One of the new features introduced in the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is its 120Hz display, which allows for smoother scrolling and a more realistic gaming experience.
However, running the display at 120Hz will reduce the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s battery life. Let’s find out exactly how much!
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra : A Quick Primer!
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 in the United States, and Samsung Exynos 990 in the rest of the world.
To ensure it will last a long time, Samsung gave it a very large 5,000 mAh battery. The corresponding Galaxy S10 Plus from last year only has a 4,100 mAh battery in comparison.
It comes with a 40 MP front camera, and a quad-camera system at the back, with :
- a 108 MP main camera,
- a 48 MP telephoto camera with 10X hybrid optical zoom,
- a 12 MP ultra-wide camera, and
- a DepthVision camera (for depth sensing)
The top-of-the-line model pairs 16 GB LPDDR5 memory with 512 GB fast UFS 3.0 storage. The other two models come with 12 GB LPDDR5 memory, and either 128 GB or 256 GB storage.
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Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra : 60Hz vs 120Hz
Running the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra‘s display at 120Hz allows for smoother scrolling and a more realistic gaming experience. However, running the display at 120 Hz saps battery life.
The display not only refreshes twice as often, the GPU has to work twice as hard. This is why Samsung sets the display to 60Hz by default.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra : 60Hz vs 120Hz Battery Life!
We ran the PCMark Work 2.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, with the display set to 60Hz and 120Hz. Here were the best results we obtained :
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra @ 60Hz : 11 hours 32 minutes
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra @ 120Hz : 9 hours 4 minutes
So there you have it – increasing the display refresh rate on the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra from 60Hz to 120Hz will reduce its battery life by about 21% or roughly 2.5 hours.
Work 2.0 | 60Hz Display | 120Hz Display | Difference |
Battery Life | 11 hours 32 mins | 9 hours 4 mins | – 148 mins (21.4%) |
Battery Utilisation | 5.78 mAh / min. | 7.35 mAh / min. | + 1.27 mAh / min. |
Now we can see why Samsung set the display to 60Hz by default. If battery life is important, keep it at the default refresh rate of 60Hz.
But if you prefer to enjoy the 120Hz display, go on right ahead. Thanks to its large 5,000 mAh battery, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra will last you quite a few hours!
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra : Price + Availability
Samsung is only offering two colour options – Cosmic Black, and Cosmic Gray – as shown in our video above.
Here are its recommended retail prices :
- Malaysia : RM 4,999 (128 GB)
- United States : $1,399.99 (128 GB) | $1,599.99 (512 GB)
- United Kingdom : £1,199 (128 GB) | £1,399 (512 GB)
- Australia : A$1,999 (128 GB)
Here are the online purchase options in Malaysia :
- Official Samsung Flagship Store
- Galaxy S20 Ultra : Cosmic Black | Cosmic Gray
- Galaxy S20+ : Cloud Blue | Cosmic Black | Cosmic Gray
- Galaxy S20 : Cloud Blue | Cloud Pink | Cosmic Gray
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