Galaxy Note20 Ultra (Exynos) Review: Ignorance Is Bliss By Alex Hong

Hey there, Alex here. I wasn’t actually planning on getting the Note20 Ultra, because as much as I like the Note series, I just didn’t feel like paying that much for the Exynos version of the phone. In case you didn’t know, Samsung uses their own Exynos chipset for most markets and the Snapdragon chipset in selected markets. Based on my own experiences with both versions of the Note9 as well as the S10e, the Snapdragon version typically has better thermal performance and battery life. With the S20 series this year, based on comparisons I’ve seen from other reviewers, it seems like the differences are even bigger than before. In South Korea, Samsung’s home market, they even switched to using the Snapdragon version this time round.

Which is why I didn’t bother with the S20 series at all. And to add insult to injury, with the Note20 series, those markets are getting an even better Snapdragon 865+ while the rest of us gets the same Exynos 990. However my sister decided to get the Note20 Ultra to replace her Note8, and offered to let me use and review the phone first before she switches over. Which is why I ended up doing this review. So without further ado, let’s dive right in.

Let’s just get it out of the way first and talk about how the Exynos 990 performs. While it doesn’t really score as well in benchmarks, in regular day to day use, speed is not an issue for me. It’s still fast and responsive. Which isn’t a surprise here because as mentioned earlier it’s mostly about thermal performance and battery life. For the latter, it’s hard to say for sure unless someone does a side by side comparison, but I feel like battery life is a little short for a phone with a 4,500mAh battery.

If I don’t turn on every single feature on the phone, a day of moderate use is still achievable. But if I use it heavily, it will run out of battery before the end of the day. For thermal performance, it warms up quite easily, but it’s not too bad when I’m just playing games like Mobile legends. However when I really push it hard, like using the camera a lot under a hot sunny day, it does get a bit toasty and starts to throttle the performance. This result can be easily verified by running benchmarks.

If you’re not a heavy user, this probably won’t be an issue, but it is disappointing to see that not much has changed. Moving on to design, it’s decent. I like the overall look and feel of the phone, but the camera bump is pretty huge. They also moved the position of the S-Pen to the left side of the phone, which isn’t as comfortable for folks who are right handed. So I actually still like the Note10’s design a bit more.

Screen quality is fantastic as expected, and even though it still can’t do 120Hz refresh rate at the highest resolution like some other phones can, I don’t think it’s a deal breaker. FHD+ looks good enough to my eyes. My only minor complaint is just the ultrasonic sensor here, which still doesn’t feel as fast or reliable as optical sensors. It still has all the bells and whistles that you would expect from a high end phone, like stereo speakers, dust and water resistance, tons of RAM and storage, wireless charging, and whatnot. It’s not class leading in any of those aspects, but it’s all here.

I’m not going to talk much about software because I think most companies are doing a decent job these days, but I will say that Samsung’s OneUI is one of my favourite Android experiences right behind OxygenOS. Tons of useful features built-in, and Samsung has been doing a great job with their UI design. Promising 3 years of updates is decent I guess, but for a phone that costs this much, I personally would prefer more. Same goes for the 1 year warranty here in Singapore. At this price point, it would be nice to have at least a 2 years warranty like other high end Android phones.

Anyway, being a Galaxy Note, we have to talk about the S-Pen of course. I haven’t found any of the newer features to be that useful. Even for the lower input latency, I didn’t really notice a huge improvement when I’m drawing with it. My guess is that not all apps are able to take advantage of the higher refresh rate of the screen just yet. Anyway, I suspect for most consumers, being able to use the S-Pen to take a photo is probably still the most useful feature.

Which brings us to camera performance. In typical Samsung fashion, it’s really good. I haven’t noticed any major issues when it comes to focusing thanks to the laser autofocus, and it is able to consistently capture nice looking images regardless of lighting conditions. The ultra wide angle camera here is one of the better ones I’ve tested so far, and with the use of Night mode, it is able to capture usable shots in lowlight as well. The periscope camera here looks pretty good too as long as you don’t push it to its limits.

Front camera looks decent, but faces tend to have a bit of smoothening even if you turn the feature off. Video quality is maybe just a bit behind compared to the latest iPhones, which is to say it is pretty good. Overall, while I still prefer the style of image processing on the Pixel phones a bit more, the extra cameras on the Note20 Ultra makes it a more flexible and fun camera to shoot with. I’ll have a link in the video description with everything I took with the phone, so you guys can check it out if you want to. All things considered, the Note20 Ultra is still a pretty good phone and a good all-rounder.

The performance from the Exynos 990 is a little disappointing, but if you’re not a heavy user, or a geek like I am, it’s probably not a big deal. It has the S-Pen as well which is still a really unique feature on a smartphone. But personally, I just think it’s way too expensive for what it is, especially when we are already getting shortchanged by Samsung thanks to the Exynos chipset. So if you’re thinking about getting one, maybe wait till you can find one at a more reasonable price. Because at nearly 1900 SGD, it’s simply not worth it.

Anyway, thanks for watching this video, and see you guys on the next one.

Source : Alex Hong