Samsung Galaxy S20 is a line of Android smartphones created by Samsung as part of the Galaxy S series. They serve as the successor to the Galaxy S10, being released on March 6, 2020, in the United States and on March 13 in Europe.
The S20 line consists of three models: the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+ (both differentiated primarily by screen size), and Galaxy S20 Ultra (a larger camera-focused model)
History[]
The title of the phone was originally presumed to be the Galaxy S11, due to its being the logical extension from the predecessor, the Galaxy S10. However, successive leaks in January 2020 revealed the title of the phone to be the Galaxy S20, because it was released in the year of 2020. In addition, details regarding the phone were leaked widely before the release, to the extent that almost all details regarding the specifications and design of the phone were known before the release. Leaker Max Weinbach obtained the actual phone a month before the release, confirming everything the community already guessed. Commentators remarked that by February, "most everything the company is planning to introduce has already leaked out.” In addition to charts on the phone's specifications, marketing material and images of the phones themselves in real life were leaked.
Design[]
The Galaxy S20 series has a design similar to the Samsung Galaxy Note 10, with an Infinity-O display (first introduced on the Galaxy S10) containing a circular punch-hole in the top center, this time for the frontal selfie camera. In a departure from past Galaxy S designs, the rear camera array is not centered, but located in the corner with a rectangular protrusion similar to that of the iPhone 11 and the Google Pixel 4. The S20 and S20FE houses three cameras while the S20+ has four cameras in the bump, while the S20 Ultra houses four cameras in a larger bump. S20 phones sold in Europe had news aggregator upday in partnership with Axel Springer SE preinstalled, triggering notifications. Global color options for the first three phones are Cloud Pink, Cloud White, Cloud Blue, Cosmic Grey and Cosmic Black while the Fan Edition has Cloud Lavender, Cloud Mint, Cloud Navy, Cloud White, Cloud Red, and Cloud Orange. Cosmic Grey is available in all size variants except for the S20 FE, while Cosmic Black is limited to the S20+ and S20 Ultra, Cloud Blue is limited to the S20 and S20+, and Cloud Pink is exclusive to the S20. For the S20+, Prism Blue, is exclusively sold in Korea, Best Buy in the United States and through T-Mobile, Samsung Nederland and Tele2 in the Netherlands, while Aura Red is exclusive to Korea Telecom, Vodafone UK, Malaysia, and United Arab Emirates. Cloud White availability varies by country; in the United States it is exclusive to Verizon for the S20 with Ultrawide Band support. The S20 is sold in Italy, the S20+ is sold in Italy and Spain, and the S20 Ultra is sold in China and Germany. In June 2020, Verizon released the Galaxy S20 5G UW (Ultra Wideband). Differences from the S20 include the addition of mmWave, only 8 GB of RAM (compared to the usual 12 GB), and no microSD slot. Moreover, Samsung released the Galaxy S20+ 5G BTS Edition in the summer of 2020, with the color “Haze Purple.”
Specifications[]
Hardware[]
Chipsets[]
The S20 line comprises three models with various hardware specifications; international models of the S20 utilize the Exynos 990 system-on-chip, while the U.S., Canadian, Korean, Chinese and Japanese models utilize the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865.
Display[]
A 1440p “Dynamic AMOLED 2X” is featured with HDR10+ support and “dynamic tone mapping” technology with the exception of the S20 FE which utilizes a more traditional 1080p “Super AMOLED” display with HDR10+ support and “dynamic tone mapping” technology. The S20, S20 FE, and S20+ have a 6.2-inch, 6.5-inch, and 6.7-inch display, respectively, while the S20 Ultra has a 6.9-inch display. Except for the S20 FE, displays have curved sides that slope over the horizontal edges of the device. All devices utilizes a wider 20:9 aspect ratio in addition to a 120 Hz refresh rate double that of the S10. The S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra utilizes an ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint sensor while the S20 FE utilizes a more traditional optical in-screen fingerprint sensor.
Storage[]
The base amount of RAM is 6 GB with an additional 8 GB option for the S20 FE, while the base amount is 8 GB, with an additional 12 GB option for the S20 & S20+ and a 16 GB option for the S20 Ultra. 128 GB of internal storage is standard with the S20 FE offering a 256 GB option while the S20+ & S20 Ultra also offers 256 GB and 512 GB options, with up to 1 TB of expansion via the microSD card slot. Verizon's Galaxy S20 5G UW model is not equipped with a microSD slot.
| Models | Galaxy S20 | Galaxy S20+ | Galaxy S20 Ultra | Galaxy S20 FE | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RAM | Memory | RAM | Memory | RAM | Memory | RAM | Memory | |
| Variant 1 | 8GB | 128GB | 8GB | 128GB | 12GB | 128GB | 6GB | 128GB |
| Variant 2 | 12GB | 128GB | 12GB | 128GB | 12GB | 256GB | 8GB | 128GB |
| Variant 3 | - | - | 12GB | 256GB | 16GB | 512GB | 8GB | 256GB |
| Variant 4 | - | - | 12GB | 512GB | - | - | - | - |
Batteries[]
The S20, S20 FE, S20+, & S20 Ultra contain non-removable 4000 mAh, 4500 mAh, 4500 mAh, and 5000 mAh Li-Po batteries respectively, and Qi inductive charging is supported at up to 15W as well as the ability to charge other Qi-compatible devices from the S20's own battery power, which is branded as “Samsung PowerShare”. Wired charging is supported over USB-C at up to 25W for the S20, S20 FE, & S20+ and 45W for the S20 Ultra.
They support reverse charging at 4.5W.
Connectivity[]
The S20 series comes with 5G standard connectivity, though some regions may have special LTE variants. However, only Verizon models are compatible with higher-speed millimeter-wave networks. The 3.5 mm audio jack has been omitted entirely.
Cameras[]
| Models | Galaxy S20 FE | Galaxy S20 | Galaxy S20+ | Galaxy S20 Ultra | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wide | Specs | 12 MP, f/1.8, 26 mm, 1/1.76", DPAF, OIS | 108 MP, f/1.8, 26 mm, 1/1.33", PDAF, OIS | ||
| Model | Samsung S5K2LD (Exynos) or Sony IMX555 (Snapdragon) | Samsung S5KHM1 | |||
| Ultrawide | Specs | 12 MP, f/2.2, 15 mm, 1/3.1", Fixed Focus | 12 MP, f/2.2, 13 mm, 1/2.55", Fixed Focus | ||
| Model | Samsung S5K3L6 | Samsung S5K2LA | |||
| Telephoto | Specs | 8 MP, f/2.4, 76 mm, 1/4.5", PDAF, OIS (3x zoom) | 64 MP, f/2.0, 29 mm, 1/1.72", PDAF, OIS (1.1x zoom) | 48 MP, f/2.4, 70 mm, 1/3.24", DPAF, OIS (4x zoom) | |
| Model | SK Hynix HI-847 | Samsung S5KGW2 | Sony IMX586 | ||
| ToF | Specs | - | (640 x 480) 307.2 KP | ||
| Model | Sony IMX516 | ||||
| Front | Specs | 32 MP, f/2.2, 26 mm, 1/2.74", Fixed Focus | 10 MP, f/2.2, 26 mm, 1/3.24", DPAF | 40 MP, f/2.2, 26 mm, 1/2.8", PDAF | |
| Model | Sony IMX616 | Sony IMX374 | Samsung S5KGH1 | ||
The cameras on the Galaxy S20 series improved considerably over its predecessors, although unlike the S9 and S10, the aperture on the main lens is fixed. While the megapixels of the main and ultrawide sensors remained unchanged on the S20 and S20+, the telephoto sensor received some improvements. The 64-megapixel telephoto camera, branded as “Space Zoom”, supports 3X hybrid optical zoom (branded as "Hybrid Optic Z”om") and 30X digital zoom at 64 megapixels on the new telephoto sensor instead of 12 megapixels at two times on the S10 and 30 times digitally (branded “s “Super-Resolution Zoom”).
The S20+ receives a time-of-flight sensor (branded as “DepthVision Camera”) in addition to the regular S20's cameras. The Galaxy S20 Ultra has a quadruple lens setup that supports 4X optical zoom and 100X digital zoom, with a 108-megapixel wide image sensor, a 12-megapixel ultrawide sensor and a 48-megapixel periscope telephoto sensor accompanied by a time-of-flight sensor. Both the wide-angle and telephoto sensors use pixel binning to output higher quality images at a standard resolution, with the wide-angle sensor using Nonacell technology which groups 3×3 pixels to capture more light.
The front camera is able to record video footage at 2160p.
A new camera mode was introduced called Single Take, which allows users to capture photos or videos at the same time with different sensors automatically. The S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra can also record 8K videos at 24fps with a bit rate of 80 Mbps, which will consume about 600 MB of storage per minute. On the S20 and S20+, this is enabled by the 64 MP telephoto sensor, whereas the S20 Ultra's 108 MP wide sensor natively supports 8K video.
Supported video modes[]
The Samsung Galaxy S20 series supports the following video modes:
- 8K@24fps (not available for the S20 FE)
- 4K@30/60fps
- 1080p@30/60fps
- 1080p@240fps
- 720p@960fps (720p480fps upscale to 720p960fps on S20 Ultra)
All models can record at 720p30, 1080p30 or 4k30 with HDR10+, they can record with HEVC codec without HDR10+
Software[]
All four phones initially ran on Android 10 and Samsung's custom skin One UI 2.1. In early December 2020, Samsung began releasing the Android 11 update with One UI 3 to all models. In January of 2022, all four phones has received the OneUI 4 update based on Android 12. In November 2022, all four phones has received the OneUI 5 update based on Android 13.
Software support[]
Galaxy S20 was launched in 2020 and ran Android 10 out of the box. Later on, Samsung confirmed 4 years of software support for the entire Galaxy S20 series.[1] In June 2020, Samsung confirmed 5 years of software updates and security updates for it Enterprise edition of Galaxy S20 series smartphones. [2]