It’s impossible to justify the Galaxy S20 Ultra price for everyone – even those who bought the S9 Plus or S10 Plus, and intended to get the next ‘big one’ from Samsung.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra review: Samsung’s best phone yet Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra review: Samsung’s best phone yet

Distance. It used to be a problem for smartphone cameras, which were incapable of making distant subjects look anything other than, well, distant. We could write a whole review of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra’s cameras, there’s so much to say about them – and that’s good news if you want something fresh out of your smartphone’s photos, but bad news if you want the best photos with every snap. The Ultra features a 40 MP front camera rather than the 10 MP on the other S20s. In addition to auto-HDR for high-contrast images, the camera captures 4K video at up to 60 fps. 108 MP Rear Camera We discovered that you can’t have 8K and Super Steady; in fact, Super Steady didn’t work in 4K either – it’s still a 1080p affair. And 8K is limited to 24fps, so you’re not going to get all the bells and whistles you do with 4K and Full HD video. The answer is simply that you should go with the regular S20 if you want the S20 range while keeping things relatively affordable and the Ultra for just the all-round best device. S20 Ultra or the newer S21 Ultra: which is the better choice

The S20 Ultra is maximum everything: big photos, big zoom range and big price

Using 5G hogs battery life, and in part to counter this the Galaxy S20 Ultra has a 5,000mAh battery capacity, while the S20 Plus has a 4,500mAh battery. We found that the Ultra lasted longer than 24 hours on days we weren't testing 5G speeds non-stop. The Ultra is designed for early adopters, and three things stand out: it has a massive 6.9-inch display with next-gen fluid-scrolling tech that will stretch your hand; five cameras to capture 108MP photos, 40MP selfies and 8K video, and 5G antennas with peak speeds 66 times as fast as 4G LTE.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra review | TechRadar Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra review | TechRadar

Big doesn’t necessarily define the Note series anymore. Oh, the Note 20 Ultra is a massive phone in the hand, requiring two meaty paws to operate it – it's just no longer uniquely big. It shares the same 6.9-inch screen size with the S20 Ultra.Customisability is key here; whether it’s changing how the phone performs while you’re gaming to how fast or high-res the screen is, Samsung lets you tweak lots of things to work how you want them too. Most Galaxy Note 20 Ultra cases will level things out so that the camera bump isn't an issue, and given the fact that this is such a large and heavy phone, it’s best to protect your investment with one. Here’s where Samsung wins, even if images from its phones aren’t ‘the best’ when it comes to pixel-peeping: it has the easiest to use and most fun smartphone camera. That still counts for something.

S20 Ultra 5G- all carriers Cosmic Grey Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G- all carriers Cosmic Grey

FDD LTE B1(2100), B2(1900), B3(1800), B4(AWS), B5(850), B7(2600), B8(900), B12(700), B13(700), B17(700), B18(800), B19(800), B20(800), B25(1900), B26(850), B28(700), B32(1500), B66(AWS-3) The camera is supremely capable. Samsung’s post-processing remains behind the likes of Google and Apple, and that’s why we’ve got all these megapixels at play. You might be disappointed if you felt the high megapixel count was going to take mobile photography to the next level – these shots still look like they’ve come from a phone, but the results are still great. If you’re a fan of pictures from previous Samsung phones then these are the very best versions of those Samsung photos.

40 MP Selfie Camera

Is this squared-off frame better than a rounded one? That’s highly subjective, but it allows for the S Pen to easily slide straight up into the left side of the phone – a minor change from the right-side slot where previous Note phones had you holster the stylus. For others, though, the word ‘upgrade’ means a completely different thing: they want a phone that pushes new boundaries, and they don’t mind if that pushes the price tag further into Galaxy Z Fold 2 territory.