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  • Today we're going to be taking apart the Galaxy S20 Ultra and see what the crazy space zoom

  • camera looks like from the inside. This video is sponsored by my own self. I went and asked

  • myself if I would like to sponsor a video. And I was like, 'Hey self, do you want to

  • sponsor a video?' And then I was like, 'Yeah I do.'

  • So here we are with the brand new lineup of Teardown skins. The skins that let you see

  • all the magic inside of your phone without actually taking it apart. You might be thinking

  • to yourself, 'Hey Jerry, isn't that just a sticker?' And yeah, maybe it is. But it's

  • also something much more...deeper....significant...it means something. If any of us ever left the

  • house, it could very well be the fashion statement of our generation. On the off chance you ever

  • do have to go speak to someone and needed a conversation starter, you could be like,

  • 'Look at this circuit board.' And it's a 50/50 shot that the conversation's either going

  • to be over real quick or you've met someone cool, which I see as a total win.

  • We cover most of the main stream smartphones, flagships and budget phones, along with MacBooks

  • and the Nintendo Switch. So if you want any of your devices to look like they're falling

  • apart, I got the link down in the description. And thanks to my own self for sponsoring this

  • video. 'You're welcome.' 'Aw, thanks, you're the best.' 'Nah, you!'

  • Now let's see what this S20 Ultra has under the hood in three dimensions instead of just

  • two. Let's get started.

  • [Intro]

  • Does 5G even exist? Well, yes, but also no. We'll learn more about this as we delve inside

  • the brand new S20 Ultra 5G. The latest and greatest from Samsung. The front screen is

  • flat this time around, but the back panel is still as curvy as ever. I can take my heat

  • gun and razor blade and slice between the glass panel and the metal frame of the phone.

  • Now, purely for educational purposes and definitely not on accident, I'm going to show what happens

  • if you round the corner with too much pressure. Using a hotplate or vacuum separator tool

  • would probably make this removal a bit easier. Luckily replacement back glass panels are

  • usually around $20-30 so it's not a big deal if it does crack. I'll keep the phone just

  • barely too hot to touch so the waterproofing adhesive stays soft underneath the glass.

  • And finally, after a lot of gentle slicing, the back panel can come away from the phone.

  • You can see the holes through the camera lens here. The only connection that's on the back

  • of the glass panel is actually for the little microphone. It's up here between the flash

  • and the top camera. It has 4 little circular contact pads that allow the microphone to

  • communicate with the body of the S20 Ultra.

  • Speaking of which, the S20 Ultra body does have a wireless charging pad installed. It

  • can wirelessly charge at 15 watts and reverse wireless charge other devices at 9 watts.

  • Pretty cool little trick. I'll remove the 5 screws surrounding the top silver plate

  • that covers all the ribbon cable connectors. I'll set that off to the side next to the

  • screws I took out so I can keep everything organized. Then I'll unplug the battery with

  • my plastic pry tool. It just unsnaps like a little Lego. I can uncover the rest of the

  • motherboard by removing 4 more Phillips head screws that hold down the top antenna plastics.

  • Notice there's a rectangular void in the plastic. There's something missing here, but I'll come

  • back to it in just a second.

  • There are 5 screws holding down the bottom loudspeaker assembly. The speaker plastic

  • has the normal contact pads for communicating and a little red sticker covering the small

  • balls inside of the speaker housing. Remember, these little guys help the speaker sound larger

  • than it actually is by making the air move around the balls inside of the housing. It's

  • a cute little technology.

  • Coming up here to the top of the phone, I'll pop out the SIM and SD card tray. This guy

  • can handle an additional terabyte of storage. Before we get to the cameras there's a few

  • more things I need to take out. First of all these extension ribbons that connect the main

  • board to the charging port board. Each end disconnects like a little Lego. Then I can

  • set them off to the side. The charging port board itself has 3 screws holding it in place.

  • Once these are removed the whole board can come away from the phone. It is replaceable

  • this time which is a good thing, and pretty simple to take out. Samsung also included

  • some extra red rubber underneath the charging port. And also down here at the bottom of

  • the phone there is the little square vibrator motor.

  • Now for the cameras. Samsung has done some new stuff this time around with the cameras.

  • They're all still connected inside of the same metal housing, and in order to remove

  • them the whole motherboard needs to come away from the frame. It's a double stacked motherboard

  • just like we've seen inside of the iPhone and the Note 10 previously. And it's super

  • thick. There is no thermal paste on the back this time around which is strange. Normally

  • we see that in high end flagships. Each of the camera units has their own Lego-style

  • connector. Three of them are plugged into the backside of the motherboard. And then

  • the depth camera is the only one plugged into the front side.

  • The top camera is a 12 megapixel ultra wide angle camera with no OIS. The middle camera

  • is the 108 megapixel main camera which does have optical image stabilization. We have

  • the depth camera here on the side without any OIS. And then the periscope 100x space

  • zoom camera down here at the bottom which supposedly has OIS with it's 10x hybrid zoom.

  • Now it's time to get inside the periscope camera because that seems like a fun activity.

  • All of the cameras are permanently built together with a metal surrounding frame so that the

  • phone can seamlessly transition between the 4 different sensors without them looking out

  • of place or being in a different position. Obviously the cameras are not meant to come

  • apart, but with enough aggressive persuasion I can get that 100x space zoom camera to fall

  • out of the frame, which starts showing us some pretty cool stuff.

  • We first saw this technology inside of the P30 Pro a year ago, but Samsung has taken

  • that periscope zoom hardware to the next level. Notice these copper coils. I'll come back

  • to these in a second. This time around Samsung has a mechanical zoom inside that can physically

  • move just like a professional DSLR lens. At the bottom end of the camera we have the sensor

  • which is sitting perpendicular to the back of the phone. This is a 48 megapixel sensor

  • and you can see that whatever light I shine through the lens gets bounced off at a 90%

  • angle. This is how the sensor sees things outside of the phone, like a periscope in

  • a submarine. You'll also notice that the prism, or the portion that reflects the light, is

  • optically stabilized. The copper electromagnetic coils at the bottom, and the 2 circular coils

  • next to it control the prism stabilization. The other 2 coils on the side control the

  • center lens movement back and forth. This one camera has 5 electromagnets inside which

  • is kind of mind boggling. We've come a long way in just one year. Technology progresses

  • super fast.

  • Now, don't get me wrong. This is a fantastic piece of hardware, but I feel like the 100x

  • space zoom commercials that Samsung gave us hyping this up, are very much different than

  • the actual zoomed in images that we get out of the camera. So definitely go watch a few

  • videos on the actual camera quality before buying into the hype. It's better to have

  • realistic expectations. Samsung's advertising isn't as realistic as it used to be. The front

  • camera is glued into place for some reason. This is a 40 megapixel selfie camera with

  • no optical image stabilization. And then once again like we saw on the Note 10 Plus, we

  • have the top stereo speaker here positioned a bit farther into the phone body instead

  • of up at the top. The sound from the speaker goes through this channel before exiting out

  • through the small earpiece slit up at the top. It was interesting to see that there

  • was no thermal paste or foam on the back of the motherboard. Even the Note 10 and the

  • Galaxy S10 both had foam on the back of the motherboard for heat dissipation. We'll have

  • to see if there's any thermal issues with this phone as time goes on.

  • There is a vapor chamber cooling system inside. Once that's pulled out I can slice it open

  • to see the liquid inside of the actual chamber. And we can definitely see the liquid droplets

  • before they evaporate. I'll slice it open a bit more so we can watch these liquid dots

  • disappear again. The vapor chamber works by the processor sitting on one side and getting

  • hot, vaporizing the liquid, which then heads to the opposite end of the chamber, cools

  • down and gets wicked back through the center through some sweet capillary action from these

  • copper wire strands. Also some pretty neat technology. But it's still pretty strange

  • there isn't more of a solid thermal connection between the motherboard and the copper. Normally

  • on premium flagships like this we see something connecting the two.

  • One thing that's really important to remember, whether you're buying cars, computers or cellphones,

  • is the price to performance ratio. You can get 90% of the performance at 70% of the price

  • just by getting a phone that was released a few months ago. Getting that last 10% on

  • top of the line performance, like on this S20 Ultra, is very expensive. The part that's

  • increased the price of this phone the most through is probably 5G. I'll talk about that

  • more in a second. First, let's get this battery out.

  • Samsung is notorious for permanently gluing their batteries into place. There's enough

  • glue in here to stick an elephant to the ceiling. And this S20 is in fact a bit worse than usual.

  • The battery glue is so strong it bent my metal pry tool at a 90 degree angle, which is pretty

  • dangerous. But don't worry Samsung, I have more.

  • The problem with glued in batteries is that it makes the phone very difficult and dangerous

  • to repair and also recycle at the end of its lifespan - which for phones is relatively

  • short. If I accidentally puncture the surface of this battery it could start on fire. I

  • can use a bit of alcohol to soften the adhesive under the battery. But most smart smartphone

  • manufacturers just use easy battery pull tabs. I'll warm up the adhesive a little bit, use

  • my suction cup, which also damages the battery. But finally we are able to see some movement.

  • And this is pretty excessive. The battery is held in place with a spiderweb of slime.

  • It is a 5000 milliamp hour which is pretty powerful.

  • Finally we get our first look at the underscreen ultrasonic fingerprint scanner placement.

  • You can see the outline of the rectangle underneath the glass which reads your fingerprint through

  • the AMOLED display layer. Since the LED pixels don't have a back light behind them, the screen

  • is semi-transparent. Once again, top of the line technology at a premium price. One of

  • the most expensive things inside this phone though is the 5G. If you remember, the Note

  • 10 Plus 5G version was $200 more expensive than the regular Note 10 Plus. And with the

  • S20 line, Samsung has made that 5G upgrade mandatory and is just billing everyone extra

  • for it. Don't get me wrong, 5G is going to be really cool in a few years, but it's not

  • here yet. Even Samsung knows this. This particular device I've been taking apart is the Korean

  • version of the S20 Ultra 5G. And Samsung didn't even include the 5G millimeter wave antennas

  • inside of this 5G phone because Korea doesn't have the millimeter wave 5G infrastructure.

  • You can see the antennas I'm talking about promoted in Samsung's own promotional video

  • and here on iFixit's teardown of a US model. And you can see the 5G clearly written on

  • my box, but Samsung can still get away with not including the antennas because the network

  • doesn't exist in Korea.

  • The millimeter wave 5G technology is also almost nonexistent in the USA as well. It's

  • just in a few major cities right now and only covers a few blocks where it is installed.

  • There are 2 types of 5G: low band 5G, which the major carriers are currently rolling out.

  • And it is indeed faster than 4G. But the insane millimeter wave speeds will never really make

  • it out of the major cities that's even if it ever gets installed. It's not here yet.

  • Long story short, we should thank everyone who is buying this phone now though because

  • they are paying that premium tax and subsidizing 5G millimeter wave for the rest of us in the

  • future. They are the early adopters even though no one can use it. Buying a 5G phone that

  • doesn't come with 5G hardware has got to be rough news if you're in Korea. Phone companies

  • and carriers are talking about 5G like it's the next gigantic leap for mankind and that

  • it's here everywhere already. But it's really not. The only gigantic leap that's being taken

  • is with your wallet...at least for 2020...and probably 2021. We'll see what happens after

  • that.

  • Turning the phone on, everything is working except for that camera we destroyed. It looks

  • like when one camera is broken, they all stop working. Either way, it's been a fun phone

  • to take apart. What do you think of this whole 5G situation? Personally, I'll probably hold

  • off for a few more years till the 5G infrastructure is more widespread. The midband 5G and millimeter

  • wave 5G are the ones we should be paying attention to. They'll have the biggest improvements

  • over 4G. Everyone is different though, so let me know what you think down in the comments.

  • If you like seeing the inside of technology without the risk of opening your own stuff

  • up, there's always the Teardown link I'll include in the description. Come hang out

  • with me on Instagram and Twitter. And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.

Today we're going to be taking apart the Galaxy S20 Ultra and see what the crazy space zoom

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