Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Review – Conclusion

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is the ultimate Samsung smartphone this year. Thanks to the new color scheme, the housing looks more luxurious than ever and the necessary improvements can be found all around. However, writing with the pen now feels, the screen is brighter and smoother and Samsung has installed a new camera system. This offers better image quality under difficult lighting conditions and more ‘zoom’ than with last year’s top model. Of course, the Note 20 Ultra has also received a faster soc and the most luxurious form of 5G support, including support for mmWave frequencies.

Enough small innovations, but major innovations are a little lacking. Where the Galaxy Note series previously formed the superlative compared to the Galaxy S series, the manufacturer has also introduced an even ‘ultimate’ Galaxy S smartphone for the first time this year: the Galaxy S20 Ultra. Leaving the pin aside, the specifications and features of both Ultra smartphones are almost the same. The newcomer is a bit more expensive a few weeks after release, although it also has more storage as standard. Despite the lack of innovation and the higher price, given the choice between the two smartphones, we would go for the newer model. Samsung has solved a few criticisms of the S20 Ultra with the Note 20 Ultra, such as the slow autofocus, and also given the device a more beautiful design than the somewhat dull-looking S20 Ultra.

Although Samsung has managed to reduce the weight of the S20 Ultra slightly, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is still a rather hefty copy, as is usual for a top smartphone in the year 2020. Even compared to previous Galaxy Notes, which are among the largest devices of their generation, the Note 20 Ultra is bigger. After all, the extra modem and 5G antennas, the physically much larger camera modules and the extra battery capacity have to stay somewhere. Also common for this year is that the price is a lot higher than you might be used to.

Compared to the competition in the most expensive and special segment, the Note 20 Ultra does not drop any big stitches, while the pen remains a unique and nice extra for those who appreciate productivity. What disappoints us, given the high price point, is that the device does not deliver the very best performance on almost any test part. In short, the Note 20 Ultra is not the most exceptional Galaxy Note we have ever seen. If you can live with that and with the high purchase price, it is by no means a bad choice.