10 PCWorld MARCH 2020NEWS HANDS-ON: SAMSUNG GALAXY S20 ULTRA
Galaxy S20/S20+
Wide (main): 12MP, f/1.
Telephoto: 64MP, f/2.Galaxy S20 Ultra
Wide: 108MP, f/1.
Telephoto: 48MP, f/3.That’s not a typo. The S20 Ultra has a
ridiculous 108MP sensor, which is a bit of
marketing bluster. Any photographer will tell
you that megapixels don’t make a great
camera, but Samsung has done some pretty
cool and innovative things with the sensor.
Using a process called nona binning, the S
Ultra’s main camera merges nine pixels into
one to create a 12MP image using the entire
108MP sensor.
In real-life results, that means the S
Ultra’s pictures will have more detail in fulllight and less noise in low
light. Samsung says the
Ultra’s camera will
dynamically switch
between the full 108MP
and 12MP modes to bring
in three times more light
than the S10+ (which has
always been a bit
disappointing when it
comes to nighttime shots).
During my hands-on
demo, I didn’t get a chance
to test the camera in low
light, but I did get to test the S20 Ultra’s other
over-the-top camera feature: 100X Space
Zoom (also not a typo). Like the Huawei P
Pro and other long-zoom phones with
periscope lenses, the S20 Ultra’s telephoto
camera sits sideways in the device and refracts
the light through a prism at a 90-degree angle.
Samsung says this proprietary hybrid
optical and AI-powered digital zoom solution
is able to achieve 10X lossless zoom and 100X
max zoom, both of which are impressive
claims. I was in a pretty small room (and I got
yelled at when I tried to shoot out the
window), but the Ultra was able to zoom way
further than any other phone I used. Without
OIS, it was extremely hard to control at even
30X and nearly impossible to keep steady at
100X, but a mini zoomed-out viewfinder in
the corner of the screen did help maintain
some semblance of position. The photos IIn case you couldn’t tell, the Ultra has the bigger bump.