You may have heard Huawei has overtaken Samsung to become the biggest phone-maker in the world. But you wouldn’t know that in the UK, where Huaweis are best approached with a long poking device to hand.
Samsung Galaxy phones are still the default choice for many. They have Google apps, as well as some of the most innovative tech at the top end. And Samsung’s M-series phones now offer some of the largest batteries around, regardless of manufacturer.
As of mid-late 2020, the Samsung Galaxy S20 is one of the best value buys. It has dropped a couple of hundred pounds since its launch. The rise in price of recent top phones from Xiaomi and OnePlus only highlight what a good buy it is. Phone tech may move fast, but not fast enough to make a February 2020 mobile redundant already.
You should also consider dropping down from the classic budget buyers choice Galaxy A series to the Galaxy M range if you want a low-maintenance phone. For some, their day-to-day experience will be preferable even to a member of the S20 family.
What’s the best Samsung Galaxy in 2020?
The Samsung Galaxy S20 (from £665) gets our vote as the best Samsung Galaxy you can buy. It’s small, light, superb value and has a wealth of features including 8K video. If you really must go super high-end, and budget is not a concern, then the all-singing, all-dancing Galaxy Note 20 Ultra (from £1,105) is for you.
View the Samsung Galaxy S20 from £665 on Amazon
The best budget Samsung Galaxy is the Samsung Galaxy M31 (from £203). With absolutely superb battery life, equally impressive value and a 1080p OLED screen, the M31 is incredibly easy to live with.
View the Samsung Galaxy M31 from £203 on Tecobuy
Deciding on the best Samsung Galaxy for 5G is simple. We’re going for the Samsung Galaxy A51 5G (from £387). Thanks to 5G-ready processors, the A51 5G is significantly more powerful than the 4G version yet only costs £100 more. And the cameras are pretty good, too.
View the Samsung Galaxy A51 5G from £387 on Amazon
WIRED Recommends is your definitive guide to the best technology. Read our best gadgets guide for our top picks in all the categories we've tested.
Samsung Galaxy S20
WIRED Recommends: the best Samsung Galaxy overall when it comes to a combination of value and specs
Screen: 6.5in 2400 x 1080 OLED | Processor: Exynos 980 | Battery: 4500 mAh | Camera: 48MP, 12MP wide, 5MP macro, 5MP depth | Dimensions: 151.7 x 69.1 x 7.9 mm | Weight: 163g | Charging: 25W
Forget the show-off “Ultra” phones, this is the Samsung perfect for normal people. And a drop in cost since the Samsung Galaxy S20 launched makes this a truly excellent buy.
It costs significantly less than the top OnePlus phone, and some of the tech here is superior. But size is the real reason the Galaxy S20 stands out in this crowd. This is, by 2020 standards, quite a small phone. It has a 6.2-inch screen, but Samsung’s incredible space-saving design means it’s just 69mm wide and 7.9mm thick.
That is only slightly wider and thicker than the tiny iPhone SE. Yes, the Samsung Galaxy S20 is the pocket rocket no-one seems to register as a true pocket-friendly phone.
It has many of the most important benefits of the Galaxy Ultra phones, too. There’s the fantastic dedicated Night photography mode, which gets you some of the very best low-light images available at the price. The Galaxy S20’s ultra-wide camera is fab as well. It has the same Exynos 990 CPU as the other Samsung flagships. And a 120Hz OLED screen that is, inch by inch, shaper than the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra’s.
Sure, it doesn’t have the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s mad 100x zoom camera, but we’ll only miss it because we’ve tried it. You do still get a useful 1.1x 64MP zoom in the vanilla S20.
But to call this phone “vanilla” is a disservice. It’s probably the best member of the family for the average phone buyer. It’s smaller, lighter, hundreds of pounds cheaper, and still has an incredible wealth of features including stand-outs like 8K video.
We’d only change one part. Its 4,000mAh battery doesn’t last nearly as long as the Samsung Galaxy M31’s. You may need to top it up quickly on the busiest of days.
Pros: Available at a good price SIM-free online; high-quality, versatile cameras; petite frame but not a tiny screen
Cons: Doesn’t have power-user battery life; lacks the Ultra phones’ zoom power
Price: From £665 | Check price on Amazon | Currys | John Lewis
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
Best top-end Samsung
Screen: 6.9in 3088 x 1440 OLED | Processor: Exynos 990 | Battery: 4500 mAh | Camera: 108MP, 12MP wide, 12MP 5x | Dimensions: 164.8 x 77.2 x 8.1 mm | Weight: 208g | Charging: 25W
S-series flagships rule Samsung’s phone line-up for the first half of any given year. But when it gets towards the end of summer, you know you need to wait to see what the Note range has in store.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra took all the key appeals of the earlier S20 Ultra, refined some of them and added the series’s signature S-Pen. This ultra-slim stylus is smarter than ever.
You can doodle, handwrite or just use the pen to navigate Android. This year’s main improvement is latency. A 9ms delay means the line you draw never lags behind the tip, for a more natural feel.
It supports 4,096 pressure levels and, like last year, has Bluetooth to let it function as a music control or camera remote even when a couple of metres away from the Note 20 Ultra itself. Slot it back in and the tiny internal battery recharges.
The phone has three superb rear cameras, with none of the bloated extra lenses you might find in a less capable phone. Its primary 108MP camera, 12MP 5x optical zoom and 12MP ultra-wide are all excellent. And the colour balance between the trio is more consistent than it is in the S20 Ultra.
Add the Note 20 Ultra’s stainless steel side frame to the mix and this actually starts to look like a good deal at £1,179. It’s a couple of hundred pounds cheaper than some phones with fewer features.
And, as if you’d expect anything less, the Note 20 Ultra’s 6.9-inch 3088 x 1440 screen is superb. Max brightness is searing, colour bold, and the refresh rate goes up to 120Hz.
Battery life could be better, its capacity a so-so 4,500mAh, to accommodate the S-Pen. However, it should still last a full day for many.
Pros: Excellent S-Pen stylus; stacks of features; offers real photography freedom
Cons: Battery life could be better
Price: From £1,105 | Check price on Amazon | Currys | John Lewis
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
Best Ultra phone for battery life
Screen: 6.9in 3200 x 1440 OLED | Processor: Exynos 990 | Battery: 5000 mAh | Camera: 108MP, 12MP wide, 48MP 4x, ToF | Dimensions: 166.9 x 76 x 8.8 mm | Weight: 222g | Charging: 45W
The Galaxy S20 Ultra was Samsung’s top phone until the Note 20 Ultra came long. But it remains unsurpassed in a few important ways.
Its zoom camera is the most striking feature, by some margin. This is a 4x optical zoom, with lens elements arranged in periscope fashion to they can fit inside the frame.
Some phones have 5x zooms, but the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra’s also has a very large, very high resolution sensor. It’s a 48-megapixel 1/2inch chip, and can shoot photos at up to 100x zoom using its Space Zoom feature.
Samsung shot for the moon and missed, but only because 100x images using 4x optical hardware is a little ridiculous. The Galaxy S20 Ultra can still shoot great photos at 10x and perfectly usable ones at 30x.
When we reviewed the S20 Ultra back in February 2020 it was the first time we felt the kind of compositional freedom of the best Huawei cameras, in a Samsung phone. It went on to refine this further in the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, so why would you still buy the older Galaxy S20 Ultra?
Price erosion has not hit the S20 Ultra yet, so battery is key. It has a 5,000mAh battery, one 500mAh larger than the Note 20 Ultra's. And 45W charging means it tops up more quickly, too. Other Samsung flagships are capped at 25W.
Battery size matters more in the UK than the US. Here, we get Exynos processors, which sip juice more quickly than the Qualcomm CPUs used in the US.
All the other classic draws of top Samsung phone are present, too. The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra has a fantastic 6.9-inch OLED screen, slick curved glass on front and back and, most likely, more power than you need.
Pros: Super-powered cameras; longer battery life than the Note; Excellent zoom and low-light photography
Cons: Still quite expensive
Price: From £1,099 | Check price on Amazon | Currys | John Lewis
Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
The best deal for 5G from Samsung
Screen: 6.2in 3200 x 1440 OLED | Processor: Exynos 990 | Battery: 4000 mAh | Camera: 12MP, 64MP 1.1x hybrid zoom, 12MP wide | Dimensions: 166.9 x 76 x 8.8 mm | Weight: 222g | Charging: 15W
A-series Samsung phones aren't rarely all that exciting. They are made for, pitched at, people who really want an S-series Galaxy but never fail to find themselves horrified at how much they cost each time it comes to upgrade.
The standard Samsung Galaxy A51 does not break out of this mould. It’s a pleasant enough and has some of the key selling points of a Galaxy flagship, like a bold Super AMOLED screen. But the 5G version is a little different.
Despite being a Samsung, not a particularly value-focused brand, the Galaxy A51 5G is one of the more affordable ways to get on the 5G train. And as 5G phones need 5G-ready processors, the A51 5G is also significantly more powerful than the 4G version.
It’s better for playing games, and will even speed up the day-to-day experience of Android a little. A 5G Galaxy A51 costs £100 more than the 4G one, but you get more than just 5G mobile internet.
How are the cameras? It has a 48-megapixel main camera, 12-megapixel wide and two 5-megapixel sensors for depth and macro images. These provide familiar performance in what is a sensibly priced phone.
Day-lit shots will look good, if a little keen on boosted colour at times. But night images won’t match the Google Pixel 4a’s. Still, the tertiary sensors are a little better than average, letting the
Samsung Galaxy A51 5G produce unremarkable macro photos rather than truly dreadful ones.
Is it a better bet than the OnePlus Nord or Realme X50 5G? Perhaps not. Their pricing is more aggressive still. However, if you feel at home in Samsung’s Android UI and are not keen on buying a Chinese phone, the Samsung Galaxy A51 5G is a sound buy.
Pros: Has 5G; faster than 4G version
Cons: Plastic back; there are tasty non-Samsung alternatives
Price: From £387 | Check price on Amazon | John Lewis | Argos
Samsung Galaxy M31
The best Samsung Galaxy budget buy
Screen: 6.4in 2340 x 1080 OLED | Processor: Exynos 9611 | Battery: 6000 mAh | Camera: 64MP, 8MP wide, 5MP wide, 5MP macro | Dimensions: 159.2 x 75.1 x 8.9 mm | Weight: 191g | Charging: 15W
The Samsung Galaxy M31 is one of Samsung’s cheaper phones, but also one of our favourites. Why? Battery life. The Samsung Galaxy M31 has a huge 6,000mAh battery that will keep plodding along happily long after the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has run out of power.
There’s no outward sign this is a “mega battery” phone either. At 8.9mm thick it’s no chunkier than the norm, and at 191g it’s lighter than the Motorola Moto G9 Play.
Call it a two-day phone if you like. But the real benefit for those who use Instagram or YouTube a lot is you can do more-or-less what you want and not worry about the Samsung Galaxy M31 running dry before the end of the day. This is a kind of freedom you don’t get with any flagship Samsung, at least not in its UK versions.
The Samsung Galaxy M31 screen is good, too - a 6.4-inch Full HD OLED. It may not have the peak brightness or extreme colour depth of Samsung’s best, but the vivid contrast of OLED’s per-pixel lighting is still here.
Samsung also resisted its usual urge to make its cheaper phones a little too expensive to realistically compete with other brands. The Galaxy M31 is a good deal.
All the caveats here apply to many phones in its class. Fortnite won’t run like a dream, but, on the bright side, almost everything else will. And, like almost every affordable phone these days, the Samsung Galaxy M31 has a plastic back and plastic sides.
Camera performance is typical of a cheaper phone. Day photos can look great, night photos are not quite so hot, but the Samsung Galaxy M31 does have a Night mode to brighten them up significantly. And while the eye-opening 64-megapixel main camera resolution does not come with many real-world benefits, the 32-megapixel front camera is among the best you’ll find at the price.
Samsung got this one right. It’s very easy to live with the Galaxy M31.
Pros: Superb battery life; good value; 1080p OLED screen
Cons: Plastic back and sides; struggles with a couple of the top games
Price: From £203 | Check price on Tecobuy | Amazon
The Link LonkSeptember 19, 2020 at 12:01PM
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