Among the newest flagship phones, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra kind of brings some breakthrough tech to the table and it has excited tech fans all over the world. With the S20 and S20 Plus close behind it, the Galaxy S20 Ultra, with superior camera work, a bigger body, plus a higher resolution, feels like it is going to end up as one of the most beloved phones during 2020, no debate.
Design and Build Quality
Premium Looks: The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is a far larger device than most, around these days, it goes for that thin-and-light vibe and it uses premium materials. In other words , the Galaxy S20 Ultra stands for luxury. The front and rear panels are dressed with Gorilla Glass 6, then it kinda sits in an aluminum frame; this blend gives it a slick feel in the hand, and it also helps with toughness. The back panel looks really glossy, however it tends to gather smudges and fingerprints, so you wind up wiping it more often than you might imagine. As for colors, there are Cosmic Gray and Cosmic Black, both are fairly elegant and understated, pretty calm tones overall.
Size and Weight: The Galaxy S20 Ultra basically screams “big phone” the moment you see it, especially because it has a 6.9-inch display. So it is probably one of the larger smartphones today. That huge screen is a solid win for media watching and gaming, but it can turn into a hassle for people with smaller hands. Weighing around 220 grams, the device is on the weighty side, which does add that extra premium sensation, but it may feel a little bothersome if you hold it for long stretches, continuously.
Button and Port Layout: The way buttons and ports are placed on this Galaxy S20 Ultra, well it won’t really shock anyone , it feels like a pretty standard Samsung flagship. On the right side you get the usual power button and volume rocker, both sitting in that reliable spot where you can operate it one handed without much fuss. Down at the bottom edge there’s a USB Type-C port for charging and data transfer, and also a SIM-card tray along with a speaker grille. Some folks might be a bit annoyed to find there is no 3.5mm headphone jack on the S20 Ultra , exactly like on a bunch of other newer models in this same category from Samsung.
Water and Dust Resistance: This device, since it’s a proper flagship, comes with an IP68 rating on the protection scale. In other words , it should fend off dust and it can handle submersion up to 1.5 meters for as long as 30 minutes. With that level of defense, you can feel calmer if your phone slips and lands in water for a moment, or if it gets exposed to dusty, grimy conditions. Also, it’s worth re saying that the warranty won’t cover water damage, so yeah, keep that in mind.
Display
Dynamic AMOLED 2X honestly feels like it’s right there with the very top panels you’ll find on a smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra comes with a 6.9 inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen, and you can tell. It runs at 3,200 x 1,440 pixels (WQHD+) , so you end up with roughly 511 pixels per inch, which really makes things stay crisp, especially when you’re reading tiny text or watching smaller details. Thanks to AMOLED tech you get deep blacks, strong vibrancy, and punchy contrast, so video marathons , gaming play, or even just browsing the Internet feels more “alive” than usual.
120Hz Refresh Rate: One of the more standout things about the S20 Ultra’s screen is the 120Hz refresh rate, it’s basically the same “standard” refresh speed people usually see at 60Hz on a lot of other phones. So, in practice you get that noticeably breathtaking animation, and it feels like the touch response is quicker too. Everything looks smoother, but of course there’s a catch, the 120Hz mode only kicks in when the resolution stays at Full HD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels), anything higher than that will still be limited, meaning the 120Hz behavior kind of works against your battery. Still, the S20 Ultra lets you decide from settings whether you want 60Hz for steadier power, or 120Hz for extra fluidity.
HDR10+ Support: On top of that, the S20 Ultra display supports HDR10+ , so the dynamic range of what you watch gets boosted. Bright highlights still pop , while the darker shadows tend to hold more detail in HDR videos. This is especially helpful when you stream those HDR movies and series from the normal places like Netflix Amazon Prime Video and YouTube, you know. The visuals feel way more alive, almost like the colors along with the contrast are acting in a real manner, not just “pretty” looking anymore.
Customization and Edge Display: Samsung seems to have dialed down the curve on the S20 Ultra’s Edge display, compared with earlier Galaxy models, so there are fewer moments of accidental touches and, honestly, more workable screen space.
Good news is, the Edge panel is still there, not removed or anything so you can still fire off quick-access apps contacts, and little tools by swiping in from the side of the display. Also users can tune the Edge panel to their own habits, including shortcuts and even add widgets.
Brightness and outdoor visibility: The peak brightness on the Galaxy S20 Ultra reaches about 1,200 nits so reading it in direct sunlight feels a lot easier. On top of that, adaptive brightness does its job really smoothly, it keeps tuning the screen brightness levels as the ambient light changes, so you don’t get that weird glare or dimness mismatch.
Up to 100x zoom capabilities
If we begin by weighing in on the advantages of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra phone, naturally the 100x recording capability is the glorious plus point for the S20 Ultra smartphone. It is termed “Space Zoom” by Samsung.
This is achievable through the 48MP periscope lens with phase-detection autofocus, optical image stabilization, and optical zooming across 10 times.
Very high camera resolution
Galaxy S20 Ultra is the Samsung-best camera resolution phone till date, able to take beautiful pictures at a whopping resolution of up to 108 Mb and recording 8K videos. That’s amazing for a smartphone!
RAM of 16GB
In this era where new smartphones are on the block with huge RAM capacity, 16 Gb Ram capacity stands in good state for a Smartphone today, and this is also what S20 Ultra has. With this level of Ram, one could smoothly run all the heaviest applications and games in the world on the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra.
The most advanced chipset
As always with a new year, flagship phones get that fresh flavor from updated chipsets. And yeah, for the Galaxy S20 lineup it’s kind of the same deal, just in a different way. You end up with a couple different versions—the global model, meaning Galaxy S20 Ultra, will come with Exynos 990 (7nm +) made on that 7 nm plus process, while the US version has Snapdragon 865 (7nm+) from Qualcomm.
Faster clock speeds up to 2.84 (GHz) is among the two biggest advantages of this latest generation chipset, which purports to offer the ultimate processing power to users.
Great Big Battery and Extremely Fast Charging of 45 watts
It has a very big battery as well, up to 5000 mAh, really not the greatest that a smartphone carries, but it will still take you through more than 6 hours of battery life before it gives way. Especially with the addition of super-speed charging technology of 45W (W), full charging of S20 Ultra’s battery does not take much time for the users.
High-resolution Quality Sharp Screen
The huge display goes up to 6.9 Inches which is an advantage and a disadvantage for the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra phone. While this huge size is likely to let the users experience the most fantastic sort of movies and games almost as if you’re playing it on tablet-size devices, add that with Dynamic AMOLED, HDR10+, and 120 (Hz) refresh rate, then I can’t say anything about the quality of an image on Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra with experience when watching movies and gaming on S20 Ultra.
Memory of Half a Terabyte
Aside from having super large RAM, the Galaxy S20 Ultra even has internal storage comparable to that of most laptops out there nowadays. With memory of 512 GB, or also known as half terabyte, you can save anything you want quite comfortably without worrying about running out of memory.
5G support
Taking high-speed internet to high levels is one thing an organization has done, and so, considering whether because of it already perfectly fits, 5G technology has been integrated into the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra.
Battery Life
5000mAh battery
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra runs on this humongous 5000mAh battery, and honestly it has to , because the screen is big and the internals are sort of power hungry. So battery life on the whole is pretty good, like it will usually carry you past the day even with moderate–to-heavy use, browsing, video watching, gaming, and a decent amount of photography. Lighter users can even see it stretch until the second day, before the charger has to come out.
Still, it can drop noticeably in certain cases. Like if you keep 120 Hz enabled, and you push the brightness above 60 percent then the battery performance takes a real hit. Compared to more “normal” usage, people who are really sensitive about energy drain may choose to stick with a 60Hz refresh rate, or turn on software battery adaptive features, instead.
Charging Options
The S20 Ultra does support 45W wired fast charging, still Samsung only kinda throws in the 25W adapter in the box. If you use that 25W adapter, you can get the phone from 0 to 100% in a little more than an hour, and that seems pretty wild, for the battery size it has. If you had the 45W adapter, sure, the charge would finish a bit sooner… but it’s basically faster by mere seconds, and you might not even notice it enough to justify buying the extra charger.
15W wireless charging is supported for fast charging, whereas 9W reverse wireless charging can be used to power other devices like your wireless earbuds or even another phone by simply placing it on the back of the S20 Ultra. While wireless charging is always preferred, it may be deemed slow in comparison to wired charging and reverse wireless charging lends itself as a mere convenience in times of need rather than a dependable method for charging.
Software and User Experience
One UI 2.1 and Android 10
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra runs on Samsung’s One UI 2.1 based on Android 10. One UI 2.1 keeps the essence of the Samsung UI but is refined to offer a much easier and straightforward experience that favors one-handed use. The interface looks clean and intuitive with lots of customization options to make the experience just the way you like it.
Samsung software has a lot of things like edge panels that give quick access to your favorite apps and tools, customizable always-on display, and loads of gestures and shortcuts to streamline workflow. Dark mode works well, covering both the system UI and supported apps, which is easier on the eyes and can help save battery.
Perfomance boosting
Samsung added some performance boosting features inside the software , like Game Booster which basically tunes the phone for longer gaming sessions. There is also Device Care that lets you handle storage, memory, and battery use in a more clean way, just like that. And on top of that it includes Samsung DeX , where you can hook your S20 Ultra to a monitor or TV and use it almost like a desktop pc with a mouse and keyboard, kind of smoother.
Software Updates
Samsung has promised at least three years of major Android updates and security patch updates for the S20 Ultra and other flagship devices. The implication here is that users will be able to receive new Android versions and thus features for pretty much the next three years, which is quite a significant improvement from Samsung’s earlier policies on updates.
Connectivity and 5G Support
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra was one of the very first smartphones which had full 5G support, from Sub-6GHz and mmWave. This sort of means that the device can hook up to a bunch of various 5G networks globally, and as a result it should deliver quicker download plus upload speeds, less lag, and more consistent performance than 4G LTE..
Although actually providing such benefits for a user when it comes to real-world usage, the difference gets made by the availability and quality of 5G networks in one’s surroundings. Users can enjoy much-speedy data transferring and faster downloading of larger files, high-definition streaming, and smoother video conferencing whilei use a well-covered 5G area. But when the S20 Ultra lands, 5G networks will still be kind of in an early infant stage of deployment, so it could take a while to really figure out the full capability of 5G in different regions across the globe.
Also, there’s another modern networking kind in this device, the Wi-Fi-6 protocol, and it provides quicker throughput, smoother performance in packed spaces, and lower power consumption rather than its previous Wi-Fi 5. On top of that, Bluetooth 5.0 is here as well, plus NFC for mobile payments and a USB-C port, all of which you can use for charging and data transfer too.
This model avails several biometric security features, such as ultrasonic in-display fingerprint detection and facial recognition. The fingerprint sensor is reliable but not really up to the standard of some optical sensors found on other devices. Sometimes, the sensor does not effectively read the fingerprint, especially when the screen is dirty or the fingers are wet. This plus point is that as it uses 3D mapping for detection, security is much better.
The S20 Ultra facial recognition is quite fast and easy to use; however, since it depends on the front-facing camera, it is not as secure as fingerprint sensors that rely on more sophisticated 3D facial scanning techniques. It works well in good lighting but can malfunction under low light or certain angles.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is shipped with stereo speakers, there’s one at the bottom, and another kind of embedded into the earpiece up at the top. Honestly it does give pretty great sound for a smartphone , with clear output even when the volume is pretty high, plus a decent blend of treble and bass. Alone, it’s still not the kind of thing that should fully replace proper high-quality external speakers, but for regular use it’s absolutely fine for watching videos, playing games or even listening to music while you’re out and about.
Now, the bummer is like most modern phones, the S20 Ultra doesn’t come with a 3.5mm headphone jack. That part is a bit disappointing if you like wired headphones, however Samsung includes a pair of USB‑C AKG tuned earplugs so you can get going with solid sound right away.
Pricing and Value
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra started with a pretty hefty price tag, basically to match the premium things and the newest tech packed inside it , so at launch it was among the most expensive smartphones on the market. It went head to head with flagship models from Apple , Huawei and a few other brands, like it was nothing less than inevitable. Over time the cost also became a point of argument for some buyers, especially around the beginning, when the camera and autofocus software had some early problems. Samsung later fixed a lot of that through updates , so the overall experience improved.
In terms of worthiness, S20 Ultra could be considered an expensive item for many advanced features it holds. A 108MP camera, 100x zoom, 8K video recording, and 120Hz display are attributes of the device no other devices around. So if someone is thinking tech value or assimilating the digits of a real techie, power user, or he/she wants modern gadgetry, this is a real option for him to consider.
But for many, the S20 Ultra seems to burden them to justify the price with a few other models in the S20 series, such as the S20 and S20+, but then had most of the same features but without breaking the bank. The S20 Ultra is basically a phone made only for the power users who want the very best in specifications and who are, of course, willing to pay a premium for it.
Defect
I mean, it’s hooked up to a whopping 6.9 inches for the display; just the word viewing creates an image of how huge this phone is. Certainly, it’s not going to be very comfortable and easy to handle with one hand this Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. In fact, the body is designed quite sturdy, giving me a sense of peace of mind while holding and putting it within the pocket.
The front and back of the device are made using Gorilla Glass 6, S20 Ultra feels like this is a phone in high-end segment quality. However, if you are using the phone lying down, the phone has a tendency to slip out of your hand and may fall into your face over a period, due to its large size as well as its smooth glass surface. Samsung also does not appear to provide any anti-fingerprint coating on the body, which is why at certain times, the phone tends to look fairly dirty.
The price of S20 Ultra has gone quite high as there are so many unique features added compared to S20 and S20 Plus.
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Tech Reviewer & Product Analyst
Định Bia has spent over 10 years testing consumer electronics with a focus on smart technology. He work as a product advisor at Biareview where he helped customers find the right devices for their needs. He personally tests every product featured on this site using a consistent evaluation framework covering quality, durability, and value. All reviews are based on experience, not influenced by the manufacturer.
