the same Apple as before in terms of vision and direction. It's just happened that the current CEO is a more introverted person than the previous one.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Until an Android phone, especially a Samsung model, out performs an iPhone in terms of UI fluidity I’ll continue to ignore them.

12GB of RAM is impressive, but the iPhone XS and 11 Pro with 4GB and their respective A12 and A13 Bionic chips offer a fast, fluid, and ultra responsive experience.

Sure it’ll most likely load apps quicker by a second or two depending on how large the app is (intensive game for example) but right now it looks like throwing the kitchen sink into a handset so that the spec sheet numbers justify the price hike.

Apparently the 120hz display has improved the fluidity. How it compares to the iPhone o don’t know.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Would a person who was supposedly "looking at consumers first" be blaming the same consumers for holding the flawed product wrong, instead of simply admitting the design flaw?

Did you read my comment?

 

[ian87w]

Often the placement of the camera is more due to where it can fit due to having to fit other components. I think what the camera can do is more important than how it looks on the back of a phone. However I think Huawei were first with regards to the square design. Does it really matter if it were in the corner or the middle. Even Huawei seem to think Apple and Samsung have copied them in regards to camera design.

Whilst l’ll probably never get a Huawei phone in the current climate. However most of the things we are seeing like periscope zoom lenses and in display FPS were done by Huawei first. Huawei did the wide angle lens before Apple and Samsung but LG beat them to it by quite some margin.

We can agree that Huawei did pioneer many camera related things. No arguments there.

Consider that Samsung designing the S10 with the camera arrays arranged symmetrically at the back of the phone, complete with variable aperture. They managed to do that without resorting to the corner design. Yet for the S20, they found that they need to create the huge rectangle camera bump and place it on the corner. Was it for no reason? Doubt it. Was it to copy the look of another phone? I would say probably.

 

[x34]

android is never worth $1400.... and there ends this story.

 

[recoil80]

The phone is expensive but bear in mind that unlike Apple Samsung usually cut prices after a few months.
I'd never pay that much for a smartphone, I'm an app developer so I always update when there is a huge change (like iPhone X) but even if I make a living on it I find it hard to justify huge amounts of money for tech if I don't desperately need it.

 

[himanshumodi]

Dude, the front of this phone looks way better than the iPhone 11 Pro, with a minimal cutout for the camera and much smaller bezels. Too bad I don't like Android, but the front is gorgeous.

Where I hope Apple doesn't follow through is in the price, but with the rumors about so many OLED models incoming, probably the higher end models will be around this price as well.

Is there a notch on this phone? Doesn't look like it.

 

[BvizioN]

Spec wars. A bunch of big numbers thrown around, thinly disguised as a value proposition in order to inflate the margins of cheap electronics.

Big numbers and specs have always been part of Samsung's strategy.

 

[Stevez67]

I have high regards to Huawei. They stole things that are quite innovative.

FTFY

 

[Brian Y]

I'm an iPhone user looking to transition over to (most likely) a galaxy.

The biggest issue with the S20 as far as I'm concerned - the Note 10+. Recently, the Note 10+ 5G has been available for around £600 here. I personally would struggle to justify spending twice as much on the S20 vs the Note 10+. Considering the differences are 120hz vs 60Hz, 0.1" on the display, a slightly faster CPU and better camera (with an extra 128GB of storage on the Note).

 

[BvizioN]

Samsung is the worst of all the Apple copycats. Why? Because Samsung first makes commercials that (rightfully) harshly make fun of Apple’s bad design choices such as removing the headphone jack and including a notch. And then afterwards, Samsung copies those exact same bad design choices! Look at this S20, for example, with no headphone jack and the inclusion of a notch.

While partly I agree with your comment, I disagree with the one on bold. Bad design choices according to who exactly? You? Yeah, sure. Me? Removing the headphone jack is one of the best things Apple did. It forced the lazy industry to innovate and come up with great wireless earphones. I have used AirPod first-gen since day one and now in the fourth year, they are just as amazing as they were on the first day. I would never be able to go back to stupid wires tangling down my neck. So good or bad design choices depend on who you ask. And if it was really that bad, can't imagine the entire smartphone industry moving ahead with it, as they did.
The notch may not be attractive but Face ID for me is far superior and easier than Touch ID. Unless there is a camera/sensor system under the display, the camera punch hole and notch are the same for me. Luckily, i do not pay attention or think of them. But that is only me.

 

[HacKage]

I'm an iPhone user looking to transition over to (most likely) a galaxy.

The biggest issue with the S20 as far as I'm concerned - the Note 10+. Recently, the Note 10+ 5G has been available for around £600 here. I personally would struggle to justify spending twice as much on the S20 vs the Note 10+. Considering the differences are 120hz vs 60Hz, 0.1" on the display, a slightly faster CPU and better camera (with an extra 128GB of storage on the Note).

I'm in the same boat. I am getting pretty sick of my XS Max and can get a new Note 10+ 5G for the same price as my second hand 256GB model would fetch in a private sale. There is no denying that iPhones have a lot of great qualities that other brands can't beat like CPU performance, but lets be honest, how many people are maxing out their CPU while web browsing or using WhatsApp?