Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus review: Well-rounded premium phone
Samsung, earlier in the month, launched the new Galaxy S20 series in India. It comes in three variants-- a generic Galaxy S20, standard S20 Plus, and top-end S20 Ultra.
I have been using the Galaxy S20 Plus for close to a week and here're my thoughts about Samsung's new flagship phone.
Display and design:
The Galaxy S20+ borrows the design elements of the popular Galaxy Note10 series. The Cloud Blue variant is an instant eye-turner. It looks gorgeous with the glossy shell on the back and when seen from different angles, it reflects psychedelic colourway.
Samsung phone offers a really good premium hand feel, but the smooth surface makes the device slippery. Thankfully, the company is offering silicone-based transparent cover which not only offers protection to the glass body from accidental drop but also keeps the visual appeal of the device.
It also comes with the IP68 water-and-dust resistant rating and this means the device can survive underwater for close to 1.5 meters (five feet) for up to 30 minutes. The device also boasts Corning's Gorilla Glass 6 shield on both the front and the back, which takes care of scratch threats from keys and coins in the pocket.
The S20 Plus sports a 6.7-inch Quad HD+ (3200X1440p) Dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity-O Display, up to 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ certification.
Unlike the previous iteration, the new phone's display is flat and doesn't cascade to the middle of the chassis. But, having said that, it is undeniably the best screen on mobile in the market.
With very little obstruction on the big screen, I had a delightful experience watching multimedia content on OTT apps and also, I did not struggle to read contents even under direct sunlight. With the 120Hz refresh rate, it doubles up the gaming experience.
Another discernible change we see in the new phone compared to the predecessor is that there is no dedicated button on the left side to invoke the digital assistant on the phone. Good riddance, as there won't accidental triggering of the Bixby/Google assistant and also the device looks good with a smooth finish on the left side.
Performance
In India, the Galaxy S20+ comes equipped with Samsung's proprietary 7nm class Exynos 990 chipset (with 2.73 GHz Mongoose M5 x 2 cores + 2.50 GHz Cortex-A76 x 2 cores + 2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 x 4 cores) backed by Mali-G77 graphics engine, Android 10-based One UI 2 OS, 8GB RAM and 128GB storage (expandable up to 1TB).
As advertised, the Galaxy S20+ performed smoothly in terms of app loading, launching the camera and other day-to-day activities.
During gaming sessions, the device showed no sign of lag-ness and as far as heating is concerned, it did get a tad warm, but not that overwhelming.
On Geekbench, the Galaxy S20 Plus it managed to get a decent score of 500 and 2692 points on single-core and multi-core tests, respectively.
Like the previous flagship Galaxy S and Note series, the new S20 Plus too, supports DEX support, which allows the owners to connect to a Windows PC and seamlessly mirror the device's screen on the computer screen and even exchange messages as well.
As far as the security is concerned, the in-screen ultrasonic fingerprint sensor worked without much fuss and also face recognition system performs its job fine during the day, but struggles in the night.
The S20 Plus comes with 4,500mAh cell and it delivers a full day's battery life under normal usage. Samsung is offering Type-C 25W charger and the device takes around an hour to fully power it up from zero to 100-percent. It also supports wireless charging but takes a longer time to get fully charged. It also boasts reverse wireless charging capability as well.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus houses a feature-rich quad-camera module-- ultra-wide 12MP (with f/2.2, 120-degree angle of view) + wide-angle 12MP( with f/1.8, 79-degree angle-of-view with Super Speed Dual Pixel AF, OIS) + 64MP Telephoto (with PDAF, f/2.0, 76-degree field-of-view, OIS)+ 0.3MP Time-Of-Flight (with 3D, f/1.0, DepthVision) and 30X zoom.
It takes really good pictures with a near-natural colour rendition of the subject and the background in all light conditions be it natural sunny conditions or indoors with a controlled light environment. I am also impressed with the night mode, as it keeps the essence of the darkness caused by the absence of the sun. It just highlights the subject with near-accurate colours, but never blow out the background with artificial light effect.
The S20 Plus takes really nice wide-angle shots and also 3x optical zoom is decent. As far as the 30X digital zoom is concerned, the picture looks good on the compact screen of the phone, but, when looked on a bigger screen of a computer, it looks grainy.
Also, the device can record 8K and 4K videos. On the small screen, it is very difficult to differentiate between them and a full HD video, but if you own an 8K/4K TV, you can be able to appreciate the content quality.
Nevertheless, they are good value-addition to photography experience and make it stand apart from rival branded premium phones.
On the front, it features 10MP snapper with Dual Pixel autofocus, f/2.2 aperture. It takes really good selfies and Millenials would love it. Have to say, the face smoothening software sometimes go overboard, but people won't complain, as it makes the subject look good in the picture and really worth sharing it on social media channel. Additionally, it also comes with a plethora of editing and filters including Augmented Reality (AR) Doodle to add an element of fun into the somber pictures.
Final thoughts
Samsung's Galaxy S20+ is a well-balanced premium phone among the three variants. It has more plus than negatives to talk about. It has the best display for mobile in the market and with the Exynos 990 CPU, it worked buttery smooth, consistently delivered a full day of battery life and the camera impressed me the most. Yes, the S20 Ultra model's photography hardware is a little edge over the S20+, but the latter doesn't disappoint at all in terms of picture quality. The only thing you will miss is the 100X Zoom and its not that a big deal. You will save close to Rs 19,000.
In India, Samsung is offering all three models -- a generic Galaxy S20, standard S20 Plus, and top-end S20 Ultra--with prices starting at Rs 66,999, Rs 73,999 and Rs 92,999, respectively.
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