Samsung Galaxy S20
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The Samsung Galaxy S20 is a series of Android-based
smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
s developed, manufactured, and marketed by
Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (SEC; stylized as SΛMSUNG; ) is a South Korean multinational major appliance and consumer electronics corporation founded on 13 January 1969 and headquartered in Yeongtong District, Suwon, South Korea. It is curr ...
as part of its Galaxy S series. They collectively serve as the successor to the Galaxy S10 series. The first three smartphones were unveiled at Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event on February 11, 2020 while the Fan Edition model was unveiled at Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event on September 23, 2020. The S20 series consists of the flagship Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S20+ models differentiated primarily by screen size, the larger camera-focused model, the Galaxy S20 Ultra, and the cheaper flagship model, the Galaxy S20 FE. Key upgrades over the previous model, in addition to improved specifications, include a display with a 120 Hz
refresh rate The refresh rate, also known as vertical refresh rate, vertical scan rate or vertical frequency in reference to terminology originating with the cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), is the number of times per second that a raster-based display device displa ...
, an improved camera system supporting 8K video recording (7680×4320) for the first three models and a super-resolution zoom of 30–100x, depending on the model. The first three phones were released in the United States on March 6, 2020 and in Europe on March 13, 2020, while the Fan Edition was released globally on October 2, 2020. The Galaxy S20 FE, S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra launch prices started at US$699, US$999, US$1,199 and US$1,399, respectively. It is the first smartphone lineup to receive USB fast-charger certification from the
USB Implementers Forum USB Implementers Forum, Inc. (USB-IF) is a nonprofit organization created to promote and maintain USB (Universal Serial Bus), a set of specifications and transmission procedures for a type of cable connection that has since become used widely fo ...
(USB-IF). In May, a rugged variant for military use named the "Tactical Edition" was released. The Galaxy S20 was succeeded by the Galaxy S21, which was announced on January 14, 2021. In April 2022, following the release of its new flagship, the Galaxy S22, Samsung released a refreshed version of the Galaxy S20 FE known as the Galaxy S20 FE 2022, which has the same processor as the Galaxy S20 series. It has 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage and ships with One UI 4 based on
Android 12 Android 12 is the Android version history, twelfth major release and 19th version of Android (operating system), Android, the mobile operating system developed by the Open Handset Alliance led by Google. The first beta was released on May 18, ...
.


History

The title of the phone was originally presumed to be the Galaxy S11, due to it being the logical extension from its predecessor, the Galaxy S10. However, successive leaks in January 2020 revealed the title of the phone to be the Galaxy S20, because it was released in the year of 2020. In addition, details regarding the phone were leaked widely before the release, to the extent that almost all details regarding the specifications and design of the phone were known before the release. Leaker Max Weinbach obtained the actual phone a month before the release, confirming everything the community already guessed. Commentators remarked that by February, "almost everything the company is planning to introduce has already leaked out." In addition to charts on the phone's specifications, marketing material and images of the phones themselves in real life were leaked.


Design

The Galaxy S20 series has a design similar to the Samsung Galaxy Note 10, with an Infinity-O display containing a circular punch-hole in the top center this time for the frontal selfie camera. In a departure from past Galaxy S designs (except the S10 where the Lite model has the camera at the left) the rear camera array is not centered, but located in the corner with a rectangular protrusion similar to that of the iPhone 11, Google Pixel 4 and past Samsung flagships such as the Note 10, Galaxy S and the original
Samsung Galaxy Samsung Galaxy (; stylized as SΛMSUNG Galaxy since 2015 (except Japan where it omitted the Samsung branding up until 2023), previously stylized as Samsung GALAXY; abbreviated as SG) is a series of computing, Android mobile computing and wear ...
. The S20 and S20FE houses three cameras while the S20+ has four cameras in the bump, while the S20 Ultra houses four cameras in a larger bump. S20 phones sold in Europe had news aggregator upday in partnership with
Axel Springer SE Axel Springer SE () is a European multinational corporation, multinational mass media, mass and online media company, based in Berlin, Germany. The company offers printing and publishing of advertisements, digital classifieds portfolio, marketi ...
preinstalled, triggering notifications. Global color options for the first three phones are Cloud Pink, Cloud White, Cloud Blue, Cosmic Grey and Cosmic Black while the Fan Edition has Cloud Lavender, Cloud Mint, Cloud Navy, Cloud White, Cloud Red, and Cloud Orange. Cosmic Grey is available in all size variants except for the S20 FE, while Cosmic Black is limited to the S20+ and S20 Ultra, Cloud Blue is limited to the S20 and S20+, and Cloud Pink is exclusive to the S20. For the S20+, Prism Blue, is exclusively sold in Korea,
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in the United States and through T-Mobile, Samsung Nederland and Tele2 in the Netherlands, while Aura Red is exclusive to Korea Telecom, Vodafone UK, Malaysia, and United Arab Emirates. Cloud White availability varies by country; in the United States it is exclusive to Verizon for the S20 with Ultrawide Band support. The S20 is sold in Italy, the S20+ is sold in Italy and Spain, and the S20 Ultra is sold in China and Germany. In June 2020,
Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...
released the Galaxy S20 5G UW (Ultra Wideband). Differences from the S20 include the addition of mmWave, only 8 GB of RAM (compared to the usual 12 GB), and no microSD slot. Moreover, Samsung released the Galaxy S20+ 5G
BTS BTS (), also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010. The band consists of Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook, who co-write or co-produce much of their material. Originally a hip hop group, they ...
Edition in the summer of 2020, with the color "Haze Purple."


Specifications


Hardware


Chipsets

The S20 line comprises three models with various hardware specifications; international models of the S20 utilize the Exynos 990 system-on-chip, while the U.S., Canadian, Korean, Chinese and Japanese models utilize the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865.


Display

A
1440p 1440p is a family of video display resolutions that have a resolution of 1440 pixels on one side. In a display with a landscape orientation, 1440p refers to the vertical resolution. The ''p'' stands for progressive scan, i.e. non-interlaced. The ...
" Dynamic AMOLED 2X" is featured with
HDR10+ HDR10+ is a High-dynamic-range video, high dynamic range (HDR) video technology that adds HDR dynamic metadata, dynamic metadata to HDR10 source files. The dynamic metadata are used to adjust and optimize each frame of the HDR video to the consume ...
support and "dynamic tone mapping" technology with the exception of the S20 FE which utilizes a more traditional
1080p 1080p (1920 × 1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the sc ...
"
Super AMOLED AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode; ) is a type of OLED display device technology. OLED describes a specific type of thin-film-display technology in which organic compounds form the electroluminescent material, and active mat ...
" display with
HDR10+ HDR10+ is a High-dynamic-range video, high dynamic range (HDR) video technology that adds HDR dynamic metadata, dynamic metadata to HDR10 source files. The dynamic metadata are used to adjust and optimize each frame of the HDR video to the consume ...
support and "dynamic tone mapping" technology. The S20, S20 FE, and S20+ have a 6.2-inch, 6.5-inch, and 6.7-inch display, respectively, while the S20 Ultra has a 6.9-inch display. Except for the S20 FE, displays have curved sides that slope over the horizontal edges of the device. All devices utilizes a taller 9:20
aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangl ...
in addition to a 120 Hz
refresh rate The refresh rate, also known as vertical refresh rate, vertical scan rate or vertical frequency in reference to terminology originating with the cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), is the number of times per second that a raster-based display device displa ...
double that of the S10. The S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra utilizes an ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint sensor while the S20 FE utilizes a more traditional optical in-screen fingerprint sensor.


Storage

The base amount of RAM is 6 GB with an additional 8 GB option for the S20 FE, while the base amount is 8 GB, with an additional 12 GB option for the S20 & S20+ and a 16 GB option for the S20 Ultra. 128 GB of internal storage is standard with the S20 FE offering a 256 GB option while the S20+ & S20 Ultra also offers 256 GB and 512 GB options, with up to 1 TB of expansion via the microSD card slot. Verizon's Galaxy S20 5G UW model is not equipped with a microSD slot.


Batteries

The S20, S20 FE, S20+, & S20 Ultra contain non-removable 4000 mAh, 4500 mAh, 4500 mAh, and 5000 mAh Li-Po batteries respectively, and Qi
inductive charging Inductive charging (also known as wireless charging or cordless charging) is a type of wireless power transfer. It uses electromagnetic induction to provide electricity to portable devices. Inductive charging is also used in vehicles, power tool ...
is supported at up to 15 W as well as the ability to charge other Qi-compatible devices from the S20's own battery power, which is branded as ''“Samsung PowerShare”''. Wired charging is supported over USB-C at up to 25 W for the S20, S20 FE, & S20+ and 45 W for the S20 Ultra. They support reverse charging at 4.5 W.


Connectivity

The S20 series comes with 5G standard connectivity, though some regions may have special LTE variants. However, only Verizon models are compatible with higher-speed millimeter-wave networks. The 3.5 mm audio jack has been omitted entirely.


Cameras

The cameras on the Galaxy S20 series improved considerably over its predecessors, although unlike the S9 and S10, the aperture on the main lens is fixed. While the megapixels of the main and ultra wide sensors remained unchanged on the S20 and S20+, the telephoto sensor received some improvements. The 64-megapixel telephoto camera, branded as ''“Space Zoom”'', supports 3X hybrid optical zoom (branded as "Hybrid Optic Zoom") and 30X digital zoom at 64 megapixels on the new telephoto sensor instead of 12 megapixels at two times on the
S10 S10 may refer to: Automobiles * Chevrolet S-10, a pickup truck * Nissan Silvia (S10), a sports car * Toyota Crown (S10), a luxury car Aviation * Lake Chelan Airport, in Chelan County, Washington, United States * Letov Š-10, a Czech trainer a ...
and 30 times digitally (branded as "Super-Resolution Zoom"). The S20+ receives a time-of-flight sensor (branded as "DepthVision Camera") in addition to the regular S20's cameras. The Galaxy S20 Ultra has a quadruple lens setup that supports 4X optical zoom and 100X digital zoom, with a 108-megapixel wide
image sensor An image sensor or imager is a sensor that detects and conveys information used to form an image. It does so by converting the variable attenuation of light waves (as they refraction, pass through or reflection (physics), reflect off objects) into s ...
, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide sensor and a 48-megapixel periscope telephoto sensor accompanied by a time-of-flight sensor. Both the wide-angle and telephoto sensors use
pixel binning Pixel binning, also known as binning, is a process image sensors of digital cameras use to combine adjacent pixels throughout an image, by summing or averaging their values, during or after readout. It improves low-light performance while still al ...
to output higher quality images at a standard resolution, with the wide-angle sensor using Nonacell technology which groups 3x3 pixels to capture more light. The front camera is able to record video footage at 2160p. A new camera mode was introduced called Single Take, which allows users to capture photos or videos at the same time with different sensors automatically. The S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra can also record 8K videos at 24 fps with a
bit rate In telecommunications and computing, bit rate (bitrate or as a variable ''R'') is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time. The bit rate is expressed in the unit bit per second (symbol: bit/s), often in conjunction ...
of 80  Mbps, which will consume about 600 MB of storage per minute. On the S20 and S20+, this is enabled by the 64 MP telephoto sensor, whereas the S20 Ultra's 108 MP wide sensor natively supports 8K video.


Supported video modes

The Samsung Galaxy S20 series supports the following video modes: * 8K@24 fps (not available for the S20 FE) * 4K@30/60 fps *
1080p 1080p (1920 × 1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the sc ...
@30/60 fps * 1080p@240 fps *
720p 720p (720 lines progressive) is a progressive HD signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HD (1.78:1). All major HD broadcasting standards (such as SMPTE 292M) includ ...
@960 fps (720p480fps interpolates to 720p960fps on S20 Ultra) All models can record at 720p30, 1080p30 or 4k30 with HDR10+, they can record with
HEVC High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), also known as H.265 and MPEG-H Part 2, is a video compression standard designed as part of the MPEG-H project as a successor to the widely used Advanced Video Coding (AVC, H.264, or MPEG-4 Part 10). In co ...
codec without HDR10+


Software

All four phones initially ran on Android 10 and Samsung's custom skin One UI 2.1. In early December 2020, Samsung began releasing the Android 11 update with One UI 3 to all models. In January 2022, all four phones have received the One UI 4 update based on Android 12. As of May 2024, the S20 also supports updating to Android 13.


Software support

On 18 August 2020, Samsung revealed that all variants of the S20 series would be supported for three generations of Android software updates, and 4 years of security updates. In April 2024, however, the company extended support for a 5th year, moving from monthly to quarterly. After the Galaxy S20 series reached its end of life in April 2025 with the March 2025 security patch while the S20 FE continues to receive quarterly security updates for the next few months, Samsung was extending support for the Galaxy S20 FE 2022 until April 13, 2027.


Known issues

Even before the general release, reviewers have seen autofocus and skin smoothing issues with the cameras, especially with the Galaxy S20 Ultra. Samsung is working on a fix, but the Exynos model continues to have autofocus issues after an update that was supposed to fix them. Galaxy S20 Ultra can only record at 720p480fps and it interpolates with AI to 720p960fps, Galaxy S20 and S20+ can record at 720p960fps. Users have reported that the Snapdragon version has GPS lock issues. The Exynos model is also known to have heating issues. Some devices also suffer from green display tint issues after a software update. The camera glass has been reported of spontaneously cracking, particularly on the Ultra version. Some users reported instances of the Galaxy S20 FE suffering from touchscreen issues such as "ghost" touches and jittery movement when scrolling or zooming. Samsung attempted to fix the issue with several updates. Some users in India reported that after being updated to One UI 4.0, a vertical line started appearing on the front display. These devices were out of warranty and Samsung India concluded it was user error. They charged around 16,000 INR to those users who were looking for a screen replacement. Around a thousand affected users tweeted about it asking for help and others decided to take legal action. Samsung India has still failed to acknowledge this issue.


Samsung Galaxy S20 Tactical Edition

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Tactical Edition (TE) is a touchscreen-enabled, slate-format Android
smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
designed, developed, and marketed by
Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (SEC; stylized as SΛMSUNG; ) is a South Korean multinational major appliance and consumer electronics corporation founded on 13 January 1969 and headquartered in Yeongtong District, Suwon, South Korea. It is curr ...
. The device is built matching the needs of operators in the federal government and Department of Defense. The mobile is Commercial Solutions for Classified Program (CSfC) component approved, with support to
night vision Night vision is the ability to see in low-light conditions, either naturally with scotopic vision or through a night-vision device. Night vision requires both sufficient spectral range and sufficient intensity range. Humans have poor night v ...
,
stealth mode In business, stealth mode is a company's temporary state of secretiveness, either in total stealth mode when everything about the company is kept secret, or in-company stealth mode which is usually undertaken to avoid alerting competitors to a pen ...
, drone feeds and
laser range finder A laser rangefinder, also known as a laser telemeter or laser distance meter, is a rangefinder that uses a laser beam to determine the distance to an object. The most common form of laser rangefinder operates on the time of flight principle by ...
s. It can connect to tactical radios and mission systems, and runs applications like Battlefield assisted trauma distributed observation kit (BATDOK) etc.


Notes


External links


Official website


See also

* Digital zoom § ''iZoom'' *
Samsung Galaxy Samsung Galaxy (; stylized as SΛMSUNG Galaxy since 2015 (except Japan where it omitted the Samsung branding up until 2023), previously stylized as Samsung GALAXY; abbreviated as SG) is a series of computing, Android mobile computing and wear ...
*
Samsung Galaxy S series The Samsung Galaxy S series is a line of Android (operating system), Android-based smartphones and tablet computers produced by Samsung Electronics. It serves as Samsung's high-end line of its wider Samsung Galaxy, Galaxy family of Android devic ...
*
Exynos The Samsung Exynos (stylized as SΛMSUNG Exynos), formerly Hummingbird (), is a series of ARM architecture, Arm-based System on a chip, system-on-chips developed by Samsung Electronics' System LSI division and manufactured by Samsung Foundry. I ...
*
List of Qualcomm Snapdragon processors The Qualcomm Snapdragon suite of System on a chip, systems on chips (SoCs) are designed for use in smartphones, Tablet computer, tablets, laptops, 2-in-1 PCs, smartwatches, and smartbooks devices. Before Snapdragon SoC made by Qualcomm before ...
*
AMOLED AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode; ) is a type of OLED display device technology. OLED describes a specific type of thin-film-display technology in which organic compounds form the electroluminescence, electroluminescent materi ...


References


External links

* {{Samsung Galaxy S, smartphones=yes, tablets=yes Android (operating system) devices S20 Discontinued flagship smartphones Mobile phones introduced in 2020 Mobile phones with multiple rear cameras Mobile phones with 8K video recording