More than 150,000 yen globally... How much will it cost in Japan?
Samsung's strongest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S20 series, has been announced. The lowest price is set at $ 1,000 (about 108,000 yen), but the most amazing is the $ 1,400 (about 150,000 yen) Galaxy S20 Ultra. Whether 150,000 yen is reasonable or not, Sam Rutherford of US Gizmodo has used it and reviewed it. Please see below!
With a huge 6.9-inch 120Hz screen, beastly specs, 5G support, over 100 million pixel camera, Space Zoom lens and 8K video recording, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra (S20 Ultra) is the ultimate 's powerhouse. It's practically everything you could want in a smartphone (except for the headphone jack).
Stylus Life! You might not think so, but the S20 Ultra makes the $1,100 Note 10+ feel like a midrange device. If you don't even think about the price, you can't choose a smartphone other than the S20 Ultra.
However, it is impossible in the world where ordinary people live that the price has no meaning. How you feel about the S20 Ultra depends on how you look at 150,000 yen. For many people, 150,000 yen is a month's rent or a nice vacation. I was lamenting that "the number of smartphones has exceeded 100,000", but it has far exceeded my head. I used it and reviewed it to see if I could really feel the value for such a price.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
What is this? : Samsung's ultra-premium smartphone with 100x Space Zoom. Price: $1,400 Likes: Monstrous specs, 10x lossless zoom, huge, beautiful display, extensive photo toolkit, strong battery life, support for all versions of 5G Don't likes : Really too expensive, 100x zoom makes photos impressionistic, no headphone jack
At 6.57 x 2.99 x 0.35 inches (166.9 x 76.0 x 8.8mm), the S20 Ultra weighs 7.83 ounces (220 grams), which isn't much for a bulky phone. is not. But it's not huge, it packs a lot of good stuff into its size, and it's slightly narrower than the Note 10+, which measures 6.39 x 3.04 x 0.31 inches (162.3 x 77.2 x 7.9 mm).
What makes the S20 Ultra feel big is its thickness and weight. A few millimeters or a few grams may not seem like much, but when you're actually holding your phone and trying to type, it can be a big deal, especially for people with smaller hands. increase.
However, smartphones overall have been getting bigger since the Galaxy Note broke the 5-inch wall in 2011. So calling the 6.9-inch S20 Ultra "too big" might be too short-sighted. It's certainly bulky, but the beauty of the S20 Ultra's screen makes me feel like bigger is better.
Other than the screen, the design is surprisingly simple. The massive camera module on the back features a quad camera and a periscope zoom underneath, but it's not aesthetically pleasing either. But the S20 Ultra doesn't use the curved glass that Samsung has been pushing lately, so I'm happy for people who hate round phones.
So the S20 Ultra's design is focused on functionality, which is a shame because it doesn't look like it's worth the price. For example, I think the Galaxy S8 was the most beautiful Samsung smartphone, but in comparison, the S20 Ultra is rugged with only black and gray color variations.
Although the DNA is similar, it feels like Samsung's glass and aluminum materials are well-tailored smart suits to denim overalls. They may be shiny and sparkly overalls, but they are definitely overalls.
Regarding the display, Samsung was the first to adopt 120Hz, probably because the OnePlus 7 Pro and Pixel 4 were ahead of the rest with a refresh rate of 90Hz last year. I was. To me, this "120Hz" setting feels like a good middle ground between the 60Hz of a typical smartphone and the 300Hz or 360Hz of a forward-looking PC monitor. It's hard to describe in words the smoothness and slimy feeling that comes with the improved refresh rate, but after touching it for a few seconds and switching between options, I could almost cry with joy.
Unfortunately, 120Hz mode can only be used when the resolution is set to FHD+ or lower, and cannot be used when set to Max's QHD+, 3200 x 1440.
Samsung says this limit is to save battery life, which makes sense. However, it would be nice if it could automatically switch the refresh rate depending on the content without changing the resolution, like the Pixel 4 does.
But the S20 Ultra's 6.9-inch display is magically beautiful at any resolution and any refresh rate. The peak brightness of 707 nits is fantastic, especially in Vivid mode where everything seems to pop with rich, punchy colors. Samsung has been making some of the best mobile displays for years now, and the S20 Ultra looks like the epitome of that.
When it comes to sound, the S20 Ultra delivers powerful stereo sound with a large speaker below and an earpiece above the display. It's perfectly fine for playing music in a medium-sized room, but the sound quality isn't all that different from the Galaxy S10 or Note 10.
I see a lot of people online saying that a smartphone with more memory than a laptop doesn't make sense. But it's actually not meaningless, or rather, it's really comfortable.
Being lamenting that your phone has too much memory is like blaming a Ferrari for not using it because its top speed is too fast. For 150,000 yen, you need a certain amount of specs. Of course, if you just use apps like Facebook or Twitter, it won't take much, but there are many situations where huge memory is useful.
With 12GB of memory, you rarely need to reload apps and switching between apps is a snap. Also, people who play heavy games like "PUBG Mobile" and "Call of Duty Mobile" can keep multiple games open with this much memory, and the time it takes to close and open them until now can be shortened. And even if you open a lot of games, performance outside the game will not be affected.
This memory combined with Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 865, 128GB of storage (512GB for money), microSD slot, and 3 versions of 5G support in the US (sub-6GHz, 2.5GHz, mmWave) A 5G compatible ultra-fast smartphone that can be used with any carrier is complete.
However, when it comes to 5G performance, the network you're using is more limiting than your phone. When I tried it with Verizon's mmWave 5G, I was getting speeds from 500Mbps to well over 1.2Gbps in New York. However, Verizon's 5G coverage is still relatively limited, with the only outdoor testing locations being New York's Bryant Park and Madison Square Garden areas.
After that, I switched to a T-Mobile SIM that uses the 6GHz band to try a different 5G network, and the speed was 60Mbps to 100Mbps, much slower than Verizon. However, unlike Verizon, T-Mobile was more accessible in New York, and I was able to connect with the US Gizmodo editorial department on the 28th floor of the building.
Are the specs of the S20 Ultra a bit overkill? Well, that may be true, but it's over 150,000 yen, so I'm afraid it's not too much. Some people may think that they will not use it even if there is so much, but there should be a situation where power can be effectively used in some way, such as DeX mode that allows you to use your Galaxy smartphone like a computer.
108 million pixel main camera, 48 million pixel telephoto camera, 12 million pixel ultra wide-angle camera and 40 million pixel selfie camera , and with a ToF camera to boot, the S20 Ultra may pack the most pixels into a smartphone camera.
The S20 Ultra's camera, by default, uses a huge 108-megapixel lens to take sharp, detailed photos, and uses pixel binning technology to combine nine pixels into one pixel for low-light environments and no night mode. But you can take bright and colorful pictures.
One of the S20's greatest strengths is its ability to take clear pictures even in the dark, as it's not easy to stay still for 3 or 4 seconds in night mode. Compared to the Pixel 4 XL in a darkened theater (first photo below), the S20 Ultra's photos are noticeably sharper, capturing finer details like the stone tiles in the background better and reducing graininess. was
Samsung has been trailing the Google Pixel in photo quality, and even Apple with the iPhone 11 Pro. Even with the S20 Ultra, it's not going to be a big win under all conditions, but at least it's on par with, and in some cases better than, two companies.
In comparison with the iPhone 11, I shot street art with the S20 Ultra (4th photo below). Samsung's phone camera works well with bright, strong colors, and the photo below captures even more detail in the texture of the wall. Next, when I took a large amount of matcha (the 10th photo) compared to the Pixel 4, the S20 Ultra was able to take a brighter photo with better exposure. However, the Pixel 4's white balance is better, and the dark green of matcha comes out beautifully, and the S20 Ultra looks a little yellowish. Check it out in the slide show below.
I was pleasantly surprised by the S20 Ultra's night mode. A dark shot in Central Park turned into a calm landscape (2nd and 3rd above). Compared to the iPhone 11 and Pixel 4, it was roughly in line in terms of sharpness and detail.
However, as a habit of Samsung, it tends to be yellow, especially when it's dark, and the S20 Ultra has that habit.
There were also more obvious drawbacks. First, it takes an unexpectedly long time to lock the autofocus. And in night mode, why? There are cases where it turns yellow so intensely. However, Samsung says that it will continue to improve and adjust the camera, so it may be improved before the official launch on March 6th.
Next, the 48-megapixel Space Zoom is so much fun to use that it makes me laugh a little. The 100x zoom is a combination of 4x optical zoom, 10x "lossless" zoom that combines image processing, and 10x digital zoom. ~ 4th, 7-9th). Images are sharp and detailed, even handheld, better than the iPhone 11 Pro or Pixel 4, which have up to 2x optical zoom.
However, enlarging from 10x to 100x is just cropping with digital zoom to make it look bigger, and there is no image processing that makes it look beautiful. So, if you increase it to 10x or more, the clarity and sharpness will be lost, but up to about 25x or 30x is a level that you can use if you don't mind some blurring (5th and 10th photos below) ).
Whenis multiplied by 30 or more, it becomes more and more impressionistic, and when it is multiplied by 100, it feels like Claude Monet (same 6th photo). At 20x or higher, camera shake will occur without a tripod.
The S20 Ultra has a myriad of camera features, such as Single Shot mode, Super Steady video, and Live Focus photo/video, which are somewhat niche and gimmicky. But if you look at the camera as a whole, including that, I think it's the most versatile camera out of all the smartphones out there.
It's nice to be able to shoot 8K video, but since there's no 8K display and no one is watching native 8K content, I think it's better to use 8K as a complement to 4K shooting on the premise of cropping. .
Also, I don't take a lot of selfies myself, but the S20 Ultra's 40-megapixel front-facing camera does have its good points. When I took selfies with the Galaxy S series so far, my face tended to be a little too soft, my skin was too smooth, and it felt like there was a beautifying filter that I could never turn off. But with the S20 Ultra, the feeling of filtering was gone, and I was able to capture faces clearly and clearly see even the flaws. I think it would have been better if it had been filtered a little.
Considering the screen size and 5G support, the S20 Ultra's 5,000mAh battery makes sense. In our continuous video viewing test, the S20 Ultra's battery lasted 14 hours and 41 minutes, just a touch less than last year's Galaxy S10+'s 15 hours and 9 minutes. Even if 5G becomes more widely available and the battery is used more and more, I have a sense of security that I can keep it for the whole day.
The only caveat is that if you turn on 120Hz mode (which I highly recommend), it will drain your battery an hour or two faster depending on how you use it. If you spend hours scrolling through your Instagram feed, your battery may drain faster than usual.
However, when I used it, even with 120Hz mode on and heavy use from 7:00 am to 12:00 pm, the battery was still at 15% or 20% or more at the end of the day. .
When it comes to charging, the S20 Ultra is the first smartphone to support USB fast charging. There are various charging standards now, and various groups are trying to put them together.
The S20 Ultra comes with a 25-watt fast charger that can charge it from 5% to 31% in 15 minutes, so it should last about half a day. The S20 Ultra supports charging at 45 watts for those who really want to charge as fast as 1 second, but the time it takes is not much different from 25 watts, so it's not a must.
Like last year's Galaxy S10, Qi wireless charging is available at up to 15 watts and reverse wireless charging at up to 9 watts. Few other phones are this fast, with reverse wireless charging maxing out at 5 watts at best.
The S20 Ultra has many other new features. For example, Quick Share, the Samsung version of AirDrop, lets you easily send and receive files with other Galaxy phones. However, this feature is currently only available on the Galaxy S20 series, and I don't have an S20 device other than the S20 Ultra that I reviewed this time, so I haven't been able to test it properly. The same is true for the Music Share function over Bluetooth.
Seriously, there's very little I don't like about the S20 Ultra. The performance is super fast, it has the best screen I've seen on a phone, the battery is strong, and it has full support for all three major 5G types, so it's future-proof (even though 5G is still early days). , but this sense of security may be only for the time being).
However, of course, I think that there are people who do not agree. For example, I think there are people who don't like the size of the screen, the thick and heavy body, and the rather blunt styling, but in either case, it depends on the person. The S20 Ultra does what Samsung does best, putting the best hardware on the line before anyone else. If you could fix a few camera issues, the S20 Ultra would be perfectly on par with the best smartphone cameras out there.
Last but not least, the S20 Ultra's single biggest problem is the price. When I saw the price of $ 1,400 (about 150,000 yen), I thought that everything (including other S20 family) would be tough, but even after reviewing it and feeling its goodness, I still have that concern. .
The S20 Ultra is a super-powerful and over-the-top shiny device, but if you don't feel like paying $1,400 for this phone (or any phone), it's a perfectly logical reaction. The S20 Ultra is really overpriced. Even if someone who really wanted the S20 Ultra ended up buying something else, I can't help it.
・The S20 Ultra is equipped with Android 10 and Samsung's One UI 2.1, and is very easy to use.
・Space Zoom cannot be used realistically at 100x, but up to 10x is very good, and even up to 30x is acceptable.
・It seems that the headphone jack has been abolished in Galaxy smartphones.
・Since it supports all 5G that can be used in the United States, it should work with any carrier.
・The 6.9-inch 120Hz OLED display is truly mesmerizing.