Smart Android And Trik-Commenting on Andorid indeed never endless, because smart devices this one is often updated every certain amount of time. So that the market can always be garapnya menerinya with pleasure. And it is not denied if this device has become the lifestyle of each society. To not wonder if the 6th business information and many are turning to mobail smartphone. With Android which thoroughly dominated the mobile industry, choosing the best Android smartphone is almost identical to choose the best smartphone, period. But while Android phones have few real opponents on other platforms, internal competition is intense.
Introduction
Samsung is announcing the next generation Galaxy S-series flagship family next week, and we figured a sort of a look back on last year's model was most appropriate. As luck would have it, one of our own has been long-term using the Galaxy S20+, and this here long-term review came naturally.
Perhaps you remember that we did a long-term review of the Galaxy S20 Ultra. Still, the S20+ is more than a little different from the Ultra in several important ways like camera and handling. Additionally, it's another person writing these paragraphs, so even if you do consider the phones alike, the different perspective could be informative in itself. And last, with the approaching release of the S21, the context of the times introduces its own level of specifics.
The Galaxy S20+ is the middle option in the 2020 lineup, sharing most of its hardware with the smaller S20. And when we say most, we mean it - other than the extra screen estate and the scaled-up battery capacity on the Plus, the two are virtually the same phone. Obviously, pocket-friendliness considerations do come into play, but we'd argue that the Plus to Ultra jump is more considerable than the Vanilla to Plus.
Our usual long-term reviewing typically takes place over about a month, maybe six weeks. This time, the S20+ has been the reviewer's daily driver for over 6 months, so you could argue he's had an even deeper bond with it than is customary for this type of article.
On the other hand, it was only recently that the idea for an S20+ long-term review came to be, so he hasn't strictly scrutinized it for all 190+ days it's been in his pocket. At least not quite like he would have, had he had the LTR in mind from the get-go. Maybe he should be more mindful of such things going forward.
And go forward we shall, starting with a few words on the Galaxy S20+'s design.
Design and handling
The S20+ is the Galaxy you get if you don't care for the Ultra's all-out camera system or find that one too big and/or expensive, and you dismiss the S20 proper because of its fairly small size for the standards of the day. In a way, it's what's we call 'the middle option' here, a term not entirely without an inherently negative connotation.
But the Galaxy S20+ doesn't really deserve that. If it weren't for the Ultra's existence, the Plus would have been the true flagship, and everyone would have been okay with that. It's certainly built like one, and it's a tightly put together handset made of premium materials - or what's come to be accepted as the default for a high-end phone mix of aluminum and glass.
There are, however, some cons that go with those. For example, the glossy back has been constantly covered in smudges, and no amount of wiping them off has actually made a meaningful difference. Whether it's an inadequate oleophobic coating, or a counterintuitive side effect of the constant washing of hands (thanks, 2020), the Galaxy S20+ has never really been clean, neither front nor back.
This issue is made all the more visible on our Cosmic Black review unit, we think. The otherwise properly drab Cosmic Grey Ultra we've had around picks up prints just as readily but doesn't seem to display them quite as prominently. We'd really pick any color other than black, and the lighter Cloud Blue and Cloud White should be less CSI-friendly.
Speaking of, that's another 'issue' this reviewer's had with the S20+, and it's in no small part due to the color - it's... unrecognizable. It's a Samsung alright that much is clear. But with the generic color and the universally applied design language across the lineup, the S20+ has lost any hopes of projecting a flagship presence to a casual observer.
We wouldn't so far as call it a problem, but a high-end phone is often also a status symbol, and this Galaxy has failed at that part of its job description. A fancier color scheme would help some, but an A51 would still look about the same from afar. Conversely, if you're into a more incognito premium smartphone vibe - the S20+ will deliver.
A positive spin on the black color scheme is that it makes the camera island invisible. Since that's always black regardless of the colorway the phone comes in, if you get the S20+ in any other color, the camera assembly will stand out instead of disappearing.
Circling back to the materials and fit, one thing becomes annoying over time. At the corners, where the aluminum frame meets the glass panels, you get this scratchy feeling when you run your fingertips across. It's one of those things that we notice at review time and dismiss with little more than a passing comment, but if you feel it once a day in general use for months on end, it bugs you. Well, at least it bugs this one guy here. It's not hurting you or leaving scars or anything. It's just not befitting the phone's premium aspirations.
On a positive note, the S20+ appears to have handled 6 months of caseless use just fine. Minor dings can be spotted along the frame here or there - the phone may or may not have sustained a couple of drops, to which the otherwise fairly careful reviewer wouldn't admit, if confronted. A scratch in a corner on the back was very likely a result of the initial review process (carried out by the same reviewer, whaddayaknow). And that's about it, not bad.
This caseless use leads us to another point we'd like to make - the Galaxy S20+ is very nicely thin. At under 8mm around the waistline and with its rounded sides on the back, it feels really compact indeed and will almost disappear in a pocket. Since compactness was important when picking a daily driver, using the S20+ naked was the preferred option. Having said that, a Samsung silicone case was used on a number of occasions, just in case, and even with that on, the phone maintained very reasonable dimensions.
We've said very little of the front of the Galaxy S20+ so far. It has long been a point of contention whether Samsung's displays should be curved, just how much, what good is it and how it impairs handling. The curve-hating camp has been most vocal, saying that the sloping edges result in unintended touch input while also making the phone difficult to hold in the first place.
Once the novelty of the curved screen mostly wore off, Samsung started reducing the curves, and on the S20s there barely are any. For what it's worth, this reviewer here has had little to no issues with it, but that's been his experience with past Samsung models too. Perhaps he's holding them wrong in just the right ways.
So yes, curved display (if only slightly so), minimal bezels all around, and the tiniest of punch-holes for the selfie camera - the Galaxy S20+ has all the markings of a flagship on its display side. You need to light it up to tell, however, and that leaves only one side to advertise its stature and only some of the time.
Face down on a table - it could be any other Samsung. That's getting fixed this year with what are going to be instantly recognizable S21s.
Display
At the time of its release, the Galaxy S20+ had one of the best displays available, and today, about a year later, that still makes for a mighty nice display. A 6.7-inch OLED, the panel carries the Dynamic AMOLED 2X branding, has a 1440x3200px native resolution and a 120Hz maximum refresh rate.
Since you can't get the resolution and the high refresh rate at the same time, important choices must be made. Typically a resolution snob, this reviewer chose to embrace the refresh rate and stuck with it for a while.
With a freshly-setup phone, battery life was initially disappointing, or so he thought, so a switch to 1440p/60Hz was in order. A few weeks passed, and a heated discussion prompted a switch back to 1080p/120Hz, and that's been the setting for the majority of time spent with the S20+ with no desire to go back to 60Hz.
Mind you, the S20+ comes from Samsung's pre-Adaptive refresh rate times, so the phone will make no attempts to adjust refresh rate on the fly depending on content or activity. This is seemingly going to be the case on the non-Ultra S21s, and that's a bit of a bummer.
Speaking of, the S21+ will also, by all accounts, be 1080p in resolution. To sum it up, the next generation non-Ultras will bring no improvement on the refresh rate handling and a decrease in resolution. Top stuff.
With a peak brightness of 800nits, a minimum value of less than 2nits, and truly black blacks, the S20+ is a joy to use in all ambient conditions. We normally obsess over the auto-brightness handling capabilities, and after we praised the S20 Ultra's behavior in this respect, we can vouch for the S20+'s, too. Maybe one minor complaint is that in a completely dark room, the phone wouldn't automatically go down to absolute minimum brightness, it will need a manual intervention for that.
Display settings
As usual, you get to pick between two screen modes - Vivid and Natural. Natural is the SRGB-tuned one, but that's a bit too dull for everyday use, and Vivid is the mode of choice for most of us. A nudge of the Cool-to-Warm slider to the right is preferred by this reviewer, possibly even all the way to the Warmest.
In-display fingerprint sensor
Samsung's continued use of under-display fingerprint sensors of the ultrasonic variety has been controversial in the industry as a whole, as well as in the office. The general consensus is that a top-quality optical sensor is faster and more reliable than Samsung's ultrasonic ones, and it's what generally our experience has been as a whole.
The more personal nature of this article allows us to express the dissenting opinion of the one reviewer that seems to be entirely okay with Samsung's fingerprint sensor. Perhaps it's not the fastest, but speed is a matter of splitting hairs, and the perception of it is equally dependent on software and animations as it is on the sensor itself. A huge positive is that the ultrasonic sensor does its job in complete darkness while the others need to shine a blinding white dot of light at you to read your print.
Fingerprint reader setup
As for reliability, it has worked on the first try 9/10 times, except the first attempts early in the morning right after waking up, which are closer to 4/10. That low success rate could be due to some sort of an early-morning physiological peculiarity, but our money is on not hitting the right spot when the person is not yet 100% functional.
Smoothness, performance
We mentioned the refresh rate vs. resolution dilemma, and the initial indecision of which way to sway. A few months later, however, there's no doubt in our minds that the fluidity of the 120Hz refresh rate mode makes for more tangible benefits to user experience than the alternative of an extra level of sharpness in your texts when you look at them from up close.
A point worth making is that despite Samsung's continued efforts to improve the smoothness and speed of its interface, some of us still tend to set whatever animation scales there are in developer options to 0.5x. That does make for a notably more responsive and speedier interaction with the phone. Not that it's slow otherwise, but it's better this way.
Performance, too, is up to the expected flagship standard. We've seemingly reached a state where high-end phones are simply fast enough, and further improvements are hard to perceive. The Galaxy S20+ is certainly comfortable with whatever task you present it with.
Mind you, a discussion with the iPhone folk at the office is giving us food for thought on one aspect of performance. When taking pictures in high-contrast scenes, all current phones will show you a mostly accurate preview in the camera viewfinder, but will apply further processing to restore highlights, boost shadows and do whatever camera magic that company has in the processing pipelines after the shot was taken. So, as a result, you can only see the photos in their full glory in the photo gallery post-shot. This applies for the Galaxy S20+, too.
However, if you take a shot and tap on the gallery straight away, an iPhone 12 will have the image ready for you in what feels like a second, a Galaxy will need twice as long. It's mostly a subjective evaluation, which we didn't really time, but it's a noticeable difference. It's not an issue, and the background processing doesn't get in the way of taking more photos, and yet the Galaxy isn't as fast as the iPhone - what else is new?
Three OneUIs and a couple of Androids
The Galaxy S20+ launched in the spring of 2020, running Android 10 with Samsung's in-house OneUI on top, that one in version 2.1 at the time. It got a OneUI 2.5 update along the way, a bit after that release debuted on the Note20s, and is now running a fresh OneUI 3 on top of the latest Android 11.
Samsung's user interface has never had people quite in complete agreement, but recent releases have managed to soften the language we're hearing from usually vocal haters. Constructive criticism is how we'd like to call our stance on OneUI 2.1 in the Galaxy S20 Ultra long-term review, and if we're to rant about something, it's not because we're not positively inclined in general.
OneUI 3
Picking up the S20+ on OneUI 2.1, prior to the 2.5 rollout, and having reached v3 recently, we went through all three stages. We've been on OneUI 3 for close to a month now, and that resulted in the mini-review you might have seen on the homepage. Head over there to see what's new.
What hasn't changed from the years of TouchWIz (LagWiz in Samsung-hater speak) is the vast amount of settings you have at your disposal for things big and small. You could say that this leaves too much decision-making in the hands of the end-user as opposed to delivering them a truly optimized and streamlined interface.
On the other hand, wouldn't you rather have the option to tweak stuff to your liking, even if not everything comes out of the box in a perfect state? It's not like we haven't seen complaints of the my-way-or-the-highway approach of... other makers. To each their own, perhaps.
Settings menu
The enormous amount of settings is, believe it or not, a thing that Samsung engineers are aware of. With the latest version of OneUI you get tangible improvements in the ways you can tweak stuff. It's still a long menu alright, but the subcategories are now neatly listed, and legibility is greatly improved by a simple dot separator and an extra interval - what were they thinking with those commas from past versions, right?
This here reviewer still prefers to work the settings menu through the search field, and there are other subtle touches here. Once again, a more legible search history and the introduction of hashtags for settings with a common goal but a different menu location help with finding your way around.
Realistically, though, how often you go into the settings menu after the first week of using a phone, much less 5 months into it? That may be too zen of an angle to look at things and somewhat at odds with a reviewer's job description, but it's a long-term review, and in the long term, you already have your phone set up the way you want it to be after the first few weeks.
Adopting that vantage point, the bulk of our complaints about OneUI's default oddities can be dismissed. Stuff like the missing Night and Live focus modes in the camera's mode selector (which you can add and position yourself) or the notification icons on the lockscreen as opposed to the standard cards (which you can switch to), or the unlock animation that slows you down, or the lack of sorting in the app drawer, or most things you can think of.
If you're one to constantly switch phones and use them for any amount of time, you accumulate a number of favorite UI elements, means of interaction, and general ways things are done. Those are rarely all on the same phone, and you wonder what if you could have it all in one place. We do 'suffer' from that more than most people thanks to our line of work (it's a first-world problem, if there ever was one), and it's easy to focus on the things you don't like. It may not be perfect, but I like Samsung's way of doing UI - there, I said it.
Battery life
We'll probably never get tired of stating the obvious - battery life is a very subjective matter and will vary wildly depending on usage patterns. That's the general disclaimer of sorts.
In long-term reviews, we do normally try to give you an idea of the typical daily routine and provide you with Screen-On numbers or battery percentage left at the end of the day. However, in this particular case, a lot of circumstances combine to make that even harder than usual.
For starters, this reviewer has no hard set charging habits - it's not an 'I'm going to bed, I'm plugging in the phone' type of thing. Then there's the matter of an intense shortage of going places or doing things because such are the times, and to make things even less representative of 'real-world' usage, summing up the observations for this article coincided with the Christmas holiday season.
Anyway, what we're seeing are nowhere nearly impressive numbers for Screen-On time, but we'd argue that the phone simply doesn't see much use when you're at work or at home always having other, larger screens to stare at.
Battery life
You could always use the more structured account that we gave you in the Galaxy S20 Ultra long-term review, with expectations slightly adjusted for the S20+'s smaller battery. The best that can be added here about the S20+'s battery life, based on anecdotal data, is that it's okay.
Unremarkable days would leave you with enough juice to make it to tomorrow and not worry that the phone won't be operational when you wake up. Meanwhile, intense days out in the sun with lots of pictures and constant use for finding your way around will kill the battery quicker than you'd like. Low-Battery Anxiety will be a thing if you don't have a power bank in your bag. Standard performance for a flagship, we'd say.
An annoyance we had with the S20+ when putting this review together was that OneUI introduced a certain amount of bugs, among them one related to the battery usage charts. Those only just showed up on publishing day, retroactively too. For the 10 or so days leading up to publishing day, we were getting empty charts on both the S20+ and the S20 Ultra. While the S20+ has now been fixed, the Ultra is still in this broken state, as is our updated S20 FE.
And this is not the only software bug we encountered. Samsung almost pulled off a Cyberpunk 2077-level release with this One UI 3.0 update. Almost.
Battery life, buggy
Camera
The Galaxy S20+ has a standard set of three cameras that include a wide main camera, an ultra-wide camera, and a zoom camera. That last one provides zooming capabilities but doesn't really have a notably longer lens than the main cam - the optics deliver a modest 1.07-ish times magnification. The rest is done by cropping from the high-res 64MP sensor. Its 'default' zoom level is 3x.
That's in contrast to every other phone maker in 2020, which took one of two paths for their flagships - either a 4x-5x periscope tele (Samsung's own Ultras, Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo) or a conventional telephoto in the 2x-3x range (Apple, OnePlus). We're not entirely certain, but Sony's tele efforts might be a bridge between the two approaches. Anyway, the point is, the S20+ has a very unorthodox zoom camera.
The camera app, on the other hand, is mostly conventional, yet it has a set of features this reviewer appreciates. The ability to remove and rearrange the modes shown in the main carousel in the viewfinder is one of those niceties. Admittedly, the lack of Live focus (or Portrait mode in Samsung speak) and Night mode in immediate reach out of the box is a bit perplexing, but could it be Samsung's way of nudging you to set up the modes to your liking?
Another thing no one else seems to be getting quite right is camera operation without touch input. On the Galaxies you can launch the camera with a double press of the power button, and you can use the volume keys for shutter release - both reasonably common actions. What Samsung does on top of that is letting you switch between front and rear cameras with a further double press on the power button. So you could be out in the cold, wearing thick gloves, and you could still take a selfie.
It does remain a mystery why the Pro mode of the Galaxy camera app still doesn't let you use anything other than the main camera. On a positive note, you can now set the selfie camera to keep the native wider angle framing and not launch in crop mode every single time.
Camera samples
The samples you'll see below weren't taken specifically for this long-term review, so there won't be corresponding shots at all focal lengths from each scene. Instead, they were hand-picked from the thousands of pictures (the bulk of them, admittedly, useless) captured organically over the past six months on the S20+. The selection process made for a few interesting realizations, and we'll discuss the Galaxy-related ones among them as they arise (and skip the existential ones).
The Galaxy S20+ takes very good pictures. You can expect a great dynamic range from the main camera; just give it the extra seconds it needs to process the stack of images post-shot. Color rendition carries a characteristic Samsung look that may annoy purists, but we're liking the extra pop - most of us, at least. Noise is practically nonexistent in these images, a common trait in Samsung photos, while fine random detail can suffer from some heavy-handed sharpening - not ideal, but something this reviewer can live with.
Daylight samples, main camera, food and beverage
Daylight samples, main camera, sand and rocks
Daylight samples, main camera, assorted
Had you asked us beforehand, we'd have said that the ultra wide angle camera had seen a ton of use. While it wasn't straight up avoided, it turned out that true keepers weren't all that many. That's in part due to its lack of autofocus that limits its usefulness for nearby subjects, in part because of the reviewer's dismal photographic expertise, and let's blame some of it on the year as well.
In any case, the ultra-wide is capable of taking dramatic shots with a wide dynamic range and vibrant colors - so excellent on a global scale. On a pixel level, it's not the absolute sharpest but maintains a fairly noise-free rendition.
Daylight samples, ultra wide angle camera
Somewhat surprisingly, zoomed-in photos were more numerous, though often those were taken for documenting purposes. Now, since Samsung doesn't embed equivalent focal length data in the photos and we didn't abide by our usual exacting standards when taking these, we can't really tell for a fact which was taken at which zoom level.
Daylight samples, zoom camera
This one produces slightly noisier shots. It isn't too keen to retain the finest of detail, though at up to 3x zoomр it performs easily well enough. Pushing it past that isn't recommended, and if you often shoot distant subjects, you'll be better off with a periscope.
Daylight samples, zoom camera
Sifting though the photos that were taken in low-light, a huge disparity in the numbers becomes evident - ultra wide and zoomed in shots in the dark are few and far between. That's on top of the unusually low number of low-light shots to begin with. We shall once again mention in passing the socio-economic consequences of 2020 (what are you doing outside after dark in a lockdown?). But could it be that you don't see far in the dark anyway, so that's why you don't zoom in as often and... some other made up reason of the sort for the ultra wide? Whatever the cause, the end results stand.
Okay then, so the low-light shots taken on the S20+'s main cam, scarce as they may be, are generally very good. The Galaxy Ultras and the Mate 40 Pro, with their even larger sensors, are capable of producing better images under the same conditions, that much we'll concede. But outside of the professional pursuit for 'more, better, always', this reviewer finds the S20+'s shots entirely satisfactory.
Low-light samples, main camera
Night mode can still result in better photos on the S20+, particularly in high-contrast scenes and ones with interesting lighting.
Low-light samples, main camera: Photo mode • Night mode
We are liking the limited selection of ultra wide low-light shots we managed to dig up. Night mode makes a notable difference here too and we'd be even more keen on using it on the ultra wide - it's just that on the main cam you can get a likable image in photo mode more often than on the ultra wide, so you better default to Night mode on the ultra wide.
Low-light samples, ultra wide camera: Photo mode • Night mode
The zoom camera's Night mode is also the one that should be preferred over the regular photo mode. It produces consistently superior photos with finer detail, improved noise performance and significantly better developed shadows.
Low-light samples, zoom camera: Photo mode • Night mode
The selfie camera on the Galaxy S20+ has all the makings of a very capable shooter, and it mostly delivers. In bright daylight, you can well-detailed shots with properly good dynamic range, though they will be missing the warmth and general appeal in the skin tones you could get if you flip the phone to use its main camera. Aiming to fit the camera into the tiniest of punch holes on the front is what we'd choose to blame for the selfies not being quite as great as we'd like.
They don't get better in the dark either, quite the opposite. In anything other than abundant natural outdoor lighting, the Galaxy selfies are likely to leave you wanting, as they have left this reviewer. Perhaps that's the reason there are so few of them.
Selfie samples
Conclusion
The Galaxy S20+ is no everything phone - there's the Ultra for that. Instead, it's a more restrained high-end device for those capable of moderation instead of striving to have it all. We knew that from the get-go, but spending extra time with this one has allowed us to appreciate its strengths and more or less turn a blind eye to its weaknesses as you get used to them.
It's got a great display, no doubt about that. The high refresh rate has become a given in the high-end segment, and it's one of those features you don't care about when you don't have it, but miss when you lose it. Some sort of adaptive refresh rate handling would have been nice, and logic would dictate that the next generation will deliver.
However, rumors point to only the new Ultra getting it, and that means the S20+ is no worse than what the S21+ is going to be in this respect. In fact, the S20+ is one better than the S21+ - it's got the QHD resolution if you're willing to prioritize display acuity over fluidity, while this year's non-Ultras will be FullHD if rumors have their say. So what Samsung's got left to make the S21's display look better than the S20's is brightness, and it's not like the S20 is lacking in this respect.
The S20+ takes nice pictures too. Unless you have a problem with certain aspects of Samsung's color science (skies are a really polarizing topic at the office), and most people don't, there's hardly anything to complain about in the imaging department. The non-tele tele works very well up to its advertised 3x zoom, and for most folks that's easily enough reach, while the main camera is in some ways better than the 108MP on the Ultras. Samsung thinks both are good enough to be reused in the next generation, and we agree on that.
We're also liking the existing ultra wide-angle camera on the S20 generation, and it's seen a fair amount of use in our time with the S20+. However, what we're liking even more is the prospect of having autofocus on it, and that's among the bits of the S21 that have us the most intrigued.
Battery life is seemingly never enough. That's got to be one area where the S20+ has been just so-so for us. It's not bad, and it's hardly an issue when you're sitting in the office for nine hours and then at home for the rest of the day, always a charger within reach. For more demanding uses like a day out and about in a foreign place or up in the mountains, the display always at max brightness, location and navigation on, taking pictures left and right - well, for those days, you'd better have a power bank handy. It's another area where the new models could bring improvement.
Samsung's software has hardly ever been universally liked, and that's okay - people are different. But if even the Pixel loyalists and the die-hard OxygenOS fanboys at the office have warmed up to OneUI, the Galaxy software team must be on the right track. Some may not be fond of the many available settings, but customizability is generally a good thing, and we're not sure the diametrically-opposed Apple way is better.
With the promise for three major OS updates, the S20+ has is long-term software future secured, and it's already gotten Android 11, plus security patches have been regular and timely. So OneUI provides a generally pleasing UX, and it's also being kept up-to-date.
In the end, putting together this article has solidified this one reviewer's conviction that the Galaxy S20+ remains worthy of occupying his pocket going into the second year of its existence. Not really a standout phone at the time of its release, the mid-size Samsung flagship of 2020 may end up being a more sensible buy in 2021. We'll know for sure in about a month's time.
0 Response to "Samsung Galaxy S20+ long-term review"
Post a Comment