Practice with the new Samsung S20 Ultra: is it worth $ 1,400?

First of all, the S20 Ultra has a 6.9 inch OLED screen that looks fantastic. Out of the box, it is set to 1080p with a refresh rate of 60 Hz, but you can increase this rate up to 120 Hz for ultra smooth scrolling. If you want to use the QHD setting with a higher resolution, you will be limited to a refresh rate of 60 Hz, possibly due to battery life issues.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra includes 12 to 16 GB of RAM (16 GB for the most high-end option priced at $ 1600), 128 or 512 GB of storage (again for this model at $ 1600), a SD card expansion slot, a Snapdragon 865 processor (the newest and fastest from Qualcomm chip), a fingerprint sensor built into the screen and a 5000 mAh battery, which offers impressive autonomy.

Samsung has also equipped the Ultra with some awesome cameras, though some of the new stuff is a bit fanciful. There's a 108-megapixel wide-angle lens that can take great photos, but the 108-megapixel images are massive in size and aren't great when you take a bunch of photos and use smartphone storage.

The lens uses a large sensor that lets in lots of light to create natural depth-of-field effects, but we had trouble getting the camera to focus properly due to some bugs that Samsung has not yet resolved.

There is also an impressive 100X spatial zoom function on the surface because it allows you to zoom very far, but a photo with 100X zoom is not really usable because it is so grainy and unclear. The more modest 30x zoom is however quite good.

You can do an 8K recording on the Galaxy S20 Ultra, but with the lack of focus tracking, the huge crop factor and the large file sizes, it's not really worth it because the video 4K is more than adequate and offers better focusing tools. We'll be doing a full camera comparison with the S20 Ultra and the 11iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ later this week, so be sure to check out for this video.

The S20 Ultra, like the entire S20 range, comes with 5G connectivity, which is a major selling point. Most people can't really take advantage of 5G networks yet as they are still in the early stages of deployment, but people who own S20 smartphones will be ready to enjoy 5G when it's ready.

Right now, 5G is kind of a success. The fastest 5G, mmWave, is limited to certain urban areas and suffers from interference from buildings and trees, while 5G at 600 MHz, designed for rural areas, is not much faster than LTE at the moment. 5G will improve and it will improve quickly once 5G becomes standard on all smartphones, but for now, this is not a fully needed feature.

It is not really fair to compare Samsung smartphones from February 2020 with Apple smartphones from September 2019, because Apple is working on upgraded iPhones with specifications that better match those of the S20 range , but until these new iPhones come out in the fall, Samsung's S20 range and the The S20 Ultra in particular is one of the most powerful smartphones on the market.

Lots of people can buy their smartphones on plans that spread payments over 24 months and also offer regular upgrades with an exchange, but $ 1,400 is still a lot to pay even over several months. Is the Galaxy S20 Ultra worth it? No, not for most people.

Just like the 11iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ isn’t for all users, the Galaxy S20 Ultra is for those who want the best of the best in terms of specifications. We would not recommend the 11iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ to the average user compared to the iPhone 11, and the Galaxy S20 Ultra is also not for the average user, that’s ; that's why Samsung sells it alongside the $ 999 S20 and the $ 1200 S20 +.

What do you think of the Samsung S20 Ultra? Would you like to shell out that amount of money for a smartphone? Let us know in the comments.