Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra put to the test. How good is its 100x zoom?
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra has caused quite a stir and also raised questions. This test shows that the 100x Space Zoom isn’t as good as advertised. A fact that may have caused irreparable damage to Samsung.
The specs of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra are music to the ears of any tech nerd. Exynos 990, 16 GB RAM and a camera with 100x hybrid zoom, or Space Zoom, as Samsung call it.
Naturally, this raises some questions. Especially about the camera. It really is quite impressive and claims to be even more than that. Particularly the Space Zoom triggered many a discussion and got people curious. After all, according to Samsung, the Space Zoom effect is a combination of the 5x Zoom provided by the hardware, the rest provided by the software and image processing provided by artificial intelligence.
100-fold zoom... Digital zoom... How stupid do they think we are to consider that an argument?
and
100-fold zoom without a tripod – how does that work? Is there an image stabiliser? I read this about the 3-fold zoom but that’s all. But I only skimmed the article. Maybe it does say that somewhere.
and
Well then, test time in two cantons.
In a parking lot without a tripod
Essentially, the Space Zoom can be used in two situations.
- To magnify details within close proximity
- To bridge large distances
In terms of ease of use, this is really straight forward. Open the camera, zoom, press the shutter release, done.
I carry out the first test in a parking lot in Wohlen, Aargau. There’s a Ford Mustang Shelby edition about ten metres away from me. Instead of the Ford logo, the radiator grille sports the Shelby snake and rectangle.
After zooming in on the logo from ten metres away with the Space Zoom, there’s not much left of the logo.
The picture leaves a lot to be desired. Loads to be desired, in fact. It’s not even instagrammable. Instagram pics don’t necessarily require the quality of a standard photo. This is because you see a much smaller version of them, even though they’re stored in full size on the Facebook server. This makes it easy to cover up any flaws in the snap. However, the snake logo snapped with the Space Zoom is a lost cause. There’s nothing to cover up. Any attempt is destined to fail. You can just about make out the letters GT. But only if you know that it says «GT350» below the snake. AI fails to brush up the sparse data delivered by the camera lenses well enough for me to clearly make out the snake. Or anything else for that matter.
It’s also practically impossible to keep the camera steady. It took me about three tries to get the above shot. Two of them spat out something that was in no way a logo.
No tripod: let's take a picture of Germany
In Rorschach, canton St. Gallen, I set off to the pier to photograph the town of Langenargen on the German shore. Or rather, the surroundings of Langenargen, because the camera is virtually impossible to stabilise. In the end, it will turn out to be «something on the German shore that turned out rubbish and is making me angry». Although the picture turns out to be surprisingly unshaky, it’s still impossible to tell for sure if I snapped Langenargen or something else on the shores of Germany.
By the way, Langenargen is famous in Rorschach thanks to the voice of Urs Grob. For many years, the harbour master’s voice would sound over the speakers and echo throughout the harbour whenever the passenger boats were running. He’s now considered cultural heritage in Rorschach. Langenargen is 13.45 kilometres away from Rorschach. Visibility is good.
It’s quite a performance to align the picture the way I want it. Samsung must have foreseen this, which is why you see a thumbnail of the entire image at the top left of the camera software. This helps you navigate the frame. Keep in mind that you’ve got to be extremely gentle. The smallest of movements will send you miles off.
The view of the place made famous by Urs Grob is great; the picture is not.
Lakefarers may be questioning whether I know where Langenargen is. But does it really matter? After all, neither I nor anyone from Rorschach would be able to make out anything on this picture.
With a tripod: Langenargen(?) take two
«Your hands weren’t steady enough. If the camera had been held steadily, your picture would have come out better,» Samsung could argue. And that’s a fair point. I snapped both the snake logo and the German shore by hand.
But no way I’m giving that point away to Samsung. In other words: bring out the tripod. I was once given a SevenOak mobile phone clip that’s lying about somewhere. It features a quarter-inch thread at the bottom that fits the screw of the plate of my Manfrotto BeFree. Or any other tripod for that matter.
It’s now a lot easier to get my bearings. But the picture comes out just as rubbish.
Is this Langenargen? Or maybe Friedrichshafen? Something in between or completely different? There’s no way of knowing if you’ve just got the picture as a reference and aren’t specialised in German shores. I deliberately haven’t revealed what’s on the pictures. That’s because I’d like to pass the question on to you: where is this? You now roughly know where I set up the camera but that’s all. If you saw the pic on Instagram, would you know what it’s of?
Samsung promised too much too soon
Despite the unmitigated disaster that is the Space Zoom, the technology is impressive. Granted, the pictures aren’t pretty, but I can see outlines. That’s more than the competition has to offer. Having said that, I strongly believe that Samsung has made a faux pas that will be hard to smooth over. At least in Switzerland. Because the Swiss do not forget. Just like they haven’t forgotten the voice of Urs Grob.
Samsung brought out the big guns with its 100x zoom. The technology is not fully mature. What’s running on the S20 Ultra is a proof of concept at best. Is it possible to simulate 100x zoom with the hardware, software and AI? Yes, absolutely. But that alone should not be the criterion for a market launch. It's all well and good if that's possible, but if the end result is useless data that doesn't even reach social media quality, then what’s the point of the technology?
The Space Zoom has hit the market two years too soon. At least.
Looking ahead, Samsung has not done itself any favours. In two years’ time or more, the South Korean company will have perfected the system. No doubt about it. Periscope cameras in smartphones are at the very beginning. The sensors as well as the software are getting better and better and the AI is learning. But the Swiss will remember. They’ll remember that digitec guy who was impressed by the feature at first but then discovered that it was useless, while trying it out at Rorschach Pier and in Wohlen. They’ll remember that Samsung’s price tag was above the 1000-franc mark for something that generates useless data.
Samsung will claim that the new Space Zoom is new and improved. But nobody will listen. Because all they’ll remember is that Space Zoom was rubbish when it first came out. To give you an example: did you know that Bixby now works quite well in English and is almost as fast as Google Assistant? No. And nobody cares, because Bixby was useless when it was launched.
Put in simpler terms, fast forward two years and Samsung is likely to have a hard time with their camera – even if they have sorted out the Space Zoom by then. And that’s only because they couldn’t keep their mouths shut in 2020.
Samsung could have just been honest and said: «Listen, people, the S20 Ultra phone is work in progress. It’s an experiment, and we need as much data as we can possibly get. That’s why we’re bringing it to market in the hope that you’ll t take many 100x Zoom pictures for us to analyse. Because the current system in the S20 Ultra is a beta version. And we need more data. So please help us!»
But no, Samsung decided to promote this as a «phone to end all cameras».
It's not. Samsung, you royally failed.
Update: snaps by our readers
Community member LoXeras sent me this pic taken with the 100x Zoom. He added a comment saying «But I've also taken photos of things that are easier on the eye than Rohrschach.»
Source: LoXeras
But he also adds: «In a nutshell, the quality is useless.»
I've chosen to ignore the dig at Rorschach.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.