The Federal Communications Commission is the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to the upcoming Galaxy S20 family of phones from Samsung. After logging the US versions of the S20 (SM-981) and S20+ (SM-986) with 5G connectivity, now the S20 Ultra (SM-988) appears for the first time, as well as the 4G models – SM-980 and SM-985 – of its smaller brethren.

Galaxy S20 Plus battery life, wired and wireless charging speeds

Long story short, the Galaxy S20+ (SM-G986) will indeed sport a battery pack with a model number EB-BG985ABY which leaked not long ago with a 17.37 Wh mark that at the 3.86 V current of Samsung batteries returns 4500 mAh nominal value.

The EUT has WPT (Wireless Power Transfer) feature which has inductive charging coil to charge phone or watch. The charging frequency is between 110 kHz to 148 kHz, and the maximum power consumption is 9.0W in charging status.

Oh, lest we forget, the FCC filings also confirm the presence of a time-of-flight 3D-sensing camera on the back of the S20+ but we already knew that, now the ball is in Samsung’s court as to what will it do with the ToF sensor.

Unfortunately, we can’t yet vouch what the newly-appeared “B” or “F” letters after the model numbers stand for, as Samsung may be changing its typical nomenclature, but historically “F” has denoted a global or unlocked model with Exynos chipset. 

That would explain the lack of mmWave frequencies that, say, Verizon or AT&T’s 5G networks cover, as the 5123 only has sub-6GHz and mmWave bands when tacked on as a separate modem, not integrated within a chipset. 

Galaxy S20+ Exynos 990 vs Snapdragon 865 version benchmark scores

Thus, those phones are just passing through the FCC, probably on their way to somewhere else than major US carrier shelves. Nevertheless, we couldn’t resist pitting the two benchmark scores – for the Exynos 990 and Snapdragon 865 versions of the S20+ – against each other for the first time. 

The scores are tad in favor of the Snapdragon in multi-core performance, and probably single core as well, considering that the Exynos is clocked higher. When it comes to camera speeds and AI components like machine learning speeds, the Exynos has the upper hand, both in single-, and in multi-core scores.

That would explain the dearth of info save for the tested frequency bands, but we still got to have a glimpse at the faster wired charging that awaits the larger batteries of the S20 family, compared to their predecessors. 

At 4000mAh for the S20, 4500mAh for the S20+. and the record 5000mAh for a Samsung flagship on the S20 Ultra, these will be the largest battery packs that Samsung has ever put in its Galaxy S high-end series of phones. 

Granted, the increase will be needed to offset the power-hungry new features like 120Hz displays or 5G connectivity, but if those are not a priority, we’ll be getting quite a boost in the battery life we’ve come to expect from a Samsung flagship.