Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra camera review: 108MP samples, 100x zoom, 8K video, and more

Sounds crazy for a smartphone camera. That said, we were eager to test the camera in real life and gave the

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra

. Here's how the Galaxy S20 Ultra fared in our real-world camera tests. Before we talk about image/video quality, let's break down the camera setup to understand the crazy hardware.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Camera Specifications

Starting with the 108MP main camera, it uses Samsung's own ISOCELL Bright HM1 sensor. The large 1/1.33" sensor applies Quad-Bayer technology to individual 0.8µm photosites of each color pixel to result in 2.4µm pixels. The process of grouping pixels is slightly different on the

Galaxy S20 Ultra p>

as the phone combines nine pixels to form one larger pixel.

The f/1.8 aperture sensor supports PDAF and is also optically stabilized. The main sensor is accompanied by a 48MP telephoto sensor placed in a complex architecture with a periscope lens. The 1/2.0" 48MP camera operates on an f/3.5 aperture, offers 4x optical zoom and also supports PDAF and OIS.

The third lens in the setup is a 12MP fixed focus f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle lens that offers a 123° field of view. The final sensor in the quad-lens camera setup is a 0.3MP, f/1.0 ToF sensor for creating bokeh. For selfies, the Galaxy S20 Ultra sports a 26mm wide 40MP sensor with an f/2.2 aperture. The selfie camera also supports PDAF.

When it comes to video recording capabilities, the

Galaxy S20 Ultra

can record 8K video at 24fps, 4K video at 30/60fps, 1080p video at 30/60/240fps, and 720p video at 960fps for ultra slow motion output. The 40MP front camera is also a very capable video recording sensor.

It can capture 4K video at 30/60fps and 1080p video at 30/60fps. The front camera can also capture software-driven portraits and even videos with a blurred background.

If you noticed, the variable aperture technology has now been dropped to accommodate the aforementioned complex camera setup. How this will affect image quality is something we'll talk about later in this review.

Galaxy S20 Ultra: Camera performance in daylight

Like any Samsung flagship smartphone, the

Galaxy S20 Ultra

captures vibrant photos in good lighting, which looks great on the phone screen and on a larger screen. The smartphone takes 12MP pixel-clustered photos that show good detail and sharpness.

Daylight photos of buildings, flowers, trees, and skies have excellent dynamic range, vivid colors, and good levels of contrast. There's no visible noise in images captured in daylight, and noise is handled very well in low-light scenarios as well. That's largely down to the larger physical sensor which allows plenty of light intake, similar to what a variable aperture would have done to produce brighter images.

Standard photo mode offers pleasing bokeh

Even standard mode captures a pleasing bokeh effect, thanks to the larger sensor's shallower depth of field. The photo above was taken in standard mode and the isolation of the subject looks very natural. However, it's worth mentioning that the standard photo mode produces slightly over-processed colors, especially flowers and objects with darker undertones.

While this is something you can tweak later in post-processing, the camera algorithm might need some tweaking to handle image processing. This is likely due to the slightly modified pixel clustering process which joins a few more photosites together to create a larger pixel of the same primary color. “Live Focus” mode provides more accurate and natural colors.

Galaxy S20 Ultra 100x Zoom Camera Samples

The zoom capability is undoubtedly the main feature of the

Galaxy S20 Ultra

. Samsung calls it "Space Zoom" and it lets you zoom up to 100x. The insane zoom range is achieved by combining a bent lens with two important imaging technologies: sensor cropping and multiple photos taken and merged at once.

Optical zoom up to 5x (which differs very slightly from the 4x zoom range calculated by the zoom range slider), images are perfectly usable. 5x optical zoom shots have the usual vivid colors, minimal noise but show slightly increased contrast. But these images are very usable and can be uploaded on social media platforms.

Even decent detail from 10x zoom photos

Bring the zoom slider to 10x and images still show decent detail, but noise becomes evident. Images also display noticeable pixelation. The next stop is 30x, which clearly shows distant objects on the phone screen, but the images aren't very helpful as they look very processed. 100x zoom images are simply not usable.

You can surprise people around by displaying the insane zoom range, but you cannot use such images. The camera interface displays a viewfinder to help you lock on a subject in zoom mode, which is very convenient. In fact, the One UI 2.1 offers one of the best camera interfaces on a smartphone.

Galaxy S20 Ultra 108MP Camera Samples

the

Galaxy S20 Ultra< /p>

is also capable of taking 108MP photos. You can crop these very high resolution images for specific in-frame detail, and that's the only advantage you have with 108MP images. These high res images take up 40MB of space and don't seem relevant to me, as the 12MP shots are exactly the same. You won't even notice the minor differences in contrast and white balance on the phone's excellent display. It is, however, a good presentation feature.

Galaxy S20 Ultra Camera - Portraits and Selfies

Thanks to a large sensor with a shallower depth of field, the

capture impressive portraits. Images show pleasing bokeh as subject isolation is impressive and looks natural. Portraits with people in the frame also come out well. You will notice very good edge detection and natural color tones.

Portraits taken in outdoor light show fine textures and natural skin tones. However, indoor portraits (with people in frame) are mostly plagued with unwanted skin smoothing issues, which we also encountered with the

Galaxy S20+

.

p>Both flagship smartphones tend to add artificial softening to facial detail, resulting in slightly less natural shots in indoor lighting. The 40MP selfie camera captures detailed photos, but the artificial skin softening only gets worse.

Low-light performance of the Galaxy S20 Ultra camera

With a larger sensor in action, the Galaxy S20 Ultra captures bright low-light images with vivid colors. The larger physical sensor lets in more light to produce well-lit shots with little to no noise if there's artificial lighting in the frame. However, some images just turn out to be slightly over-processed and show excessive sharpness.

Night mode may also require fine-tuning via software updates. Activate Night Mode to preserve highlights, dynamic range, and increase saturation for a pleasing overall output. I only wish Samsung could have mimicked the Google Pixel's one-minute long exposure photo. That would have made the Galaxy S20 Ultra nearly unbeatable. Nonetheless, the Galaxy S20 Ultra still offers one of the best low-light cameras on a smartphone.

Galaxy S20 Ultra Camera - Video Recording

8K videos at 720p 960fps, the camera setup on the

Galaxy S20 Ultra

can do anything. 8K video recording is limited to 24 fps. You can also record 4k video at 60fps from the main sensor and shoot 4k at 30fps from all cameras. Stabilization works across resolutions, which is remarkable. Besides, you can also enable “Super Steady” mode; however, it only works with the ultra wide angle lens.

When it comes to video quality, 8K footage offers no significant advantage over 4k @30/60fps footage. You won't notice any visible difference in detail and color. A two-minute clip takes up 1GB of space, and you also need a supported panel to stream the 8K videos.

In short, 4K @30/60fps videos actually make a lot more sense. life. Just like images, videos across resolutions and frame rates show crisp detail, punchy colors, and impressive dynamic range.

I've shot a lot of ultra-wide-angle video and was pleased to see the crisp, vibrant video output. The Galaxy S20 Ultra even captures well-lit video in low light. More importantly, the smartphone also ensures quite impressive zoom videos. You can shoot crisp 4k video at 4x without Super Steady Mode, so make sure you have a tripod handy. The smartphone even records pretty decent 10x zoom videos in 1080p resolution.

Last but not the least, you can also experience a lot of video modes such as super slow motion, slow motion, hyperlapse and the newly added “night hyperlapse” which can create quite interesting light trail videos by taking long exposure photos. Overall, the

Galaxy S20 Ultra

is quite a remarkable video recording device and will delight content creators who always record videos on the go.

Verdict

Samsung has managed to create a smartphone with a versatile and capable camera setup. The large physical sensor makes a difference in real life and not just on papers. It enables the smartphone to capture bright still images and well-lit videos in different lighting conditions. The image/video output shows excellent detail, punchy colors and impressive dynamic range. The polished camera app offers a lot to experiment with and the results are mostly impressive.

State-of-the-art features, such as 108MP high-resolution images, 100x zoom range, and 8K footage are nice additions to the setup. These features show how far smartphones have come in the realm of cameras, but honestly, they aren't very useful in real life. These features offer no additional benefit over the widely used ones (such as 12MP pixel shots, 4K video, and up to 30x zoom), which makes us question their existence and impact on the increase in the overall price of the handset.< /p>

But the Galaxy S20 Ultra isn't just about the crazy camera setup. The phablet also offers the best screen in the segment, long battery life and fast overall performance. We'll test these features in our full review of the smartphone.