Yesterday, Samsung unveiled its flagship S20 line which consists of three phones — the S20, S20+, and the S20 Ultra. Of the three, the S20 Ultra is undoubtedly the highlight as it features a multi-camera setup with a whopping 108MP main shooter, as well as a 48MP telephoto lens that can zoom up to 100x digitally! Samsung calls this feature “Space Zoom”, and we got to test it out for ourselves recently (thanks to our friend over at Hungry Geeks).
First off, here’s a look at a shot taken with the S20 Ultra at 1x zoom:
Afterwards, we zoomed in 100x on the area denoted by the red circle, and here are the results:
Now that’s incredible! Sure it’s not exactly a high quality picture, but it’s insane how far the S20 Ultra can zoom.
Here’s another sample, this time we took shots of a different building in four magnifications:
1x zoom
10x zoom
50x zoom
100x zoom
Because the 50x and 100x zoom are digital magnifications, there is a noticeable loss in quality, though it’s still impressive given the distance. What surprised us is the 10x zoom photo, as it had practically no loss in quality; this is because the 48MP telephoto shooter has a 10x lossless zoom.
Not convinced? Well here’s another example:
1x zoom
10x zoom
50x zoom
100x zoom
For reference, we took the images above in hotel room at the Grand Hyatt in Taguig. Meanwhile, the subject of the photos above is Dusit Thani, a hotel that’s nearly three kilometers away. The fact that the S20 Ultra can take a photo of the Dusit Thani’s signage from far away is just incredible.
Finally, here’s a night shot using the 100x zoom:
1x zoom
100x zoom
Yes, the S20 Ultra’s telephoto camera was able to capture what brand of cement the construction project was using from the neighboring building!
The 10x lossless zoom telephoto camera may be overkill for a lot of users, but as fans of innovative tech, we are thoroughly impressed with the S20 Ultra’s camera so far. Of course, we only focused on the telephoto camera, and not the rest of the impressive quad camera. We definitely can’t wait to try out the S20 Ultra again soon.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra specs:
- 6.9-inch Super AMOLED Infinity-O display, 3200 x 1440 resolution w/ 120Hz refresh rate
- Exynos 990 octa-core processor
- 12GB RAM
- 128GB storage
- Rear cameras: 108MP wide + 12MP ultra-wide + 48MP telephoto (10x lossless zoom/100x digital zoom) + 3D ToF sensor
- Front camera: 40MP
- Dual SIM (hybrid tray)
- 4G, LTE (5G-ready but not yet enabled for PH devices)
- Ultrasonic Fingerprint scanner, IP68 certification, USB Type-C port
- 5,000mAh battery with 25w fast charging + wireless charging
- Android 10 (One UI 2.0)
- Price: PHP 69,990
The Galaxy S20 Ultra, as well as the rest of the S20 line, is available for pre-order from February 12-25, 2020. The phones will then be released on March 6, 2020.
Read more about the Galaxy S20 series here: