Samsung held one of its more anticipated product launch events in recent times, – Galaxy Unpacked – yesterday August 5. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the event was held virtually and Samsung unveiled a number of new products. key among them, new devices from the Galaxy Note series
True to the company’s precedence set with the Note 10 last year, this year we get not one, but two new Samsung Galaxy Note devices – a base model Galaxy Note 20 and a beefy, and somewhat overkill, Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.
So what do these two devices bring to the market? Well, in this post we shall quickly run through the key specifications and highlighting features of these two devices. Since the Note 20 looks like a watered-down version of the Note 20 Ultra, let’s begin with the beefy one.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra packs the latest bells and whistles that Samsung has to offer. It sports a massive 6.9-inch 1440p OLED display with curved edges and minimal bezels. The display maxes out at a battery-smooth 120Hz and has a small hole punch that houses the selfie shooter.
On the camera front, it packs a 108MP main sensor, a 12MP Ultra-wide sensor, and a 12MP periscope telephoto lens with a dedicated Laser Autofocus sensor. Here are more specs.
Specification | Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra |
---|---|
Dimensions & Weight | 164.8 x 77.2 x 8.1 mm |
213g | |
Display | 6.9-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X |
3088 x 1440 | |
Curved display | |
120Hz refresh rate | |
Adaptive refresh rate support | |
HDR10+ support | |
Gorilla Glass 7/Victus | |
Infinity-O Display | |
SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus, or |
Exynos 990 | |
RAM & Storage | 12GB LPDDR5 + 128GB UFS 3.1 |
12GB + 512GB | |
Dedicated microSD card slot for expansion up to 1TB | |
Battery & Charging | 4,500mAh |
25W wired fast charging support | |
15W wireless charging support | |
Reverse wireless charging support | |
Rear Camera | Primary: 108MP, f/1.8, PDAF, Laser AF, OIS, 1/33″ sensor |
Secondary: 12MP, f/2.2, ultra-wide-angle, 120° FoV | |
Tertiary: 12MP, f/3.0, telephoto camera, 5x Optical zoom | |
Front Camera | 10MP, f/2.2, 1.22µm |
Connectivity | 5G: NSA, SA, Sub6/mmWave |
LTE: Enhanced 4×4 MIMO, Up to 7CA, LTE Cat.20 – Up to 2Gbps Download / Up to 200Mbps Upload | |
Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2.4GHz + 5GHz, HE80, MIMO, 1024-QAM | |
Bluetooth 5.0 | |
USB Type-C | |
NFC | |
MST | |
GNSS: GPS, Galileo, Glonass, Beidou | |
Other Features | S Pen: |
5.8 x 4.35 x 105.08 mm | |
3.04g | |
Bluetooth enabled | |
Up to 24 hrs of battery standby | |
4096 pressure levels | |
0.7mm pen tip diameter | |
IP68 | |
IP68 dust and water resistance | |
In-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor | |
Wireless DeX support | |
Ultra Wide Band (UWB) chip for device-to-device connections and fast file transfers | |
Android Version | OneUI 2.5 based on Android 10 |
Colors | Mystic Bronze (matte) |
Mystic Black (glossy) | |
Mystic White (glossy) |
This device and Note 20 both run on Samsung’s new One UI 2.5 skin on top of Android 10.
The S-Pen stylus has also been improved to take advantage of the 120Hz display. The latency of the pen has also been drastically reduced from 56ms on the previous generation Note, down to 9ms for a more realistic writing experience.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20
So the Note 20 is, for the most part, a slightly simmered down version of the Note 20 Ultra.
The Note 20 bumps down the resolution on the display to 1080p and the refresh-rate down to a more traditional 60Hz. The hole-punch for the selfie shooter is also a little bit bigger than the one on the Note 20 Ultra.
The display also gets rid of the curved sides in favor of the traditional flat display. The bezels around the display are also a little more pronounced compared to the Ultra.
Around back, the device keeps the general camera layout from the Note 20 Ultra but loses the periscope lens. Here are the device’s specs.
Specification | Samsung Galaxy Note 20 |
---|---|
Dimensions & Weight | 161.6 x 75.2 x 8.3 mm |
194g | |
Display | 6.7-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED |
2400 x 1080 | |
Flat display | |
60Hz refresh rate | |
HDR10+ support | |
Gorilla Glass 5 | |
Infinity-O Display | |
SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus, or |
Exynos 990 | |
RAM & Storage | 8GB LPDDR5 + 128GB UFS 3.0 |
No microSD card expansion slot | |
Battery & Charging | 4,300mAh |
25W wired fast charging support | |
15W wireless charging support | |
Reverse wireless charging support | |
Rear Camera | Primary: 12MP, f/1.8, Dual Pixel AF, OIS, 1/1.76″ sensor |
Secondary: 12MP, f/2.2, ultra-wide-angle, 120° FoV | |
Tertiary: 64MP, f/2.0, telephoto, 3x Hybrid Optic Zoom | |
Front Camera | 10MP, f/2.2, 1.22µm |
Connectivity | 5G: NSA, SA, Sub6/mmWave |
LTE: Enhanced 4×4 MIMO, Up to 7CA, LTE Cat.20 – Up to 2Gbps Download / Up to 200Mbps Upload | |
Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2.4GHz + 5GHz, HE80, MIMO, 1024-QAM | |
Bluetooth 5.0 | |
USB Type-C | |
NFC | |
MST | |
GNSS: GPS, Galileo, Glonass, Beidou | |
Other Features | S Pen: |
5.8 x 4.35 x 105.08 mm | |
3.04g | |
Bluetooth enabled | |
Up to 24 hrs of battery standby | |
4096 pressure levels | |
0.7mm pen tip diameter | |
IP68 | |
IP68 dust and water resistance | |
In-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor | |
Wireless DeX support | |
Android Version | One UI 2.5 based on Android 10 |
Colors | Mystic Green |
Mystic Bronze | |
Mystic Gray |
The Galaxy Note 20 also gets the new and improved S-Pen for a more enjoyable and realistic writing experience. All in all, Samsung has managed to push out devices that stay true to the roots of the Galaxy Note lineup, overkill specs on a device that is made for the power users.
Price and Availability
At launch, Samsung says that the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra will start from an eye-watering $1,300 while the Note 20 will start from $1,000.
Pre-orders in various markets, including Kenya should be announced pretty soon with prices ranging from KES 105,000 for the Note 20 and around KES 140,000 for the Note 20 Ultra. We shall continue to keep an eye on this and provide updates as and when we get more info. Stay tuned.
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