Back in 2017, Samsung launched its first flagship smartphone with a dual camera setup. The Galaxy Note 8 came with a 2x zoom lens next to its main 12MP camera. Samsung added an ultra-wide camera to its flagships last year (starting with the Galaxy S10), but it didn't do anything about their zoom capabilities for two years after the Galaxy Note 8 was released.
The Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S20+ feature a 64MP telephoto camera that offers 3x lossless zoom and up to 30x digital zoom, while the Galaxy S20 Ultra gives you 4x optical zoom, 10x ‘hybrid optic' zoom, and up to 100x digital ‘Space Zoom'. Thanks to its unique periscope lens, it's the Galaxy S20 Ultra that brings a true upgrade in zoom prowess over previous Galaxy flagships, and it easily trumps its smaller siblings as well.
As we noted in our review, we think the Galaxy S20 Ultra does a swell job at up to 10x zoom and find even 30x shots quite usable. The 100x Space Zoom is more or less a gimmick, though if you want to, say, take a picture of the moon, you can get pleasing shots at up to 50x to 60x magnification just as long as you're able to hold the phone steady enough.
In short, we love what the telephoto camera on the Galaxy S20 Ultra can do, and in our latest poll, we want to ask you what you think about the phone's zoom capabilities. Are you impressed? Do you think it could have been better? Do you feel Samsung dropped the ball and should have made the zoom camera considerably better?
Tell us by voting in the poll below and by expanding on your thoughts down in the comments section!
Poll results: 43% of respondents feel that they would have liked higher optical zoom capability while 23% are underwhelmed. Interestingly, only 17% of respondents appear to be completely in love with the Galaxy S20 Ultra's zoom functionality.
- I like it, but I would have liked higher optical zoom capability 43%, 374 votes374 votes 43%374 votes - 43% of all votes
- This is what the hype was all about?! 23%, 200 votes200 votes 23%200 votes - 23% of all votes
- Meh, it gets the job done 17%, 149 votes149 votes 17%149 votes - 17% of all votes
- I love it! 17%, 146 votes146 votes 17%146 votes - 17% of all votes