Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra vs S20 Ultra full camera showdown By CNET

Every august Samsung releases a Galaxy Note phone. It usually takes the galaxy s from March and gives it a stylus, a bigger screen, a bigger battery and a bigger price tag. That's not really the case this year, though this is a Samsung Galaxy note 20 ultra, and this is a Samsung Galaxy, s20 ultra, whereas in the past the note has been the phone with all of Samsung's cutting edge technology. In this case, the s20 ultra actually has the bigger battery the bigger price tag and both phones have the same 6.9-inch screen size. This is really unusual. For the note s dichotomy, how do the cameras stack up? Let's find out? These are two freakishly expensive.

Samsung phones released about math five, five months apart from each other, so, as you may expect, the cameras are actually pretty similar when you're talking about daytime photography, portrait shots and ultra-wide angle shots there isn't really that much of a difference so first check out these well-lit daytime shots. Now, if you look really closely, you may notice some slight differences in contrast or brightness. But again these are very slight differences, and they're. Nothing you wouldn't notice, unless you had two pictures side by side, the same can be said for ultra-wide angle: shots both in daytime and nighttime. This makes sense because, from the look of the specs it appears that Samsung has put the exact same ultra-wide angle lens into both phones, both have the same megapixel count and aperture.

So it's not a surprise that the performance is basically identical. Both phones worked similarly well when shooting portrait shots which replicate the depth of field effect that you'll find in a DSLR camera, but they both suffered from the same problem. In some instances, I would find that both phones would sometimes shoot portrait shots that looked super washed out. It was strange because I encountered this equally frequently with both phones, but just in different conditions. So if you look at this photo of Arnold you'll see that the note 20 ultra captured it way better than the s20 ultra, but then, with this photo of Rachel, the note 20 ultra just couldn't deal with the light.

But again this is the minority. These are the exceptions. You'll find that most of the time, the s20 ultra and the note 20 ultra shoot vibrant sharp portraits with about the same consistency. So what is the difference between these two cameras, night mode and zoom? So if you take a look at the s20, ultra's hideous camera bump you'll see that it says it can zoom into 100 times, whereas the note 20 ultra can only zoom 50 times on paper. That sounds like a win for the s20 ultra, but really I prefer the note 20 ultra, because, yes, while you can only zoom 50 times what zoom there is, is clearer and sharper, and really what do you need that 100 times in? For honestly? It's only once, you start getting to 20 30, 40 and 50 times, zoom that you start to begin to see the differences in quality, so even at 10 time zoom, which is quite a lot of zoom.

Both phones perform pretty evenly well. So take a look at these flowers zoomed in 10 times, both phones lose a remarkably little amount of fidelity. You'll see that both are super sharp and super vibrant for a standard shot, let alone 10 times zoom. It's really actually super insane, but then writes it up to 20 times zoom and while the s20 ultra still performs exceptionally well, you begin to see the note 20 ultra shoots ahead. So if you take a look at this statue shot by both phones at 20 times, zoom at a glance, the s20 ultra actually looks a little better looks a little sharper.

But if you look a little closer you'll see that this sharpness is actually due more to conspicuous digital processing and then look a little closer still, and you'll see there's much more grain and fuzziness going on, as opposed to the note 20 ultra, which looks a lot more natural. This difference becomes more stark, the more you zoom in. So if you take a look at this sign at 30 times, magnification I'm going to stop here, because I don't want to make it sound, like I'm ragging on the s20 ultra, because it's crazy that these phones can zoom in to 30 times magnification at all. It's really impressive, but to resume the note.20 is just sharper and much more clearer. The s1 ultra looks super blurry in comparison now, let's zoom all the way in at 50 times, magnification to Sydney tower now on the s20 ultra you'll see that it looks blurry almost like it's out of focus when compared to the note 20 ultra, which handles 50 times magnification super well.

So when we start talking about 40 and 50 times, zoom we're really getting into territory where not many people are going to venture. It's really only hobbyist photographers who are going to need or be interested in zooming in that much, and it really also gets difficult to do without a tripod, which is why I prefer the note 20 ultra zoom, because it has perfect 10 and 20 times zoom, rather than the s20 ultra's ability to get up to 100 times zoom. I really feel like you're, going to get more use out of the shorter zoom on this than you will the longer zoom on this nighttime photography is more straightforward, and it's a win for the note 20 ultra. I found that, with both standard low light photography and night mode, the note 20 ultra consistently outperformed the s20 ultra. So if you look at these low light, shots of this harbor you'll see that the note 20 captures more light than the s20, and this is accelerated when you switch both to night mode now, you may actually prefer this photo as taken on the s20 ultra, because the note 20 ultras night mode actually takes in so much light that maybe it takes away some kind of dark atmosphere.

But if we're talking technically about which phone can bring in more light, then the note 20 ultra is the winner, and you'll see that here again with these apartment blocks, where uh unambiguously the note 20 ultra, is just a bit sharper and a little brighter than the s20 ultra. Finally, you'll see the same on this palm tree. These palm trees are which are far more illuminated on the note 20 ultra. So all the trends that I've just gone through you'll find are the same when it comes to video. Now both of these phones have a pretty hectic camera setup.

They can both shoot 8k at 24 frames per second, but I can't really get into all the features because doing so would take basically its own other video. So I'll just say that, based on my testing so far, I found that both phones perform basically the same during the day, which is to say super well, but at night the note 20 ultra comes out on top uh. The f20 ultra can be a little under saturated in comparison and just in general, the details are sharper on the note 20 ultra at night. Now on the back of both ludicrously large camera bumps, for both phones is a 108 megapixel camera, that's the main camera for both phones and with that main camera, you can shoot in 108, megapixel ultra HD mode. Now what this does it's a little confusing uh at a glance? If you shoot in normal and then ultra HD mode, you won't really see the difference, but what the feature allows you to do is zoom in really deep on a photo after it's been taken.

So if you take a look at these flowers in my backyard, you'll see that with normal mode you can only zoom in so far, but in ultra HD mode you can zoom in much further. In essence, it's kind of the zoom feature, but after you've taken the photo. So this feature was implemented by a few Chinese phones before, but with the s20 ultra Samsung became kind of the first mainstream player to use it and at first I thought it was kind of a novelty but the more I use it, the more nifty and cool. I think it is so now Samsung with the note 20 ultra. It is a little improved this time around.

I did notice you can. The zoom was a little clearer at the extreme end. However, it's not something you'd notice, unless you had them side by side, so I was just about to begin wrapping this video up and then my neighbor started mowing his lawn, which is super cool. I love working from home, it's so good. He stopped okay, I'm going to get this in really quickly the s20 ultra unusually.

It is a little more expensive than the note 20 ultra. So I guess it's not that surprising to say that the note 20 ultra doesn't drastically improve on the s20 ultra's camera. But having said that, if you are weighing up between these two phones, I would give the photographic edge to the note 20 ultra, because yes, the s20 ultra can zoom in to 100 times, but I would say that the zoom functionality on the note 20 ultra is more well-rounded. Plus you also get the added benefit of low light, photography being improved for both photos and videos. I'm going to wrap this video up now before my neighbor decides to go through, I don't know, cut a tree down or something uh.

Let us know in the comments: do you have a s20 ultra? Do you want a note, 20 ultra? Let us know in the comments and check back to CNN for more.

Source : CNET