Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra review: Live by the S Pen, die by the S Pen

Note: This review was first published on 18 Aug 2020.

Live by the S Pen, die by the S Pen?

Fans of the Samsung Galaxy Note smartphones have waited a long year for the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy Note20 series. As one of the last few smartphones with a stylus still seeing hardware refreshes on the market, the Galaxy Note20 phones appeal to a very specific niche of people who find the S Pen more productive and intuitive than finger tapping and swiping on a mobile device.

The Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra is supposed to embody three things. One, it’s Samsung’s latest and best effort at reimagining stylus-based smartphones. Two, it’s obviously their latest 2020 premium flagship smartphone product, on par with the no-stylus Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. Finally, the Galaxy Note20 Ultra is supposedly an upgrade from its predecessors, especially the Galaxy Note10+.

However, a glance at the flagship phone market would quickly tell you that Samsung has more than its previous phones to contend with. With devices like the OnePlus 8 Pro, Oppo Find X2 Pro, and Huawei P40 Pro+ (if you don’t mind HMS), the Galaxy Note20 Ultra is far from a comfortable position. 

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In the hardware arena, the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra has a curved edge 6.9-inch Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity-O display that supports 120Hz refresh and 240Hz touch sampling rates. The main draw is none other than its improved S Pen with faster input latency of just 9ms, on par with the S Pen found on the Galaxy Tab S7+ and about 80% more responsive than the Galaxy Note10+’s S Pen. Note20 Ultra’s Exynos 990 processor can also be found on the Galaxy S20 series, making it a 5G-ready phone. Part of the Note20 Ultra’s triple-rear camera configuration was inspired by the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s, with the 108MP wide-angle camera making a return. Finally, it has a 4,500mAh battery capacity, which is more than Note10+’s (4,300mAh) but less than S20 Ultra’s (5,000mAh). Note20 also packs several flagship-tier features, like its USB PD 3.0-certified fast-charging that’s AFC and QC 2.0 compatible, alongside Fast Wireless Charging 2.0 at 10W+.

At S$1,898 for the 256GB variant, will the Galaxy Note20 Ultra be able to offer usability and value beyond its S Pen? Let’s find out.

Design and Handling

The Galaxy Note20 Ultra carries a design language that’s prominently Samsung’s. It has curved edges on the long side, with its metal rims framing the device ever so slightly. Textured Haze - what Samsung named their Note20 series diffused finish - was chosen because it was partial towards neutral colour palettes for their phone. This was apparently key to the ‘calm’ appearance of the device. We think it’s pleasant, and the Mystic Bronze model we have feels like a nod at rose-gold packaging of cosmetic products from the 90s. 

Combine all of that with the Note20 Ultra’s glass rear and you get a smartphone that looks like it’s meant to be the pinnacle of beauty and power. Despite its emotive aesthetic, the Note20 Ultra is rated IP68 for water resistance. 

The 8.1mm thickness gives the Note20 Ultra considerable heft, but it also makes the device sit securely in your hand. The smartphone also doesn’t tip over when you’re palming the lower half where most of the swiping and typing take place. The volume rocker and power/lock buttons are also well-placed since it sits where you’d naturally rest your fingers at, regardless of your dominant hand. 

Next to the S Pen’s holding slot (at the bottom left) is a one half of its dual speakers (with the other hidden within the call speaker), followed by a centrally located USB Type-C port. The opposite end of the device hides a dual SIM card tray with a hybrid second slot that can take microSD cards.  

The antenna bands are well-hidden because of their lack of glitter. For the Mystic Bronze variant, the phone’s metal sides and rims are the shiniest parts. Meanwhile, the nude-coloured matte antenna bands blend into the highly polished edges. What you get is a smartphone with plenty of antenna bands that makes way for the Note20 Ultra’s continuous look and feel.  

While it's the epitome of Samsung's elegance and refinement, the phone’s design does have its quirks as well. One, it has a massive raised housing for its rear cameras. It’s almost as if it’s competing with the Huawei P40 Pro+ in having the most inconvenient lens housing among all 2020 phones. Most users would likely disguise the bump with a phone case, but that would be a pity since that would hide most of the Note20 Ultra’s carefully crafted Textured Haze finish.

Second, would be the slight metal bezel peeking out of the top and bottom rims of the phone, when most other devices of its tier would choose to hide those edges for a continuous appearance. It's likely a compromise to accommodate an S Pen, since the same design choice was also on the Galaxy Note10+.

Display and Audio

As mentioned, the Note20 Ultra packs a 6.9-inch, Quad HD+ (3,088 x 1,440 pixels resolution), Dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity-O display, working out to a pixel density of ~496 PPI. Before we start talking about the refresh rate and resolution, let’s see exactly what Note20 Ultra users are paying for.

Dynamic AMOLED 2X is an enhanced AMOLED display that supports 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut with HDR10+ certification. It also has SGS certification for blue light reduction. Infinity-O refers to the slim display bezels and the O-shaped front camera cutout on the panel. In essence, Samsung used two marketing terms to summarise the majority of what makes flagship smartphone displays an important component for consideration: it supports HDR video playback, reduces blue light to improve nighttime browsing, has a remarkably accurate colour space, and it simply looks sexy. However, all this jazz is not new, since Dynamic AMOLED was on the Note10 series and Infinity-O was a thing since the Galaxy S10 phones.

The Note20 Ultra display also supports 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate. Of note was how the Galaxy S20 series couldn’t support 120Hz at 1440p (technical explanation here). The Note20 Ultra hasn’t overcome this limitation between its processor and display. If you try to set the Note20 Ultra to Quad HD+, a dialogue box informs you that the device doesn’t support ‘high refresh rate’ at 1440p resolution. It’s a bummer because the S$1,298 OnePlus 8 Pro and the S$1,699 Oppo Find X2 Pro can, and those Snapdragon-powered phones also run on AMOLED displays. 

We’ll be honest - you’re not going to get a visible disparity in screen quality between last year’s Note10+ and this year’s Note20 Ultra with their similar resolution sizes and display quality. The difference is also inconsequential between this year’s Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy Note20 Ultra because they share the same display type, vertical resolution, refresh rate, and touch sampling rate. 

Competing devices from other brands also make it difficult to pick one phone’s display over another, since they are all capable of accurate colourisation while supporting high refresh rates at their peak resolution sizes too.

That said, the Note20 Ultra’s higher-than-typical touch sampling rate offers better input response times, so you’re still guaranteed a buttery-smooth scrolling and swiping experience. Also, having both Ultra phones sharing nearly identical displays would mean that it’s up to the consumers to decide if they want a Samsung flagship with or without the S Pen.

With its dual firing speakers (one at the bottom, another at the top via the super thin earpiece grille), the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra's audio is operationally satisfying, whether for entertainment or calls. 

User Interface

Samsung relies on its proprietary One UI interface to envelop the Note20 Ultra’s Android 10 base OS. Like the rest of their Galaxy Note devices, it comes with extra customisations that grant software-based features to the S Pen.

What’s new, however, isn’t only the reduced S Pen latency of 9ms, but also its breadth of controls. The old Air Actions received five more Harry Potter-like gestures for phone navigation, collectively called Anywhere Actions. By holding the S Pen away from the Note20 Ultra and holding down the stylus’s only button, you can swish your S Pen like a magic wand and your phone responds accordingly. The resulting command can be customised. For instance, doing an up-down flick would make the phone head back to its Home Screen. 

It’s an awkward feature to use in public, but it becomes useful if you already have the S Pen in your hand, or if you’re presenting information to another person or in a small group meeting (after you've mirrored your phone's screen to a TV). The most useful Anywhere Actions are the holding down of the stylus’s button to launch your most important app, and handy customisations that work with select apps.

Using the S Pen itself to navigate and make notes isn’t a new experience, but Samsung definitely held true to their “lifelike pen-to-paper experience”. The sensitivity might take some getting used to, but it’s something that can be mastered in a matter of days. 

Like the Galaxy Tab S7+, the Note20 Ultra also had Samsung Notes enhancements, which include new features like Auto-Straighten, importing and annotating directly on PDF documents, as well as an audio bookmarking feature to sync voice recordings and written notes.

The Microsoft integration feature - which was around since Android 7.0 (Nougat) phones and iOS phones - is indeed more integrated on the Note20 Ultra device. This is because Samsung has a specially built Link to Windows app (instead of the regular Your Phone Companion app for Android devices) available since the Note10. Instead of only accessing photos, text messages, and notifications, the old Link to Windows by Samsung could let you drag and drop files onto the PC. 

What’s new is the ability to run your Note20 Ultra apps on the PC itself, which means you can use your phone without having to physically touch it. Currently, Link to Windows can only run one app at any given time, and it’s more screen mirroring than emulation. One, you'll constantly need to be on the same Wi-Fi network as your PC during Link to Windows. Two, you’re still relying on the mobile phone’s processing power, since the phone also runs the app at the same time.

On paper, it doesn’t sound like much. In practice, however, it feels as if every app can run smoothly on a desktop while mirroring the phone’s interface, and it’s great because the results carry across devices. Just about any messaging, shopping, and entertainment app worked. The games we’ve tried automatically go into landscape mode if that’s the preferred orientation. Only an odd game or two couldn’t receive PC inputs using Link to Windows. As a whole, it’s extremely handy to have and relatively glitch-free. The only quirk? Audio plays from your Note20 Ultra and not from your desktop.

A cool party trick is the combination of Anywhere Actions with Link to Windows. Simply put, you can swish your S Pen around to control the phone even when it’s linked, making it really handy for folks who need to do any show-and-tell with content from your phone, but on a significantly larger screen. In fact, the default setting for going to the next slide in the Microsoft Office app is a single press of the S Pen button, while going back by a slide is two presses. Don't forget to unlink the device from the paired PC once you're done.

According to Samsung, the Link to Windows function will improve even further to support syncing of OneNote feed (inside Outlook) and auto-syncing of reminders across Microsoft Outlook, To Do, and Teams. What we’re more excited about is the update that lets users run multiple apps while using Link to Windows. That would truly unlock multi-tasking for your phone, unlike the sadder, Android-based Multi-Active Window on Tab S7+ which had container constraints, more incompatible apps than compatible ones, a frustrating set of controls, and generally a pain in the S Pen to use. 

The wireless Samsung DeX feature on the Galaxy Tab S7+ also made it to the Note20 series phones. Interestingly, wireless DeX connectivity isn’t only compatible with Samsung Smart TVs, but with all smart TVs that have Miracast. Samsung still highly recommends their Smart TVs launched after 2019 for the DeX feature, though.

A feature we couldn’t try was Ultra-Wideband technology (UWB) since it requires another UWB-enabled Android smartphone to see it in action. Basically, UWB makes it easier to share files and content in a physical context. Between two Samsung phones with UWB, you can use Point To Share where you simply point the device at another to trade files. Nearby Share is the pan-Android alternative, and you can trigger it via the Share button found around most files on your phone. 

As a whole, the seamless Microsoft integration was the standout feature for us. Yes, it’s largely a Microsoft effort to make Android phones interoperable with Windows 10. We still think part of the credit goes to Samsung for getting their Link to Windows to work better, with minimal issues. Link to Windows also made it such that the Note20 Ultra offered more than an improved S Pen, with categorical benefits to your productivity potential.

Imaging Performance

The Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra uses a triple-rear camera configuration with the following specs:

Rear:

• 12MP Ultra Wide Camera, 1.4μm pixel size, 120 ̊ field-of-view (FOV), f/2.2 aperture
• 108MP Wide-Angle Camera with PDAF and OIS, 1.4μm, 79 ̊ FOV, f/1.8
• 12MP Telephoto Camera, 1.0μm, 20 ̊ FOV, f/3.0
• Laser Autofocus Sensor

Front:

• 10MP Selfie Camera with Dual Pixel AF, 1.22μm, 80 ̊ FOV, f/2.2

Seems familiar? That's because Samsung took the Galaxy S20 Ultra's 108MP shooter and plonked it on the Note20 Ultra. Where the two flagship Galaxy devices differ is its telephoto capabilities, with the Note20 Ultra offering 5x optical zoom and 50x' Super-Resolution Zoom', while the earlier S20 Ultra has 10x hybrid optical zoom and 100x Space Zoom. We're not expecting a massive difference in shooting quality or experience when compared to the S20 Ultra, so here are the sample images are taken from the phone itself. 

In general, it's a little stiff at handling contrast. Still, the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra is just as capable as the Galaxy S20 Ultra when it comes to taking regular photos with great accuracy, sharpness, colour balancing, and extremely low noise. You can take a look at our vast number of sample images from the Galaxy S20 Ultra and decide if there is a massive difference in imaging quality if you're upgrading primarily because of the new camera module.

Benchmark Performance

By now, most informed buyers would already know that the Singapore versions of the Galaxy Note20 series phones (including this Galaxy Note20 Ultra) use the Samsung Exynos 990 processor. Its natural rivals are flagship-tier SoCs that pepper this year's releases, such as the OnePlus 8 Pro, Oppo Find X2 Pro, Huawei P40 Pro+. For comparison's sake, we're also putting the Note20 Ultra up against the Galaxy S20 Ultra, Note10+, and iPhone 11 Pro Max to get a sense of where they lie.

JetStream 2

To benchmark the phone's web browsing performance, we used the JetStream 2 benchmark test on the Google Chrome web browser app. The test measures a phone's capabilities in handling a variety of advanced workloads and executing codes. JetStream 2 is an updated version of older benchmarks, such as the first JetStream and SunSpider.

While some phones come with custom-made web browsers, We always run this benchmark test on Chrome as it gives the best indication across devices, processors, and OS platforms - whether iOS or Android. Also, we would adjust the phone's display settings to ensure that the screen doesn't turn off mid-test since this would relegate the browser's thread(s) to background processing. Where necessary, we would run multiple test instances to get a more accurate reading of scores.

AnTuTu 

Note: As of 9th March 2020, all AnTuTu benchmarks were removed from the Google Play Store. This move likely arose from Google's attempts to relieve the Play Store of apps that violate their policies. AnTuTu is working with Google to restore their app listing. For this review, we used the APK file that was available on AnTuTu's website.

AnTuTu is an all-in-one benchmark that tests CPU, GPU, memory, and storage. The CPU benchmark evaluates both integer and floating-point performance, and the GPU tests assess 2D and 3D performance, the memory test measures available memory bandwidth and latency, and the storage tests gauge the read and write speeds of a device's flash memory.

Geekbench 5

Geekbench CPU is a cross-platform processor benchmark that tests both single-core and multi-core performance with workloads that simulate real-world usage. Geekbench 5 scores are calibrated against a baseline score of 1000, which is the score of an Intel Core i3-8100.

3DMark Sling Shot Extreme

3DMark Sling Shot is an advanced 3D graphics benchmark that tests the full range of OpenGL ES 3.1 and ES 3.0 API features including multiple render targets, instanced rendering, uniform buffers and transform feedback. The test also includes impressive volumetric lighting and post-processing effects. The test's Unlimited mode ignores screen resolutions.

Benchmark Performance Remarks

As expected, the Exynos 990 chipset's performance is just a little shy of phones with Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processors across the board. The gap will only widen when the Snapdragon 865+ phones start arriving on our shores. For reference, you can look at the Galaxy Tab S7+ benchmarks, since that device uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ instead of Exynos processors. (We didn't include it in the graphs because that's a tablet-class device). 

There’s a growing awareness in Singapore concerning Samsung’s use of Exynos chipsets inside their premium handsets for the Singapore market, and how they stack up against Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipsets in terms of performance and battery effectiveness. While it shouldn’t matter (because we’ve been getting their Exynos variants since the Galaxy S6 series and people willingly paid for them despite having poorer benchmarks than Snapdragon 810), it may hurt Samsung’s value proposition when it’s up against Qualcomm-infused, top-tier phones from other brands. You can see the performance difference between Exynos 990 and Snapdragon 865 by referring to the OnePlus 8 benchmarks above.

Despite the scores, the Note20 Ultra works and feels like any other flagship phone. The only time we've noticed a slowdown was when we were trying to use the phone via the seamless Microsoft integration feature. Graphically-demanding and poorly-coded mobile games also don't fare too well on the Note20 Ultra, but it's still smoother than Huawei's Kirin chipsets for gaming. It may not be Qualcomm, but Samsung's Exynos chipset in the Galaxy Note20 Ultra is undoubtedly a flagship-tier processor. You're not getting any less than that.

Battery Life

Our standard battery test for mobile phones has the following parameters:

• Looping a 720p video with screen brightness and volume at 100%
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on
• Constant data streaming through email

The Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra comes with a battery capacity of 4,500mAh. Amongst flagship devices from this year, only the Galaxy S20 Ultra comes with bigger battery size. It seems like the Note20 Ultra delivers reasonable battery uptime at first glance. A closer look would tell you that many other phones not only clocked slightly higher uptimes but also come with lower battery totals. Also, don't forget the Note20 Ultra wasn't exactly beating the Snapdragon-based flagship phones in the performance department, so it's not as if the Note20 Ultra was burning through its juice to provide brain-melting mobile performance.

You might also note that the Galaxy S20 Ultra clocked a 100 minutes more simply because of its extra 500mAh - an expected outcome from sharing the same Exynos processor. The question you might have in mind is why can't the Galaxy Note20 share the same battery capacity as the Galaxy S20 Ultra and to that end, the answer lies with the space occupied with the S Pen that snugly sits within the phone. Something has got to give in such a slim smartphone.

The Note20 Ultra is certified for USB PD 3.0 (PPS) fast-charging, Adaptive Fast Charging (Samsung's proprietary charging technology) and Quick Charge 2.0 (Qualcomm's proprietary tech). Samsung claimed that the Note20 Ultra could hit 50% charge in 30 minutes. For us, it took 60 minutes to go from 0% to 90%, and a total of 90 minutes to hit 100%. It seems like the charging claims are valid, and we do find them sufficiently fast (except for the last 10% taking 30 minutes, that's not fast but we do understand the need to throttle speeds as the battery approaches maximum charge). 

In the wireless charging space, it has Fast Wireless Charging 2.0, which is supposedly rated at "10W or more". According to Samsung, this charging profile is rated at 15W for the Note20 Ultra.

Conclusion

Technically speaking, the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra is a lovely flagship phone. As mentioned, the ones we get in Singapore will not have Qualcomm's processors, but any user of a Galaxy Note20 Ultra will still get a flagship-level performance and sufficient battery uptimes. You'll still get top-notch operational fluidity, and it will last the longer part of the day. 

Where the Galaxy Note20 Ultra tries to make it worth your while is via its significant S Pen improvements and features, alongside enhanced interoperability between Windows 10 and the phone. The interoperability bit will come to other Android mobiles, but they get credit for being the first to push a functional version out of the gate. Topping it all off is a neutral design that's easy to like. If you're coming from an older Galaxy Note like the Note9, the Galaxy Note20 Ultra is - without question - an upgrade in many of these departments. If you're coming from a Note10+, you'll have to weigh out the benefits of these improvements against the Note10+'s 512GB storage at its old street price of S$1,898.

From an Android phone perspective, if I'm concerned with getting the best specs that money can buy, Note20 Ultra isn't an economical purchase. As it stands, we have the OnePlus 8 Pro (S$1,298, 128GB), Oppo Find X2 Pro (S$1,699, 512GB), both with a better processor and battery performance at a lower price, while also being 5G-ready. Heck, the Oppo flagship has double the internal storage, too. Plus, you get 120Hz AMOLED displays at 1440p, which is ironic when it's Samsung that manufactures these AMOLED panels.

But really, the Galaxy Note20 Ultra (and any other Galaxy Note phone) isn't just 'another Android phone'. The S Pen and its constantly growing list of features are why people would happily pay a premium for a Galaxy Note device, even if the phone half shares many similarities with its Galaxy S counterpart. Anywhere Actions was expanded because Air Actions helped its users. S Pen latency was reduced because Samsung wanted to give users an experience as close as possible you get with a classic pen and paper. These are all signs of a unique piece of technology working well in the form factor it was designed for.

Admittedly, I'm not a hardcore Galaxy Note user, but the S Pen certainly holds special meaning and convenience to the people who have truly mastered the stylus. Imagine how much time would you save in a day if you could sign a bunch of documents, mark up work corrections for your teammates, and sketch up ideas while in a taxi or on public transport. Your typical flagship phone isn't going to top that anytime soon, because of how much effort Samsung puts into mimicking the human condition for the S Pen to even work, let alone impress others.

In fact, it might be better value to grab a Note20 Ultra than the Galaxy S20 Ultra at launch. They have same starting price of S$1,898, but the Note20 Ultra packs double the storage of S20 Ultra, on top of the S Pen magic that makes the Galaxy Note series so unique.

The Microsoft integration and the promise of running more apps simultaneously still remains to be seen. If all plays out for Samsung, then the Note20 Ultra should provide the best interoperability experience when running the device via Microsoft's Your Phone app. We'll know more as this feature starts making its rounds on other Android phones.

Despite the competitive market Samsung faces, they've put out a stylus-based phone with even more improvements and upgrades to help make its case. It also reinforces the Galaxy Note series as a purposeful iteration of the standard Android experience, and it's not just trying to be different with a fancy pen. If you still don't understand why it hung around despite every other Android phone having an all-out components war (figuratively and literally), now's the time to see the Galaxy Note beyond its S Pen.

It may not be the most magnificent Galaxy Note update we've seen, but taken as a whole, the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra still has its unique charm to impress those who can and know how to put the S Pen to good use.

Do also remember to check out its pre-order details and bonuses here.

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