Samsung Galaxy S20+: A galaxy of features, at a steep price

The Galaxy S20+ has everything that a premier phone should have, and more

By the looks of it, the Galaxy S20+ is very unassuming. The phone has a curvy frame, a characteristic of the S series. The screen is curved too and sports a punch-hole camera. Samsung has not fiddled much with design aspects, but then why change something that works perfectly. While this certainly makes the Galaxy S20+ look like any other phone in the market, the key differentiator is the phone’s power and screen resolution. And, this is what makes the S20+ stand out. While it may lack a stylus, Samsung does make up for it in the design aspect. The phone is sleeker, and the back panel gives it a premium look. Grey, however, is not the colour to choose. It may not be a gaming phone, but Samsung has done its best to bring it on par.

Screen and sound
The phone is narrower than the S10 iteration and has an extra inch of screen at 6.7, but there is not much difference from the S10 in terms of specs. The resolution remains the same at QHD (3200×1440), but you have the option to change that from the setting to save battery life. The real game changer though is the refresh rate. We have been complaining about 120Hz refresh rate in Samsung phones, and it seems like the company has finally made the leap. The refresh rate allows for better gaming on the phone provided you have the internet bandwidth but is barely noticeable in every day operations. The screen is bright and has very saturated blacks, which makes it excellent for watching movies or playing games.

However, ergonomically it was not as handy for gaming as say a OnePlus, but then there is nothing a good cover cannot solve. The fingerprint scanner embedded in the screen is a letdown again. It is not as responsive, and I fail to understand why Samsung is not considering the Bixby button as fingerprint scanner, when it worked so well in Flip and last year’s S10E. The sound system, with Dolby Atmos, is still the best in class and enhances the viewing experience.

Camera
This is what Samsung has been portraying as the phone’s strength. No doubt the camera quality has improved – frankly, I have stopped counting pixels – but there is still much to desire for. Night shots are good, but there is too much smoothening of images which makes them look oversaturated. The colour tones are too dark, a better option is to click pictures in the pro mode. It will take a bit of time to figure out pro settings but ultimately, the picture quality would be much better. The 30X zoom is, indeed, useful, so is 100x in Ultra, but there is no real utility to it, at least as of now. Because of corona and the emphasis on video calling, the selfie camera came in handy. Although it is an improvement over S10, it was not ideal for video calling or selfie shots. iPhone’s is slightly better.

Battery life
One of the problems with flagships has been battery life, Samsung has tried to remedy this by incorporating a 5000 mAh battery in the Ultra model. The S20+, however, has a 4,500 mAh battery. It is functional, if not impressive. The phone can last a day with moderate use, but with video calling and gaming it goes off in 7-8 hours. There were no heating issues, thankfully.

Performance
The 8GB RAM available with 128 GB disk for S20+ is not too bad for gaming or other operations. The phone is a much-improved version of S10, and there is little doubt that it can run multiple processes at the same time. I used the S20 ultra for a little while and found it to be much more responsive with its 12GB RAM.

There is a Rs 8,000 difference between S20 and S20+ but it is worth splurging on the higher model. However, there is a Rs 20,000 premium to S20 ultra which sports an extra 4GB RAM and an extra 500 mAh battery and the camera, of course. For those ready to buy the S20, my suggestion is to go for the S20+, the camera may not be that great as of S20 ultra, but what in the world would you do with 100X zoom and 108 MP?

SPECIFICATIONS:
Dimension: 151.7 x 69.1 x 7.9mm (H x W x D)
Display: 6.2 inches Dynamic AMOLED 2X
Processor: Octa-Core, CPU Speed 2.73GHz, 2.5GHz, 2GHz
Operating system: Android
Memory & storage: 8GB RAM, 128GB storage
Battery: 4,500 mAh
Estimated street price: Rs 70,499