Intro
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus is a top-tier smartphone that strikes a balance between the S20 and the S20 Ultra, offering a larger screen and battery while being more affordable than its ultra-premium counterpart. In this review, the focus will be on the phone's design and display, shedding light on its build quality, screen features, and overall aesthetics.
Design and Display
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus boasts a sleek and modern design with a subtle curve on its screen, striking a balance between elegance and usability. The phone features minimal bezels and a centered hole punch for the front camera, creating a visually appealing and immersive display.
- Subtle Screen Curve: The phone's screen has a discreet curve, adding to its elegance without compromising usability.
- Premium Build: Crafted with Gorilla Glass 6 on both the front and back, the Galaxy S20 Plus exudes durability and sophistication. Additionally, its IP68 rating ensures resistance to water and dust, enhancing its overall robustness.
- Comfortable and Lightweight: Despite its large screen, the Galaxy S20 Plus is notably lightweight and offers a comfortable grip, making it suitable for extended usage.
Moreover, the haptic feedback on the phone is commendable, contributing to an enhanced user experience and tactile responsiveness. Samsung's commitment to delivering exceptional screens is evident in the Galaxy S20 Plus, as it features a 6.7-inch dynamic AMOLED display that stands out as one of the best in the market.
Audio and Media
When it comes to media consumption, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus excels, offering a top-notch audio and visual experience. The phone features a stereo speaker setup, utilizing a downward-facing speaker on the bottom and the earpiece as a second channel. Although it may not be as loud as the S20, it delivers impressive loudness in tests. Moreover, the phone's frequency response is comparable to the S20 Ultra, ensuring a rich audio experience.
Stereo Speaker Setup
- Downward-Facing Speaker: The phone's bottom speaker, combined with the earpiece, delivers a stereo audio experience, enhancing the immersion while consuming media.
- Loudness and Clarity: Despite not reaching the same loudness as the S20, the Galaxy S20 Plus offers excellent clarity, making it a great choice for enjoying music, videos, and more.
Audio Quality
With a focus on delivering an exceptional audio experience, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus ensures that users can enjoy their favorite content with immersive sound quality and clarity. Whether it's music, movies, or games, the phone's audio capabilities elevate the overall media consumption experience.
Battery
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus is equipped with a 4,500mAh battery, providing reliable performance to support the phone's advanced features and extensive usage. During testing, the phone demonstrated consistent battery life, offering endurance that aligns with its flagship status. Additionally, the phone's charging capabilities further enhance its usability, ensuring convenient and efficient power replenishment.
Battery Life and Efficiency
- Refresh Rate Impact: With the 120Hz refresh rate turned on, the Galaxy S20 Plus delivered 87 hours of endurance, while the 60Hz refresh rate extended this to 97 hours. The absence of dynamic refresh rate implementation contributes to these figures, as the modern is external to the chipset, impacting energy efficiency.
- Charging Capabilities: The phone comes with a 25W adapter, enabling rapid charging from 0 to 62 percent in just 30 minutes. Furthermore, it supports up to 15W wireless charging and reverse wireless charging, providing versatile and convenient power replenishment options.
Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus's battery performance and charging features complement its impressive capabilities, ensuring that users can rely on its power efficiency and convenient recharging options.
Performance
When it comes to performance, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus offers two chipset variants: the Snapdragon 865 and the Exynos 990, depending on the market. The Snapdragon version is typically available in North America, while the Exynos variant is found in other regions.
Chipset Variants
- Snapdragon 865: Known for its robust performance, the Snapdragon variant delivers seamless functionality and swift responsiveness, ensuring a smooth user experience.
- Exynos 990: While the Exynos chipset is slightly behind in benchmarks compared to the Snapdragon, real-world usage doesn't exhibit noticeable differences in performance.
Interestingly, the Oppo Find X2 Pro, equipped with a Snapdragon 865, outperformed the Samsung Galaxy S20 series in both multi-core and single-core performance. This indicates that Samsung's devices with the Qualcomm chipset might boast enhanced speed and efficiency.
User Interface and Software
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus features 1 UI 2.1 layered on top of Android 10, providing a seamless and intuitive user interface. The latest UI version introduces system-wide dark mode, refined edge panels, and improved gesture navigation, enhancing the overall user experience.
- System-Wide Dark Mode: The inclusion of a dark mode enhances visual comfort and reduces eye strain during prolonged usage.
- Enhanced Gesture Navigation: With improved gesture navigation, users can conveniently swipe in from the sides to go back, enhancing one-handed usability.
- Additional Features: New additions include integration of Google Duo in the phone app for direct video calls and the music share option, allowing the phone to connect to a Bluetooth speaker and serve as a hub for other devices.
While the user interface showcases notable improvements, accessing the multi-window feature can be slightly challenging due to the need to navigate through a mini menu instead of a simple long press on the tasks.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus features a triple camera setup with an additional time-of-flight camera, offering enhanced capabilities for capturing stunning photos and videos. The camera system has been updated with improved sensors, especially for the ultra-wide and main cameras, delivering exceptional image quality and versatility.
Photo Capabilities
In daylight conditions, all three cameras perform admirably, capturing vivid colors and impressive detail. The main camera stands out with its exceptional detail and reliable auto HDR, while the ultra-wide camera matches the main snapper in overall processing. Additionally, the hybrid optical telephoto setup delivers detailed images at two and three times magnification. However, images start to lose sharpness at higher zoom levels, with the 10x zoom showing reduced usability.
- Night Photography: The main camera exhibits excellent dynamic range in low-light conditions, while the night mode further enhances image quality by reducing noise and increasing detail levels. The ultra-wide camera benefits significantly from night mode, producing more usable images at two and three times zoom.
- Time-of-Flight Sensor: The addition of the time-of-flight sensor enhances live focus and portrait capabilities, resulting in impressive portrait shots with two available options for capturing wider or close-up versions. The live focus mode performs impressively even with complex backgrounds and subjects, showcasing the camera's versatility.
Video Performance
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus excels in video recording, offering the ability to capture 8K video at 24 fps, though 4K recording is recommended for practicality and efficient use of storage space. The device's video stabilization ensures smooth and professional-looking footage, while the super steady mode provides options for utilizing the main camera with OIS and autofocus or the ultra-wide snapper with a wider field of view. Additionally, the 10-megapixel front camera delivers excellent detail and produces impressive selfie portraits.
Selfie Camera
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus boasts a single front camera that delivers impressive selfie portraits, capturing good detail and natural colors. However, being a single camera setup, it has some limitations compared to multi-camera systems. Despite this, the selfie camera on the Galaxy S20 Plus offers a satisfying experience for capturing self-portraits and engaging in video calls.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus emerges as a compelling choice within the S20 series, offering a larger screen and better battery life compared to the standard S20. With its superior screen, lightweight design, and impressive camera capabilities, the Galaxy S20 Plus presents a strong alternative to its competitors, particularly for those seeking an Android flagship. Overall, the Galaxy S20 Plus stands out as a well-rounded and powerful smartphone that caters to diverse user preferences and demands.
FAQ
Below are some frequently asked questions about the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus:
1. What are the standout features of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus?
- Impressive 6.7-inch AMOLED display
- Robust 4,500mAh battery
- High-quality camera system with versatile capabilities
2. Does the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus support 5G connectivity?
Yes, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus is 5G-compatible, providing users with access to next-generation network speeds and capabilities.
3. How does the battery life of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus compare to other flagship smartphones?
The Galaxy S20 Plus offers competitive battery endurance, especially when considering its 4,500mAh battery capacity, which ensures reliable performance for extended usage.
