Hands on Review: Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra

The new Galaxy Note 20 Ultra isn’t any larger than Samsung’s high phone from six months in the past, however it might be wholly higher, with an enormous 6.9-inch display, feature-packed stylus and top-of-the-line specs. After all, you’ll want an enormous hand and deep pockets to embrace Samsung’s new finest.

Oddly, the Note 20 Extremely seems like extra of a sibling of the Galaxy S20 Extremely than of the Galaxy Note 20, which was launched alongside it at Samsung’s digital Unpacked occasion. The usual Note 20 is a decidedly lower-specced model of the Note 20 Extremely, whereas the Galaxy S20 Extremely is analogous when it comes to each specs and measurement.

We’ve had some temporary hands-on time with the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, and listed here are our early ideas.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra launch date and price

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra was unveiled on Wednesday, August 5 on the firm’s digital Galaxy Unpacked occasion, alongside the brand new Galaxy Note 20 and a wide range of different units, together with the Galaxy Watch 3.

You’ll have the ability to pre-order the phone immediately within the UK, and at midnight on August 6 within the US. The official Galaxy Note 20 Extremely launch date is Friday, August 21. Australia’s pre-order date is yet to be confirmed.

The ‘cheapest’ variant of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra prices $1,299 / £1,179 / AU$1,849, and within the US that will get you 128GB of inner storage, while the UK and Australia base model has 256GB of storage, each with 12GB of RAM.

There’s a variant with 512GB of storage that prices $1,449 / £1,279 / AU$2,199. In Australia, there’s additionally a 4G-only model of the phone that prices AU$1,849 however you may’t purchase that within the UK or US.

Whichever model you’re , these are extraordinary quantities of cash to pay for a smartphone, and also you’ll need to significantly contemplate whether or not you want the whole lot the Note 20 Extremely provides earlier than investing in it. The brand new Galaxy Note 20 is considerably cheaper, however, as we’ve talked about, it comes with lesser specs throughout the board.

Design and display

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is the kind of gadget that makes you sit again and marvel if phones actually should be this large. It has a 6.9-inch display, and also you’ll be glad to know that the entrance of the gadget is just about all display, in order that’s practically the general measurement of the handset too.

The display itself is gorgeously bright, with a Quad HD decision of 3088 x 1440 and curved edges on the sides. The one intrusion is the smallest punch-hole we’ve seen within the high of the show to accommodate the selfie camera.

The show has a 120Hz most refresh rate. Meaning the display will refresh faster than your older phone to offer you a smoother image, whether or not you’re watching a film, enjoying games or just scrolling your social media feeds.

The refresh fee is adjusted dynamically relying on what you’re doing, so your phone will determine when to max out at 120Hz, and when to dial the refresh fee again in an effort to save battery.

The example Samsung gave us was that once you’re gaming the phone will provide you with the complete 120Hz, however when you’re studying an online page or a book it can drop it right down to a lower Hz, and you shouldn’t even discover the change between apps.

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is a big gadget that may require the usage of each fingers at most instances, even when your fingers are pretty large.

The S Pen stylus is housed on the left-hand side of the Note 20’s backside edge. That’s a change from the precise on newer Note phones, so when you’ve been utilizing a type of you could discover that muscle memory has you reaching for the improper facet to tug the stylus out initially.

Samsung has introduced a couple of minor improvements to the S Pen for the Note 20 collection, and these embrace further gestures for controlling specific capabilities, in addition to an improved latency and a nib that ought to permit you to write extra precisely and rapidly.

The rear of the phone is made of glass, which feels extra premium than the ‘Glasstic’ (really: Polycarbonate) materials used on the Galaxy Note 20, and the perimeters of the gadget are aluminum. In case you’ve used a latest Galaxy Note gadget you’ll discover that these edges are rather less rounded than earlier than, however the gadget nonetheless matches comfortably in your fingers with a little bit stretch.

As on other latest Galaxy units, the fingerprint scanner is embedded contained in the show, and it’s good to have each this and Face Unlock. As with most issues, you could want to make use of two fingers to achieve that embedded fingerprint sensor comfortably. The device is IP68 water and dirt resistant, so it ought to have the ability to survive the odd splash of liquid.

You’ve obtained the selection of three colours: Mystic Bronze, Mystic Black and Mystic White. Our favourite is the first in that record – the copper-like bronze hue you may see above – however when you’re on the lookout for a extra subdued shade you could need to go for one of many different two.

Camera and battery

As with most up-to-date Samsung phones, the rear array contains three cameras. This time, it’s a 108MP f/1.eight most important camera, 12MP f/3.0 telephoto and a 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide, which on paper sounds much less spectacular than the Galaxy S20 Extremely.

In our restricted testing, the Note 20 Ultra appeared to supply related picture high quality to the Galaxy S20 Ultra, albeit with out the 100x ‘Space Zoom’ and with a slightly wider telephoto aperture. We nonetheless have a 50x ‘House Zoom’ which is the place the usefulness and high quality bar of the S20 Ultra cut off anyway.

We’ll be testing the cameras far more extensively for our full evaluate and figuring out if the Part Detection Autofocus (PDAF) does in addition to the Note 20’s Twin Pixel Autofocus, so make sure to examine again for our thought of verdict.

On the entrance of the phone is a 10MP selfie camera, just like the entrance camera on the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S20 Plus, and we obtained nice photographs out of these two phones. After all, on the Note, you may set off selfies remotely with the S Pen, which is a perk for some individuals.

The Note 20 Ultra is packing a 4,500mAh battery, which we suspect will see you thru a full day from a single cost, though once more we’ll have to do additional testing to see precisely the way it performs.

An oddity right here is that the Galaxy Note 20 Extremely solely helps 25W quick charging. That ought to see your gadget cost rapidly, however, it’s not as speedy because the 45W charging we noticed on the Galaxy S20 Ultra and Note 10 Plus. As an alternative, Samsung has opted for the older tech used on phones just like the Galaxy S20.

It’s unlikely to be detrimental to your expertise with the Note 20 Ultra, however it’s an odd quirk on condition that Samsung has maxed-out the specs in most different areas – and once you’re paying high greenback for a phone you would be forgiven for feeling a little short-changed.

At the least 15W quick wi-fi charging is supported, so that you’ll have the ability to give your phone a fast top-up by popping it on a charging mat or dock, moderately than having to plug it in each time.

Performance and software

Running the present on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is both the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset or a Exynos 990; which processor you get relies upon the place you might be, with US variations of the phone utilizing the Qualcomm, whereas the UK and different markets get the Exynos variant.

We discovered that the phone carried out effectively throughout our quick time testing it, with apps loading rapidly and games booting up as simply as you’d anticipate on a flagship gadget. We’ve yet to intensively check the phone although, and we’ll make sure to push each chipset, and the 12GB of RAM they’re paired with, to their limits for our full evaluate.

All areas will get a model of the Note 20 Ultra with 512GB of storage; when you want much less storage and need to avoid wasting money, you’ll have the ability to purchase a 128GB variant within the US, and a 256GB model within the UK. In case you want further storage, the Note 20 Extremely comes with a microSD card slot for as much as an extra 1TB of storage – the common Note 20 doesn’t have this slot.

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is 5G all the way in which within the US and UK, so that you received’t have the ability to get a model of this phone that solely has 4G connectivity. Meaning you’ll have the ability to make the most of next-gen connectivity and quicker speeds, assuming that you’ve protection the place you might be, and the requisite data plan.

These in Australia can get a 4G-only variant of the phone, when you’re not fascinated with 5G connectivity.

Early verdict

The Note line has at all times been synonymous with one of the best Samsung has to supply, and Ultra is a becoming moniker for the corporate’s strongest and feature-packed Note phone yet.

In case you’re on the lookout for the largest and finest handset from any Android producer, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is shaping as much as be precisely that.  It provides among the finest spec out there in a cellular gadget proper now, in a daring and premium design – assuming you’ve obtained deep sufficient pockets, in each sense.