Phones Samsung Galaxy S20 / S20+ / S20 Ultra

[Awesomesince86]

I got mine today, don't go near the phone. Any photo with human in it is terrible, blurred, lack of detail. My old note 8 took much better photos. I returned mine 4 hours later. The technician at Samsung could not believe how bad they were and wrote a report to send to HQ in Korea.
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Take a couple of portrait shots with light and low light. (Remember to have a box of tissues with you

Lol @ this guy. Created that username just to make this post.

 

[yui4]

I got mine today, don't go near the phone. Any photo with human in it is terrible, blurred, lack of detail. My old note 8 took much better photos. I returned mine 4 hours later. The technician at Samsung could not believe how bad they were and wrote a report to send to HQ in Korea.
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Take a couple of portrait shots with light and low light. (Remember to have a box of tissues with you

Nice username!

 

[mjschabow]

I got mine today, don't go near the phone. Any photo with human in it is terrible, blurred, lack of detail. My old note 8 took much better photos. I returned mine 4 hours later. The technician at Samsung could not believe how bad they were and wrote a report to send to HQ in Korea.
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Take a couple of portrait shots with light and low light. (Remember to have a box of tissues with you

Lol not that I'm doubting your experience, but not sure that taking advice on the S20 from a guy with the username "Don't buy the S20 series" is something I'm going to do.

 

[BlueGoldAce]

I got mine today, don't go near the phone. Any photo with human in it is terrible, blurred, lack of detail. My old note 8 took much better photos. I returned mine 4 hours later. The technician at Samsung could not believe how bad they were and wrote a report to send to HQ in Korea.
[automerge]1583414521[/automerge]

Take a couple of portrait shots with light and low light. (Remember to have a box of tissues with you

I have been happy to just lurk here....but this is hilarious. What is it that compels people to spend this much time evangelizing against or for a phone on an online forum? Nice user name...and I am glad to hear your experience is so bad that a technician wrote a report to HQ.

Anyway, I have had the ultra for a short time coming from a note 10+ (the pixel xl 4 for two weeks prior, and the 11 pro max before that purchases at launch). It has been only a day or so, but so far I am a big fan. The zoom capability and sheer detail in bright lights is a huge benefit when you using it in the real world (outside of pictures of your lunch). I enjoy taking pictures of monuments, the mountains, waterfalls, etc but phones have been inadequate prior. The zoom and detail on the ultra changes that, so far, in my short experience.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I got mine today, don't go near the phone. Any photo with human in it is terrible, blurred, lack of detail. My old note 8 took much better photos. I returned mine 4 hours later. The technician at Samsung could not believe how bad they were and wrote a report to send to HQ in Korea.
[automerge]1583414521[/automerge]

Take a couple of portrait shots with light and low light. (Remember to have a box of tissues with you

Wow and you made a new user account just to come here and inform us of your discovery.

 

[yui4]

Lol not that I'm doubting your experience, but not sure that taking advice on the S20 from a guy with the username "Don't buy the S20 series" is something I'm going to do.

Why? Hes sounds like he can be trusted to give a balanced and non biased review based on his lengthy testing of the device

 

[Oohara]

I got mine today, don't go near the phone. Any photo with human in it is terrible, blurred, lack of detail. My old note 8 took much better photos. I returned mine 4 hours later. The technician at Samsung could not believe how bad they were and wrote a report to send to HQ in Korea.
[automerge]1583414521[/automerge]

Take a couple of portrait shots with light and low light. (Remember to have a box of tissues with you

See @jamezr, now this is a real one!

 

[Don't buy s20 series]

I have been happy to just lurk here....but this is hilarious. What is it that compels people to spend this much time evangelizing against or for a phone on an online forum? Nice user name...and I am glad to hear your experience is so bad that a technician wrote a report to HQ.

Anyway, I have had the ultra for a short time coming from a note 10+ (the pixel xl 4 for two weeks prior, and the 11 pro max before that purchases at launch). It has been only a day or so, but so far I am a big fan. The zoom capability and sheer detail in bright lights is a huge benefit when you using it in the real world (outside of pictures of your lunch). I enjoy taking pictures of monuments, the mountains, waterfalls, etc but phones have been inadequate prior. The zoom and detail on the ultra changes that, so far, in my short experience.

Haha, I'm normal a happy lurka too. Only because I was so disappointed. I had been hanging for this phone. Your right it takes great outdoor shots, great shots of inanimate objects. Zoom is great up to ten x. But as soon as there is a person or movement it is terrible. Had mainly got it for my baby boy and it was terrible at taking photos of him.
When I took it back, Samsung put together a report. They took the same photo of the same model same light etc. With my ultra, a different ultra, a s20plus and a note 8. The note 8 was by far the best. Her skin tone was off. Out of focus. Greyish. Lack of detail in her face, skin or hair. And very aggressive smoothing. (Beauty mode off on all) on the s20s. Where as the note 8 was normal Sammy portrait but still clear and more realistic. Particularly when zooming in.

 

[Awesomesince86]

Played with the camera a bit more this morning...

Low light is really bad. Everything is blurry and autofocus struggles even more. Not much else to say there.

When theirs plenty of light like for outdoor shots, the pictures look amazing as long as it's a still image. Otherwise burst mode is needed to get a clear shot.

Single take is pretty cool but it isn't going to get you the best shots or videos. But it's nice to have in dynamic situations where you just want to grab everything and decide later what shot you like best. I could see it being good for kids or pets.

Yesterday first impressions were I'm definitely keeping the phone and I've swung more towards the middle now. If the first update comes out before the return window and I see clear camera improvements then it's an easy keep for me. Everything else about the phone is great. But there are glaring issues with the camera in its current state. Still capable of great pics but also really struggles as a point and shoot right now.
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Also forgot to mention the phone is top heavy. I have to move my pointer finger higher than usual on the back to balance one handed. I have big hands to this isn't an issue but it'll be problematic for those who don't. The camera bump makes a nice backstop though.

 

[jamezr]

I got mine today, don't go near the phone. Any photo with human in it is terrible, blurred, lack of detail. My old note 8 took much better photos. I returned mine 4 hours later. The technician at Samsung could not believe how bad they were and wrote a report to send to HQ in Korea.
[automerge]1583414521[/automerge]

Take a couple of portrait shots with light and low light. (Remember to have a box of tissues with you

Cool story Bro.......So believable. Even your username denotes just how committed you are to your agenda.
Obsess much?

 

[fjd726]

The autofocus is a major problem on the plus. Putting a Note 10 up against it is night and day. No struggle with the Note.

 

[Don't buy s20 series]

Played with the camera a bit more this morning...

Low light is really bad. Everything is blurry and autofocus struggles even more. Not much else to say there.

When theirs plenty of light like for outdoor shots, the pictures look amazing as long as it's a still image. Otherwise burst mode is needed to get a clear shot.

Single take is pretty cool but it isn't going to get you the best shots or videos. But it's nice to have in dynamic situations where you just want to grab everything and decide later what shot you like best. I could see it being good for kids or pets.

Yesterday first impressions were I'm definitely keeping the phone and I've swung more towards the middle now. If the first update comes out before the return window and I see clear camera improvements then it's an easy keep for me. Everything else about the phone is great. But there are glaring issues with the camera in its current state. Still capable of great pics but also really struggles as a point and shoot right now.
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Also forgot to mention the phone is top heavy. I have to move my pointer finger higher than usual on the back to balance one handed. I have big hands to this isn't an issue but it'll be problematic for those who don't. The camera bump makes a nice backstop though.

I concur. My main reason for not waiting to check if an update fixes issue is the fact that they released it as is. What kind of quality control did they did do for a 1400 dollar phone. Very un Sammy, especially after the whole battery business.

 

[Awesomesince86]

I concur. My main reason for not waiting to check if an update fixes issue is the fact that they released it as is. What kind of quality control did they did do for a 1400 dollar phone. Very un Sammy, especially after the whole battery business.

Its hard to take anything you say seriously with that username, but...

I've addressed this before when it comes to releasing a phone with obvious bugs. You have to realize that these phone releases are scheduled way in advance. That means these engineering teams are working up until the last second on software. These phones had to be packaged and sent to distribution outlets ahead of launch and at that point no software updates could go through until the customers power them on and download them. So, it stands to reason that they've been working on camera issues and may even have a lot of them fixed but it doesn't make sense for them to push an update out yet when most people don't have their phones (were still pre release date). If come two weeks post release we still haven't seen an update then I'll start to get critical.

Phones releasing with buggy software isn't new. Look at the Pixel line. I'm not saying that should be the benchmark, but Pixel phones on release day are usually far inferior to Pixels 3 months post launch. Apple is usually more conservative about rolling out updates until it's been thoroughly tested but the trade-off there is Apple usually take longer to roll out features other phones have had for a while.

Personally I'll be holding this phone until the end of the return window to make up my mind. Everything else about it is great (only other complaint so far is how top heavy it is).

 

[yui4]

I dont doubt for a minute that samsung will remedy the camera issues. This is their flagship, it's too important for them to be negligent on the camera front.

iOS 13 wasn't too hot when released on the 11 pro max but is pretty much sorted now.

Personally, I'm happy to wait for the updates as the rest of the s20 ultra is worth it to myself

 

[Healer Flame]

Samsung account

us.community.samsung.com

If its mechanical defect i would return it and wait for Note 20

 

[5105973]

Okay I just did a little photo shoot with my favorite subject. I took a series of photos using the zoom lenses on both my S20 and my 11 Pro and stepped back until Miss Kitty filled the frame. Then I went to the normal lenses and walked really close and tried to get the same kind of framing of her filling the photo with the standard wide angle. I didn’t try this using the ultra wide angle because that’s obviously not for portraits.

On the S20 some of the details in her fur that you see on the IPhone are smoothed. They’re still beautiful though. Nice lighting and colors. She was focused except for one shot when she was whipping her head around.

Everything was set to full auto. I wanted to try my Pixel but left it upstairs and by the time I fetched it, naturally the cat had moved on to a different level on her cat tree away from the paparazzi.

I apologize for all the cat photos. This is just to help pet owners get a sense of how the Apple flagship camera processes things differently from a Samsung. I’m going to make a ton of mistakes while I upload and label so please bear with me a few minutes.

S20 zoom Accurate face shape, maybe a tiny bit chubby:

S20 wide lens. Note the change in face shape:

iPhone 11 Pro zoom standing back.
iPhone is maybe sharpening her fur too much here, actually:

iPhone 11Pro Wide standing close:

I realized I forgot to turn beauty mode off. So I took a few test shots and found these results are still fine.

But anyway Beauty mode off, Zoom lenses, standing back for both

S20:

11 Pro

Apple always gets her eye color perfectly. Samsung punches it up a lot. But the S20 now at least stays the same shade of green. My Note 10+ had put them a more blue color than they are and that really annoyed me.

I’m sorry I can’t get Pixel and Note pictures in also. It’s really challenging as it is juggling these two phones.

I’m really pleased with the S20 results so far. I can’t wait to get more time to delve into pro mode, which is something I used a lot on my S9+ and a bit on my S10+. I realize I haven’t used the camera on my Note 10+ as much. I got frustrated by little things like the inaccurate colors and the sheer size of it. So as much as I’ll miss the S pen, I’ll be happy to move on now to the S20. I still absolutely loathe the fingerprint sensor on both phones, though. I hope next go around they just use the one on the Z Flip or put the new one in.

 

[Don't buy s20 series]

Its hard to take anything you say seriously with that username, but...

I've addressed this before when it comes to releasing a phone with obvious bugs. You have to realize that these phone releases are scheduled way in advance. That means these engineering teams are working up until the last second on software. These phones had to be packaged and sent to distribution outlets ahead of launch and at that point no software updates could go through until the customers power them on and download them. So, it stands to reason that they've been working on camera issues and may even have a lot of them fixed but it doesn't make sense for them to push an update out yet when most people don't have their phones (were still pre release date). If come two weeks post release we still haven't seen an update then I'll start to get critical.

Phones releasing with buggy software isn't new. Look at the Pixel line. I'm not saying that should be the benchmark, but Pixel phones on release day are usually far inferior to Pixels 3 months post launch. Apple is usually more conservative about rolling out updates until it's been thoroughly tested but the trade-off there is Apple usually take longer to roll out features other phones have had for a while.

Personally I'll be holding this phone until the end of the return window to make up my mind. Everything else about it is great (only other complaint so far is how top heavy it is).

If it was a mid tier phone I would agree with you. But as this is there flagship. The amount of sales they would have lost from all the reviewers saying there Are issues, the mind boggles. Now even if they do fix it properly that bad press is hard to undo. Even if they held up shipment for a month (blamed corona or something) made the camera A++ it would have sky rocketed the ultra. Vaulting it to number one. Now as they don't have dual aperture and dual pixel focus im not sure the updates will fully fix the problems.

 

[5105973]

Haha, I'm normal a happy lurka too. Only because I was so disappointed. I had been hanging for this phone. Your right it takes great outdoor shots, great shots of inanimate objects. Zoom is great up to ten x. But as soon as there is a person or movement it is terrible. Had mainly got it for my baby boy and it was terrible at taking photos of him.
When I took it back, Samsung put together a report. They took the same photo of the same model same light etc. With my ultra, a different ultra, a s20plus and a note 8. The note 8 was by far the best. Her skin tone was off. Out of focus. Greyish. Lack of detail in her face, skin or hair. And very aggressive smoothing. (Beauty mode off on all) on the s20s. Where as the note 8 was normal Sammy portrait but still clear and more realistic. Particularly when zooming in.

Hi, welcome to the forum. The name you chose is a little bit confrontational given the part of the forum you’re in. But I’ll take your explanations on face value and proceed from there. I hope to test my husband’s S20 Ultra more in the next few days when he’s not using it. It sounds like you might have gotten a dud if the tech made a report and colors were a problem.

From what I’ve seen so far, colors render pretty well on these phones. Of course there are so many settings for display and camera to work through. Like I’ll forget I’ve got True Tone messing things up on my iPhone display or have my S20 display set to vivid. So the same photo shared between the two phones will look very different. So that sort of thing needs to be kept in mind as people check over their results.

My husband is still complaining about how the focus is working on the Ultra. We think now the update he got was just the ordinary security update. I think so far only Korea got the camera update but I’ve honestly kind of lost track.

But that zoom is so much fun when the light is good and you have a suitably interesting subject. So I really hope Samsung gets it in prime working order for the sake of Ultra owners. I honestly will not stop having zoom envy as the owner of the regular S20. But I do think this time I picked the right one of the bunch for me and my current needs. If things change, I can always go big next year!

My husband remains undecided under the current circumstances but will wait patiently for update news.

 

[BlueGoldAce]

If it was a mid tier phone I would agree with you. But as this is there flagship. The amount of sales they would have lost from all the reviewers saying there Are issues, the mind boggles. Now even if they do fix it properly that bad press is hard to undo. Even if they held up shipment for a month (blamed corona or something) made the camera A++ it would have sky rocketed the ultra. Vaulting it to number one. Now as they don't have dual aperture and dual pixel focus im not sure the updates will fully fix the problems.

I think you are grossly over-valuing how often the average consumer (i.e. 99% of all buyers) goes and buys the "new galaxy" or "new iphone". The marketing is meant to wow the average consumer. I don't think they will even notice the loss of sales from our debates here and elsewhere.

Secondly, a few other thoughts:

-For reasons that I don't fully get, influencers matter and can impact sales. MKHBD, Unbox Therapy are all praising the phone and are probably will only help sales.
-The camera hardware cost over 1/5th of the cost to build this phone (google it). The software can be fixed, hardware can't. Computational photography is limited by its hardware and we are likely seeing the peak of the current hardware on the Pixel and iPhone. If Samsung does choose to fix this, and I think they will, the ceiling is very high.
-The camera is already excellent in multiple situations and surpasses the competition in some areas as well.
-Most phone take perfectly suitable pictures for instagraming one's lunch or pet. The fact that we are debating single digit percentage details on $1000+ negates our opinion to the minority.

 

[yui4]

Anybody in the uk preorder?

I've got ships by 9th march. iirc official launch is 13th march.

I'm trying to figure when I'll actually get the phone delivered into my grubby mits

 

[Awesomesince86]

If it was a mid tier phone I would agree with you. But as this is there flagship. The amount of sales they would have lost from all the reviewers saying there Are issues, the mind boggles. Now even if they do fix it properly that bad press is hard to undo. Even if they held up shipment for a month (blamed corona or something) made the camera A++ it would have sky rocketed the ultra. Vaulting it to number one. Now as they don't have dual aperture and dual pixel focus im not sure the updates will fully fix the problems.

Tech reviewers see a ton of very similar devices so it's natural they are overly critical of things. And it's easy to be critical of the camera on the Ultra because right now there are glaring issues. But if you watched those videos you also notice a lot of the reviewers raving about the Ultra and how great it is. MKBHD even said at the end that he will be using the Ultra as his daily driver for the foreseeable future and he's a guy that is notorious for overlooking the Pixels flaws because he prioritizes the camera so much. So that should tell you how much those guys like this phone.

 

[Dreday24]

I have the s20 ultra, I have been trying out the camera and I have no confidence taking it with me and my only device. I really dislike the camera. I am going to return it and try the s20 plus.

top is s20ultra, bottom is 11pro max.

I just don't understand

 

[Awesomesince86]

How are the speakers?

Sorry just saw this. Ugh, I would say good, not great. In my limited testing they can get really loud but I would say the sound is a little more tinny than on the iPhone. But good enough.

 

[Kiezpirat80]

Got a mail from Samsung, my S20 Plus 5G is coming tomorrow

 

[Healer Flame]

I just don't understand

We've seen fantastic photos on youtube and from other sources so either you have a bad phone or you are using it wrong.