The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra packs a host of interesting camera features into its frame, such as a 108MP primary camera and a 4x periscope camera. All this tech wasn’t quite enough to top the rankings of DxOMark, but the camera testing firm has now put the Galaxy S20 Plus through its paces. So how does the cheaper flagship fare?
Well, DxOMark gave the phone an overall score of 118 points, meaning it’s in 10th place on the firm’s all-time rankings. The Galaxy S20 Plus was three points behind the Mi CC9 Pro Premium Edition (essentially the Mi Note 10 Pro) and Huawei Mate 30 Pro. It was also four points behind the Galaxy S20 Ultra, but just ahead of the iPhone 11 Pro Max, Galaxy Note 10 Plus, and Huawei P30 Pro.
Galaxy S20 Plus scores explained
Samsung’s middle child of the Galaxy S20 bunch also earned a photo score of 127 points, and DxOMark had plenty of positives to share. The Galaxy S20 Plus was praised for its ultra-wide camera, accurate exposure, wide dynamic range and vivid colors, and good detail in outdoor snaps. But the South Korean brand’s phone was criticized for the level of noise in low-light and indoors, “ringing, aliasing, and cyan shift� artifacts, and under-exposure when taking low-light snaps with the flash off.
Samsung still hasn’t officially confirmed the native zoom factor for the 64MP zoom camera, touting 3x “hybrid optic� zoom instead. A NotebookCheck article previously stated that the Galaxy S20 and S20 Plus actually only have 1.06X zoom capabilities, and DxOMark indeed notes that image quality suffers “badly� for long-range shots. For what it’s worth, the firm says results are best at short-range in bright light, although it says 5x zoom in these conditions can still be “acceptable.�
Source: DxOMark
Switching over to video recording, DxOMark gave the Galaxy S20 Plus a score of 100 points. The camera testing company singled out the accurate exposure for the most part, vivid colors in outdoor situations, and good texture rendering. It also noted that the autofocus was fast and reliable, saying it was “slightly� better than the S20 Ultra’s autofocus.
It wasn’t all great though, as the testing firm also lamented indoor and low-light noise, “slightly limited� dynamic range, as well as ringing and judder artifacts. DxOMark added that stabilization could be improved too.
In conclusion, the camera review firm said the S20 Plus was “fully deserving� of its top ten spot, but said the 12MP main camera wasn’t quite as good as the competition and that the 64MP zoom camera was “effectively a digital zoom solution.�
It’s worth our usual word of caution that while DxOMark is extremely thorough, your personal tastes might vary. Nevertheless, the gap between the top smartphone cameras is rather tiny for the average consumer, so you really have to go out of your way to get a bad camera experience.
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