Samsung Galaxy S20 camera samples show big improvement over Galaxy S10

Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
The Samsung Galaxy S20's camera should have the S10 Plus (above) beat (Image credit: Future)

The cameras could be one of the most exciting aspects of the Samsung Galaxy S20 range, with talk of all sorts of new features and improvements, and now we’ve had our first look at how they might perform in reality.

Max Weinbach (a reliable leaker) has shared a number of photos supposedly taken with the Galaxy S20 and Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus – though sadly there are no Galaxy S20 Ultra shots here, so we’ll have to wait a little longer to see how that phone’s rumored 108MP camera performs (though not much longer, as the phones are landing on February 11).

First up, we’ve got a couple of camera samples from the Galaxy S20 Plus, with one using the main sensor and the other using the 30x digital zoom.

The zoom retains a decent amount of detail, with clearly readable words, but it’s not exactly pretty. We’ll be interested to see how much better the Galaxy S20 Ultra does with its rumored 10x optical and 100x digital zoom.

The next set of photos (below) is rather more impressive though and shows the Galaxy S20’s low light performance compared to the Samsung Galaxy S10’s.

While all of the shots look okay for such a poorly lit scene, the Galaxy S20’s are substantially brighter and clearer. However, we can’t be certain whether the lighting was actually identical between shots, so that might have played a role. Regardless, based on these shots the Samsung Galaxy S20 could be a low light star.

Finally, Weinbach shared some images of the Galaxy S20’s wide-angle camera compared to the Samsung Galaxy S10’s, and the differences aren’t quite as dramatic here.

The shots seem to have a similar level of detail, but the Samsung Galaxy S10’s appear more vibrant, while the Galaxy S20’s look more natural.

As ever we’d take these images with a pinch of salt, as it’s possible that the S20 wasn’t actually used for the photos, and even assuming it was, it’s worth noting that according to Weinbach the camera software wasn’t final, so there could be improvements. Plus, such a small selection of photos isn’t much to go on.

But it’s a broadly promising look at the likely camera capabilities of Samsung’s upcoming flagships, and while the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is sure to offer the best photography experience, based on this leak you should still get a very good one from the S20 and S20 Plus.

Via BGR

James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.