The fight in the India premium smartphone segment has intensified and Samsung which enjoys a tremendous brand loyalty in this price range in India has now brought in Galaxy S20 series -- Galaxy S20 Ultra, the S20+ and the S20 with powerful cameras -- to the country.
According to the South Korean tech giant, it has completely reimagined the camera system in the new Galaxy S20 series to entice users to upgrade from previous gen Galaxy phones.
We reviewed the Galaxy S20+ (8GB+128GB storage variant) launched for Rs 73,999. Here's how it fared.
The new device is pretty much like the flagship Galaxy S flagship device -- usual big displays, small bezels and a glass sandwich design with a metal rail pressed between two sheets of glass.
Like previous generation Samsung flagships, the S20+ also has an impressive screen with ample RAM for smooth performance.
All the new Galaxy S20 models have a display panel refresh rate of 120Hz. And that does make a huge noticeable difference in user interface (UI) smoothness.
Notably, the 120Hz rate is only accessible at FullHD resolution.
The Samsung Galaxy S20+ has a 6.7-inch display, which is quite a leap from its predecessor's 6.4-inch display size.
The Galaxy S20+ misses out on the 108MP camera and 100X zoom feature that the pricier Ultra has. It, instead, has a time of flight (ToF) sensor, a 12MP primary camera, 64MP 3x telephoto lens, and a 12MP ultra wide camera. We especially liked the 3x hybrid optical and 30x digital zoom range.
The S20+ took excellent images in almost every lighting conditions. The images lost details in yellow lights though.
The camera has a wider hump, which makes it look more proportional. The S20+ can also capture 8K video like the Ultra which makes sense from a performance point of view.
The selfie camera brings in a nifty addition that detects more people outside its default cropped frame and automatically toggles into wide mode. The selfies looked a little over-processed though.
Also, the blur on the portrait mode looks more artificial than before.
The new 'Single-Take' mode essentially takes both an image and a video. It shoots a variety of shots over a 10-second span -- photos, ultra-wides, portraits, hyperlapse video, regular video, and so on.
It let us clip 33MP photos from video, which was really handy.
The Samsung Galaxy S20+ has the same 4,500mAh battery that the recently launched S10 Lite also houses. Battery depletion on S20+ was quick and strictly lasted a day on a single charge with heavy to moderate usage.
The device comes with Samsung's own UI 2.0, on top of Android 10 OS.
Samsung is also working on a future update to improve the camera experience so be ready for more seamless experience with your photos.
Conclusion: The new Galaxy S20 series is Samsung's big bet on a new camera system with premium internals and hardware. Like its predecessor, the new Galaxy S20+ is also an Android flagship that is here to stay and be remembered.
S20+ can easily be called one of the most impressive among 2020 Android flagships.
