The Galaxy S20 lineup invites you to look closer. Samsung's three new phones feature the biggest changes to their cameras in years, with 64MP or 108MP primary sensors, super-zoom up to 100x, and the ability to capture 8K video. And they all have 5G. I spent some time with the Galaxy S20, the S20+, and the S20 Ultra ahead of their announcement at Samsung Unpacked, and they do things that no other US phone can.

I say "US phone" because these camera technologies are going around the globe; we've just been left out so far. Xiaomi started the ball rolling with its Mi Note 10 late last year, but that device will never come to the US. Huawei's P30 brought super-zoom to the world, but Huawei is mostly banned from American shores right now. If you want these kinds of innovations within our borders, you'll have to go Samsung.

The S20 lineup will also be the first phones to handle all three varieties of US 5G: low, middle, and high bands. There's a small, confusing asterisk to this, which I'll get to in a moment, but in general, it's a huge step forward.

Big, Bigger, and...Best?

There are three new Galaxy S20 5G phones: the small S20 ($999), the medium S20+ ($1,199), and the big S20 Ultra ($1,399). They all feel solid, rounded, and premium, very much like the Galaxy S10, but with even narrower bezels.

The S20 will be available in blue, gray, and pink. The S20+ will come in black, blue, and gray. The Ultra will come in black and gray. Their front-facing cameras are at the top center of the screen. They all have significant camera bumps on the back, very significant in the case of the S20 Ultra. Its camera bump has a notable Z-axis that I'm worried will be a little rough on your pants. A case will smooth that out for you, and of course Samsung has several.

The base S20 is the same width as last year's Galaxy S10e, but a little taller; it's still the most manageable of the set for entirely one-handed use, even with a case. Gone are the S10e's physical fingerprint scanner and headphone jack, though—time to "trade up" to an in-screen scanner and USB-C or wireless headphones, alas.

I tried out the in-screen fingerprint scanner on the new phones, and the good and bad news is that it's just about the same as on the S10 models. It's more secure and more accurate than the S10's scanner started out as, because of a year's worth of firmware updates, but its touch target is still quite small. This is the first-generation Qualcomm 3D Sonic, not the second-generation Qualcomm 3D Sonic Max we saw back in December.

The S20 has a 6.2-inch, 60Hz quad-HD screen that can also run at 120Hz in 1080p mode. That means butter-smooth scrolling and faster gaming, at the cost of raw pixels. The 120Hz mode is easier on the eyes than 60Hz if you do a lot of scrolling, but you'll want the QHD resolution if you're reading very fine print or editing photos.

Its three main cameras are a 12-megapixel ultrawide, a 12-megapixel standard, and a 64-megapixel 3x zoom. Wait—the high pixel count is on the 3x lens? Yep. You'll be using that a lot in a 4x pixel-binning mode to create 12-megapixel images and make up for telephoto lenses' general dimness, but the high pixel count also has something to do with the new Super Resolution Zoom mode, which promises clear shots at digital-zoom levels up to 30x. There's a 10-megapixel camera on the front.

Under the hood, there's Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 865 processor, 12GB of RAM, 128GB of storage plus a microSD card slot, and a juicy 4,000mAh battery to support 5G transmission. With 12GB of RAM, you can lock three apps into memory so they maintain their states no matter what else you do. That's good for gaming, but it's also good for, say, maintaining your OneNote page without reloading.

Kick in an extra $200—now you're paying $1,200—and you get the midsize Galaxy S20+. This one has a 6.7-inch screen, a 4,500mAh battery, a 512GB storage option, and all of the forms of 5G that US carriers are implementing.

Hit $1,400 and the camera goes wild. The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra has a 6.9-inch screen along with a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera, a 108-megapixel standard camera, and a 48-megapixel 4x telephoto. The cameras combine for 10x optical zoom and 100x hybrid digital zoom. The Ultra also has a 40MP front-facing camera and a 16GB RAM option. The 16GB version lets you lock five, rather than three, apps into memory.

Those Ultra cameras do pixel-binning to take more reasonably sized images with better low-light performance. The 108MP unit will bin nine pixels into one for 12MP images, while the 40MP front-facer will do four-in-one for 10MP images.

In terms of charging, all three phones have 25-watt fast charging, wireless charging, and reverse wireless charging. The Ultra has a 45-watt charging option, but you have to buy a separate charger.

Shoot Your Shot

The phone's super-zoom is worth looking more closely at. It's good, not perfect. The "hybrid optical zoom" levels look great—that means 3x on the smaller phones and 10x on the Ultra. Beyond that, well, you can definitely see digital sharpening effects. At 30x on the smaller phones or 100x on the Ultra, you see a lot of them. At zooms over 20x, you see a little guide in the corner of your viewfinder with a zoomed-out version, so you know what you're looking at.

While the phones take photos by default at 12 megapixels, you can tap on the aspect ratio button at the top of the screen to kick them up into 64-megapixel or 108-megapixel mode. 108-megapixel images look a little desaturated compared with their 12-megapixel counterparts, and when you zoom in, they aren't razor-sharp at their ultimate resolution. It turns out that pixel size matters, and the 9-times-bigger pixels of the 12-megapixel mode are sharper on a per-pixel basis.

These phones have the first improvement in Samsung's low-light performance I've seen in two years, as the S10 was pretty much the same as the S9. Looking at low-light photos, shadow detail is definitely better, although I don't think it's quite up to the level of Google's brilliant Night Sight mode.

All three phones now record 8K video, with the ability to take 33-megapixel snapshots in the middle of videos. Video is more stabilized than before, Samsung says, to the tune of 60 degrees rather than 30.

The wildest new camera idea, though, is Single Take mode. Here, you pan around a scene for 10 seconds, and the phone tries to figure out the best short videos, stills, and GIFs from that scene. It captures up to 14 items: a 9-second video, a sped-up video, a "boomerang" video, a black-and-white photo, and various other photos from different angles.

The highlight reel falls into your camera roll as a collection of separate images and videos that you can choose from and delete at will. It's a fascinating use of AI, and I'm curious to see whether or not it's actually useful. Like Samsung's AR Emoji, of course, it's no real loss—if you don't use it, you won't know it's there.

Three Models, Two Versions of 5G

Now on to the 5G confusion. AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile will be selling a version of the S20 that doesn't include millimeter-wave (mmWave), the shortest-range, fastest form of 5G. AT&T and T-Mobile both have some mmWave in their networks, mostly in central cities. Verizon will have a mmWave version of the S20, but it will be coming out later in the second quarter of the year.

Partnering for Power

Samsung told me that it's trying to roll back its old philosophy of developing its own software for everything (read: Milk Music) in favor of working better with partners. So, Google Duo video calling is now integrated into the dialer; if you're calling someone else with an S20 or with Duo, tapping a video call button in the dialer will allow 1080p video calling.

Spotify now integrates with Bixby Routines, triggering playlists based on location. Microsoft will offer up its existing Office apps, but also a Samsung-exclusive version of its Forza Street driving game, though I don't know if that will have the same sticking power that the Fortnite promo for the previous Note phones did.

One thing that's staying: Bixby. You can't get rid of Samsung's assistant. At least there's no dedicated Bixby button (it's a double tap of the power button). Samsung made two arguments for Bixby: It controls hardware features that aren't accessible to Google Assistant, and it's able to control Samsung products, like TVs, that may not be Assistant-compatible. If I can one day tell my phone, "Bixby, show my photos from February 7 on my TV," without having to go through a half-dozen setup screens, change the TV input, and agree to permissions every time using my TV remote, I'll be sold.

It's All Connected

The 5G and camera aspects of the new phones serve each other, Samsung execs explained to me. As 5G has slowly spread around the world, most people are asking what they need 5G for.

It turns out these new cameras generate exceedingly large files. Five minutes of 8K video recording is 3GB. 108-megapixel images will likely come in at 20MB each. Now, Samsung expects you to do a lot of editing on your device to generate smaller files. 8K video means you can zoom in and out and still maintain 1080p resolution; the 108-megapixel shots are designed for after-the-fact zooming and cropping.

But a lot of people will want to upload or cast the new files in their full resolution. That's where 5G can come in. I'm curious to see what sort of upload speeds the carriers will deliver; their networks are very heavily tilted toward downloads right now, although our tests in Providence, RI last year showed Verizon's upload speeds tripling when it added 5G.

At least until we get augmented reality or the as-yet-unforeseen apps that can make 5G really sing, uploading gigantic videos is as good an argument for 5G as any.

About Those Prices...

As mentioned, the phones range in cost from $999 to $1,399. Those prices are...ambitious, and they show a definite 5G tax. Apple's 4G iPhone 11 Pro models cost $999 and $1,099. Samsung will have to lean heavily on three-year carrier payment plans, trade-ins, and other promotions to make these very high prices work.

There are no non-5G versions of these phones coming to the US, period. But don't worry, this is Samsung. It'll have a phone for every budget. It's going to continue to sell the S10 lineup, with prices knocked down by $150, and below that, it's got handsome midrange phones in the A series down to the $179.99 Galaxy A10. All of those phones are 4G-only.

The Galaxy S20 lineup goes on shelves March 6, with pre-orders beginning February 21. We'll have a full review of the phones within a few weeks, so check back soon.

Further Reading

• Report: Apple Designing In-House 5G iPhone Antenna Module
• Report: LG and Samsung Are Developing Portable Displays for Phones
• Motorola Razr vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip: Which Is the Finest Foldable Phone?
• Want to Buy a Galaxy Z Flip on Feb. 14? Try a Sprint Store
• More in Mobile Phones

More Mobile Phone Reviews

• Motorola Razr (2020)
• ZTE Blade 10 Prime
• ZTE Blade A7 Prime
• Samsung Galaxy A50
• Skyroam Solis X

More Mobile Phone Best Picks

• The Best Bluetooth Headsets for 2020
• The Best Phones for 2020
• The Best Mobile Hotspots for 2020
• The Best Unlocked Phones for 2020
• The Best Android Phones for 2020