The iPhone 11 Pro Max relied on a conservative triple‑camera setup. Huawei’s P30 Pro pushed 5x periscope zoom. Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Ultra tried to do both at once—then slapped “100X Space Zoom” on the back and asked $1,399 for it.
Four years on, the S20 Ultra is still one of the most ambitious Android camera experiments. But once you strip away the branding, its story is a lot more nuanced than Samsung’s launch pitch.
Space Zoom vs Reality: 4x Great, 100x Garbage
Samsung’s marketing revolved around that “100X Space Zoom” label etched into the massive camera hump. In hardware terms, the telephoto stack was legitimately aggressive for its time: a 48MP 1/2″ Quad Bayer sensor behind a periscope lens, delivering roughly 4x optical zoom (~103mm equivalent) at f/3.5 with OIS.
In real-world shooting, that 4x range is exactly where the S20 Ultra shines. Daylight 4x images are sharp, contrasty, and nearly noise‑free, with nice compression and pleasing background blur for a phone. Even at 5x, where Samsung starts upscaling a bit, the quality hit is small enough that most people would only notice at 1:1.
Once you climb higher, though, the fantasy unravels. At 10x, the Ultra and Huawei P30 Pro are still in the “usable if you’re not pixel‑peeping” zone, but the big sensor advantage doesn’t translate into a huge step up. At 30x, both phones are clearly stretching; Samsung pulls slightly ahead, but output is already borderline. And at 100x, the images are effectively unusable—soft, noisy, and more proof-of-concept than photography.
Low light tells a similar story. The periscope lens simply isn’t bright enough to make 10x or 30x night shots worthwhile. The Ultra is impressive around 4x–5x after dark, especially versus the P30 Pro and the old Note10+; beyond that, it’s just physics and noise.
Cautious verdict: the periscope is genuinely good from 4x to 5x, solid up to 10x, and pure marketing at 100x.
108MP Nonacell: Big Sensor, Familiar Output
The S20 Ultra’s main camera was Samsung’s first stab at a 108MP nonacell sensor, the ISOCELL Bright HM1. It groups nine 0.8µm pixels into one 2.4µm “super pixel,” outputting 12MP images with a huge 1/1.33″ sensor behind an f/1.8 lens.
On paper, that sounds like a massive leap over conventional 12MP sensors. In practice, daylight detail from the binned 12MP shots is roughly on par with a regular 12MP flagship camera like the Note10+. High‑frequency detail—grass, asphalt, balcony blinds—often looks smeared or oddly rendered. Straight lines lack the micro‑contrast you’d expect from a sensor with this much data.
Switching to full‑res 108MP doesn’t magically fix it outside controlled scenarios. In studio‑style conditions, you can pull extra lines of resolution out of charts and posters. Step outdoors, and demosaicing quirks plus the nonacell pattern mean you rarely see a clean win over a well‑tuned 12MP sensor.
Against Xiaomi’s Mi Note 10 (also 108MP but Quad Bayer), the Ultra actually loses some battles. The Xiaomi tends to handle tricky patterns and fine textures more gracefully in 108MP mode, with fewer artifacts and cleaner lines. In binned modes, the Mi’s 27MP output naturally carries more per‑pixel detail than Samsung’s 12MP.
To its credit, Samsung’s color science is punchy but enjoyable, and noise suppression in skies and flat areas is excellent. Natural depth of field from the large sensor also gives close‑ups a legitimately DSLR‑ish vibe. But if you were expecting the 108MP badge to redefine detail, it doesn’t.
Zoom Tiers: S20 Ultra vs P30 Pro vs Note10+
Samsung positioned the S20 Ultra as the next evolution of Huawei’s P30 Pro and its 5x periscope, but the story shifts depending on zoom level and lighting.
Daytime:
– 1x: The Ultra’s 12MP binned images are good, but not dramatically better than the Note10+.
– 2x: The Note10+ often looks cleaner. The Ultra fuses data from tele and main sensors, leading to a sharp center but softer edges and weaker dynamic range.
– 4x: This is the Ultra’s sweet spot—noticeably sharper and more detailed than the P30 Pro, with better definition in distant textures.
– 5x: The P30 Pro counters; at its native 5x, Huawei edges out Samsung in some scenes, particularly on intricate details like murals and clock faces.
– 10x: The periscope phones leave the Note10+ behind. The Ultra has a slight edge, but nowhere near what raw sensor size differences might imply.
Low light:
– Around 2x: The Note10+ often wins, thanks to its brighter f/2.1 2x lens and more consistent HDR. The Ultra’s stitched approach compromises edge sharpness and highlight handling.
– 4x–5x: The Ultra pulls ahead decisively. Its periscope plus Night mode produce the sharpest, most usable long‑zoom night shots compared to both the P30 Pro and Note10+.
So if your idea of telephoto is “50mm‑ish portraits at 2x,” the Ultra is actually worse than Samsung’s own older Note. If you live between 4x and 5x, especially at night, the S20 Ultra is the best of this group.
Ultra Hardware, Messy Software
The S20 Ultra’s camera UI and focusing logic undercut some of its hardware advantages. Zoom controls are confusing: tap the single‑tree icon and you land at 5x, even though the telephoto’s native optics are 4x. The actual 4x preset is buried, and when you pick it, the UI relabels it as if you’re using the main camera.
The 2x mode is another hack. The phone fills the frame’s center with tele data and the outer areas with the main sensor, creating visible boundaries in fine detail if you inspect full‑res shots. In low light, behavior changes again; sometimes 2x is entirely main‑camera crop, sometimes it’s the hybrid merge.
Portrait handling is equally odd. Live Focus uses the main sensor for both wide and 2x‑equivalent portraits, with the ToF sensor assisting depth. That means:
– The “wide” portrait option is too close and distorts faces.
– The “2x” option is just a crop, then upscaled—less sharp than it should be.
On top of that, some people shots with the rear camera in standard Photo mode show aggressive skin brightening/smoothing and a baffling tendency to miss sharp focus even when face detection claims a lock.
Selfies are better behaved. The 40MP Quad Bayer front sensor produces detailed 10MP shots with good dynamic range, and you can go full 40MP for a bit more fine detail in ideal light. There’s still Samsung’s annoying default to a cropped‑in selfie view, and you have to wrestle with toggles to keep the wide FoV.
Video and One UI: Ambitious but Not Effortless
On video, the spec list looks stacked: up to 8K24 from the main camera, 4K30 from every lens (including the ultra‑wide and selfie), and 4K60 from the primary shooter. EIS works across modes, including 4K60 and 8K.
Again, reality is messier. 8K is heavy (around 80Mbps, ~600MB per minute) and not meaningfully more detailed than sharp 4K. You’re basically looking at a cropped center of that 108MP sensor, limited by nonacell demosaicing. For most users, it’s a storage drain rather than a quality upgrade.
4K30 from the main camera is where the Ultra is genuinely strong: high detail, lively but controlled colors, and wide dynamic range. 4K60 cranks sharpening too far, but at normal viewing distances it’s acceptable. The ultra‑wide matches the main lens well in color and offers solid 4K and 1080p output.
Zoom video mirrors stills: 2x is decent but clearly digital; 4x from the periscope at 30fps in 4K or 1080p looks excellent; 10x in 1080p is surprisingly usable. Stability at long focal lengths is the main challenge, especially handheld or in windy conditions.
Low‑light video is where the S20 Ultra legitimately impressed reviewers versus the Note10+. At dusk and in darker scenes, it held sharper detail and better dynamic range across 0.5x, 1x, 2x, and 4x, where the Note10+ footage turned mushy. Night Hyperlapse, built around long exposures and light trails, is a fun extra that the Note10 lacked at the time.
On the software side, One UI 2.1 on Android 10 brought a mature, dark‑mode‑first interface, gesture navigation, Edge panels, and small but useful touches like Quick Share and Music Share. Biometrics were a split story: the ultrasonic in‑display fingerprint reader remained slower and fussier than the best optical readers, while face unlock was faster but less secure.
Battery, Display, and the “Ultra Tax”
The rest of the package was as over‑spec’d as you’d expect. A 6.9‑inch 3200×1440 Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with 120Hz refresh and 240Hz touch sampling, peaking around 900 nits in bright conditions, and supporting HDR10+.
The catch: 120Hz only works at 2400×1080. If you want full QHD resolution, you’re stuck at 60Hz. Samsung likely did that for battery and thermal reasons, but it forces a tradeoff power users didn’t ask for.
A 5,000mAh battery should have been a disaster‑proofing measure for 5G and high refresh rates. Instead, the Ultra ended up in the “fine, but not class‑leading” zone. In 120Hz/1080p mode, web browsing over Wi‑Fi landed around 10.5 hours and video playback about 13 hours. Dropping to 60Hz/1440p bumped those to roughly 12 and 16 hours, respectively. Respectable, but weaker than big‑battery rivals like Asus’ ROG Phone II or even the iPhone 11 Pro Max in many scenarios.
Charging with the bundled 25W adapter is fast enough: ~64% in 30 minutes, full in under an hour. Support for 45W bricks exists, but real‑world gains are minor based on Note10+ results. Wireless charging tops out at 15W, with 9W reverse wireless for accessories.
Then there’s pricing. At launch, the S20 Ultra hovered around $1,400/€1,350—enough money to buy a Galaxy Z Flip, or nearly two Note10s in some markets. Samsung’s own regular S20 and S20+ offered the same 120Hz experience, saner camera setups, and more comfortable sizes for substantially less.
Samsung’s later 50% buy‑back guarantee for the S20 series (when bought via Samsung.com or the Shop Samsung app) was essentially a safety net for that price. Return the phone within 24 months in “satisfactory” condition, and you’d get half the original retail price back as a credit. It was an unusually consumer‑friendly move from Samsung, and a quiet acknowledgment that early S20 Ultra buyers were beta‑testing some very new camera hardware.
So Was the S20 Ultra Really ‘Ultra’?
As a first‑gen “Ultra,” the S20 Ultra delivered on ambition more than execution. The telephoto hardware was legitimately strong in the 4x–5x range, especially at night. The big 108MP sensor brought great natural depth of field and solid low‑light performance. The display was among the brightest and smoothest of its era, and charging/battery were competent.
At the same time, the 100x branding was pure theater, the 108MP pipeline rarely out‑resolved good 12MP rivals, 2x performance lagged behind the Note10+, portrait logic was confused, and the Exynos variant in particular struggled with thermals and efficiency.
Cautious takeaway: the Galaxy S20 Ultra was a necessary overstep that taught Samsung (and everyone else) where the limits of brute‑force specs sit. It wasn’t the flawless super‑phone the price implied, but it did move the conversation on zoom and sensor size forward in a tangible way.
Check back soon as this story develops.