Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 12 Pro

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Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 12 Pro

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.9-inch Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra (with Exynos 990) that was released on February 11, 2020, against the Apple iPhone 12 Pro, which is powered by Apple A14 Bionic and came out 8 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
  • Comes with 2185 mAh larger battery capacity: 5000 vs 2815 mAh
  • Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
  • Has a 0.8 inch larger screen size
  • The rear camera has a 4x optical zoom
  • Modern USB Type-C port
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1000GB
  • Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 18W)
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5 3200 MHz
  • Delivers 11% higher peak brightness (897 against 810 nits)
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • 11% higher pixel density (511 vs 460 PPI)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 12 Pro
  • Shows 13% longer battery life (29:48 vs 26:19 hours)
  • Apple releases software updates and supports their phones a few years longer than Samsung
  • 18% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (838K versus 711K)
  • More energy-efficient CPU – Apple A14 Bionic
  • 68% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 1953 and 1165 points
  • Weighs 31 grams less
  • The phone is 8-months newer

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and Apple iPhone 12 Pro crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation

Value for money

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.9 inches 6.1 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3200 pixels 1170 x 2532 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 19.5:9
PPI 511 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No No
Max rated brightness 800 nits 800 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Glass 6 Ceramic Shield
Screen-to-body ratio 89.9% 86%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 99.2% 99.6%
PWM 240 Hz 277 Hz
Response time 6.2 ms 3.6 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
897 nits

Design and build

Height 166.9 mm (6.57 inches) 146.7 mm (5.78 inches)
Width 76 mm (2.99 inches) 71.5 mm (2.81 inches)
Thickness 8.8 mm (0.35 inches) 7.4 mm (0.29 inches)
Weight 220 g (7.76 oz) 189 g (6.67 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Gray Silver, Gold, Gray, Blue
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Tests of Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and Apple iPhone 12 Pro in the benchmarks
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 990 Apple A14 Bionic
Max clock 2730 MHz 3100 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 2 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 2 cores at 2.5 GHz: Cortex-A76
- 2 cores at 2.73 GHz: Exynos M5
- 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Icestorm
- 2 cores at 3.1 GHz: Firestorm
L3 cache 2 MB -
Lithography process 7 nanometers 5 nanometers
Graphics Mali-G77 MP11 Apple A14 GPU
GPU shading units 704 256
GPU clock 800 MHz 1278 MHz
FLOPS ~1126 GFLOPS ~654.3 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
AnTuTu Benchmark 10
CPU 202750 235725
GPU 219003 264025
Memory 130201 152158
UX 157575 182343
Total score 711852 838760
3DMark Wild Life Performance
Max surface temperature 38.6 °C 38.1 °C
Stability 53% 76%
Graphics test 25 FPS 44 FPS
Graphics score 4319 7430
Web score 8802 -
Video editing 6175 -
Photo editing 31559 -
Data manipulation 8779 -
Writing score 12443 -

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12, 16 GB 6 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR4X
Memory clock 3200 MHz -
Channels 2 2
Storage
Storage size 128, 512 GB 128, 256, 512 GB
Storage type UFS 3.0 NVMe
Memory card MicroSD No
Memory card max size Up to 1000 GB -

Software

Operating system Android 10.0 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) iOS 14.1 (Can be upgraded to iOS 17)
ROM One UI 4.1 -
OS size 23.7 GB 14 GB

Battery

Capacity 5000 mAh 2815 mAh
Max charge power 45 W 18 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (7.5 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Fast charging Yes (100% in 80 min) Yes (59% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:20 hr 1:30 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 08:26 hr 09:54 hr
Watching video 11:53 hr 12:40 hr
Gaming 04:13 hr 05:29 hr
Standby 93 hr 104 hr
General battery life
29:48 hr

Camera

Specs and camera test of smartphones
Main camera
Matrix 108 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 12032 x 9204 4032 x 3024
Zoom Optical, 4x Optical, 2x
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 24FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 120°
Lenses 4 (108 MP + 48 MP + 12 MP + 0.3 MP) 4 (12 MP + 12 MP + 12 MP)
Wide (main) lens - 108 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 0.8 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.33", Samsung Bright S5KHM1 (ISOCELL CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/1.6
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/3.4", Sony IMX372 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
Telephoto lens - 48 MP
- Aperture: f/3.5
- Focal length: 103 mm
- Pixel size: 0.8 micron
- Sensor: 1/2", Sony IMX586 (CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.0
- Focal length: 52 mm
- Pixel size: 1 micron
- Sensor: 1/3.4" (CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
Ultra-wide lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.4
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Sensor: 1/3.6" (CMOS)
Depth lens - 0.3 MP
- Aperture: f/1.0
- Pixel size: 5 micron
Yes
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Samples - Photo samples of Apple iPhone 12 Pro from DxOMark
Selfie camera
Megapixels 40 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 7864 x 5200 4290 x 2800
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm 23 mm
Pixel size 0.7 microns -
Sensor type CMOS Exmor-RS CMOS
Sensor size 1/2.65" -
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS

DxOMark camera tests

Generic camera score

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5 5
Bluetooth features LE, A2DP LE, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C No
USB version 3.1 -
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS
NFC * Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM * 2 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support * Yes Yes
Hybrid slot Yes No
LTE Cat * 22 18
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced February 2020 October 2020
Release date March 2020 October 2020
SAR (head) 0.32 W/kg 0.99 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.56 W/kg 0.99 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
* Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

If the display, battery life, and connectivity are more important to you, then choose the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra . But if the performance, gaming, software, and sound are more of a priority – go for the Apple iPhone 12 Pro .

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