Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra review: A love note to Note lovers - blakephouttrat

Our Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra review found three clear reasons to score the spring to this new flagship phone: Mystic Chromatic, laser autofocus, and the S Pen's new 8ms reaction time. And if you're looking for any reasons not to, well, there are plenty of those in this review too—that is to say, IT's gigantic, expensive, and non a big upgrade over the S20 Ultra.

note 20 ultra screen — The 6.9-inch screen on the Galaxy Federal Reserve note 20 Immoderate unquestionably needs two hands to operate.

But if you're a Mark lover, you know exactly what you're getting and you know you require IT: the biggest, quickest, and nearly powerful Humanoid phone you can buy. For everyone other, it's not sol oblong.

Samsung's flagships have gotten so good that reviews of them are all basically the same: Yes they overcome specs, but they're likewise the most expensive (although the Note 20 Ultra actually costs $100 less than the S20 Ultra). The math is brutally decipherable: Even with craft-ins and carrier offers, you're still going to be paying more for this phone than for any other Billet that came before it.

There's atomic number 102 dubiety that you're getting much for your money with the Government note 20 Ultra. Merely Samsung has raised the bar so high, the best mightiness not be worth the price of admission price anymore.

note 20 ultra buttons — Sorry, Bixby lovers, the dedicated button is bygone for good.

Big, bold, bright, and beautiful

There's no nice way to say it: The Note 20 Ultra is the just about clumsy phone I've ever used. Acknowledged, it's about 15 grams lighter than the S20 Ultra, three-living quarters of a millimetre thinner, and only a duet of millimeters wider, but that phone was already at the upper limit of what my custody and pockets could handle. The extra width happening the Note 20 Radical, along with its very boxlike shape, makes it feel incredibly uncomfortable to handle and carry.

The cumbersomeness is due in none small part to the camera bump. You've seen information technology in photos, and it's every act as obtrusive A it looks. The Note 20 Ultra's dazzling thinness really works against it Hera, qualification the bump finger much thicker by comparing. The size also means it's tough to use when resting on a table. I even encountered some issues with charging pads. A case would assistant, just you wouldn't deprivation to habituate one.

note 20 ultra bezels — The bezels aren't completely gone on the Note 20 Ultra, but they'ray non very visible.

Why? Because the Note 20 Immoderate is level-unsuccessful gorgeous. Samsung's new colors are dubbed "Mystic," and they give the Note a refinement and dignity that contrasts with the bolt down-culture vibration one gets from the S20 Ultra's glossy, iridescent "Cosmic" colorways.

The Note 20 Ultra has a luscious matted complete that's nicer than what I've seen on any Galaxy phone I've ever so used. It doesn't ask to grow on you equivalent the iPhone 11 Pro's Midnight Green, operating room wait for the right light like the Mention 10's Aura Glow. It repels fingerprints like-minded it was made of plastic, and it has a amended grip than the glossy S20 does. The new bronze color's matching, untainted-brand sides impart a touch down of sophism, accentuated aside the slivers of color that peek out above and to a lower place the display. You'd be nuts to get any opposite color and even more than wacky to put a guinea pig on it, still a exonerate same.

note 20 ultra s20 ultra — The Bill 20 Extremist's ma finish is a monumental improvement o'er the glossy S20 Radical.

The front of the phone is as mythological. The bezels just about the tremendous 6.9-inch screen are about as thin as they can arrest without disappearing completely. The curved edges contrast nicely with the unqualified top and bottom.

Because information technology's a Samsung flagship, it goes without saying that the display is big, bright, and breathtaking. But I'll say it anyway. Samsung somehow manages upside itself with apiece new flagship. If you go deep enough in the equivalence with the S20 Radical, you'll see a more consistent white balance and a higher max brightness level (a big 1,500 nits exploitation adaptive brightness), but all you'll notice are the colourful colors and deep blacks.

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has the same 120Hz expose that Samsung introduced with the S20, so unfortunately, you still need to drop the resolve to Full HD to use the 120Hz setting, but it's a small sacrifice. In one case you try information technology out, you won't require to recover. but here it has an adaptive refresh rate to economise shelling life. And then if you're interpretation an clause, the rate volition drop to 60Hz, but if you're performin a bet on or watching a movie, it'll increase to 120Hz. Information technology's a cracking bombardment-economy lineament and one that looks to be exclusive to the Note. Samsung has announced the Unrivaled UI 2.5 features that are coming to the S20 and the adaptive freshen isn't one of them.

Power to spare with roughly sparing parts

The Note 20 Ultra might not be a real "gamer" phone same the Asus ROG Phone 3 or the Lenovo Legion Duel, but IT packs just as much of a punch. The Snapdragon 865+ occluded with 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM produced the best scores I've ever seen on an Android phone:

Geekbench 5

Single: 966 Multi: 3,067 Compute: 3,652

PCMark Study 2.0: 12,298

So you're acquiring a phone that'll incline everything at tip-top speeding, including Microsoft's new xCloud Xbox gaming service. I'm no gamer (my Candy Crush obsession withal), and my Minecraft Dungeons-loving Son was too childly to try out the preview with his account, but Xbox fans leave surely be happy with the performance.

note 20 ultra thickness — The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra (upper side) is only about three-quarters of a millimeter thinner than the S20 Immoderate, but the difference is noticeable.

You'll also be able to download Fortnite without side-loading, an unexpected benefit of Epic's recent war with Google and Apple. Because Samsung runs its own App Memory boar and doesn't have terms as strict as Apple's for developers, the new Epic Stash awa with discounted V-Bucks is available at a tap. My boy reports that while the on-screen controls were a trifle confusing at first, gameplay on the Note 20 Radical is "OP" (that means good), and he was able to snipe some sweats.

The Snapdragon 865+ chip gets a little hot, nevertheless. In Fortnite and other diagrammatically intensive apps, the back out of the telephone set became noticeably warm to the tactile sensation, a great deal top-hole 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the heaviest loads (per an infrared thermometer). IT might turn an issue on hot days. That's probably wherefore the Asus ROG Phone 3 and Lenovo Legion Duel have specialized cooling systems.

One thing gamers will want to bring in to the Note 20 is a dyad of earbuds. Samsung has quietly decided to nix them as freebies from versions of the Note 20 sold in the United States. That in all probability won't matter to most users who possess long dumped the in-package buds for something improved, but on a $1,300 earpiece, it feels a trifle stingy. As does the 128GB of storage, which is half of what the Note 10+ starts at.

note 20 ultra selfie — The bezels are weedy, the camera is central, and the screen is gorgeous on the Note 20 Ultra.

Also a little on the skimpy side is the Note 20 Ultra's 4,500mAh battery. While that's bigger than what you'll regain on well-nig phones, it's smaller than the 5,000mAh battery in the S20 Ultra. Just wear't worry: Your Note Immoderate is still going to pass done the day, even with heavy users WHO want to keep 120Hz motion fluency inverted on.

Note 20 Extremist users will have to settle for forward-best when it comes to barrage life-time, however. In benchmarks, I got better than 12 hours with 120Hz inverted off, but only around 9 hours with it on. My real-world experiences were similar: Even with the modern adaptive refresh rate, the Note's battery knackered significantly faster when motion smoothing was on, which is hardly sledding to be a fact of life until it evolves. It's the main reasonableness why the iPhone 12 probably won't include a ProMotion display—it kills battery life.

When you need to charge it, you'll get 25W prestissimo charging, but not the 45W charging on the Distinction 10+ and Galax S20 Immoderate. It North Korean won't construct a huge difference—the Bank bill 20 Ultra wish still fill up in fewer than 90 minutes victimization the 25W charger—but information technology's strange that Samsung remote support after hardly a year.

The camera knock against also caused some issues with charging pads. More than once my phone didn't boot because the camera lifted the phone up decent where the coils weren't touching.

A powerful note-taker

Because this is a Galax urceolata Note headphone, information technology has an S Pen on board, though it's not like the styli of Note past. For united, it's been moved to the left side of the gimmick after live its whole past liveliness on the right side.

note 20 ultra notes — You'll want to take more notes with your Note 20 Ultra's S Pen.

The location isn't the alone thing that's new. Samsung has accelerated the S Pen's latency from 45ms to 8ms, which has a dramatic effect on writing and drawing. I never had an progeny with the old pen's performance, but the parvenu S Pen feels arsenic uncolored every bit writing on an actual piece of paper. That response time is the same Eastern Samoa the Apple Pencil's, and it makes a huge difference when taking notes, marker up documents, or honourable scribbling on the screen. It's fifty-fifty better with the higher brush up rate. Samsung's Notes app has been upgraded as advisable, with meliorate handwriting support and annotated audio. I suspect you'll be exploitation your Note to subscribe to notes more much than with previous Notes.

The relief of the S Pen's tricks aren't near as impressive. Samsung turned its stylus into a Bluetooth remote with the Observe 9 and added app gestures last yr. Now the Note has even Thomas More "air actions" that let you control all aspects of the phone with book binding, recents, home, and screenshot gestures. I could somewhat see the appeal of using the S Pen as a remote for the Camera or Gallery, but the use case for the new air out actions is extremely moderate.

note 20 ultra camera2 — The tv camera bump along the Note 20 Immoderate is very bumpy.

And that's if you can get them to work. While I was able to complete the handy instructor that forces you practice session each of the new gestures, getting them to work while victimisation the phone wasn't and then simple. I ofttimes triggered the wrong gesture or none at complete.

I struggled to find a argue to wont them. Even when I was using the S Pen, it was just now atomic number 3 easy to water faucet the phone than wave my hand to date from a block out or switch apps.

The new S Pen is joined aside a new version of One UI (2.5) that brings minor camera and interface tweaks, as Samsung continues to refine one of the best Android skins this side of the Pixel. Samsung has specifically designed One UI to be friendlier to giant phones. The menus, piloting, and layout all make the Note 20 a trifle easier to care. You'll still take deuce hands, but One UI is a pleasure to utilise.

A more reserved, more refined camera

The Galaxy Federal Reserve note 20 Ultra has a camera scheme rivaling that of any smartphone away there, but information technology's not quite as extravagant as the S20 Ultra's. That's a good affair. The 100X Space Zoom that was plastered across the camera regalia on the S20 Ultra has been lowered to 50X, and the DepthVision lens has been replaced by optical maser autofocus.

note 20 ultra bump — The Note 20 Ultra is impressively thin at 8.1mm, but the camera bump adds some cinch.

Both changes serve the Bill 20 Ultra fountainhead. Patc the 108MP lens is still largely unnecessary—I couldn't tell the departure between 108MP pictures and 12MP "binned" images—the Note 20 Extremist is definitely Samsung's Sunday-go-to-meeting smartphone camera. It's no coincidence that information technology's also the least gimmicky, eschewing features equivalent Dual Exposure on the Promissory note 9 for the things that matter: improved Nox mode, lightning-fast focus, and realistic zoom.

note 20 ultra 50x zoom — The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has impressive zoom, seen here (clockwise from top left) at 1X, 10X, 30X, and 50X.

The zoom has its limits. When pushed to 50X, the Note 20 Ultra still produces noisy shots. Drop to 30X and they're useable, but 10X yields the best results. If I were in change of the Note 30's television camera, in fact, I'd make 30X the maximum and process perfecting it. Samsung's soar upwards is its biggest advantage all over Google and Orchard apple tree (for now). Even with fewer megapixels in its telephoto lens (12MP vs 48MP on the S20 Ultra), the Banker's bill 20 Ultra takes better zoom shots.

note 20 ultra portrait — Still without a dedicated time-of-flight sensor, the Mention 20 Ultra (unexpended) takes portraits that are as crisp Eastern Samoa the S20 Ultra's.

The some other big improvement is with autofocus. Focusing was an issue with the Galaxy S20 Ultra that has ne'er been satisfactorily resolved. For the new generation, Samsung added a laser autofocus sensor to the Note 20 Ultra. It makes a huge difference over the S20 Ultra and is a far more useful fourth lens than a macro or profundity one. I've never victimized a telephone that focused this quickly without needing to tap the blind, and information technology helps all aspects of the Banknote.

note 20 ultra focus — The Note 20 Ultra's laser zoom is so fast and accurate, the core of subjects are often also in focus, going away blurry edges.

However, at multiplication it works a little too wellspring. When the foreground is similar to what's behind it, the Note 20 occasionally secured onto the wrong character of the picture. New cameras were smarter. When it got it straight, photos often had an aggressive bokeh effect even without using Live Focussing. In the exposure of the flower above, for example, the spine petals are out of sharpen. The same blastoff with the Pixel 4a has everything in focus.

Night mode also improves on the Note 20 Ultra, pulling information technology close to equal footing with the iPhone 11 and Pixel 4. Shadows and lowlights aren't blown out as they are on other Galaxy phones. Pictures have less noise than on the S20 Ultra. It's a corking improvement and puts the Notice 20 Ultra happening firm footing with the night musical mode champ.

note 20 ultra low light — The Note 20 Ultra (left) takes sharper, more balanced, and less over-exposed photos in Night mode compared to the S20 Ultra. (It was very gloomy when I took these shots.)

Hands down, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is Samsung's uncomparable camera phone. You'll still get a healthy serving of Samsung's earmark oversaturation, and the app is still a bit Sir Thomas More confusing than it should be. Simply more often than not, you're sledding to take your phone tabu of your pocket and snap a corking pic with very little fuss, whether you'Ra far gone or shrouded in darkness.

Should you buy a Galax urceolata Note 20 Ultra?

Nothing I write here is departure to convert you about a Note 20 Ultra either style. If you have $1,300 to spend happening a call up and want the very best of Android, you've probably already decided to order i. And if you're a Banker's bill lover, it's likely already along the fashio.

For everyone else, however, IT's a tough good word. It's undeniably the best speech sound you can buy, simply it's also probably many covert and tycoo than most populate need. Atomic number 102 count how you slice it, $1,300 is a short ton of money to invite a call up, symmetrical one Eastern Samoa beautiful as the Note 20 Ultra.

Update 8/21: Added more information about the adaptive refresh rate.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/393373/samsung-galaxy-note-20-ultra-review.html

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