LATEST GALAXY NOTE 20 ULTRA NEWS
Introduction
The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is the true “flagship” model in Samsung's 2020 phablet series. It's clearly the better of the two models even though it does share some of its components with the Galaxy Note 20. Some meaningful improvements have also been made to the handset that make it a worthy successor tot the Galaxy Note 10+.
It's no surprise that Samsung decided to call this model the Ultra and not the Galaxy Note 20+. It had already changed its naming convention with the Galaxy S20 Ultra, with the moniker signifying that this is the top-of-the-line model.
Design
The handset's design is quite familiar in that it sticks with the square silhouette of the Note family. However, Samsung has made some changes here and there to freshen up the look. Chief among them is the new camera housing on the back that has circular cutouts for the camera.
The S Pen's location has also been moved to the left of the charging port. You'll also find the AKG-tuned speaker down there. All physical buttons are on the right frame. Don't keep your fingers crossed for a 3.5mm headphone jack, it's not present, but the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra does have a microSD card slot.
Display
The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra comes with a 6.9-inch Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED Infinity-O curved display. This is the largest display ever on a Galaxy Note smartphone. The panel is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus, the strongest cover glass yet.
The refresh rate has been bumped up to 120Hz as well. The refresh rate is dynamic which means that it can switch between 60Hz and 120Hz depending on what's happening on the screen. The display's curves are more subtle compared to some of the earlier Galaxy Note handsets. As expected, it has an embedded fingerprint sensor.
Specs
The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra comes with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865+ processor in select markets like the United States and South Korea. Everywhere else, though, it uses the same Exynos 990 processor that came with the Galaxy S20 series.
The LTE-only variant of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra comes with just 8GB of RAM with either 256 or 512GB of internal storage. There's 12GB of RAM on the 5G variant that's available in 128, 256 and 512GB storage configurations. A microSD card slot is present for external expansion.
There's a 4,500mAh battery under the hood with support for 25W charging. Samsung has made the unusual decision of not supporting 45W super fast charging on the device even the Galaxy S20 series supports it and so do Samsung's latest tablets.
Camera
The camera setup at the back consists of a 108-megapixel f/1.8 primary camera with OIS, a 12-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide camera and a 12-megapixel f/3.0 telephoto camera. There's a laser autofocus sensor as well. The camera setup can provide 5x optical zoom and up to 50x Space Zoom. A 10-megapixel f/2.2 selfie camera is also present.
S Pen
The S Pen has received a major improvement this year. Samsung has brought down the latency from 46ms on the Galaxy Note 10+ to just 9ms on the new flagship. This means that drawing and writing with the S Pen now feel smoother than ever before. There's new software functionality as well.
Software
The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra comes with Android 10 out of the box. This is one of the very first devices from Samsung to come with One UI 2.5 out of the box. Several new features have been introduced with the latest iteration of Samsung's custom skin. The Galaxy Note 20's UWB technology also enable it to work with Google's Nearby Share feature.
Samsung will provide three Android OS upgrades for this device. This will make Android 13 the last major update for the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. Samsung released the Android 12 One UI 4.0 update for the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra in December, 2021.
Price and Availability
Unveiled on August 5, 2020, Samsung started taking pre-orders for the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra the very next day, with the handset being released on August 21. Mystic Bronze, Mystic White and Mystic Black were the colors that it came with. Prices start at $1,299 for the 5G variant.
