Galaxy S20+ DxOMark Verdict Is An Unsurprising Bag Of Compromises
The Galaxy S20 Ultra's high price tag may have forced many buyers to consider the Galaxy S20+ as a more affordable alternative. In many cases, the two Samsung flagship phones are basically identical. Their biggest difference lies in their cameras with the Galaxy S20 Ultra carrying everything that Samsung could cram into it. Many reviewers, including DxOMark, found that to be quite excessive and it has taken a look a the slightly smaller Galaxy S20+ to see if it offers a better balance.
To cut the story short, the Galaxy S20+'s 118 score means that it's very good, at the 10th spot of DxOMark's list. Taken in isolation, that may be enough to convince some consumers but one has to also take into account that, save for the Galaxy S20 Ultra, all the phones above it are from Chinese brands. Some of those are even considerably cheaper than the Galaxy S20+.
Comparison's between the Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S20 Ultra will be unavoidable but a bit unfair. The Galaxy S20+'s 12 megapixel primary camera yields accurate exposure but loses out in the detail department when compared with the Galaxy S20 Ultra's whopping 108 megapixels. There's no periscope-style telephoto lens here either so the 3x hybrid optical zoom is as bad as it sounds. Fortunately, the two phones do share the same ultra-wide-angle camera and depth sensor, giving the same impressive wide shots and bokehs.
The phone's video recording capabilities are a bit unusual. It can record in 8K 24 fps but that uses the 64 megapixel telephoto camera that has a narrower field of view. The main camera taps out at 4K 60 fps but does get more things into its view. Performance is what you'd expect from a lower megapixel sensor, yielding good exposure even low light but limited dynamic range in high-contrast scenes.
DxOMark concludes that the Galaxy S20+ is definitely a good camera phone, which is what you'd expect from its $1,200 price. It doesn't reach the Galaxy S20 Ultra's scores but also steers clear of the high price tag. It would definitely be a good purchase decision if there weren't the likes of Xiaomi and OPPO or even Honor available at lower prices.