Galaxy S20 Ultra Review—Overhyped and outrageously priced

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  The Galaxy S20's camera assembly. [credit: Ron Amadeo ]

Samsung never changes. The company's flagship smartphone strategy has always focused on designing for marketability rather than the end-user experience, and the result is always devices with gigantic spec sheets, gimmicky new features, and questionable user benefits. If it demos well in a Verizon showroom or helps win an Internet spreadsheet comparison, toss it in! The Galaxy S20 is the latest paper tiger from the company, and this cynical approach to smartphone design oozes from every IP68-rated pore of Samsung's new flagship.

Just look-but not too closely-at all the whiz-bang features the Galaxy S20 offers. The camera has an industry-leading 100x zoom (it's actually a 4x optical zoom, and the camera autofocus is terrible). There's a 120Hz, 1440p display (you can't actually run the display at 120Hz and 1440p). And who could forget the revolutionary 5G connectivity (5G is probably not available in your area).

The Galaxy S line is bigger than ever this year, and each model comes with Samsung's biggest-ever price tags. The phones now start (start!) at $1,000, while the bigger Galaxy S20+ is $1,200, and the even bigger S20 Ultra is an astonishing $1,400.

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