Amateur Photographer - UK (2020-05-09)

56 9 May 2020 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113

Testbench SMARTPHONE TEST

rather than every pixel
having its own red, green or
blue fi lter for sensing colour,
blocks of nine pixels are placed
under a single fi lter. This means its
colour resolution is much lower
than its luminance resolution, at
12MP, which turns out to be the
camera’s native output.
For ultra-wideangle shots, you
get a 13mm equivalent f/2.2 lens
with a 12MP sensor measuring
approximately 5.6x4.2mm, which
gives a vast 120° angle of view.
Meanwhile for telephoto, a 48MP
6.4x4.8mm sensor works with a
103mm equivalent f/3.5 lens that
uses periscopic folded optics to fi t
within the phone’s body. A
time-of-fl ight module can be used
to construct a depth map of the
scene, aiding computational
background blur. For those who
value selfi es, the front camera
sports 40MP resolution, and can
automatically adapt its angle of
view according to how many
people it detects in the scene.
Small, densely packed sensors
are usually seen as a bad thing in
termsof imagequality,butlike
othersmartphones,theS20Ultra
constructsphotographsusing
multipleexposurestakenin rapid
succession.In principle,thiscanbe
usedtoreducenoise,maintain
highlightdetail,andevenrender
additionaldetailcomparedtoany
individualframeusinga process
knownas‘superresolution’.

Cameraapp
Samsung’scameraappis really
nicelydesigned,witheverything
neatlylaidoutandeasytouse.As
withmostAndroidflagships,it
comeswithtwodistinctmodes.
ThesimplePhotomodeoffers
basiccontrolssuchasflash,
self-timerandaspectratio,along
witha rangeof image-processing

fi lters. An optional ‘fl oating’ shutter

button can be repositioned

anywhere you like on the screen,

and the volume-control keys can

also be used to take pictures.

Touch buttons overlaid on the

image preview allow you to switch

quickly to ultra-wide and telephoto

views, but unexpectedly the latter

engages a 5x hybrid zoom, with

digital zoom applied over and

above the 4x optical zoom lens.

Pinch the screen and you can

freely zoom between 0.5x

ultra-wide and 100x telephoto,

with a further series of buttons

appearing for pre-set zoom levels,

and a slider control offering

precise adjustment in between.

You can tap the screen to specify

your focus point, and enable focus

tracking in the menu if desired.

Meanwhile pressing on the screen

for a second engages focus and

exposure lock, along with a

brightness adjustment slider.

Switch to Pro mode and you get

extensive manual control,

including ISO, shutter speed, and

exposure compensation. Other

featuresincludemanualfocus,

completewitha peakingdisplay;

whitebalancecontrolusinga

Kelvinslider(butnopre-sets);and

DNGrawformatrecording.But

disappointingly,Promodeonly

workswiththemaincamera,

whichseriouslylimitsits

usefulness.Youcan’taccessthe

ultra-widecameraat all,andwhile

zoomingis availableupto10x,it’s

purelydigitalandlooks

increasinglysketchybeyond2x.

Othermorespecialistmodes

includepanorama,food,night,and

livefocus(forcomputational

backgroundblur).Videospecsare

aseye-catchingasforstills,with

4Krecordingavailable,alongwith

slowmotion,super-slowmotion

andhyperlapseoptions.Again

thatsticksoutslightlyawkwardly

2mmfromthedevice’sback.

Overall,thespecificationsare

seriouslyimpressive.Yougetthe

latestsuper-fast5Gconnectivity,

whilea huge5000mAhbattery

shouldkeepyougoingalldaywith

ease.Thebasemodelincludes

128GBof internalstoragefor

£1,199,witha 512GBversion

availablefora £200premium;this

is priceycomparedtotheHuawei

P40Pro,butcomparesfavourably

withtheequivalentiPhone 11 Pro

Maxmodels.AnIP68rating

meansthedeviceshould

withstandbeingimmersedin

waterfor 30 minutes,buttheonly

connectoris a USB-Cport.

Ultrawide(13mmequiv) Wide (25mm equiv)

These comparison images, shot from the same position, show the huge difference between the three views that are quickly selectable in the basic Photo app

you get a Pro mode with full

manual control, alongside the

basic video interface.

Build and design

High-end smartphones have been

growing ever bigger, and at

16.7cm tall and 7.6cm wide, the

S20 Ultra is massive. Practically

the entire front face is covered by

the stunning 6.9in AMOLED

screen, aside from a small ‘hole

punch’ cutout for the selfi e

camera. You can engage a

single-handed mode that uses a

smaller area of the screen, but

even so I fi nd it too large to use

securely one-handed. The camera

array occupies a large rectangle

Night mode generally works

well, with nicely judged

exposure and colours

103mm equivalent tele lens,

1/4sec at f/3.5, ISO 250

Samsung’s camera app is

laid out neatly and

attractively. This is the

more advanced Pro mode