Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Best Android Phone Of 2020 | Screen Rant - Screen Rant

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Samsung is the leading smartphone seller in the world so should be no surprise that one of its phones, the Galaxy S20 Ultra, might be hailed as the best Android phone of 2020. While many companies opted to focus on more modest flagship devices, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra stands out as a true premium device.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 line was released back in March with three phones: the base S20, the more-advanced S20+, and the top-end S20 Ultra. All 5G phones, in North America, at least. Due to the popularity of the line, Samsung added the more economical S20 Fan Edition (FE) in October, with more modest specs.

It's the specs that set the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra apart and make it the best Android phone of the year. With the exception of the S20 FE, the phones use Dynamic AMOLED displays with an impressive resolution of 1,440 x 3,200. This is a higher resolution than even the iPhone 12 Pro Max. They also have a 120 Hz refresh rate, giving stellar graphics and smooth animations for video playback and mobile games. The S20 Ultra has the largest screen in the series at 6.9 inches, providing an even more immersive experience. Add in the fact that Samsung recently revamped its Galaxy Store to highlight mobile gaming apps and offer rewards for users and the device becomes even more valuable. It's also one of the most powerful phones on the market. It uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 octa-core CPU, which runs up to 2.84 GHz on its fastest core, has a 5,000 mAh battery, and comes with at least 12 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. Customers can opt for a 512 GB device with 16 GB of RAM, though. That's more memory and storage than is found on most tablets, and even some laptops, let alone smartphones. Admittedly, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 2, having been released later in the year, were able to use the slightly faster Snapdragon 865+ processor, but they are both niche devices. And after putting the processor and unique functionality of those phones aside, the Galaxy S20 Ultra beats them in most other respects.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra's Great Camera

The S20 line also offers great photos and video recording. They fare well in both bright and low-light conditions and offer rich content with good color balance. And with the exception of the S20 FE, again, they can all shoot video in 8K, which essentially futureproofs the devices for when televisions with similar resolutions become more commonplace. The Galaxy S20 Ultra has the most-impressive camera setup. It uses a quad-lens system that consists of a 108 MP wide-angle lens, a 48 MP telephoto, a 12 MP ultra-wide-angle, and a DepthVision (time-of-flight) camera.

One of the S20 Ultra's key selling points is its Space Zoom, which offers a 100X magnification of the scene. Samsung was the first company to offer a phone with this zoom capability and even now only Huawei is its competitor here with its P40 Pro+ and Mate 40 Pro+ devices boasting 100X zooms. Granted, that metric is rather ridiculous. For one, it's almost impossible to take a photo without the use of a tripod because the tiniest movement or handshake is also magnified 100 times and will completely change what is displayed in the viewfinder and the zoom itself is mostly digital (i.e. done through software), so the image will contain noise and won't be very sharp no matter which phone shot the photo.

Ultimately, Huawei arguably wins here. Both Huawei's top-end phones and the Galaxy S20 Ultra take beautiful pictures, but the P40 Pro+ and Mate 40 Pro+ have 10X optical zooms while the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra uses a 10X hybrid (which combines optical and digital zooms). So Huawei's phones offer more accurate images at this magnification. But its lack of Google apps due to its ban in the U.S. makes Huawei phones a harder sell to North American consumers. While there are workarounds to sideload most apps, some may still not work properly or at all, especially if they rely on Google Play services. So overall, Samsung is the much better option.

More: What Does The S Pen Do & Is It Coming To The Samsung Galaxy S21?

Source: Samsung

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Adam Swimmer (67 Articles Published)

Adam Swimmer is a Toronto-based freelance writer who has worked in journalism for 17 years, primarily online. He has covered various areas, including technology, hard news and entertainment. Outside of work, some of his interests include sleeping, reading and binging TV shows, especially K-dramas, sci-fi and Anime. He also watches the odd serious show or movie to keep his largely pointless film theory degree marginally relevant.