Samsung Galaxy A71 vs Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra - Who Will Win?

Which is better, the Samsung Galaxy A71, or the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra? Well, in this video, we're gonna find out. Hi everyone, this is Kevin here, coming at you with my comparison between the Samsung Galaxy A71 and the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G. Now, the purpose of this video is to show you how the A71, one of Samsung's very popular mid-range phones that was launched not too long ago, compares to one of the most expensive and highest-end phones offered by the company at the moment, which of course is the S20 Ultra. So clearly, there's a big difference in price between these two phones. In fact, you can get a Samsung Galaxy A71 right now for around $399, and Samsung's offering the entry-level Galaxy S20 Ultra for $1,399. So is the Galaxy S20 Ultra worth an extra $1,000 over the A71? Well, in this video, that's what we're gonna find out. And to be honest, it's not really worth it. But we'll go into more detail about that in this video. So first thing, let's talk about the displays. So you can see side-by-side here, both devices are definitely very large handsets. In fact, with the Galaxy A71, we have a 6.7-inch display. And with the Galaxy S20 Ultra, we have a 6.9-inch display. So a very massive display on the Ultra, no doubt about that. Now, both devices feature Infinity-O designs. And what that means is that with both phones, we do have hole punches for the front-facing cameras. So with both devices, we are getting very good screen-to-body ratios, very good-looking designs overall. And honestly, the two phones side-by-side actually look pretty similar. Now, it does appear that the bezels around the sides of the A71 are slightly thicker in comparison to the S20 Ultra. But I think both phones just look really nice. Now, as far as the glass technology, the A71 features Corning Gorilla Glass 3, and the S20 Ultra features Corning Gorilla Glass 6. So you are gonna get stronger, more durable glass with the S20 Ultra. Now, as far as the actual display resolution goes and display type, with the Galaxy A71, we're getting Super AMOLED compared to Dynamic AMOLED with the S20 Ultra. The A71 features a 1080p display with a 393 PPI and a 20 by 9 aspect ratio. And the S20 Ultra features a 1440p display with a PPI of 511, and it also has a 20 by 9 aspect ratio. Now, another advantage that the S20 Ultra has is that if you do switch the display over to 1080p, you actually can use the phone at 120 hertz. So what that means is that all the animations are gonna be a lot smoother. Things are just going to feel a lot more refined and faster. But of course, with that, you are sacrificing the 1440p display resolution. So for me personally, I do prefer the 120 hertz, and I don't mind switching it over to 1080p to get that. But overall, both phones have really excellent looking displays. You can see both devices have excellent colors, great viewing angles, and both phones are just really good for consuming content, whether that's going on social media, going on YouTube or Netflix, or really anything. So up top here, as I mentioned before, both phones do feature hole punches for the front-facing cameras. And with the Galaxy A71, we're getting a 32 megapixel front-facing camera compared to a 40 megapixel front-facing camera with the S20 Ultra. Now, I'll pull up the camera apps on both devices here and show you how things look with the front-facing cameras. And without a doubt, the S20 Ultra has the crisper and clearer front-facing camera but the A71 still does have a really good looking camera. That's for sure. So if you are really into taking selfies, then I think you'll like both of these devices. Now, this variant of the A71 features 128 gigabytes of internal storage. And this variant of the Galaxy S20 Ultra also features 128 gigabytes of internal storage. And both phones feature micro SD card expansion. So if the 128 gigs is not enough for you and you don't wanna buy a higher end version of these phones then just put a micro SD card in them and you'll be good to go. Now, there's no wireless charging with the Galaxy A71 but the Galaxy S20 Ultra does have wireless charging. Now, both phones feature in-display fingerprint sensors. So I'll give you a demo of that right now starting with the A71. So you can see that was very fast and now we'll try it out with the S20 Ultra. And that was very quick too. Actually a bit quicker compared to the A71. So that's really cool to see. You definitely expect for spending an extra $1,000 that you would get at least slightly better in display fingerprint sensing technology. Now, let's talk about the cameras. So on the back of the two devices they both have kind of a squared off camera module but without a doubt though, the S20 Ultra's camera module is way larger compared to the A71. Now, both of these devices do feature very impressive camera specifications especially for their price ranges. So with the Galaxy A71, we're getting a 64 megapixel main camera, a 12 megapixel ultra wide angle camera, a five megapixel depth sensing camera for live focus portrait mode and a five megapixel macro camera. Now, from my experience of using the macro camera I do feel like it's a bit of a gimmick because you can take the same photo with the 64 megapixel camera and just crop in and the final result actually looks clearer and better. So that's just my honest opinion about that. And then with the S20 Ultra, we're getting a 128 megapixel main camera, a 12 megapixel ultra wide angle camera, a 0.3 megapixel depth sensing camera and we're getting a 48 megapixel periscope camera that gives you a 10X hybrid optical zoom and then also uses the main 108 megapixel camera to do a crop in zoom. So you do get the 100X space zoom feature with the phone. So without a doubt, if you do wanna zoom in on things, you are gonna get a better experience with the S20 Ultra. However, I've gotta say that the 64 megapixel main camera with the Galaxy A71 actually does a really good job at zooming in on things as well. So having that high megapixel count with the A71 certainly does pay off. And I highly recommend that you check out my full review video of the A71 to see what I'm talking about there. In that video, I do have an actual demonstration of me zooming in on things with the 64 megapixel camera and at least at 2X zoom, you can not tell that it's a digital zoom and you can even go up to 4X in my opinion and still have photos that are worth keeping. But if you absolutely really do want 100X zoom, then the Galaxy S20 Ultra is certainly the choice for you. Now with both devices, we are getting portrait mode with the front and rear cameras, which is great. Now let's talk about the internal specifications as far as the RAM and processor go. So this variant of the Galaxy A71 features six gigabytes of RAM and we're getting the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 processor. And with the Galaxy S20 Ultra, we're getting 12 gigabytes of RAM and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865. So the 865 is 5G compatible of course. So if you do have a 5G data plan or if you're with a carrier that does offer 5G, then you might be able to use this phone with that carrier. Now here are the Antutu benchmark results with these two phones. So you can see with the Galaxy A71, I got an overall score of 264741 compared to a score of 555004 with the Galaxy S20 Ultra. So without a doubt, you're gonna get way better, faster, and more reliable performance with the S20 Ultra compared to the Galaxy A71. But I've gotta say, compared to other phones that I've covered here on the channel in the past, this score of 264741 is actually not bad. And this phone really is gonna give you a level of performance that will satisfy the majority of people out there. Definitely with this score with the Galaxy S20 Ultra, it's a bit more than most people would need, that's for sure. But on the other hand, getting this phone with such good internal specifications related to the processor and RAM certainly will future-proof it as time moves on and Android adopts more and more features. Now the Samsung Galaxy A71 features 4K video recording with both the front and rear cameras. And with the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, we're actually getting 8K video recording with the rear camera at 24 FPS. And the front camera maxes out at 4K at 30 FPS. So that's really awesome and definitely if you're somebody who wants to take a lot of videos with your smartphone, I think both phones are actually good options for that. But the S20 Ultra is one of the best options out there right now. Now I know that some critics have mentioned that the cameras on the S20 Ultra are not quite as good as they'd like them to be, especially for the price of the phone. And while I do understand that and partially agree, I still think this is a great option if you are a full-time content creator or just someone who is passionate about creating content. Now if you want me to, I can do videos in the future, really diving into the camera features with the S20 Ultra. And I have a good feeling that this phone will go down quite a bit over the next few years in price. So I could definitely see in a year from now or even two years from now, this might still be a phone that you might wanna consider if you do want a device that takes really good looking photos and video. Now as far as the battery capacities go with both phones, they actually both feature very beefy batteries. So with the Galaxy A71, we're getting a 4,500 milliamp hour internal battery with 25 watt fast charging. So you can quickly recharge the battery on this phone. And with the Galaxy S20 Ultra, we're getting an insane 5,000 milliamp hour internal battery but the news even gets better from there. The phone features the ability and it comes in the box as well to charge via a 45 watt fast charger. Yes, you heard that right, 45 watts. That is really impressive. So you'll be able to recharge this phone very quickly. In fact, quite a bit faster than the A71. Now, as far as the software goes, both phones actually feature a very similar version of Samsung's One UI 2.0. Of course, since the S20 Ultra is a true top of the line flagship, you are getting some extra features built in, especially related to the cameras. But there's also a lot of similarities. For example, both phones feature the edge screen here. So you can put your favorite applications on the side. Now both devices do feature Android 10 and you can see that one difference though is the latest security patch. So the Galaxy A71, despite being a very recent phone from Samsung, is stuck on the January 1st, 2020 patch. Now I have a feeling that we will be getting a update pretty soon with a newer security patch because my A51 just got a newer patch. But you can see with the S20 Ultra, we have the March 1st, 2020 security patch. So that is the most up-to-date security patch. It definitely seems like Samsung is prioritizing their various security updates with the S20 line first. And then after that, the A series is their next priority. But that would make sense, of course, since you are spending an extra $1,000 to get the S20 Ultra. Another feature I wanna mention too is that with the S20 Ultra, you're getting Samsung Pay as well as NFC. And you don't get that with the A71, unfortunately. Let's now do a speed test comparison between these two devices. So let's first pull up the camera app. So one, two, three, go. And the S20 Ultra was quicker at pulling up the camera. But I've gotta say, it's not that much faster. Let's pull up Google Chrome. One, two, three, go. And the S20 Ultra was quicker at pulling up Chrome. Let's go to yahoo.com. One, two, three, go. And it looks like it was about the same for Yahoo with these two devices. Let's go to Engadget. One, two, three, go. And that's kind of interesting. Looks like the A71 was first to pull up Engadget, even though I've pulled up this site on both devices in the past. Scrolling is very smooth on both phones, which is great to see. I mean, you definitely hope that it's nice and smooth with the S20 Ultra, especially since it is 120 hertz and does have some of the best processor technology out there. But let's go to this article right now. One, two, three, go. Okay, and then in this test, it looks like the S20 Ultra was quicker at pulling up the article. So overall, expect faster, smoother performance with the S20 Ultra. But at the same time, keep in mind, the A71 is still a very impressive device when it comes to performance. Definitely if you were to create like a price to performance ratio, the A71 is the better value of the two. But you can see pinch to zoom, nice and smooth with both phones. That's excellent. Now that we've done that speed test, let's now go over a tour of the hardware. So I already talked a lot about the front panels here. Then on the left side on the A71, we have a plastic band around the phone compared to a metal band with the S20 Ultra. On the left side of the A71, we have a dual SIM card slot and a micro SD card slot. And then on the left side of the S20 Ultra, we have nothing. Then take a look at the right side of the two phones. They both feature a volume button and power button. Then on the top of the two devices, on the A71 and the S20 Ultra, they both have a noise canceling microphone. And with the S20 Ultra, we also have the slot for the micro SD card and SIM card. Then on the bottom of the two phones, on both devices we have the USB-C port for charging and data transfer. They both have the microphone. They both have a speaker. And then with the A71, we do have a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack. And then on the back of the two devices, they do look pretty similar, but you can see we have kind of a rainbow tint to the A71, whereas this particular color of the S20 Ultra is kind of more of a seal gray. So which phone is the better choice for you? I would say overall, if you wanna save $1,000, go for the A71. But if you do want better camera features and better performance overall, go with the S20 Ultra. But otherwise, I don't see too many other advantages with the S20 Ultra. Of course, if you do want to use 5G, you can do that with the S20 Ultra, but I don't think too many people are gonna be using 5G for a little while now. But if you do wanna future-proof yourself, then this might still be a decent option for you. But if you do wanna buy either of these two phones or see the most up-to-date pricing for the devices, then take a look at the links in the video description. But this is Kevin here. This is the Galaxy A71 and the Galaxy S20 Ultra. And I will see you in the next video.