The first Samsung Galaxy S series smartphone launched in 2010 & today, Samsung launched its Galaxy S20 family of flagships. Compared to last year’s Galaxy S10 series, the S20 series is a complete overhaul with a new design & impressive specifications.
We get three phones under the S20 series – Samsung Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S20 Ultra. So, unlike last year we don’t get the Galaxy S20e, but instead, there is the Galaxy S20 Ultra, the most expensive as well as the most feature-packed phone among the three.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S20 – DESIGN & SPECIFICATIONS
All three phones share the same design from the front. All three have an Infinity-O display which means there is a punch-hole for the selfie camera. Unlike last year’s S10 lineup, this punch-hole is placed in the middle on top (like the Note 10 series). The display has curved sides, but this time, the curve is less prominent than earlier Samsung flagships.
On the rear, there are triple cameras placed in a rectangular housing on the top left. It is no surprise that there is no 3.5mm headphone jack, something that Samsung ditched with its Galaxy Note 10 series last year.
Coming to the specifications now, the Samsung Galaxy S20 has a 6.2-inch WQHD+ Dynamic AMOLED display (3200 x 1440 pixels) with 120Hz refresh rate. The Galaxy S10e was praised for its compact form factor, thanks to a small 5.8-inch display. This time, the smallest phone under the S20 series has a 6.2-inch display!
For the very first time, Samsung is going to high-refresh-rate displays on its phones. And instead of going for 90Hz, Samsung decided to go for a 120Hz refresh rate which is great!
The silicon driving this beast depends on the region. For some regions, it is the Exynos 990 5G, and for others, it is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865. There is 8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM & 128GB UFS 3.0 storage, so that’s also a plus since you are going to get better read/write speeds. Moreover, there is a microSD card slot so you can expand the storage up to 1TB.
Cameras have always been one of the best on Samsung’s flagships, but this year, Samsung has gone all out with the camera hardware on its S20 series. There are triple cameras on the Samsung Galaxy S20 that include a primary 12 Megapixel camera with 1.8-micron pixel size, a secondary 64 Megapixel telephoto lens with 3X Optical Zoom + 30X Digital Zoom and a 12 Megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera.
It is worth mentioning that the primary 12 Megapixel camera is not the same that we have seen on previous Samsung flagships. It is a newer sensor with impressive 1.8-micron pixel size. The 64MP telephoto lens also allows you to shoot 8K 30fps videos! There is a 10 Megapixel selfie camera & you can shoot 4K 60fps videos with it.
Finally, there is a 4,000mAh battery & the phone comes with a 25W charger in the box. The device is IP68 certified, has stereo speakers, wireless charging & Android 10 runs out of the box with OneUI 2 on top. The S20 comes in both LTE as well as the 5G variant so that’s something you should know.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S20+ – DESIGN & SPECIFICATIONS
The Galaxy S20+ is not different than the Galaxy S20 when we talk about the design, except for the fact that it is much bigger & has an extra camera on the back. It has the same Infinity-O display on the front & a similar rear camera setup. So, let’s jump straight on to the specifications of it.
The phone has a 6.7-inch WQHD+ Dynamic AMOLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate, so that’s way bigger compared to the 6.2-inch screen on the S20. There is the same SOC, i.e., Exynos 990 5G/ Snapdragon 865 5G. The S20+ has 8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM & 128/256/512GB UFS 3.0 storage. In fact, the camera setup is the same as well except for the fact that there is an extra camera on the S20+ that is a Time of Flight sensor.
The Samsung Galaxy S20+ has a bigger 4,500mAh battery & runs on Android 10 out of the box with OneUI 2 on top. All the other features of the S20 are there, i.e., Stereo Speakers, under-display fingerprint scanner, IP68 rating, 8K video recording etc.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S20 ULTRA – DESIGN & SPECIFICATIONS
This is the phone that deserves the hype it got. It is undoubtedly the most powerful & feature-packed smartphone currently in the market with no other phone even close to it. Again, we are talking about the scenario right now. While it may be hard to differentiate between the S20 & S20+, you can easily tell if it is the Galaxy S20 Ultra since there is a massive camera bump on the rear that has four cameras in it.
We can see that there is the ”Space Zoom 100X” text on the camera setup & this is really interesting. We will talk about it but first, let’s take a look at other specifications.
There is a massive 6.9-inch WQHD+ Dynamic AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate. This is the biggest display on any Samsung flagship. This is an almost 7-inch screen so you can imagine how big the phone is. Not just big, it is heavy as well, weighing around 221g. This is also due to the massive 5,000mAh battery inside that is also the biggest Samsung has put in its Galaxy S series flagship. Moreover, the Galaxy S20 Ultra supports 45W Fast Charging.
The SOC is the same, but the Galaxy S20 Ultra comes with up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM and 128/256/512GB UFS 3.0 storage with an option to expand the storage up to 1TB via microSD card.
The camera setup is really interesting. There is a primary 108 Megapixel camera & it is not the same as the one on Mi Note 10 from Xiaomi. It is better than that & using this camera, users can shoot 8K 30fps videos as well. There is a secondary 48 Megapixel camera with periscope lens and 10X Optical Zoom + 100X Digital Zoom. That’s the highest amount of Zooming capability that any flagship has offered so far. The third camera is a 12MP ultra-wide-angle unit & there is a fourth Time of Flight sensor.
That’s not it! There is a 40 Megapixel selfie camera as well that can shoot 4K 60fps videos. Compared to the 10MP unit on the S20 & S20+, this one is much better.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S20 SERIES – PRICING & AVAILABILITY
Finally, coming to the pricing & availability, the colour options for all the phones under the S20 Series are as follows –
- Galaxy S20: Cosmic Grey, Cloud Blue, and Cloud Pink
- Galaxy S20+: Cosmic Grey, Cloud Blue, and Cosmic Black
- Galaxy S20 Ultra: Cosmic Grey and Cosmic Black
Talking about the pricing, the price of Samsung Galaxy S20 starts from $999, and that of S20+ from $1,199. The S20 Ultra is the most expensive Galaxy S series smartphone ever launched with a starting price of $1,399.