Samsung Galaxy S20 will arrive in Italy on March 13, in the meantime, however, the first test units are already in the hands of the press. For a few days we have been trying the Ultra variant, the one with the strongest technical characteristics, which sports a photographic compartment from the top of the class.
In the coming weeks we will analyze different aspects of the top of the Samsung range, but today we want to show you one of the most important features of the new cameras, namely the zoom. The "100x" logo imprinted on the rear body raises expectations, as we will see the system designed by Samsung works well but to have a yardstick we have compared it with one of the undisputed champions in the zoom of the images, Huawei P30 Pro (here our review).
Comparing features
Already from the technical characteristics it can be understood that the comparison between these two smartphones is unequal. Huawei P30 Pro was released last year but the magnification capacity of its camera system has made new qualitative heights in 2019, so much so that, even today, they do not look bad at all against the new top of the range from Samsung, which however has better hardware on its side.
In fact, S20 Ultra can count on one 108 Megapixel main camera with F / 1.8 aperture, capable of both shooting at full resolution and through a technique called "pixel binning". With it the pixels are grouped into groups of nine, thus creating a final 12 Megapixel photo with 2.4 micron large pixels. Increasing the pixel size improves the quality and sharpness of night shots, generating less digital noise.
As we will see, already by shooting 108 Megapixel images and making a crop on the image you can get a high quality zoom, but to go even further with the magnification Samsung has also inserted a periscopic objective, specifically designed for zooming, with 48 Megapixels with F / 3.5 aperture, which uses pixel binning to create a final 12 Megapixel image. These two sensors are both optically stabilized.
We then find an additional 12 Megapixel camera for wide angle shots. Thanks to this system Galaxy S20 Ultra is able to perform different zoom levels, going from 4x to 10x, up to 30x and even 100x, obtained through digital magnification.
Huawei P30 Pro instead mounts a photographic system made in collaboration with Leica, formed by a 40 Megapixel main camera with f / 1.6 aperture. Here too there is a periscope lens, but 8 Megapixel, with f / 3.4 aperture and optical stabilization, together with an additional 20 Megapixel sensor for wide angle shots. In this case, the zoom allows for steps of magnification from 5x to 10x, reaching 50x with digital magnification.
Zoom to the test
We tested the two phones in an almost ideal context, on a day without clouds and with the sun still high in the sky to illuminate the environment. The quality of the photos obtained with these two smartphones was almost impeccable up to 10x zoom, with degradation visible as digital zoom, and noise reduction algorithms, took over. The first thing to keep in mind when taking a zoomed photo with Galaxy S20 Ultra is that what you see on the screen during shooting it is often far from the final result.
Samsung did not explain in detail how zooming really works on this smartphone, so we do not know which cameras are actually used in the production process of the enlarged image, the certain thing is that post-processing is present in a massive way and is decisive for the final result. In general, the main sensor is capable of achieving a 3x zoom without loss of quality and without resorting to the 48 Megapixel periscopic cam. From the 3x zoom onwards the secondary sensor intervenes, which takes care of the magnification up to 100x.
To understand the quality achieved by the top of the Samsung range, let's start with this image, taken without any magnification.
Galaxy S20 Ultra
Huawei P30 Pro
The images in this article are obviously compressed compared to the original ones but still give the idea. Already from these you can see a different management of color and white balance, however what we are interested in observing now is the quality of the zoom, starting from 5x.
Galaxy S20 Ultra 5X
Huawei P30 Pro 5X
The 5x zoom highlights what will be a constant during this test, that is the S20's ability to capture more detail and more light than the P30 Pro. The ribs of the stone are best represented on the S20 Ultra, probably thanks to the 48 Megapixel sensor used, compared to only the 8 Megapixel of the P30 Pro.
These are details, both images are of high quality, especially if you think about the distance from which they were taken.
Galaxy S20 Ultra 10X
Huawei P30 Pro 10X
Going up to 10x zoom the image produced by the P30 Pro remains excellent but you start to lose more details, just enlarge the central flower to notice the less defined texture of the stone.
The same thing happens with the left and right part of the photo, where not only does the S20 Ultra capture more light, but also more details, which are not best represented by the P30 Pro. Going further with the zoom level, the digital one comes into play, for a constant degradation in quality reaching the highest levels of magnification.
Galaxy S20 Ultra 30x
Galaxy S20 Ultra 100x
Galaxy S20 Ultra 100x
Huawei P30 Pro 50x
With the 30X zoom you can get discrete quality shots with the S20 Ultra, not suitable for printing but still sufficient to be published on social media. The 100x zoom suffers instead of considerable noise generated by digital magnification, which is reduced through an algorithm that tends to knead the image a lot, effectively eliminating the details. The considerations made so far also apply to the next subject.
Galaxy S20 Ultra
Huawei P30 Pro
Here too the two smartphones generate a quality image, it is with the zoom that the S20 Ultra demonstrates all the weight of the best hardware, and a year of further development. The difference in color management is instead given by the software solutions of the two companies.
Galaxy S20 Ultra 5x
Huawei P30 Pro 5x
The quality of the two photos is very good, but the details captured by the Samsung phone are greater, just zoom in further to notice it. In the illuminated part of the tower, on the right, you can see a metal grid that protects it from the entry of birds, which is practically not immortalized by the P30 Pro.
Same thing goes for the two columns in the shaded area, in the center: here too the grid seems absent in the photos taken by Huawei's phone, while instead it is evident in the S20 Ultra.
Galaxy S20 Ultra 10x
Huawei P30 Pro 10x
Going up to the 10x zoom just look at the details of the pinnacles, more mixed on the P30 Pro, to understand that even in this case the zoom produced by Samsung has the best, even if the Huawei phone defends itself very well, especially considering that it has come out a year ago.
Galaxy S20 Ultra 30x
Galaxy S20 Ultra 100x
The higher zoom levels of the Galaxy S20 Ultra lead to a marked loss in quality and detail: at 30x the image remains usable, instead it disappoints the 100x zoom, a feature that remains so only on paper, it will hardly be used to take images given its low quality.
More interesting is what can be achieved with the crop of images taken at 108 Megapixels, capable of capturing a simply impressive level of detail.
Galaxy S20 Ultra
Crop
Galaxy S20 Ultra
Crop
Even with a high zoom like the one applied to these images, the level of detail still remains very good. This means that when shooting with the main sensor at full resolution, you can zoom the image without losing quality, for example to capture a detail behind the main subject, or to shift the focus of the image right on the subject.
In short, at the zoom level Samsung has done an excellent job, for a photographic sector that needs more tests to be better evaluated.
