Software, performance, and battery
The S20 Ultra runs Android 10 with Samsung's One UI 2.0 skin, and there's very little here we haven't seen before. Samsung made a few tweaks like adding Duo to the dialer and integrating Spotify with Bixby Routines. Otherwise, this is the same software experience you'd get on a Galaxy S10 after the Android 10 update. It's a fast phone, as fast as anything else with the possible exception of the Pixel. Samsung phones have always gotten a bit sluggish for me over time. I can't say if that will happen this time, but we'll see.
Samsung defaults to using standard navigation buttons on the S20, but you can switch to either Samsung's gesture setup or the standard Google version. However, you can only use Google's gesture nav with the stock One UI home screen—yes, that's still a limitation after all these months. Samsung's launcher isn't awful, but it feels clunky. Simple actions like adding icons or managing folders take more effort than they do on other home screens, and Samsung still hasn't figured out what to do with the left-most panel. Bixby Home is gone, replaced with a similar feature called Samsung Daily. Like Bixby Home, this is a scrolling list of recommended content and links, and none of it is very good. I would kill for Google Discover as an option.
The S20 Ultra includes all the usual One UI features like the Edge Panel, pop-up view, one-handed mode, and more. It also has the enhanced Link to Windows functionality that debuted on the Note 10+. Although, I don't care for most of Samsung's included apps, so they're just taking up space. There are also numerous settings buried several menus deep that you'll rarely if ever use, and everything on this phone seems to want to send you a notification.
One decidedly nice thing about the S20 Ultra is that it supports all the current 5G networks. You don't have to do anything special, provided 5G is enabled on your SIM card. Simply swap your SIM in, and you'll be able to connect to both sub-6 and millimeter wave 5G. Of course, finding 5G will prove more difficult. I used the S20 Ultra mostly on T-Mobile's 5G, but I was able to play with Verizon's millimeter wave, too. In both cases, my experience was identical to the last time I used those 5G networks. T-Mobile's 5G works in more places, but its barely any faster than 4G—sometimes it's actually slower. Verizon's 5G is blazing fast but almost impossible to find even in areas that should have coverage.
One of the reasons this phone is so heavy is the giant 5,000mAh battery. Presumably, the discreet modem required for the Snapdragon 865 uses more power than the integrated LTE-only solutions we've had in recent years. The 120Hz screen is also a battery hog. I've tested the Galaxy S20 in both 120Hz and 60Hz modes. In my experience, 120Hz mode is good for about six hours of screen time in slightly over 24 hours. That's not bad necessarily, but it's disappointing for a 5,000mAh battery. In 60Hz mode, the S20 Ultra gets about 30% more battery life for me.
