The Galaxy S20 and the iPhone 12 were two of the top competing smartphone models in 2020. The Galaxy S20 was released in February 2020, while the iPhone 12 was released in October 2020, making it more recent, but let's see how these Apple and Samsung flagship models compare head to head.

Camera

Both the Galaxy S20 and iPhone 12 have a 12 MP main and 12MP ultra-wide rear camera. However, the Galaxy S20 has an additional 64MP telephoto lens, giving you more zoom capabilities of up to 30x compared to a max 5x digital zoom on the iPhone 12. This allows you to take sharper photos from a distance. Both cameras perform well though and some users might prefer how the iPhone 12 photos come out and vice-versa. In general, the iPhone 12 seems to produce brighter and more vibrant photos with more detail compared to the Galaxy S20, but coloring and exposure will come down to personal preference.

Battery

The Galaxy S20 is the clear winner in terms of battery life with a 4000 mAh battery compared to the iPhone 12's 2815 mAh battery. In real time use, we found that you'll get on average 1-2 hours more on a single charge for the Galaxy S20, but you'll reduce your battery life faster if you enable the 120Hz display mode.

Display

While the display sizes are similar between the Galaxy S20 and iPhone 12, you'll notice a difference in the resolution. The Galaxy S20 has a 6.2 inch display with 1440 x 3200 px resolution while the iPhone 12 has a 6.1 inch display with 1170 x 2532 px resolution giving you a sharper, more impressive display on the Samsung model. Additionally, the Galaxy S20 has a faster refresh rate of up to 120Hz giving you smoother app transitions, animations and gameplay.

Storage & Color Options

Both phones come in multiple colors and have different storage capacity options: The Galaxy S20 is available in Cosmic Gray, Cloud Blue and Cloud Pink colors, but only has one storage offer of 128 GB. The iPhone 12 is available in Black, White, Red and Blue colors and has more storage options of 64, 128, and 256 GB.

Processor

On paper, the Galaxy S20 should perform better with a chipset that runs at 2 x 2.7GHz & 4 x 2.4GHz & 2 x 1.95GHz CPU speeds accompanied by 8GB RAM. The iPhone 12 has comparatively slower speeds at 2 x 3.1GHz & 4 x 1.8GHz with only 4GB RAM. However, you'll find the better processing performance on the iPhone 12 thanks to Apple's A14 Bionic chip, which achieved higher Geekbench scores than the Galaxy S20's Snapdragon 865 5G processor chip.

Overall, you're likely going to get more value out of your money by going with the Galaxy S20 especially because you'll get better battery life, improved photo zoom capabilities, and a smoother display. You'll also still have 5G network capabilities with both phones. However, if you value your photos and overall camera performance, you might be better off with the iPhone 12. You'll also find noticeably better performance on the iPhone 12, if you use your phone for heavy processing tasks like video editing, graphic design and gaming.