What you should expect with Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra

What you should expect with Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra takes flagships to a whole new level. Everything on the phone is dialed up to 11; there's a stunning 6.9-inch AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, 12GB of memory as standard, Snapdragon 865+ chipset under the hood, and the S Pen has three times lower latency. Combine that with a powerful 108MP camera at the back and you get a phone that stands out from the pack. It's estimated at $1300 

Samsung made the switch to 120Hz displays this year with the Galaxy S20 series, and the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra retains this key feature. There hasn't been a single feature over the last two years that has affected day-to-day experience as much as 90Hz and 120Hz displays, and this is one feature that you have to use to truly appreciate.

The 120Hz display on the Note 20 Ultra is sublime, and Samsung made several changes to the AMOLED display tech to make it the best overall panel you'll find on any phone today. Samsung has led the industry in this area for several years now, and it continues to eke out more gains with each generation. The Note 20 Ultra is just 2.9mm taller than the Note 9, but you get a huge 6.9-inch display, and that's down to the thinner bezels at the top and bottom.

The slim bezels, along with a hole-punch cutout and a 120Hz screen, combine to give the Note 20 Ultra a distinct edge over the Note 9. There's just so much more on offer here, and you will love the changes that Samsung introduced with its latest flagship. Then there's the design. The Note 20 Ultra is available in Mystic Bronze, Mystic Black, and Mystic White variants, and the bronze model, in particular, stands out.

With the Note 20 Ultra, Samsung has switched to a new camera layout that sees the sensors highlighted more prominently. The camera housing protrudes a fair bit from the body of the phone itself, but the overall aesthetic is rather pleasing.

Let's talk about the cameras. The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has a 108MP primary camera along with a 12MP wide-angle lens and 12MP zoom lens that delivers 5x optical zoom. The Galaxy Note 9, meanwhile, has dual 12MP cameras. Having used the cameras on the Note 9 extensively over the last two years, I can confidently say that the 108MP lens on the Note 20 Ultra is a huge upgrade. You also get 8K video recording on the Note 20 Ultra and 720p slow-motion video at 960FPS.

The Note 20 Ultra packs a huge camera and internal hardware upgrades.

Then there's the internal hardware. While the Snapdragon 845 chipset on the Galaxy Note 9 is still going strong in 2020, the Snapdragon 865+ on the Note 20 Ultra is in another league. The powerful chipset coupled with the 120Hz screen leads to silky-smooth interactions in day-to-day use, and the Note 20 Ultra blazes through the most demanding of games with ease.

The Note 20 Ultra also comes with 12GB of RAM as standard, double that of the Note 9. The battery is larger at 4,500mAh, and you get 25W wired charging along with 15W wireless charging. The Note 20 Ultra even charges other devices at 5W wirelessly. There's Wi-Fi 6 connectivity as well, IP68 dust and water resistance, NFC, and stereo sound. Oh, and did I mention that the Note 20 Ultra has 5G connectivity? If you're looking for a device that will work over both Sub-6 and mmWave 5G networks around the world, this is the phone to get.

The S Pen is also picking up big upgrades and now has just 9ms latency. That makes it easier than ever to take down notes or just doodle on the Note 20 Ultra, and Samsung is also rolling out new software features to leverage the low latency.