Huawei P40 Pro Plus and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra which one is the king?

The P40 Pro + smartphone is the third in the 2020 P edition range, but also Huawei's third 5G smartphone this year. This is the most efficient model of the Chinese firm, which deploys all its know-how in mobile photography. A smartphone is designed in the hope of being essential, even though Google services are absent.

Offered at a price of 1,767USD Huawei's smartphone competes in the ultra-premium smartphone category, like the Sony Xperia 1 Mark 2 and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. The Huawei P40 Pro + is also a serious competitor to the Samsung.

But wait! Samsung has announced its beast, Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. This phone is really a class of its own. It has an amazing design, a powerful battery, and excellent charging capabilities. All these fabulous features and more in one ultimate smartphone. In this article, we will make a comparison between Huawei P40 Pro Plus and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra to see which one the king is.

Design & Display.

Huawei P40 Pro Plus and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is pretty stunning. Huawei P40 Pro Plus comes with a glass front. Huawei swaps glass and aluminum for ceramic, both for the back and for the frame. In addition to giving a very nice look to the mobile, it offers much better protection against scratches. The P40 Pro Plus has an IP68 water and dust resistance.

In addition, the smartphone has the same dimensions as the P40 Pro. The format is the same, only the weight changes. We, therefore, end up with a 226 g mobile (the same weight as the iPhone 11 Pro Max). A gain that we surely owe to the material used as well as to the presence of an additional photo module.

The right edge accommodates the traditional volume control buttons as well as the ignition. On the lower one are placed the USB-C port as well as a speaker. The other slices are blank.

On the other hand, Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra comes with a glass front with an aluminum frame. The back edges are curved, and for the first time, it comes with a protruding square that houses the rear cameras. The front screen has a punch hole for the front-facing camera. The curviness of this device is less than the older ones. Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is an IP68 water and dust resistant.

As far as display is concerned, Huawei P40 Pro Plus comes with a 6.80 OLED display. It occupies 91.6% of the front of the device. The P40 Pro Plus has 1200 x 2640 resolution with 441 PPI. The device also supports HDR10. It also has support for the 90Hz refresh rate

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra comes with a 6.9 Dynamic AMOLED 2X display which is called Infinity-O due to the snap of the front-facing camera. The screen occupies 89.9% of the front of the device. Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra has a 3220 x 1440 resolution with 511 PPI. The device supports HDR10 Plus and it supports 120HZ as well. This refresh rate will make your use of the S20 Ultra a piece of a cake. But this frequency only works with FHD resolution.

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Operating System and Process.

Both phones offer extremely fast and powerful processors. Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra comes with the Exynos 990( Global) or Qualcomm Snapdragon 865(USA) and Huawei P40 Pro Plus is powered by Kirin 990 5G. Both processors are built using a 7nm and 7nm+ in a raw process for extreme power efficiency, and they both have a neural engine on board for AI-related tasks.

In the Geekbench test, the P40 Pro Plus scored 877 for single-core and 2712 for multicores. While the S20 Ultra scored 905 points for the single-core and 3358 for the multicores.

According to the operating system, Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra runs on Android 10 with Samsung's famous UI 2.1, which is light and easy to deal with. Nothing revolutionary in the program, but rather clear and complete navigation. We find the Always-On, Bixby.

The Huawei Pro+ runs also on Android 10 with Huawei well-known EMUI 10.1 interface. This has some new features. Most notable is the arrival of a new intelligent personal assistant: Celia. When it works, this tool shows great responsiveness.

Note the existence of Huawei Share which allows file sharing between Huawei smartphones without mobile data. This same function also allows you to access your phone's files from any PC or Mac connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

Overall, the navigation is rather smooth and offers several customizations, including the ability to switch to dark mode, configure navigation by gestures or activate or not the application drawer. A sidebar of configurable shortcuts allows you to display the window of one app on top of another.

Storage, Price and available colors.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and Huawei P40 Pro Plus price depends on the selected variant. The basic variant of the S20 Ultra with 12GB RAM and 128GB variant, it will cost you around 1195.99USD on Amazon. The same variant will cost 1179.99USD on eBay. It supports either 2 SIM cards or 1 SD card up to 1TB. It is available in Cosmic Grey and Cosmic Black colors.

Meanwhile, the basic variant of Huawei P40 Pro Plus with 8GB RAM and 256 variants, we have no idea how much it may cost. The variant with 8GB RAM and 512GB variant, it will cost 1,379.99USD on Amazon. It has an SD card of up to 512. While it goes with 2 SIM cards, one is physical and the other is eSIM. It is available in White Ceramic and Black Ceramic colors. in this article, we will make a comparison between Huawei P40 Pro Plus and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra to see which one the king is.

Security and Ports

For security, The P40 Pro Plus comes with a fingerprint sensor is placed under the display. The latter is also very fast and works as well - or even better - than the one on the P30 Pro (which was already excellent). It doesn't support 3D face recognition for unlocking the device. The P40 Pro Plus also supports the classical unlocking methods such as pattern and passcode. On the other side, the Galaxy device unlocks using the in-display fingerprint sensor and 2D face recognition. It also supports the same classical unlocking methods which the other phones have such as pattern and passcode.

As of ports, the Pro Plus phone supports Bluetooth 5 and NFC. It supports VoLTE and WiFi Calling. The device comes with a USB-C port, which helps in quick charging. The device has no 3.5mm headphone jack, like many of today's flagships which choose to say goodbye to such technology. Whereas the S20 Ultra supports Bluetooth 5 and NFC. It also supports VoLTE and WiFi Calling. It comes with USB-C. Like most of 2020 smartphones no 3.5mm headphone jack available.

Battery and charging.

Huawei P40 Pro Plus comprises a powerful Li-Ion battery with a capacity of 4200mAh. Exactly the same battery as the P40 Pro. Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra provides an even more powerful Li-Polymer 5000mAh battery. This is a core difference. And both phones offer fast charging.

On the recharging side, we find fast charging at 40 W thanks to a dedicated power supply unit. Wireless charging goes from 27W to 40W as long as you have a compatible dock. Finally, reverse wireless charging remains at 27W, still one of the fastest on the market.

Camera.

Huawei P40 Pro Plus has a Penta-camera on the rear as clarified: 40Mp ( utrawide with f\2.2),50MP( wide with f\1.9 it has OIS and Laser AF), 8MP( telephoto with f\2.4) and 8MP( periscope telephoto with f\4.4) ToF 3D( depth sensor). The Pro Plus has a 32MP wide front-facing camera with f\2.2and RI ToF 3D depth sensor. In contrast, Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra has Quad rear cameras, 12MP( utrawide with f\2.2), 108MP ( wide with f\1.8), 48MP ( telephoto with f\3.5), and Depth Vision for isolation. On the front, you see a 40MP camera with f\2.2.

In still, namely that, by default, the main module takes pictures in 12 megapixels. To get photos in 50 megapixels, you have to go to the Pro mode of the Photo application. The images obtained in 50-megapixel mode offer more detail, but the software processing intervenes in a rather severe way in some places, smoothing the scene and generating digital noise.

By day, Huawei's smartphone offers excellent shots. The image is detailed and the software processing hardly intervenes to smooth the scene. The colors are however a bit accentuated compared to what we see in the S20 Ultra. It's up to everyone to know the rendering they prefer for their photos.

In low light, the P40 Pro + goes higher in sensitivity than its opponent (ISO 1600). In fact, the image is better exposed but loses a little in precision. The S20 Ultra is satisfied with ISO 400 to preserve the details of the scene as much as possible. Contrastingly, the main module of the Galaxy S20 Ultra offers to capture photos in 108 or 12MP.

Let's start with the 108-megapixel photo performance. Without too much surprise, the results turn out to be excellent in full light. The Galaxy S20 Ultra even outperforms the already remarkable Mi Note 10 in the year. And for once, let's note that Samsung delivers natural images. The scene is extremely detailed, even on the outskirts.

In low light, the 108-megapixel module of the Galaxy S20 Ultra produces shots that are certainly noisy, but natural. The colorimetry remains correct and the treatment discreet.

Keep in mind that the main module of the Galaxy S20 Ultra uses a sensor developed by Samsung, the ISOCELL Bright HM1. A slightly improved version of the ISOCELL Bright HMX crossed in the Xiaomi Note 10. It, therefore, takes advantage of photosites of 0.8 µm as well as an identical diagonal of 1.2 cm, making it one of the largest smartphone photo sensors currently on the market. The only difference between the two sensors is the use of pixel binning. As a reminder, this process consists of assembling several pixels to form only one. But where the Mi Note 10's HMX mixed four pixels, the Galaxy S20 Ultra's HM1 assembles nine. This allows the module to capture even more light, granting a drop in definition. Thus, the 108-megapixel sensor captures, by default, shots in 27 MP (108/4), when the Galaxy S20 Ultra drops to 12 MP (108/9).

By default, the main module of the Galaxy S20 Ultra captures snapshots in 12 megapixels. He thus exploits his famous technique of pixel binning. And the results are unfortunately less brilliant. Even if the result turns out to be blurry and roughly accentuated, it remains readable.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra has a night mode. Which is content, at the cost of an exposure of several seconds, to further accentuate the cliché. This treatment results in chromatic aberrations here and there. Enough to interfere with readability and spoil the whole.

Few smartphones offer very good results with the ultra-wide-angle module. Yet this P40 Pro Plus succeeds where the vast majority of phones fail. Although overexposed, the shot offers many details, so much so that we could compare it with some standard modules of other mobiles. We just regret a loss of quality at the lower-left corner, but nothing too bad. Inversely, Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra offers pretty good results during the day. The scene is correctly exposed and the processing control. The dive is however limited.

By night, Huawei's flagship once again offers a rather impressive result. If the software processing smooths the image a lot and makes most of the details disappear, the objects that make up the scene are perfectly visible. Instead, the S20 Ultra, the result is much worse. The smoothing takes over and the colors are erased on a shot that has the merit of remaining legible. Remember, however, that few smartphones shine in this exercise.

The telephoto lens of the Huawei P40 Pro Plus only allows an x3 zoom, while that of the Galaxy S20 Ultra can go up to x4. However, the result is rather convincing and the P40 Pro + module offers a very good result. The shot is correctly exposed, the details are present, and if there is any smoothing, it is imperceptible.

Unfortunately, at night, as on all smartphones, it remains unusable. Compared to the S20 Ultra, we see better exposure as well as no digital noise. However, the smoothing is far too strong to be exploitable.

According to zooming abilities, the phone is armed with an additional module which is none other than a periscope allowing an x10 zoom. This is not the first time that we have seen this type of zoom on a smartphone. The Oppo Reno 10X zoom, as well as the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra also offers one. However, in the case of the Oppo, it is only a hybrid zoom while in that of the S20 Ultra, its periscope module only goes up to x4.

The x10 periscope zoom of our P40 Pro + offers a fairly impressive accuracy. The scene is clear, correctly exposed, and teeming with detail. The colors certainly stand out a little too much, but this does not spoil the general appearance of the shot. Otherwise, it must be recognized that Huawei engineers have been able to provide amazing work on this module. Especially since it has a focal length of 240 mm, which is long and which, in normal times, does not rhyme with a good result.

Contrarily, the periscope telephoto lens of the Galaxy delivers excellent daytime results. Despite exaggerated colors and limited sharpness, the Galaxy S20 Ultra manages to achieve perfectly readable 4x photos. And that's already a lot. It is also interesting to note that the smartphone here performs pixel binning and captures 12 MP shots.

At night, the image of the P40 Pro + comes out completely black. The objects that make up our scene are perceptible, but the cliché cannot be used. On the flip side, the periscope telephoto suffers from regrettable chromatic aberrations at night. But as for the ultra-wide-angle module, few smartphones are able to get by in this exercise.

For the front camera, the photos are of excellent quality, very detailed, and do not come up against the brightness. Having said that, the S20 Ultra, by default, this module captures selfies in 10 MP using the pixel binning technique. The pictures taken are particularly smooth, especially on the faces. The result is much more realistic in 40 MP.

The portrait mode is also convincing. The clipping is very precise and the subjects stand out very well against the background. A feat that we owe in part to the ToF sensor. However, the Samsung smartphone is rather fine, with quality clipping.

Video shooting, the P40 Pro + can shoot videos up to 4K at 60 frames per second. If it doesn't have an optical stabilizer (only electronic), the images are very stable, even if your handshakes a little too much. Nevertheless, the S20 Ultra is capable of filming in 8K like the other S20s. The result, however, is not convincing. Stability suffers, the development of galley and slowdowns are felt. We, therefore, advise you to shoot in 4K 60 fps. Under these conditions, the smartphone is much more convincing.

Conclusion.

The P40 Pro + is quite simply a great smartphone. This is the most versatile photo phone on the market today, and the rest of its spec sheet is just as impressive as its photo capabilities. Unfortunately, like the P40 and P40 Pro, this Pro Plus model does not include Google Mobile Services, which makes its use complicated for those who are not used to doing without it. It is therefore difficult to advise him against the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra which is just as exemplary and offers Google services.

On a different side, Samsung Galaxy s20 Ultra is the king of shooting, whereas it has 100x zoom abilities or what is called zoom. Samsung backed the phone with this feature in order to have quite good detailed photos. It also supports shooting 8K videos which can be a perfect choice for watching matches and movies. What about you? Have you had the chance to use either of them? Give us your opinion on the comments.

Huawei P40 Pro Plus and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra which one is the king?