The Galaxy S20 Ultra is Samsung’s latest flagship device, costs a whopping $1399, so why should you consider buy this phone? And more importantly, why might you NOT want to? I have put together my list of pros and cons… let’s kick off this Galaxy S20 Ultra review!

Here’s my video review of this device in case you’d rather watch the review than read it!

Pros - Why This Thing Kicks A**

I walk into best buy to buy the S20 Ultra 5G, and immediately upon arriving at the smartphone kiosk, I noticed the massive phone on display. I think to myself that is the largest phone display I’ve EVER seen. It’s like a small tablet. And yes, that phone turned out to be the S20 Ultra 5G.

The MASSIVE 6.9” display in all its glory.

Now I personally LOVE big screens. As long as it can fit in my pants pocket, give me the largest phone display possible. And this one fits in my pocket no problem. Big displays allow me to see TV shows and fine details of YouTube videos much better, you can see details on webpages better. The mixture of no notch, just a hole punch, plus the size of the display really gives you the most screen real estate that I’ve seen so far in any phone. Not just that, this is a Samsung display, so you know the display is going to have superb colors and contrast for really poppy colors and deep blacks.

Beyond the size, it’s also high refresh rate for ultra smooth performance. Interestingly enough, 120 hz is not enabled by default, you have to turn it on. This is probably because the 120 hz can drain the battery faster. But to me, the increased refresh rate makes a massive difference and I can’t recommend it enough. Plus, we have the a massive 5000 mAh battery. I’ve been using phones with high refresh rates for a long time, and I think it really makes the user experience much smoother and enjoyable. This was especially noticeable for me when compared to previous generations of Samsung smartphones that didn’t have the extra smoother refresh rate. The S20 Ultra was a dramatically better user experience than past phones.

Of course, I’ve got to talk about the battery life. The battery life will vary drastically depending on what you’re doing with it. If you’re gaming at higher refresh rates and high brightness over 5G, you’ll see dramatically less battery life than if you’re just browsing the web over wifi on medium brightness. On average, I think most people will see about 8-12 hours of screen on time with this phone, which is A+ for battery life.

Of course, this being Samsung’s latest flagship it has top of the line specs. Snapdragon 865, 12-16 GB of ram, depending on which model you get, 5G connectivity for future proofing, and some of the craziest camera specs you can find on a phone. A whopping 108 Mega Pixel Main sensor!! But of course, these over the top specs do increase the price of the phone, with the S20 starting at $999 and the S20 Ultra at $1399. The one I’m using is the $1399 version with 12 GB’s of ram, which I think is plenty.

The camera’s zoom is NUTS. I’ve been so impressed with the zoom right off the bat. The iPhone 11 Pro Max really can’t compete with the large optical zoom that this phone has.

See my video review for actual video samples, but I think the front camera video is decent, but it struggles with autofocus, likely because of the increased 40 mega pixel count clogging the image processing speed. The rear camera performed quite well for photos, but the rear camera video was quite mediocre for the Wide angle and zoom lens modes, often struggling to focus on my face and having more jitters than you would expect from a high end phone. I believe this is caused by the That said, the ultra wide angle has excellent video, so for close up filming, I would just use that instead.

The camera’s overall performance is top notch for photos with a ultra wide angle, wide angle, and 5x optical zoom—with the exception again being that focusing takes longer than normal for all cameras, except the ultra wide camera.

Blurry main camera still from video mode.

Another major plus for the S20 Ultra is the additional software features. You’ve got Bixby, which if I’m being honest, I didn’t really use. Then you’ve also get DEX, which allows you to turn your phone into a mini computer with a keyboard and mouse. Very cool if you just need a computer for casual use. This could very well be the only device you need.

Then of course there is the MicroSD card slot for easy and cheap expandable storage. I’m a huge fan of this!

THE CONS

The MASSIVE camera bump on the back is obscene, but at the same time, I appreciate the steps that Samsung has taken to make their camera sensors larger—the downside comes down to when you set the phone on a desk or table, it’s got a very noticeable wobble. Because there is less surface area, the phone has also had the tendency to slide off of the surfaces. Of course, this would be fixed if you add a case. It’s also just a little awkward to look at I think.

Another downside to the S20 Ultra is that it has much more limited color selection when compared to the S20, which has some additional colors. I really like the Blue S20.

The phone is simply massive. It’s the largest phone I’ve ever held in my hands—and it’s simply going too be big for a lot people. But we’ve said that about a lot of phones, and people keep buying bigger and bigger devices. Has Samsung finally gone too far? What do you think? My advice, if you do decide to get this phone, you’ll want to hold in your own hands before you buy to see if its too big.

I’m still not a big fan of the UI. The icon’s styles are a bit dated and the size of the icons are all oversized. But the functionality is there, so its not that big of a deal. The good thing is that with Android you can always just download a new launcher to reskin your experience—I personally use Nova launcher.

With people keeping their phones for longer and longer, I really feel the need to point out Samsung’s lackluster software support when compared to some of their competitors, like Apple. Samsung typically supports their phones with software updates for 2-3 years, while Apple usually does 5 or more years. Samsung does have better support than some Android companies, but if you’re going to keep this phone for the next five years, know that the later years will not likely see many software updates.

Expensive. This phone costs an arm and leg, especially when compared with the stiff competition. The Red Magic 3s and ROG Phone II costs far less, and offers a very similar set of features—though the camera and overall design on the Samsung I think is clearly superior, while the ROG Phone 2 offers built in air triggers that will excite anyone that enjoys mobile games like PUBG.

Conclusion – Worth Buying?

Overall, I’ve really enjoyed my time with the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G, but the lackluster video modes leaves me feeling icky. I need high quality video in my smartphone more than I need great photos. Is it the best phone out there? Not in my opinion. But if you’ve got a lot of money to throw down for one and you really want the largest phone display you can get and don’t mind mediocre video—go for it—but if you want to save a lot of money and get something very similar in performance, I’d recommend the ROG Phone 2, OnePlus 7 Pro, or one of the Red Magic phones. But those won’t be for everyone.