so I wanted to talk a little bit about a
hot new device a hot new phone released
by Samsung the s20 ultra and the reason
I want to talk about it is because I've
been using it I switched over to this
phone I was using an iPhone for a while
I was using a pixel phone before that
well you know that's kind of how it goes
around here that's the job you try a lot
of different phones you figure them out
you figure out the things that you like
you figure out the things that you don't
so I thought it would be cool at this
moment given some initial exposure to
this device to lay it out for you to
give you five reasons you might want to
get this phone or at least five
observations five things I like about
this particular device they're not
exclusive to the ultra some of the
factors would also apply to the other
devices these s 20 s 20 plus not exactly
but like wills using the s 20 the
regular s 20 the number one thing that I
like about this phone having used it now
for I don't know maybe three days is the
display now I don't know if that's
surprising to you or not you probably
imagine that would be the case maybe you
thought I was gonna say cabron the
display I put it at number one just
because of how big it is I just I guess
I feel like if you were out there as a
smartphone buyer in 2020 you got a
budget to support this particular phone
and believe believe me it is a budget
full disclaimer everything I say here
applies to a very expensive phone but
you already know that since you clicked
on it if you want the biggest baddest
display this is probably it in 2020 at
this scale it's the biggest display
Samsung has put on a device and that
includes the note series which typically
had the biggest displays so it's got a
massive display with very little
obstruction from any type of cutout of
course we have the single front facing
camera symmetrically in the middle with
a small hole punch it has ultra high
brightness and believe me I'm a bit of a
brightness aficionado I'm always looking
for the brightest screens in daylight
outside I pay attention
I'm curious this one is one of the
brightest I've ever used you add to that
a hundred and twenty Hertz refresh and
I've explained this to you in the past
with other high refresh rate devices
this has a tremendous impact on how
snappy the phone feels when you're
interacting with it how fast it feels
and it won't completely show up to you
on camera but once you get this in hand
it's gonna be hard for you to go back to
a regular 60 Hertz phone and since the
last phone I was using before this one
was an iPhone 11 Pro max which is a 60
Hertz device the gap the jump was
significant and it's like men look what
I was missing it's not just speed it's
also sort of a smoothness that comes
along with that 120 Hertz now keep in
mind it does use battery and that has
been one of the criticisms of this
particular device even though it has
it's a big footprint it has an enormous
battery in it at 120 Hertz if you're
watching a lot of video you're moving
around a lot you're playing game
something like this you can drain it
it is possible so just keep that in mind
if you want better battery life you can
toggle back the 120 Hertz but you know
me it's like max brightness 120 Hertz I
want to experience the ultra in Ultra
format if you care about the display
mate stuff they took a look at this
screen and basically ranked it up at the
top tier so you put together the
resolution the size the 120 Hertz
refresh Samsung's
history and delivery of OLED displays
the tiny little hole punch you just add
it all up the high brightness and I
think you probably have the most
compelling display if we're strictly
talking displays maybe on any smartphone
right now this all depends on whether
whether or not you're in the market for
the biggest baddest display because it
is a huge phone so I could see some
people maybe with a smaller hand or you
just don't want to have a beast in your
pocket you just say to yourself I can't
handle it I'm not gonna do it or maybe
you don't have the budget for it so I
hear you when it comes to that as well
well is one of these people he decided
to go for the s 20 standard edition he's
been customizing it he absolutely loves
it alright number two
this is a weird one and it does apply to
every single new s20 or well the latest
Samsung stuff in general one UI the new
one UI this is crazy I can't imagine
myself saying this in fact because you
guys have heard me on here before I've
been a huge proponent of the stock
Android experience the pixel Android
experience the Android experience the
way that Google intended it this is one
of those rare circumstances where I feel
like Samsung has actually made an
improvement and that improvement applies
specifically to this ultra model because
of how big it is
so Samsung thought a lot about
one-handed usage and as you can see I
can drag from this point in the screen
and get my drop down if I go up to the
settings area here I can grab from
anywhere and bring it down into a more
reachable location this is my left hand
so the grip is a bit more abnormal but
this is especially important on a really
big phone that there's thought that went
into how are you gonna use this thing
with one hand and are there software
improvements we can make that are gonna
make your life a bit easier now this
same thing follows through the Samsung
Apps and settings so the default will be
sort of like this but what if I have to
reach connections in one hand like check
it out right now I can reach it but the
default would stick it at the top making
it further away from me this matters on
a device that's this massive the whole
thing is pretty clean there's a dark
mode baked in it's snappy it's not a
heavy skin so it's kind of crazy I'm
sitting here using one UI instead of an
alternate browser in 2020 that should go
to show you from a guy who's been on the
vanilla experience and talking about it
for so long that's meaningful now keep
in mind that particular point applies to
any of the latest Samsung devices and
not just the ultra model and it's kind
of surprising I put it at number two but
I just I don't know I feel like it
deserves to be talked about it's a
differentiating factor that Samsung has
if you were cross shopping this against
something that was a non Samsung
flagship device all right the next one
this stood out to me right away
considering the last Samsung device that
I used would have been
back in the s10 days they got rid of the
dedicated Bigsby button which to me was
an annoyance on the previous models now
I know eventually you could map these
things those buttons to do alternate
things but I just hated the idea of
having this feature forced upon me when
you know I'm a Google assistant guy I
like to use Google assistant basically
was never a replacement to Google
assistant for me so I didn't want this
button reminding me that Samsung was
wishing and hoping that I would be using
Bixby I feel like he's back into chasing
his tail now that he's wearing the thing
so yeah I was one of those guys I was
trying to disable and remap the Bixby
button and it was ok that was a decent
substitute but it just felt unnecessary
and it was just hard for me to get out
get it out of my psychology that that
this button represented Bixby
exclusively and and sometimes I will
press it accidentally and then in the
initial way that you would disable it
you could still launch it by DoubleTap
it was just I just wanted to be rid of
it and they did that on this device
which is it means that Samsung's
listening to the customer base and I
think that's always a good thing so and
now instead if you head over to the
power settings into the side key
settings you're gonna actually do
whatever you want even with the power
switch so if you still want the bixby
situation you just do it from the power
button it can either be a double press
or a press and hold if you happen to be
a big B user so that's a better
implementation gives you more control
it's within the one UI so I did I just
think samsung I think Samsung made the
right move there this is my fourth and
keep in mind I'm trying to keep it to
things that are not obvious these five
characteristics that I think will make
you want to pay attention to this
particular device obviously it's very
powerful it has all this Ram it has the
latest chip from Qualcomm of course it
has all those things going for it but I
was trying to keep it more into things
you might not think about or things that
I experienced and noticed having the
device in hand
so this next one actually has to do sort
of with the display again and the
flatness of it Samsung has been through
a variety of different curvatures to the
edge of the display dating back to the
device that actually had the name edge
in it that was a very aggressive edge
that they had and they've been playing
around toying around with different
versions of it leading up to this one I
think they have finally nailed the right
edge in 2020 if you could say that now I
know other manufacturers are going
bananas with the waterfalls and so forth
but from a person who's used them all up
until this point there hasn't been the
perfect implementation you will get
these unintentional presses on the side
sometimes you would lack a place to grip
they look great they look very
science-fiction with the waterfall
display but from a practicality from a
usage perspective there's still no
substitute for a confident grip so this
particular curvature still diminishes
the appearance of a bezel but it keeps
it flat enough that there's no
unintentional presses and if you pair a
case with the device like I have here
it's even less likely that you're going
to touch where you don't want to because
now you have this nice substantial
section that you can grip onto as you
can see right here now of course this is
a thin case so it doesn't obstruct the
original grip too much it's not a
massive impact but it just gives you a
little bit more to hold onto and gives
you less likelihood of interacting with
the edge at all I think they have nailed
the curvature for now all right now I
can't talk about the s20 ultra without
talking about the camera it's a very
important component here it's massive
its standout it's the first thing you
see with this device if I pull this out
of my pocket people are gonna talk about
this camera they're gonna know right
away what this phone is because of the
camera now the camera has been a bit
controversial so it might seem odd to
you I'm saying is one of the top five
reasons to consider this phone
controversial in the sense that there's
been some issues
Samsung saying oh there's going to be
some improvements on a camera we're
gonna have some next software there's
been some issues with autofocus been
some issues with image processing so
these are things
you could address with software but
there's also this argument that you you
shouldn't have to ask for that it should
be out the gate out the box maximum
performance but Samsung gives you access
to a full out pro mode on here which can
eliminate a lot of that post-processing
the reason I put it at number five is
because of camera versatility which i
think is where this particular device
shine where out of the box Samsung gives
you more control over how the camera
operates compared to other manufacturers
there's just so much that you can modify
within the camera app the same thing
applies to the video mode which goes all
the way up to 8k plus there's still no
real perfect substitute for optical zoom
it performs better than the other zooms
particularly the digital zoom that the
pixel tries to do at least up to around
10x certainly at 8 X you're gonna get
more sharpness less software guesswork
this is an area where the hardware is
still outperforming even the best
software in the world at trying to
figure out what a zoomed image should
look like the wide-angle camera I've
been using it outdoors I've been
impressed with it posted a couple
pictures from it so the selfie camera is
also very good so that's why I decided
to title it camera versatility it's a
mixture of the available settings the
various video formats stuff in there
that you may never use but that you have
access to if you want to dive into it in
an ultra model phone as far as the
autofocus stuff and the image processing
stuff we're gonna have to wait and see
how Samsung addresses it if upcoming
software can improve it it probably can
but just keep in mind that it may
progress or change over time my last one
is an honorable mention and it also
applies to all the various Samsung
devices and if you caught the most
recent video then you're already aware
of it and that is Samsung decks which
allows you to plug this horse power into
a laptop or desktop style environment
with a keyboard and a display and I
haven't experimented with it before and
it actually
turns out to be a totally usable thing
it's surprisingly powerful and fluid and
I can see a lot of people in the future
transitioning to a workflow like that
other manufacturers haven't progressed
in this space very much Huawei has their
thing then you have Samsung with Dex and
then pretty much no one else is there
yet or they're currently working on it
so it's a nice advantage if you're going
to invest in a very expensive flagship
device to know that you could have the
option of plugging this into a dock
getting a keyboard and mouse and monitor
experience or a laptop style experience
if you need to do more work type a
document and so forth and again
advantage for Samsung so that's five
points plus one extra the honorable
mention with Dex will is there anything
you want to add you've been using the
s20 what is your favorite one favorite
thing one reason why a person should get
an S 20 series device the one 20 be
frustrating okay I think that makes such
a big day the display yeah I mean like
it's so smooth yeah
there's no lag whatsoever for this so
yeah I appreciate something like that
you're going to feel like you've you've
kind of progressed into the next era of
smartphone displays maybe even more so
than resolution maybe even more so than
the advancement to OLED the Refresh has
just had a really weird impact on how
you perceive the snappiness of your
phone the responsiveness because of the
touch input the way we interact with
phones that instant following of your
finger it gives the device more life it
feels more responsive to you this all
sounds very extreme and very personal
and intimate and that's because it is so
that's five reasons and an honorable
mention for me that you might want to
get the Samsung Galaxy S 20 ultra and
that's one reason from will to get an S
20 series in general it's a moment
you're gonna have a moment