Watching this week's announcement of the Samsung Galaxy S20
family of phones and the new Z Flip left me thinking about what these phones—or
indeed the changes coming to phones in general this year—mean for business
buyers. For consumers looking for a flagship phone, the new models offer several
compelling features, but the business advantages are not as clear.
Here are the areas where the new phones stand out, and what
implications I think they may have for business users.
Camera Features
Improved cameras. This is undoubtedly the major
feature of the three S20 phones, and it's certainly true that all three
represent a major leap forward compared with last year's phones. The 6.2-inch
Galaxy S20 and the 6.7-inch Galaxy S20+ both now have a 64-megapixel
"telephoto lens" with a 76-degree field of view and an aperture of
f/2.0, in addition to the traditional 12-megapixel, f/1.8 wide-angle main
camera and an ultra-wide 12-megapixel, f/2.2 "ultra-wide" camera with
a 120-degree field of view. (Both also offer a 10-megapixel, f/2.2 front-facing
camera with an 80-degree field of view that works through a
"hole-punch" design with the camera in the center top of the
"Infinity-O" display.) The S20+ and the 6.9-inch S20 Ultra both also
offer a rear-facing depth-sensing camera.
Samsung started putting ultra-wide cameras on the phone last
year with the S10
generation, and other vendors, notably LG, did it much earlier. In a few
situations, such as capturing the full look of a space, I find the ultra-wide
lens to be quite useful and I can easily imagine it being used in real estate
or insurance applications.
Up to 100X Zoom. The bigger changes are in the
telephoto lenses. Samsung says the
S20 and S20+ have a "hybrid optic" zoom of 3X "lossless zoom,"
which doesn't sound like a lot, but is better than you'll find in most
competing phones. This is great when you want to get closer to a subject, which
I can see being useful in construction, insurance, and reconnaissance
applications. The larger S20 Ultra takes this a step further, swapping out the
normal wide-angle camera for a 108-megapixel one with the same aperture; and
replacing the telephoto lens with a 48 megapixel, 24-degree field of view,
f/2.5 camera system. What makes this stand out is that it uses a prismatic lens
system that sends the light sideways through the phone to allow for 10x
lossless zoom. On all three models, Samsung offers an extra 10x of digital
zoom, resulting in a "Space Zoom" of up to 30X on the smaller phones
and 100X on the larger one. The demos I've seen were impressive, even if
digital zoom means sacrificing some clarity; I'll know more when I can try it
out in the real world.
Improved Night Mode. Taking low-light photos has been
one of the big challenges of smartphone cameras, and an area where I've found
the Samsung phones to be a bit behind the current iPhone and Google Pixel
flagships. The S20 line is trying to address this in a couple of ways. On the
S20 and S20+, the new phones will take twice as many images as before to try to
combine them into a single image with better clarity. The S20 Ultra also swaps
out the 12-megapixel main camera sensor for a 108-megapixel sensor, which
should be good for both additional cropping in good light, and for capturing
low-light images by binning groups of 9 pixels to create one 12-megapixel
image.
Samsung also said the phones will be able to do a better job
of taking photos when there is a lot of motion in the shot. We'll know more
when we can test real units.
8K Videos. The phones are also able to capture video
at 8K, 24 frames per second, and share this resolution video via YouTube or by
casting to an 8K TV. I can see where professional videographers or marketers
would like to capture video in 8K, because it gives you more information when
you cut or crop the images. But I doubt this will be very important to most
users today. You can't (and don't need to) show that resolution on the phone
itself (because of the size of the display) and even on a large TV, most people
will be hard pressed to see the difference between 4K and 8K video at a normal
viewing distance. 8K video also takes up a lot of space, so you'll want an
extra flash storage card (all three models take up to 1 TB in a microSD slot). Note
the phones default to 1080p capture (they can also do 4K), recognizing that
most of the time that's good enough.
But there are some nice features here, including the ability
to do on-device trimming of the videos and to pull out a single frame as a
33-megapixel still image. Other video features include improvements into the
"super steady" features for smoothing video shake, and a night
hyperlapse feature.
New Camera Interface. This didn't get as much attention
but might turn out to be particularly useful. Samsung is reducing the main menu
camera choices to three main options: photo, video, and "single
take." (All the other options, including a Pro mode that lets you control
all the details of the camera are still there, but buried under a menu). Single
Take mode will capture a series of images and short video clips up to 10
seconds using multiple cameras, and then uses what Samsung describes as AI to
pick the best shots. This typically includes a short video, and ultra-wide,
live focus, and often black-and-white photos. This is important because it
saves you the time of choosing the right mode. You can then easily save or
share just the actual images you want to from the multiple shots captured. I
can see this being useful in cases where you need to capture something immediately.
5G Everywhere
Three 5G phones. All three of the S20 phones will be
5G enabled, with Samsung essentially saying that 5G is simply going to become a
part of flagship phones this year, as opposed to being a separate model, as in
last year's Galaxy
S10 5G. Initial versions of the smaller S20 will just support sub-6Gz 5G
(as well as all the usual 4G bands). The S20+ and S20 Ultra will support both
sub-6GHz and mmWave bands (which offer substantially faster communications, but
much shorter range). Note that coverage
of 5G is rolling out, but remains spotty.
For most business users, 5G really doesn't provide huge
benefits now. Yes, you can download files faster, but for most applications, 4G
is fast enough. Perhaps the biggest improvement 5G users will notice during the
initial phases is simply more stable coverage, particularly where low-band 5G
coverage is available. Later on, there may well be situations where the
improved speed, reliability, and latency of 5G networks may lead to new
applications. The important mobile 4G applications didn't come out until a few
years after the 4G rollout, so for most business users, making 5G part of the
basic phone prices just means a little future-proofing, with the potential that
the phone will have a longer useful life.
Video Chat. One exception to this might be video
chat, where higher-speed mmWave and potentially mid-range 5G should allow for
better, more predictable video calls while on the road. The S20 line now
includes a more integrated version of Duo, Google's video chat application,
which ties into the Contracts and Messages applications. This should allow for
full HD connections with up to eight people at once, great for video conference
calls.
Other General Features
Improved Performance and Capacity. The North American
versions of the S20 will use the Qualcomm 865; units in Korea, Europe and some
other markets will use Samsung's own Exynos 990 processor instead. Either
should offer improved performance compared with last year's models. The S20
will comes with 12GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage; the S20+ will have
12GB and 128 or 512GB of storage; and the S20 Ultra will have 12 or 16 GB of
RAM and 128 or 512 GB of storage.
All use LPDDR5 memory, which Samsung says offers 30 percent
faster data access speeds while using up to 20 percent less power.
Pinning applications. Everyone likes improved
performance and battery life, and one particular advantage of the additional
RAM is that you will be able to pin specified applications into memory, so they
start immediately rather than having to load. On all of the models, you're now
able to pin up to three applications directly into RAM, while on the S20 Ultra
with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage, you can do this with five
applications. While Samsung mostly talked about this in the context of games,
you can certainly imagine it would be quite useful for the most commonly used
business applications as well.
120Hz screen. All of the models now feature a 120Hz
Super AMOLED display, which essentially means the phone looks much smoother for
scrolling text, or, more usefully, for games. Indeed for gamers, Samsung also
says the phone is twice as responsive to touches, operating at 240Hz. I suspect
most users will leave it at the default 60Hz, simply because the battery life
should be better.
Specific Business Features
Of course, the S20 retains a number of the
business features that the Galaxy line has had, including Samsung Knox for
security, good integration with the Microsoft suite of applications (which come
pre-installed), and its DeX functionality which lets you plug in a keyboard and
monitor and use your device more as you would a traditional PC. In addition,
there are a few new features specifically designed for business users.
These include a new function that lets users access FTP
servers with their FTP credentials or network drives in the office and see the
results in the My Files app. This should make it easier to share sensitive
files, without using email.
For travelers, the S20 offers dual SIM capability,
coming later (via a firmware update). In the US, this will involve both a
physical SIM and an eSIM. This is particularly important for businesses that
need to bill out phone usage to different accounts, or that need to work
internationally.
Samsung's DeX feature is gaining updated credential management and embedded
Secure Element (eSE) functions, so you can better
authenticate as if you were using a physical smart card; or if you had
something like a digital credential.
Will You Flip?
The other unique phone of the announcement was the
Galaxy
Z Flip, Samsung's second foldable phone, one that is much more mainstream
than last year's ill-fated Galaxy Fold. The flip has a 6.7-in, 21:9 display,
but folds in half to form a closer to square form factor that should more
easily fit into a pocket or purse.
This is a bit different from other foldable phones
in that the hinge is designed to work at almost any angle, and some of the
applications (notably Duo and YouTube) have been enhanced for use on two
half-size screens.
It's a cool looking phone, but I'm not sure what
the business justification would be for it. It's running an older processor
(the Snapdragon 855+ in the U.S) without even a 5G option, and features fewer
cameras than the S10, much less the S20. At $1,380, it is a niche product that
will appeal mainly to consumers who just like the "wow" factor. But
it does have the advantage of being distinctive.
A Range of Phones
The S20 phones are priced like flagship phones,
with the S20 starting at $999, the S20+ at $1,199, and the S20 Ultra at $1399.
From a business perspective, one of the most
interesting things about the announcement is that all three LTE versions of
last year's flagship Samsung phones are staying in the lineup, with the S10e
now down to $599, the S10 now at $749, and the S10+ now at $849. In all cases,
that's a significant price drop, and you'd still be getting a very high-end
phone, albeit one that doesn't have quite the bells and whistles of the S20. Still,
the S10+ is no slouch, and since 5G applications aren't here, most of what you
are giving up would be the additional camera features. These phones aren't as
sexy as the new S20 line, but if you're buying in bulk for a business, I can
see these being a much more economical option.
The Rugged X Cover Pro
There's one more phone in Samsung's line worth
mentioning, even if it didn't come up in this week's announcement: The Galaxy
XCover Pro, which was announced a couple of weeks ago.
This doesn't have the high-end features of a
flagship phone. It has a 2GHz octa-core processor (the Samsung Exynos 9611),
4GB of memory, and 64GB of storage (with a microSD slot than can take up to
512GB, so not bad). It has just two rear-facing cameras (8 megapixel and 25
megapixel), and a 6.3-inch, FHD screen. These don't match the S10, never mind
the S20, but they aren't bad.
More importantly, the phone has a number of
features designed for specific business cases. It's a more durable phone, with
MIL-STD-810G certification, meaning it's better suited for altitude, humidity,
and environmental stress; designed to be more water resistant; and to take a
fall of a meter without damage. Yet in size and weight, it's not much bigger
than the comparable flagship devices. Another difference is its support for
PogoPlug charging, so it's easy to charge a fleet of phones.
Other features include a push-to-talk (Walkie-Talkie) feature (which brought to mind
images of a similar feature in phones a decade ago), this time designed to
integrate with Microsoft Teams; and programmable short cut keys to bring up
particular applications.
As a result, it seems like a good choice for field
workers.
For retail workers, it also has an NFC chip
designed for mobile payment, as well as the option of attaching a sled for a
credit-card reader.
The XCover Pro probably isn't the phone you would
assign to most office workers—the S10 and S20 lines, or maybe even the Note
10 phablet are more suited to that. But it's an interesting idea for other
kinds of businesses.
Here are PCMag's hands-on looks at the S20
phones and the Z
Flip.
Further Reading
- Why 2020 Should Be a Particularly Competitive Year for CPUs
- The Last Gadget Standing at CES 2020
- Traveling with a Second Monitor
- Living with a Dell XPS 13 With a Six-Core Comet Lake Processor
-
More in Forward Thinking
