MARCH 2020 PCWorld 9Infinity-O display.
Samsung has finally
brought a high refresh rate
(120Hz) to a Galaxy
phone, and it feels
luxurious, like my fingers
were running through
water rather than mud.
However, you’ll need to
keep the Ultra locked to
Full HD if you want to use
that refresh rate, which is a
major bummer.
The S20 Ultra is
powered by the same
top-of-the-line Snapdragon
865 processor and 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM as
the S20, and includes 128GB of base storage, a
5G modem, and an ultrasonic in-display
fingerprint sensor. I’d much rather have 3D facial
recognition on a phone this big, but Samsung is
still using the less-secure selfie camera for face
unlock. Nonetheless, during my hands-on I did
see an improvement in the accuracy of the
sensor compared to the one on the S10+,
especially when using my thumb. I attribute this
largely to the sensor’s new position, higher on
the screen.
The S20 Ultra is extra-thick because it
includes the largest battery Samsung has ever
shipped in a phone: a whopping 5,000mAh
cell. That’s a healthy boost from the S10 5G’s
4,500mAh capacity, and I’d be lying if I said
the Note 7’s exploding battery wasn’t in the
back of my mind while holding it. But with a
5G modem and a 120Hz 6.9-inch display, the
Ultra is going to need every ounce of juice it
can get.ZOOM TO THE MOON
While the super-sized display and battery
certainly set the Ultra apart from its S
siblings, the main reason to drop $1,400 on it
(or $1,600 if you opt for an insane 16GB of
RAM) is the camera. And for that sky-high
price, you also get a bit of unsightly “Space
Zoom” branding on top of an already
unappealing camera bump.
While it has the same 12MP, f/2.2,
120-degree ultrawide camera as the S20 and
S20+, the wide and telephoto cameras are
quite a bit different. Dig the specs:Samsung has moved the position of the fingerprint sensor on the S20,
and it’s much easier to hit now.