subscribe 0330 333 1113 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I 9 May 2020
Overall the Samsung Galaxy S20
Ultra is a very impressive pocket
camera, which offers another
reminder of just how capable
smartphones have become. While
it doesn’t live up to the fi rm’s most
hyperbolic claims regarding the
108MP sensor or the 100x
‘space zoom’, this shouldn’t detract
from the fact that it’s still one of
the best phone cameras available.
It provides an incredibly fl exible set
of lenses from ultra-wide to
telephoto, and takes great-looking
photos with attractive colour and
plenty of detail, although as usual,
image-quality purists should stick
to the three native focal lengths.
The big question is whether you
can live with the device’s sheer
size, or the huge psychological
hurdle of that four-fi gure price tag.
If you’d prefer something smaller
and cheaper, the Mate10+
remains an excellent alternative.Ve r d i c t
Price £1,199 (128GB), £1,399 (512GB)
Cameras 13mm f/2.2, 12MP; 25mm f/1.8,
108MP; 103mm f/2.2, 48MP
Display 6.9in AMOLED 2X, 3200x1440
Operating system Android 10
Dimensions 166.9x76.0x8.8mm
Weight 220gData file
Recommended
Picture quality
So how about the picture quality?
As always with smartphones, the
answer is highly dependent upon
how you evaluate the images.
They’re designed to be viewed on
relatively small screens, so won’t
necessarily stand up to the kind of
pixel-level examination to which
enthusiast photographers often
subject their fi les.
Used in its standard Photo
mode, the S20 Ultra generally
delivers really good-looking
results. Images have a vibrant,
punchy colour palette, with rich
blue skies and verdant greenery.
Some might fi nd the effect to be
over the top, but you can tone
things down by disabling the
AI-based scene optimiser. Auto
white balance works near
fl awlessly, injecting suffi cient
warmth on dull grey days to give
surprisingly attractive photos,
while Auto HDR does a great job
of balancing bright skies with
dark foregrounds, without losing
detail in either.
Close examination of 12MP
fi les shot at the three cameras’
native angles reveals strong levels
of detail, although with visible
haloes around high-contrast
edges. Moderate levels of digital
zoom don’t look too bad either,
with even the 10x hybrid zoom
(equivalent to 250mm) being
perfectly acceptable when
viewed on the phone’s screen or
for social media use, which is
seriously impressive for a
smartphone. Naturally image
quality deteriorates beyond this,
but even the 30x zoom still looks
okay onscreen, which is an
extraordinary party trick. That
headline 100x zoom is a step too
far, though, giving precious little
detail, and it’s nearly impossible
to aim the phone accurately at
your desired subject, either.
Intermediate zoom levels
between lenses can also give
some odd-looking results when
viewed close-up. For example at3x zoom, the outer area of the
image employs digital zoom from
the wideangle camera, but the
central section is overlaid from
the telephoto camera, giving a
sudden step-change in
resolution. However while this will
be obvious to photographers who
scrutinise their images on a
computer, it’s not so apparent on
the phone itself. Casual users
probably won’t even notice, and
instead appreciate the extra
central detail.
The various special modes
work just fi ne. Night mode gives
decent results with all three
cameras, although it’s not quite
as good as Google’s version in
terms of white balance and
colour. Live Focus deals
impressively with complex subject
shapes while giving reasonably
convincing background blur, and
the effect can be tweaked after
shooting, but it’s no match for the
real optical effects of a fast prime
lens just yet. Panorama mode is
really nicely implemented, with
the ability to select between the
wide and super-wide lenses and
generate a full 360° view. Its
images look great on the phone,
but examine them too closely
and you’ll see some stitching
errors, particularly in
complex areas of the scene.Telephoto (125mm equiv)