Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G review: Powerful, unique and future-ready
Samsung, just a few weeks ago, released the company's premium new phone Galaxy Note20 series. Like the predecessor, the company is offering two variants-- a standard Galaxy Note20 and the Note20 Ultra 5G.
They come with pretty similar design language, but the major difference between the two is the battery, camera, and display sizes.
Deccan Herald received the top-end Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage for the review. I have been using the device for a little over a week and here are my thoughts.
Design, build quality and display
One of the most discerning changes one can find in the new Galaxy Note20 series over the predecessor is the design language. The new Mystic Bronze totally knocks other brands out of the park in terms of premium hand-feel and visual appeal.
Have to say, it is one precious pretty device; it is round and curvaceous at the right places. The screen cascades to the left and right sides of the frame, creating a dual-edged curve effect, while the top and the base as a flat surface. Except for the small spec on the top, which houses the front camera, everything else is covered by a fully functional beautiful display.
A couple of other notable changes include the shifting of the in-built S Pen holster from the right side to the left side and the power-and- volume rockers making the same move, but opposite (left-to-right).
Now, I have to say powering the Galaxy Note series phone with my right thumb feels normal again. But, it looks like, we will never see 3.5mm jack coming back not just in the Note series, but other premium S series as well. You can find the Type-C port along with S Pen slot and single-grille speaker on the left and a mic on the right at the base.
On top, there is a SIM tray slot and a mic, whereas the left side has just the frame with a smooth finish with no physical button.
The new Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra is the only device in the market to boast Corning Gorilla Glass Victus shield. It is said to boast a breakthrough technology that can protect the mobile phone screen from shattering from a fall up to 2 metres on a hard surface. Comparatively, other brands with aluminosilicate glasses can not even survive the fall under 0.8 metre.
Also, the company has incorporated a thin-layered additional screen guard to protect the device from daily wear-and-tear. It also comes with IP68 certification, meaning the device, despite having open crevices in speakers and S Pen holster, it can survive underwater for close to 1.5 meters (around five feet) for up to 30 minutes.
On the back, it has a massive curved rectangular camera module and the bump is the biggest I have seen on a phone. When kept on the flat table, it wobbles wildly when tapped on diagonal edges, but not pressed on top or the bottom.
It could have been compensated if the company offered a shell-cover with the phone as it did with Galaxy Note10+ to even out the camera protrusion. Unfortunately, there is none with the 2020 series model. Probably, Samsung trusts on the durability of the phone and wants you to show off the flashy Galaxy Note20 Ultra phone to the friends.
On the front, it has a 6.9-inch edge Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity-O Display (3088x1440p) with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus shield, the pixel density of 496ppi (pixels per inch) HDR10+ certified, and 120Hz refresh rate.
Like every year, Samsung once again managed to top the display quality for a phone in the market. I fully enjoyed watching video clips and playing games on the Galaxy Note20 Ultra's screen.
Though the 120Hz refresh rate comes off as a bit gimmicky, as most of the apps don't support it, but while scrolling the phone or while browsing the internet, you can discernibly feel the top-quality display.
Performance
In India, Samsung is shipping the Galaxy Note20 Ultra with company's in-house Exynos 990 octa-core chipset (2.73Ghz x 2 + 2.50Ghz x 2 + 2Ghz x 4) and is backed by 12GB RAM and 256GB storage (+ 1TB via microSD card).
In a surprising move, Samsung has announced that it would offer three years of Android OS update, meaning the Galaxy Note20 Ultra will get both the major Android updates till 2022. This is major news, as most of the time, the companies offer a maximum of 18 months. This will help the device owners to get to experience new features in their devices in the future and also get timely security patches to thwart malware and other cyber threats.
During the testing, it worked smoothly without any fuss while doing day-to-day tasks such as browsing the internet, news feed on social media platforms, watching videos, playing games, or photography sessions.
However, it did get warm when the session got longer than half an hour, but not overwhelming. This is not a deal-breaker as all phones with metal casing exhibit such behaviour.
On Geekbench 5.0, it scored an impressive 932 and 2. 823 points on single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. And on 3DMark- The Gamer's Benchmark, it got praiseworthy 5,502 and 5,176 points on Sling Shot Extreme - OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan tests, respectively. On just the Sling Shot, it got a respectable 7,337 on par with top-end phones in the market.
Besides the good performance statistics, Galaxy Note20 Ultra excels in the most important aspect the consumer is usually looking for and that is user-experience and tools that add value on the work front.
For that, the Samsung Galaxy Note20 series has the S Pen and also a fruitful collaboration with Microsoft for seamless connectivity with Windows-powered PCs.
The device runs on Android 10-based One UI 2.5 and have to say, it is very easy to go around the phone to find features and it offers plentiful shortcuts to access most-used apps with minimum steps.
As for the work, The Galaxy Note20 Ultra owners can make full use of the 'Samsung Notes', 'Link to Windows’, and 'Microsoft Your Phone' apps. Once installed, users can transfer, edit, or do more work on documents of various formats with the computer and phone with ease.
You can mark a project slide with S Pen and see the changes across the devices. It can be noted that the Samsung Notes app can sync to OneNote on the PC and Outlook. This feature will be available in November 2020.
And with the advanced DeX support, the Galaxy Note20 series phones can wirelessly connect to the personal computer or a smart TV with minimum steps.
Furthermore, Samsung Galaxy Note20 series owners can claim 22.5% off on Microsoft 365, which costs Rs 5,299 can be subscribed for Rs 4,100.
With so many productivity tools tucked with the Galaxy Note20 Ultra, it is a tailor-made device for corporate employees.
Galaxy Note20 Ultra is not just a hard-core productive tool for just to work, it offers access to the best of the gaming titles to have fun and camera hardware (more on that later) to capture good memories with the family, friends, and also co-workers, whenever you get the nod to start work from the office, once the vaccine for Covid-19 is ready or when caseloads reduce to a safe level.
The device owners will get Microsoft's exclusive Xbox Game Pass and get access to over 100 Xbox games directly from the cloud (beta) with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, including hits like Minecraft Dungeons, Forza Horizon 4, and Gears 5.
S Pen
The major upgrade we see in the Note20 Ultra's S Pen is that it comes with 9ms latency and you can really feel it. Writing on the display of the Samsung phone is as realistic as doing the same activity with a pencil on a book and it even gives out a natural scribbling sound too. There are more use-cases for S Pen in the camera, more on that below.
Camera:
Besides the design, the other biggest upgrade we see in the new Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra over the predecessor Galaxy Note10+ is the photography hardware.
It comes with a triple camera module-- 12MP Ultra Wide Camera (with Pixel size: 1.4μm, FOV: Field-Of-View- 120-degree, f/2.2 aperture + 108MP Wide-angle Camera (with PDAF, OIS, Pixel size: 0.8μm, FOV: 79-degree, f/1.8, 1/1.33-inch image sensor size) + 12MP Telephoto Camera (with Pixel size: 1.0μm, FOV: 20-degree, f/3.0) with Space Zoom- 5x Optical Zoom, up to 50x Super-Resolution Zoom, OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) and Tracking AF (Auto Focus).
In this aspect, Samsung has corrected the mistakes of the Galaxy S20 Ultra and refined the camera hardware in the Note20 Ultra.
As you can see the Super-Resolution Zoom is reduced to 50 from 100 seen in the Galaxy S20 Ultra, but the good thing is that the images taken with this mode on Galaxy Note20 Ultra are a little better and less grainy. And also, the auto-focus is well-tuned on the new phone.
As far as the normal mode is concerned, it takes really good HDR (High Dynamic Range) pictures in the normal daylight. The subjects even under the shade, look vibrant and you won't find any dull pictures in the Photo Gallery app. All pictures I took using the Galaxy Note20 Ultra are bright and particularly flowers too, come off saturated. I can't complain, as they are perfect for sharing on social media platforms.
The Galaxy Note20 Ultra also takes good quality ultra-wide angle photos, portrait and the night mode pictures are top-notch.
On the front, it houses and 10MP selfie camera with Dual Pixel AF, Pixel size: 1.22μm, FOV: 80-degree, and f/2.2 aperture. It is the same as seen in the predecessor, but it does the job of getting great selfies. So no complaints. There are lots of filters to enhance the skin tone, background of the subject and surely youths will love them.
There is also Augmented Reality (AR) Zone, which works on both the front and the back camera. It offers a plethora of options such as create AR doodles on the face, emoji stickers, makeup, home decor, virtual tape, to make a quick measurement of furniture or the living room, and more.
Samsung is also offering the Single Take option in the camera modes' menu. It is said to be an AI-powered feature now allows you to capture up to 14 types of photos and videos simultaneously within five to 15 seconds of capture time.
Also, Samsung's flagship phone comes with Pro Video Mode to capture cinematic 8K videos with a 21:9 aspect ratio. And, this can be streamed and shared on social media channels. This is particularly handy for video content creators and instead of investing big and heavy camera hardware, they can go for the Galaxy Note20 Ultra.
Also, there is also another reason to recommend the device for vloggers. The new S Pen offers a bag full of tricks to control the phone's camera settings, start/stop video recording create, stream, and share.
With a single press, you can start taking photos or record videos. With the double press, you can switch the front and the back camera with ease. There are also gesture features as well. Based on the S Pen orientation side, you can switch camera modes, zoom in, and zoom out on the subject in the frame.
Battery:
Samsung's Galaxy Note20 Ultra comes with a 4,500mAh cell. During the testing, the device consistently gave a full day's battery life. I usually start the day around 6:30 and get into work mode around 10 and 10:30 am and end around 6:30-7:00 pm. In between, I do take breaks to look for the latest news, browse social media platforms, watch some videos, gaming (to test the device only), and other day-to-day tasks such as answer phone calls and reply messages.
Samsung's device comes with a super-fast charger in-box and it takes just 35 minutes to charge from zero to 70 percent and hit 100% in just over an hour. Also, another notable aspect of the Galaxy Note20 Ultra is that supports improved wireless charging speeds with support for Fast Wireless Charging 2.0 and USB PD 3.0 (PPS) certified Fast Charging for wired charging (AFC and QC2.0 compatible).
Also, you can wirelessly charge another phone by placing the latter on the Galaxy Note20 Ultra's back.
Final thoughts
For the past ten years, Samsung has done a remarkable job of improving features with each iteration of the Galaxy Note series. This time too, the Note20 series comes up with a major upgrade, particularly the camera hardware, and have to say, it is even much better choice compared to the Galaxy S20 Ultra with 100X Zoom.
The new Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G covers all bases and sets new standards to emerge as the top Android phone of 2020. For a starting price of Rs 1,04,999, it will serve you well for a minimum of three years thanks to long-term Android OS support, really good build quality, versatile S Pen (no phone brand can match its user-experience), and powerful processor. Also, it supports 5G, making the device future-ready in India.
In India, the commercial roll-out of the 5G is expected to take off, at least 18 months from now, provided the government commences spectrum allocation by the end of 2020 or at least finish the process in the first quarter of 2021. Then, it will start the ball rolling for telecom companies to upgrade their infrastructure and I am given to understand that Reliance Jio will win the race to offer super-fast internet service by late 2021 and early 2022.
So, Galaxy Note20 Ultra owners will surely be able to enjoy the 5G internet and other use-cases of fast mobile network connectivity.
Rest assured, the Galaxy Note20 Ultra caters well to all groups of customers be it corporate or an extreme gamer.
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