Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra (5G) smartphone review

Is it necessary to say that a device with slippery rounded sides is maximally impractical? This body cannot be held in hand or lifted from the table – it spins and slips like a bar of soap. One really wants to believe that with the appearance of the Apple iPhone 12, everyone will start copying the wide flat side edges that are securely held in hand.

The materials of the body are "the most noble": both glasses (front and back) are Gorilla Glass Victus, and the side frame is made not of aluminum, but of stainless steel. At the same time, the back wall is made matte, it is not prone to fingerprints, and fingerprints are almost invisible on it – unfortunately, this is only true for the bronze-colored body.

The front camera is successfully located in a small cutout right in the screen, this is probably one of the best options for "notch-less". Unfortunately, the smartphone does not have a LED notification indicator, and the indication using the Always On display is not as effective at a distance as a blinking LED.

The fingerprint scanner here is under the glass of the screen, ultrasonic. It works very quickly, almost like a classic one, but the test for simply placing a finger does not pass: you need to hold your finger on the sensor for at least a moment.

The card slot is designed for two Nano-SIM cards, a microSD memory card can only be inserted by removing one of them. It’s good that Samsung still adheres to "old traditions", otherwise in modern flagships either the second SIM card will not be present at all, as in the Xiaomi Mi 10, or there will be no slot for a memory card, or they will introduce support for e-SIM instead of a second physical card. Hot swapping of cards is supported.

At the top, besides the second microphone and the card slot, there is nothing else. The bottom edge houses the main speaker, the call microphone, the USB Type-C port, and the slot for the pen. The 3.5mm audio output for headphones is absent in modern flagships, and this is sad.

The electronic pen, familiar to the Note series, is installed from the bottom, and it is, of course, impossible to insert it the other way around, as in the infamous model of the past. Careless users with pens that got stuck forever had so many problems that Samsung learned a lesson for life.

The colored pen matches the body color, has a rectangular cross-section. This is a technically complex device, it has two physical buttons, supports communication with the smartphone via Bluetooth, and is equipped with built-in accelerometer and gyroscope.

The Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra smartphone is released in three color options – bronze, black, and white (Mystic Bronze, Mystic Black, Mystic White). The body of the new product has protection against water and dust according to the IP68 standard (submersion for 30 minutes at a depth of up to 1.5 m).

Screen

The Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra smartphone is equipped with an AMOLED display (Dynamic AMOLED 2X) with a diagonal of 6.9 inches and a resolution of 1440×3088, covered with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus with very curved edges. This is the first smartphone to use the latest type of Gorilla Glass. It is claimed that compared to the previous generation, the glass has twice the scratch protection. Drop protection has also been improved.

The physical dimensions of the screen are 74x158 mm, the aspect ratio is 19.5:9, and the pixel density is 496 ppi. The width of the bezel around the screen is less than 2 mm on the sides, less than 3 mm on the top, and less than 4 mm on the bottom. The bezel is indeed minimal. The screen supports a refresh rate of 120 Hz, but not at the maximum resolution: either 120 Hz at Full HD or 60 Hz at Quad HD.

The front surface of the screen is made of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface, resistant to scratches. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are better than those of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) (hereafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo where a white surface is reflected on the turned-off screens (left – Nexus 7, right – Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra, they can be distinguished by size):

The screen on the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra is noticeably darker (brightness in the photos 100 vs. 106 on the Nexus 7) and has no pronounced tint. The two reflected objects on the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra screen are very faint, indicating that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen. Due to the fewer boundaries (type glass/air) with significantly different refractive indices, screens without an air gap look better in conditions of intense external illumination, but their repair in case of cracked outer glass is much more expensive, as the entire screen has to be replaced. On the outer surface of the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra screen, there is a special oleophobic (oil-repellent) coating (very effective, much better than on the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much easier and appear at a slower rate than with regular glass.

When displaying a white field on the entire screen and manually controlling the brightness, its maximum value was about 400 cd/m² under normal conditions, but in very bright light, it increases to 870 cd/m². It should also be noted that in this case, the smaller the area of white on the screen, the brighter it is, meaning the actual maximum brightness of white areas will almost always be higher than the indicated value. As a result, reading the screen during the day in sunlight should be at an excellent level, and the dark theme not only saves battery charge but also contributes to better readability of information on the screen in high lighting conditions. The minimum brightness value is 1.7 cd/m², meaning the reduced brightness level allows the device to be used even in the dark without problems. Automatic brightness adjustment works based on the light sensor (located under the screen near the top edge and to the right of the center). The operation of this function depends on the position of the brightness adjustment slider: the user can try to set the desired brightness level in the current conditions. If everything is left at default, then in complete darkness, the auto-brightness function reduces brightness to 9 cd/m² (a bit dark), in conditions illuminated by artificial office light (about 550 lx) sets it to 120 cd/m² (normal), and conditionally under direct sunlight increases it to 870 cd/m² (to the maximum, as it should be). The result did not completely satisfy us, so in the dark we slightly increased the brightness, resulting in the following values for the three conditions mentioned above: 18, 115, and 870 cd/m² (an ideal combination). It turns out that the auto-brightness adjustment function works adequately and to some extent allows the user to adjust their work to individual requirements. At any brightness level, there is significant modulation at a frequency of 240 Hz.