Samsung has snookered Huawei and Apple with the Galaxy S20 − here’s how

Samsung’s newly launched Galaxy S20 family of phones could re-establish it as king of the camera phones, toppling competition from Huawei and Apple, according to industry experts.

The Samsung Galaxy S20, Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra launched at an Unpacked event last night, with Samsung claiming the new phones have “industry leading” cameras across the board.

Huawei has ruled the mobile imaging market with its P-series phones for the last few years, but IDC research analyst Raquel Marques told Trusted Reviews that Samsung’s upgraded hardware and clever marketing could enable the firm to establish a lead in the camera phone space this year.

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“Samsung understands that mobile phone purchases are very camera centred and they fittingly exploited every aspect of it. Similarly to other device launches from both Samsung and its competitors, there was a lot of focus in what the camera of the higher-priced flagship can achieve,” she said.

“With Huawei still suffering the effect of the ban from the United States, the only two relevant companies left to play in the premium position are Samsung and Apple … Even if Huawei launches new flagship devices in the first half of 2020, the lack of access to Google apps will certainly dictate a weaker performance in the European markets.”

Omdia principal analyst Daniel Gleeson mirrored Marques sentiment in a statement sent to Trusted Reviews, arguing the hardware oozes potential and will likely strike a cord with phone buyers.

“Cameras are one of the most important features that consumers look for, particularly at the high end of the market. Samsung is taking this to the extreme with the Galaxy S20 Ultra which features a 108MP camera with a 100x zoom and 8K video recording,” he said.

“While this comes at a cost of a significant bump on the rear of the phone to accommodate this camera, the headline feature should nonetheless grab attention and reassert Samsung’s technology leadership in the space.”

CCS Insight chief of research Ben Wood highlighted the inclusion of 5G as standard could also cause problems for Apple in the top-end space.

“Samsung has a unique window of opportunity with these new products. Arch-rival Huawei is still encumbered by being on the US Entity List and Apple lacks a 5G variant of the iPhone. It can position the Galaxy S20 family as the ultimate Android smartphone that also delivers a future-proof purchase given the support for 5G, 8K video and an advanced camera.”

Trusted Reviews had an opportunity to briefly test each of the new Galaxy S20 phones. Make sure to jump over to our hands-on Samsung Galaxy S20 review for a more thorough breakdown.