Samsung Galaxy S20+ (Exynos 990) Review

The Samsung Galaxy S20 series was unveiled in San Francisco, California last February and in the middle of the three brothers is the Samsung Galaxy S20+. Just like the other Galaxy S20 smartphones, the Galaxy S20+ brings a lot of new features to the series including a brand new SoC inside which is more powerful and of course, a big upgrade to the camera. Check out what we think about the smartphone in our review below:

Samsung Galaxy S20+ Review: Hardware and design

The Samsung Galaxy S series never fails to amaze me when it comes to build quality. We still have here an all-glass design which is premium to hold and of course, there are the metal sides on the smartphone that adds to the solidness and premium quality of the smartphone.

Out of the three Samsung Galaxy S20 smartphones, the Galaxy S20+ is the perfect one for me when it comes to ergonomics. It’s not that thick unlike the Galaxy S20 Ultra and the display size and its body size are not small nor too big for me. The ergonomics of the smartphone is pretty good too as we got here curved sides at the back, the size is just perfect for me.

When it comes to buttons, we still got here a power button and the volume rocker that is perfectly placed on the sides, however, the smartphone loses the headphone jack compared to the Galaxy S10 series but it’s 2020 already and it doesn’t affect much of the consumers now.

There’s USB-C on this smartphone and thankfully, the Samsung Galaxy S20 supports 25W fast charging and it comes with that charger too. So yeah, it’s fast enough but not as fast as other smartphones with more than 25W fast charging.

The smartphone still uses the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner inside which is still as fast as the Galaxy Note10+ that we’ve reviewed before but in case you’re not a fan of that, you can still use the face unlock of the smartphone which is still fast and very functional.

Samsung Galaxy S20+ Review: Display

The Samsung Galaxy S20+ packs an excellent display and I’ve already expected that since Samsung has always the best display on smartphones and with the Samsung Galaxy S20+, we’re getting here a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2.0 Infinity-O display. There’s no curved display in here but we do get here a 2.5D glass on the smartphone but again, it does look beautiful and we got here very minimal bezels on the smartphone.

The bezel is thinner than before and it does look good to me. The 6.7-inch display feels perfect but my favorite feature of the smartphone is not just the size of the display but also its refresh rate. We got here a 120Hz refresh rate and it does feel smooth, however, you can only use it FHD+ resolution and you have to revert to 60Hz whenever you want to set it at QHD+.

Nonetheless, the colors of the display were excellent and I love playing games on the display of the smartphone since we’re getting a smooth display thanks to the refresh rate and it’s very sharp and very visible under direct sunlight.

Samsung Galaxy S20+ Review: Battery life

The smartphone features a 4000mAh battery and it’s just a fine battery for its size however, I noticed that the power draw on the Exynos 990 was noticeable compared to the Snapdragon counterparts. We’ve used the Samsung Galaxy S20+ on PCMark and we also tested it on both 60Hz and 120Hz and below are the results that we got on the smartphone.

As you can see, 60Hz saves a lot of battery for the smartphone and it can last a whole day of usage. While the 120Hz refresh rate might give you a smoother experience on the smartphone but it affects the battery life of the smartphone as seen in the benchmarks. In my normal usage with 120Hz, I normally don’t charge the smartphone that much but sometimes, I charge the smartphone using my power bank after 10 hours of usage.

Samsung Galaxy S20+ Review: Software and Performance

The Samsung Galaxy S20+ still uses OneUI 2 as expected and of course, It was fast, swift, and the UX of the smartphone feels just fine and it might be similar to the previous OneUI but this does pack a lot of features inside Galaxy S20+.

One of my favorites is the Samsung Members in where I can get discounts, tips, and perks that are exclusive to Samsung Galaxy users. And of course, the other apps would work just fine. What I like about the OneUI is that the UI is fast, responsive and it’s really easy to use and understand.

When it comes to performance, the Samsung Galaxy S20+ is running on Exynos 990 processor which is way more different than the one in the US as the latter features a Snapdragon 865 processor which is way more powerful on the numbers and also more power-efficient. When it comes to numbers on benchmarks, the Exynos 990 doesn’t disappoint as we got here a pretty high score on benchmarking applications. Check it out below.

Screenshot 20200306 154457 AnTuTu Benchmark

When it comes to gaming, I noticed that Exynos 990 isn’t as optimized as other chipsets but most of the time, the games will still run well. Check out our Gamebench scores on the Samsung Galaxy S20+ below.

To know more about GameBench, check out www.gamebench.net.

The scores that we got on the smartphone was pretty good. In PUBG Mobile, we set it up at smooth graphics with extreme framerates (You can only enable extreme framerate at smooth settings) with Anti-aliasing on and also at very high settings on Call of Duty Mobile with max frame rates with the effects on. The rest of the games runs on the highest settings possible.

Overall, I still wonder why PUBG Mobile can only run Extreme frame rates on smooth graphics settings considering that the smartphone is a flagship one. Nonetheless, the smartphone can still run on the latest games including Black Desert Mobile but it is capped at 45fps despite setting at the highest possible settings.

Samsung Galaxy S20+ Review: Camera

The tricky part about the Samsung Galaxy S20 series is the camera setup. We have three Galaxy S20 smartphones and they have different setups each for the rear camera. On the Samsung Galaxy S20+, we have here a quad-camera lens with a 64MP main camera and the camera setup of the Samsung Galaxy S20+ is similar to the Samsung Galaxy S20 except that we have an additional TOF camera at the back of the smartphone.

The lenses that we got here are the 64MP main camera for telephoto, 12MP wide, 12MP ultra-wide and a DepthVision camera for ToF camera. The shots that we got on the smartphone were really good and we did like the shots that we got on the smartphone as they’re sharp, better than the last generation, and they’re vivid.

When it comes to zooming, this one isn’t as good as the S20 Ultra but the 30x zoom of the Samsung Galaxy S20+ is one of the best things that I liked about the camera of the smartphone. The 30x zoom isn’t as clear as expected but it can help if you want to shoot from afar. Check out the shots that I got on the smartphone.

As you can see in most of the shots of the smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S20+’s rear camera is sharp and the color accuracy of the smartphone is really good. The dynamic range is also really good on this one and selfies, we now have a more detailed and less “watercolor” effect on our selfies compared to other Samsung Galaxy devices. Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S20+ is a pretty excellent smartphone in terms of camera.

Lastly, there’s 4K video recording on the smartphone too at 60fps and it was quite good but if you want, you can also record at 8K but you’re stuck as 24fps on that one and it doesn’t have really good autofocus at 8K. And yes, there’s a rolling shutter on 8K too but hey, at least you’re getting an 8K video recording on the Samsung Galaxy S20+ which is a first.

Samsung Galaxy S20+ Review: Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy S20+ is an excellent smartphone despite being in the middle of the three smartphones. The size of the smartphone is just perfect as we got here a 6.7-inch display that can go up to 120Hz and of course, the 64MP camera is really good despite not having the same 108MP sensor of the Galaxy S20 Ultra.

Despite having a good display, design, and camera on the Galaxy S20+, some people might think twice about the Exynos 990 chipset inside the smartphone. Yes, it’s powerful but it’s not as optimized as other chipsets in some games and it’s not as power-efficient as the Snapdragon 865 processor. Nonetheless, the smartphone can still run most games and the numbers that we’re getting on synthetic benchmarks are still on the flagship level.

The Samsung Galaxy S20+ might be the best Galaxy S20 variant if you prefer balance among the three smartphones. Again, we got here an excellent display, design, and also a really good camera.

The Samsung Galaxy S20+ is now available for Php55,990