32 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 73
see some telltale digital smartphone artifacts at 10X,
but it’s an excellent first step, and the quality should
improve with steady updates.
Speaking of improvement, Samsung has put a good
deal of work into its night mode, and the effort shows
on the S20 Ultra. Most of the heavy lifting is done by
the ISOCELL Bright HM1 image sensor that powers
the 108Mp lens – night mode shots are using 9-to-1
nona binning to turn 0.8μm pixels into 2.4μm – but
Samsung’s maturing algorithm deserves some credit
too. On the S10, night shots were largely overexposed,
but there’s much more nuance on the Ultra. Shadows
The S20 Ultra’s rear camera does an excellent job with
portraits (left), but the selfie cam tends to smooth over
perceived blemishes, like my son’s freckles in this shot
