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Samsung Galaxy S20 Tips & Tricks: 5 Essential Settings You Need To Know
Got a Samsung Galaxy S20? Are you getting the absolute best from it? Make sure you’re implementing these handy Galaxy S20 tips and tricks to get the most from it
The Samsung Galaxy S20 – as well as the Galaxy S20 Pro and S20 Ultra – are two of the best (and most expensive) Android phones on the planet right now.
And if you’ve bought one, you’ll want to make sure you’re getting the most performance out of it possible.
And that’s where these handy Galaxy S20 tips and tricks (for beginners and new users) come in handy. All of the tips and tricks listed below are easy to follow and, once implemented, they will make a BIG difference to how your Galaxy S20 performs.
Right, let’s do this!
Samsung Galaxy S20 Tips & Tricks – The Essentials
#1 – How To Make Apps Load Faster on Galaxy S20
The Galaxy S20 ships with 12GB of RAM. That’s more than some laptops, so when it comes to memory, you’re 100% covered. But you can make the phone perform even better by locking a select number of your most-used applications to the Galaxy S20’s memory. Doing this will make them open instantly.
And don’t worry, it’s simple to do. All you need to do is go to the Recents screen (this is your multitasking view, where all your open apps are stored), tap the icon above the application, and select KEEP OPEN FOR QUICK LAUNCHING.
You’ll want to select the three applications you use most. Be selective. Don’t just add anything. Things like games are a good idea here because they’ll load instantly, whereas before you might have to wait 10-20 seconds for the game to load. Are there any downsides? You might notice a slight dip in battery performance but it’s nothing major.
#2 – How To Use The S20’s 108MP Camera To Its Maximum Potential
One of the Samsung Galaxy S20’s biggest selling points is its camera. You’re rocking a 108MP sensor and, yes, that is one of the biggest sensors ever crammed inside a phone. But the 108MP camera is NOT set up to run out the box; instead, the S20 will default to a 12MP sensor.
In order to start shooting with the 108MP camera, you need to select it in order to harness its power. And to do this you need to go into the camera app, tap the 3:4 button and switch it to the 3:4 108MP option (there’s also one for 64MP as well, and images captured with this sensor will take up less room on your phone).
Once you’ve selected the 108MP option, your Galaxy S20 will shoot at its fullest potential, capturing images using its massive 108MP sensor. But do keep in mind that images captured using the 108MP sensor will take up A LOT more storage on your phone than those captured using the 12MP sensor – each 108MP captured image is about 30MB in size.
For this reason, I’d save the Galaxy S20’s 108MP sensor for special occasions.
#3 – How To Make The Galaxy S20’s Display EVEN Better
Samsung’s OLED displays are badass. Everybody who’s used a Galaxy or Note phone knows this. But you can make the Galaxy S20’s display even better – as well as smoother. And all it takes is a couple of selections in the settings app.
In Settings, go to the Display tab and select Motion Smoothness. Turn it on. After this, make sure your display is set to 120Hz. Combined these two options will make your Galaxy S20’s display noticeably smoother, making it even better for gaming and watching movies and YouTube videos.
Any caveats? Yes, just one. Samsung doesn’t support Motion Smoothness on WQHD, so you’ll have to move your S20’s display down to Full HD to run this setting. Don’t want to do that? No problem. The S20’s display running at 120Hz should be more than enough to make the overall experience of using the phone noticeably better.
#4 – Turn Off Samsung Pay (Once And For All)
Samsung loves a bit of bloatware. No matter how good its phones get, you can always count on them running a bunch of bloatware that you’ll never use. One example of this is Samsung Pay – Samsung’s Google Pay alternative. And on the S20 the Samsung Pay icon is annoying placed as a shortcut at the bottom of the display which makes it easy to accidentally press.
This is super-annoying, so you’ll want to get rid of the Samsung Pay icon once and for all and just forget about the app altogether. To do this, simply go to Samsung Pay’s Settings, select Favourite Cards, and then toggle the Home Screen option off. And that’s it; Samsung Pay is GONE from your home screen.
#5 – How To Show Galaxy S20 Battery Life As A Percentage
Everybody loves percentages, especially when it comes to battery life updates. But for some reason, Samsung doesn’t show battery life as a percentage by default on the Galaxy S20. But you can change this and, again, all it takes is a few clicks in the Settings app.
Go to the Notifications tab in Settings, inside you’ll see an option for Show Battery Percentage. Turn this on and your battery life will now be displayed as a percentage. Simple, right?
#6 – How To Disable Bixby on Galaxy S20
Bixby, AKA the most hated voice assistant on the planet, is still alive and well inside the Galaxy S20, although there is no longer a dedicated Bixby button. Instead, to active Bixby on the Galaxy S20, you have to long-press the power button. No one wants Bixby though, so it’s best to just turn it off completely.
To disable Bixby on the Galaxy S20, follow these steps: Go to Settings, then Advanced Routines, and open Side Key. In here you can change what the power button does as well as turn on Bixby once and for all.
#7 – How To Shoot 8K Video on Galaxy S20
Did you know the Galaxy S20 can shoot video in 8K? Well, it can! You just won’t be able to watch it on anything – unless you’re one of the few people on Earth that actually has an 8K HDTV. Still, if you’re interested in shooting 8K, it’s easy enough to do on the Galaxy S20…
8K video recording is not turned on by default, so to enable it you’ll need to go to open up the camera app and go to the video section. From here select settings (it’s the cog symbol), select Rear Video Size, and switch it to 8K. And that’s it; you’re now shooting and capturing video in 8K on your phone. Welcome to the future!
#8 – How To Make Netflix Content Fill Entire Display
If you watch a lot of video content on your Galaxy S20 and you want it to be totally full screen, meaning no black bars, you’ll need to go into settings and enable this option. Why it isn’t turned on by default, I have no idea… Thankfully, setting up full-screen apps on the S20 is simple enough.
Go to Settings, then Display, then select Full-Screen Apps and pick the apps you want to include as full-screen apps. My advice? Add Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime, and any other video-content apps you use. Once enabled, this will ensure that all selected apps take full advantage of the Galaxy S20’s full display.
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