Stuff - UK (2020-04)

MOBILE AWARDS

o limits. No compromises.

The Samsung Galaxy as

designed by Jurassic Park’s

John Hammond. The S20 Ultra takes

everything we’ve come to expect

from a Galaxy phone, then gives it

a stunning high-refresh-rate screen

and a set of cameras that could

embarrass a DSLR.

Throw in hardware that could rival

a desktop PC, 5G connectivity and a

colossal battery, and you’ve got the

blueprint for what all future flagship

phones should look like... only you can

put an S20 Ultra in your pocket today.

Give yourself a big hand

The familiar mix of glass and metal

is instantly recognisable as a Galaxy

phone, with screen bezels that have

shrunk even further to the edges, but

the S20 Ultra’s styling feels a little

conservative. The display has lost

its prominent curves, and your only

colour choices are black and grey.

Then again, if you want cutting-edge

design, there’s always the folding

Galaxy Z Flip on p48.

The 6.9in screen makes the S20

Ultra both taller and chunkier than an

iPhone 11 Pro Max, and you’ll struggle

to use it one-handed unless you’ve

got mitts like Andre the Giant. The

in-display fingerprint sensor is

easier to reach now it’s further up

the screen, but can be a little sluggish

to detect your digits.

The chunky camera bump is

impossible to miss on the back of

this phone. A case will help it blend

in better, and stop the glass from

becoming a fingerprint magnet.

Bokeh boomer

An impressive camera count is the

main reason to buy an Ultra over the

vanilla Galaxy S20, with a whopping

108MP main snapper joined by a

48MP telephoto good for 100x hybrid

zoom and a 12MP wide-angle, plus a

40MP front-facer for selfies. There’s

even a depth sensor for giving your

portraits a bokeh blur.

The 108MP sensor is physically

bigger than anything else you’ll

find in a phone right now, and uses

algorithm-based cleverness to

create 12MP images. Daytime shots

are brilliantly detailed and vibrant,

with expertly judged exposure and

well-balanced HDR. But there’s also

some of the aggressive sharpening

and overblown skin-smoothing

that we’ve come to expect from

TESTED SAMSUNG

GALAXY S20 ULTRA

N

Price from £1199 / samsung.com

Barcelona was due to host the world’s biggest

phone expo until the coronavirus struck. So

instead of shooting Gaudi buildings with 100x

zoom and 5G gaming on the beach, the Stuff team

decamped to storm-battered Britain to size up

the all-new Androids angling for your money...

[ Wo rd s James Day, Tom Morgan, Matt Tate ]

BEST NOT

IN SHOW

B EST NOT

I N SHOW

Generation wide

The ultra-wide

camera doesn’t

have the highest

pixel count, but it

matches the main

sensor for accuracy.