Galaxy S20 disppointments!

[alex_ncfc85]

I'm just posting because I'm interested if anyone has any advice, or if they have the same issues.

In late November I decided to upgrade my phone, I'd had the Huawei P20 since October 2018 and decided I'd go for the S20, as I saw a good Black Friday deal, albeit on a 3 year contract.

The things I really loved about my P20 were the camera and battery life - from the moment I got it, it was instantly the best camera-phone I've ever used and the pictures it takes are phenominal. Also the battery life is decent and always has been. I would have therefore gone and got a P40 if Trump hadn't decided that Huawei are the enemy. I could have got a P30, but seemed silly getting a 2019 phone that I'd still have in 2022/23.

Anyway my S20 turned up and I was excited for it as it's a top tier phone and I'd never had a Samsung before, but I thought surely it'd be at least on par with the older P20 and certainly not worse. 

Unfortunately, the things I loved about my P20 phone are abysmal on this S20. This is the most disappointed I have ever been with a new phone. Considering it is a flagship model, I expected so much more!

I was told by the O2 team that the camera was "awesome" and would be far better than my P20. So obviously I had big expectations. I like taking pics when I am out and about on my walks, not to the extent of needing a proper camera, but just point-and-snap type stuff. So why am I so disappointed with this camera? It is appalling. Blurry shots, photos so full of noise that you can even see it on the pics when scrolling through your phone gallery, the 3X optical zoom is a joke and looks no better than digital zoom. Is there anything I am doing wrong?! That's the only conclusion I can come to. I am using the camera on auto-mode, and admittedly I haven't looked around too much in the settings, but then neither had I on my Huawei, because I never needed to - it just takes fantastic pics from the off. Also the selfie camera/front video on the S20 is very poor and just makes me look like I am ill and pasty! Which I don't think is the case! 

Then onto the battery life. I could charge my P20 to 100% and if I didn't use it for half hour or an hour or so, next time I go back to it, it will still be on 100%. With the S20, I am down to 97% minutes after taking the phone off charge, and that's without doing anything at all. I've looked in all the battery settings and Device Care etc, but can't determine why this would be - all I know is the battery life is very poor for such a high-end device. I've not even got all my apps that I'd usually have set up on it yet.

Lastly, this shouldn't even be a thing these days, but phone reception is shocking - I will be in a call and someone will be talking to me, and then it will just go silent for 2-3 seconds - and then they come back and I miss what they've said. It doesn't go crackly or anything, just complete silent drop-out. They also tell me that sometimes I disappear and then come back. I've turned on WIFI calling, but the symbol is hardly ever at the top in the status bar, so what's the point in enabling it if it doesn't even use it?

It's not all bad, the phone is crazy fast, performs well, has an unbelievable screen and great speakers and sound, but as I said, this is the most disappointed I've ever been with a phone "upgrade" - it feels like a downgrade in many ways. 

Put it this way, if I was still in my 14 day cooling off period, I'd be sending it back.

Has anyone got any tips or advice about any of the above issues? Or maybe you're having the same problems, I'd be interested to know if so just to know that I am not the only one so disappointed with it, most of all the camera, which I fully expected to take some amazing pics with.

Thanks for any feedback

[madasaf1sh]

@alex_ncfc85

I have heard different things from different people on the S20 it really does seem to be phone that divides peoples opinion and some think its a downgrade from the S10 range.

The latest update to Android 11 hasn't helped with the S20 series of handsets.

The camera on the test device I had at work for a couple of weeks was fine, nothing to write home about but then again some people who had the device said it was awesome and the best they had.

Battery life is something i have fed back to Samsung time and time again (via my enterprise account team), as the High end phones dont last as long as the A range, hence we as an enterprise supply A series phones to our users.

I have a number of Android Handsets across Voda, Honest and o2 and the Wifi Calling symbol since Android 10 has been hit and miss on the handsets..

If you are getting voice calling issues then speak to Samsung and they should be able to help.

I have a feeling its going to be the case that the S21 is going to be what the S20 should have been.

Id have a look on sammobile.com or the samsung community here:
https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/galaxy-s20-fe-galaxy-s20-galaxy/bd-p/uk-galaxy-2020

They have some more ideas on how to solve some of these issues

[alex_ncfc85]

Thanks for the in-depth reply @madasaf1sh - really helpful!

It's just typical that I've gone for a Samsung with seemingly the most unpopular Galaxy phone ever - I read today that now the S21 is out, the S20 is being discontinued already! Why I didn't wait a few months I will never know, because I am still seriously unimpressed with this phone. Do I have any options or am I stuck with it now? Be interested to hear from O2 on that matter also. 

You're right, the Android 11 update does seem to have made things worse. I only had the Android 10 for a short while (as I have only had the phone itself for 5 or 6 weeks) but I notice a problem with Android 11 which isn't ideal with my signal issues/call dropouts that I mentionied, is that the WIFI Calling options keeps disappearing at random - sometimes it will be in settings, sometimes not. Even if I set it to on when it DOES appear, I'll soon notice that the WIFI calling logo is missing from the top status bar, and when I go back in settings, it will be gone. Next time it is back, it is set to off again, so I have to turn it on - but again it will only stay enabled for a short while before the setting disappears again! This was not an issue on Android 10. It's so shoddy.

The camera is still something that is winding me up a bit, some pics I take look OK but still not anywhere near in the league of the Huawei I had, and again the front facing camera is awful. 

It's shocking that the Samsung A range has better batter performance than their flagship phones. I have started to notice battery is behaving a bit more lately, but then again that may be because I am using the phone a lot less - for instance, when I want to take photos, I am still using my old P20 mainly. 

Thanks for the link to the Samsung forum, I may post on there asking for more info on these issues. But I am feeling really annoyed and frustrated. I took out a 3 year deal on this phone, and now I am kicking myself. I thought it would easily trump the P20, but it is so poor, and the fact Samsund and the mobile networks are now already discontinuing the S20 line, have I bought a dud?! I'm not happy with the phone at all.

[Luke30]

Yeah I found the same thing that the battery go's down not long after I tack the battery charger out and another thing I found out that if I do a video call on messager if cuts out a lot of times.

[anticpated]

The S20 standard edition would not be considered the top tier handset. You would need a plus or ultra version  to get the better camera optics.

In a way, the s21 whilst being an improvement on last year's model. Has a few caveats to consider - like no external storage option, although you can use a usb-otg solution  via usb-c to USB A port convertor.

Another thing to also consider is the 108 megapixel images cannot be a wide aspect ratio .

Something else I discovered is the x3 and x10 telephoto lens cannot be used in pro mode..

Still OneUi 4.0 is supposed to address some issues and complaints about the software used to control the camera.

I'm not saying the camera is bad just not like a dslr like it had been marketed to some people.