Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G Review By TheDigitalDigest

Ed here with the digital digest- and today I wanted to share my full review of the digitally digested segment for the Samsung Galaxy note 20 ultra now for those of you that have followed my coverage of this phone, you already know I am very fond of it and for good reason, although it is very expensive, it is arguably the best phone ever made at least candy bar style phone, and the sad news which is part of this full review months later from launch is that it may be the end of the note line. Now. Most news is pointing towards that. It's not the death of the note, but at least going into 2021 Samsung is going to invest the majority of its r d dollars into foldable, like of course, my fold 2 over here and that's understandable, because if you followed my coverage or anyone else, that is at least you know somewhat competent when it comes to covering tech. Then you know that Samsung has been pretty adamant about making folding devices the new hotness and really the focus of the top tier. Whereas in years past the note always occupied that space, it was the most powerful and now most expensive device that Samsung sold other than folding devices, and now that Samsung has not only uh one but two, and as even in a second generation of folding devices, with a third gen on the way.

It's not really that the note has become antiquated, but again that Samsung sees uh their primary investment being in foldable, because that is where they see the future, and I can't disagree so when I say this may be the death of the note. It's more like the note. The majority of the note features that we've come to love over the years are going to find their way into the traditional lineup. So your s21 that's going to likely have a pen, and that means that you won't need a note anymore. So I, if that is the truth.

I mean this is a lot of what has been leaked for like since August now, if that is where things are headed, it's sad, but also understandable, again, because foldable have really taken over. I mean whether we're talking about the flip or the z-fold 2. These are both very good examples of Samsung and some of their finest work, in my opinion, coming together and delivering devices that are, unlike anything else, we've used before uh and that are actually practical and not just gimmicks. Whereas when you look at the the excuse me the note itself, I don't know how much more this product can mature. You know the screen got larger 6.9 inches. We've got a high refresh rate now 120 hertz, the brightness is, you know pretty much best in class.

In fact, I would say this is one of the best displays you're going to see on a phone. It's not perfect. This device very large battery, 4, 500 William hours, could, it has been larger, could have been 5 000 sure, but they would have had to give up some profile. This is in a pit aka case for those of you that are wondering uh pen latency one of the biggest improvements. Besides the camera module, I mean the pen performance now in this generation is arguably the best that Samsung I have to go back to my right hand, I'm not a lefty has ever put together.

I mean it really is in another class. Even if my handwriting is not, so the question becomes, how much better can a device like this get and if Samsung has mastered pen input, which I really feel like they have the latency the texture, the experience granted the stylus is still, you know, doesn't remind you of a pen or pencil in any way, because it's too small, but that's because it pockets into the phone. Then why not add it to their full phone lineup? And I have to say over the years the curved edge I liked it, but the fact of the matter is from a practicality standpoint, uh too many false positives on touches when holding the device, and that's part of the reason that if you caught my comparison of this to the Xperia one mark ii in many ways, I preferred the one mark ii. I've also never been a fan of the notch or the pinhole cut out. That's something that hopefully we'll see eventually fade away, but for now the best they could do here in the note 20 ultra was just made it smaller than uh what we had seen in previous gen phones from Samsung, and they did a good job uh.

The good news here is that the front-facing camera is very good and so are the three rear cameras. So we have larger sensors, at least one of them than what you would usually find. We have the ability to record 8k video, which I don't think anybody needs, but no one will be upset about having we have. You know one of the better autofocus systems on any smartphone out there. Uh very wide field of view: the ability to have a real telephoto zoom, which is really nice, but this for me would not replace a traditional camera.

In fact, no phone on the market will replace a traditional camera. I will always be apt to. If I know I will be shooting any sort of images. I will have a camera with me now when I don't have one that's when having a module like this is great, and I give them being Samsung a lot of credit for really moving the needle with camera performance from years past, because Samsung was never terrible, at least in their age of modern dominance, uh with smartphones, but they were never the best, and I really feel like this does put them right. There.

I've mentioned that throughout my coverage of this phone, you know I could get into the processor and the ram I mean come on. Qualcomm just announced the other day, their 888 5g chipset, and that's not worth really getting into the processor in here, is beyond competent, the 5g. Unfortunately, I was never able to utilize because at least in my part of the US, there is no 5g coverage yet and the fact being that we're in a pandemic- and I'm not traveling 5g- is neither here nor there, it's nice to have the future proofing, but I do feel can't help but feel it was forced on us, and I say that, because last year, even this year, uh phones, like you know, my z-flip came out with no 5g in order to make it more affordable, and then they introduced a 5g version. By the way the z-flip is still one of my favorites. I do kind of miss using it on a day-to-day basis, but for those of you who are looking for the traditional all-in-one best camera, I won't say the best battery life, because in order to get the best performance on battery life, you will have to disable uh the 120 hertz display and I haven't been at full brightness.

Let's go ahead and blast our eyeballs now, so you can really see how blown out things get when we're at full brightness. I mean this is a content. Consumption monster. It's a little computer. You know it's got more ram than the majority of devices out there.

Does it blow away the note 10 plus? No, it doesn't. I mean really the biggest improvement over. The note, 10 plus, in my opinion, of course, lies in the pen performance and the camera capability, which I feel like the camera's kind of trade-off, because not everybody wants a hump on the back of their phone and, quite frankly, since you already heard from me a little of dust there that I always will have a camera, if I think I'll need one. I was perfectly happy with the note 10 plus and while I welcome the improvements of the 20 plus or excuse me 20 ultra, you see what happened there too. Many pluses ultras extras extremes, extra large super sized.

This is great to have, but I preferred having a flush camera system, so I actually prefer the design of the note 10 plus over this phone. I don't think this really needed to get any larger, but I think Samsung kind of said. What else can we do to make this a new note? So you got the higher refresh rate. You got the new uh processor same amount of ram as the previous generation. They screwed us a little on storage.

As you all know, you know the fact that they took us down, I'm not happy with. Even if storage is expandable, that's not the right thing to do on this phone. I really believe that 256 should have remained the base, configuration and 512, and one terabyte should be available options, but that's just not the world we live in, especially with the pandemic. So you know, there's that to deal with Wi-Fi 6 performance on here is fantastic. This is a modern device.

In every way I mean it's a workhorse. If that's what you're looking for you're going to get it the ip68 rating, just like the note 10 plus before it does exactly uh what it advertises, so you're going to get basically as good protection as possible when it comes to the elements. Remember uh, three meters uh 30 minutes. It cannot last beyond that, and this is not designed uh to go in the ocean, so they're talking about fresh water. Folks, if you, you know, put this in the ocean, whatever happens.

Good luck, there's a reason they make waterproof cases for devices like this. I in fact covered one from ghost tech and again, the whole premise is to protect it from all the elements. DEX is a wonderful desktop class operating skin. If you will that they've integrated into their ecosystem once upon a time, touch wiz. Now, of course, it's one UI and I think Samsung has done an amazing job.

You know touch wiz used to be really the culmination of the problems with Samsung devices and now one UI, a quick rename and real maturation of all their features have turned it into. I think an overlay or an experience that is not only their trademark, but something that most manufacturers wish. They had the only other one being, of course, apple, which is their own operating system, not their own user experience overlaid on top of an operating system. So a lot of credit goes to Samsung for sticking with it. In spite of tremendous criticism over the years and really making one of the most polished devices you will ever see, you know, is it bulky yeah? It is, and it's not for everyone.

For that reason I mean not. Everyone is going to want such a large phone. Let me get it out of the pit aka and by the way the pit aka is my favorite case because of its form factor because of its usefulness when it comes to attaching to the pit aka magnetic, you know docks for your car. In fact, apple completely, knocked them off so with the whole mag ease concept. So that tells you how good pit aka really is because well, if apple copies, you're doing something right, but cases aside, there are many options.

Uh the finish on the phone. You know I was a fan more a fan of again the note 10 plus in terms of finish, this kind of has always felt like just a s20 ultra branded as a note 20, but with better lines, because the s20 was just ugly compared to this I'm a much bigger fan of the clean lines this has than what you'll find on again the s20. So the question really becomes: is this the right phone now at discounted prices and that's part of the reason I'm coming back so many months later? I think it's a steal. You know if you can pick this up for a thousand dollars or fewer you're buying a great device. In the same vein, if you can get the note 10 plus- and I saw a lot of deals over uh Black Friday Cyber Monday, where it was floating around, I think if memory serves something like you know, somewhere between five and six hundred dollars, that is, you know, buy the note, 10 plus immediately.

Of course, you will not get as many software updates, as you will hear from the current gen device, but bear in mind that the fact that note devices may be a thing of the past tells you a lot about the fact that things are going to be on the decline for traditional handsets from Samsung. I'm not saying they're, amazing they're going to start making pieces of junk, but the fact remains that, where you're going to see the most innovation, where you're going to see the biggest improvement, it's going to be in devices like this like the fold or the flip, or I don't know what they're going to call the other one that is going to have pen input. It might be the role I don't know if they're just trying to build a portfolio of um, you know euphemisms for fat, but you know for lard. We've got the folds, and we're going to have the roll. Maybe stretch marks next I don't know, but the whole point is that r d is going into the right places, and that is innovation.

And so, while I have been a note user pretty much from the beginning and now possibly till the end, I have no qualms about Samsung shifting their money into what I absolutely agree is the future which are foldable or syllables, because there's no other way to really innovate, uh, just making devices larger and giving them higher refresh rates and better cameras. Those are improvements, not innovations, and hopefully, that comes across clearly. I do still think this is the best phone on the market. Again, if you're looking for a traditional phone, and you're not intimidated by its size, I think Samsung made a mistake, eliminating uh the smaller note, and by that I mean they didn't mirror what they did with the note 10 line. They did make a smaller note, but it's still fairly large, if not too large, for a lot of consumers, and you see apple actually caught on to what Samsung did and evidence of it by making an iPhone mini.

So clearly, I think Samsung kind of missed their own mark by not keeping the note 10 or the note 20 and note 20, plus or note 20 size, is what I should say, because they of course made a note 20, but they did not retain that form factor that six inch display on the note 10, I think, was brilliant. It wasn't for me, I didn't like that. It didn't have expandable storage, but it was really a note for everyone, and maybe that was the signaling of the death of the note line, not this generation or the pandemic, or the success of foldable like these. Although I do think the success of foldable is really the death of the note identity, because it can no longer be Samsung's top of the line when you've got this phone that is already more expensive than it, and then this guy, which is more expensive than any mainstream device from any carrier and or not carrier manufacturer. I mean, of course, so it's a logical pathway.

I get why Samsung if they end up ending the note line and integrating the s pen into all their phones, it makes sense. They've invested a ton of r d into the s pen, experience they're, not going to abandon that, and most traditional buyers of the galaxy series aren't going to be upset. They will not that they have a pen now slotted into their phone, the worst case scenarios they're going to say they don't use it, which, quite frankly, there are plenty of note users. I've met over the years. That say they don't use it either, and then I kind of wonder why they bother buying a note because to me the whole beauty of having the note is the pen experience.

Now, of course, what comes with? It is always top of the line, specs, better performance and hardware than any other phone on the market. That includes apple, because I don't believe in synthetic benchmarks that only exist inside of one operating system. That's just if anything was ever bogus. It's that sort of benchmarking, but that's why, when users come over to my channel and say apple's newest chip, outperforms everybody um, that's a half-truth, isn't it, and if it's not well, then you enjoy Kool-Aid. And since I don't use apple products, it doesn't matter what kind of chip apple produces, because it's not going to do what I need it to.

I live in a world of a free market. At any rate, the point is: is that this device is still the king of the hill uh here at the end of 2020 and going into 2021. Now how far away the new galaxy lineup is. I don't know, of course it will have a better processor. Will it have more ram? Probably not.

I think eight gigs is going to be a sweet spot for some time. That's what they put in this device and surprisingly the z-fold 2 did not get more ram than what you could find in the s. Excuse me the note 20 ultra. So with that kept in mind, you know Samsung intentionally cut some corners on this. Like the camera module, they gave us the camera from the s20 line, rather than the note 20 ultra line, and they lowered the storage on here to 256 from first gen 512, of course, no expandable storage on either of these.

So a clear trend is happening here, uh with Samsung, and that is that money is flowing, as I've said over and over again to the newer technology. Now, if this is the last note, it will have been the best ever made that I can say through the course of this video again from a pen perspective, best writing the best cameras. I don't love that you know it doesn't sit flush on any surfaces. Essentially you have to compensate for that with cases it is wrapped with corning's the latest version of gorilla glass, which is good. It is a very solid phone overall, a lot of users over the months have talked about a wobbling that comes from the cameras from the camera unit.

To my knowledge, that is the optical image stabilization, but I'm not exactly sure. Nor would I begin to your know, tell anyone what I think it is that's what I've read. I've never experienced any problems with it and overall this phone, just it does exactly what you expect it to do, which is operated smoothly quickly and at the end of the day there is nothing it can't do, except for maybe last the entire day. So that's that's really the only critique. I think that you can give to this phone other than it possibly being too large, depending on the user.

The note 20 ultra really can do everything from a pen input standpoint, cameras being top of the class. Some will argue, of course, that the iPhone outperforms it, I think, that's really more of a matter of personal preference, but they've really come a long way and one UI, as I keep saying, is now something that you know. Touch wiz was once uh, you know derelict, and now it's kind of you know the measure to meet or the standard to uh compete with, so it says a lot about Samsung coming into their own and the fact that this may be the end of the note. Also says a lot about Samsung coming into their own, because you know the first note was introduced in 2012, and here we are in 2020, and they're on to bigger and better things, and god help us all nothing literal, of course, if Samsung isn't able to come up with something better than just a large-scale phone with pen input eight years later, thankfully they have, and again they aren't just gimmicks. But my only real criticism, as I just stated, is battery life.

Also, pricing. Of course. I said this throughout all of my coverage. I think that they priced this too aggressively and by aggressively I mean too expensive and a lot of people will say. Oh, it's not expensive, come on.

What are you talking about, and you're living in your own bubble? It is too expensive. You've got first world problems. That doesn't mean people are poor. It means people are rational and um. You know they're not losing money on these phones.

Folks, that's why, when they go on sale over the holiday season, they take a huge dip, and that's why there are a lot of people that don't bother with launch I get it. Another thing I want to point out is that I really I've mentioned this in my other videos, not a fan of the relocation of the s pen as a righty, at least when it comes to writing the right side is intuitive. It's where it belongs. Now, of course, the reason they moved it again. I didn't you know contact them.

I don't have any relationship with Samsung, believe it or not. Hopefully, that'll change, Samsung, wake up. I get enough views and have enough subscribers interested in Samsung products. You're leaving your own money on the table. Forget about me.

The camera module reversed. So on previous generations of the note, the pen was always on the opposite side of the camera, and so the camera module, I think, getting larger here. I think that played a role in what ended up happening. I think correct me if I'm wrong, but it has to be something to do with the camera module. Possibly 5g, but again it makes sense that it's the camera module that has moved the pen.

Okay, that's that's what I'm figuring uh it's what makes the most sense fingerprint magnet. Absolutely you may not be able to tell in this video, or you may be able to tell very easily that it collects fingerprints like a museum, at least one where you get to touch things, and it's its not a good thing, but you're gonna, probably you know, have this in a case or skin. At least I highly recommend protecting this, and for those of you out there that need insurance. Please get it even if you're not leaving your house very expensive phone. The omission of a headphone jack, you know started with the note 10 line.

The note 9 was the last one to have it. Do I miss it? No, but I know many of you do, and so I will mention the fact that Samsung didn't need to do that, but they decided if the competition has done it, and they've all gotten away with it. We don't need to be the last one, delivering features that some will perceive as antiquated, especially when we can make a little more money and that's exactly what happened here: the GPU on here very competent. If you plan on doing any form of mobile gaming, this is going to be able to do everything and anything you desire. So while I may not be demoing all these things, you've probably watched reviews about this phone to death.

Already at this point, and most of what I do on my channel, if you're not already aware of it, is give as much insight as I can about the product uh, how it fares in the real world, not in the review world and also how the market receives it, treats it not just from a consumer standpoint but from an economics standpoint, because I've been in the stock market for over 20 years. So I look at these things in a broader scope than a lot of other people do when they review them. So you know they've made an incredibly clean and competent device um, you know volume rocker, you know power button. If you want it to be on the right or just a button that you can assign to anything, you want, I just wish they'd get rid of the pinhole battery life would be better, and if this hump could go away, it'd be great. Another thing I didn't talk about wireless charging.

You know we took a step backwards. We had 45 watt charging, even though there wasn't a 45 watt charger included out of the box with the note, 10 plus and then here all of a sudden we're looking at 25 watt max and that again shows you. I don't know if that was a manufacturing challenge or just a corner being cut because of the pandemic. In order to make more money, I mean there are Chinese manufacturers making phones now with 100 watt chargers, I already have power banks capable of 100 watt delivery, so the question becomes what is Samsung doing? I think they're playing a little of apple's game here, and it makes sense they finally have gotten to the top of the mountain, and they're able to look down and basically do whatever they want and users who want their devices. Much like the way apple fans will purchase whatever the revision is they're, leveraging that a little and hey if it works, and you can get away with it, you do it, it doesn't make it right, and so I don't like that, they didn't give us.

You know 45 watt or faster charging with this. Just as I don't like that, somehow our base internal storage configuration went down, I mean that's just so. Many devices now require smartphone storage. Forget apps alone. I mean, if you game, I don't do too much mobile gaming, because I have laptops and real computers for it.

But I know many of you out there do and part of the pitch of this phone was to use a console controller with it and game on it. Now, a lot of that was through the cloud, but let's say you weren't doing it through the cloud. It's just counter-intuitive to say: well, you have expandable storage yeah, the expandable storage cannot really be used. Most apps will not permit it, and on top of that, you wouldn't want to, because micros cards are simply not fast enough to leverage what needs to be in order to utilize apps forget about gaming. So it's a head scratcher, just as you know the pinhole as a head scratcher.

I really. I would rather have a little of bezel. Believe it or not. Call me crazy. Just don't call me Shirley if you get that good luck, but having that pinhole bothers me, it's bothered me since the trend began, and it bothers me on my z, z-fold.

It bothers me on my z-flip, but those phones have something this doesn't, which is the ability to be transformative. That is why they are the future. What they don't have is ip68 ratings for dust and water resistance and pen input which this does have so at the end of the day, to reiterate 26 minutes in just about on the mark right now the best phone on the market, also one of the most expensive in the candy bar realm. You will not be upset purchasing this as long as you understand its size, its form factor is unruly. It is more likely to fall out of your pocket at least my pockets than any other device.

I've had uh. I have had the easy fold to fall out on me once that was more to do with the lining of those crappy j crew pockets than the phone itself, and also the fact that I had no case on the z, flip uh, the leather half-sided cases are trash, this phone, you can fully rig out, and you know you want to wear it on a belt clip. Furthermore, I showed a ghost tech case. You can do that, and it is built like a brick house. You know this is the go everywhere.

Do everything device? There is no other phone like it. The closest to it, of course, is the s20 ultra, which I would not recommend to anyone uh, not just because it's ugly, but the autofocus capability, there's a reason that Samsung changed the camera module, there's a reason. They went to five times optical zoom from 10 times, there's a reason. The digital zoom became 50 rather than the space zoom 100, which was a ridiculous thing designed really to, I think, captivate apple users, because Samsung usually doesn't do silly crap like that, unless they're trying to get users who, like silly crap- and this is not me- insulting apple users, it's insulting apple because apple- does a tremendous amount of silly and profits from it. Most manufacturers can't get away with that.

Apple's had carte blanche for many years, but for the last I would say three to four years: they've been playing copycat even with this mini crap. Coming back. That was them seeing Samsung, make smaller phones and actually sell them and then say wait a minute. Maybe we've got to return to our roots. Maybe it is time to bring back something smaller, and so they've done that, but overall, this is a great device through the course of this video.

It's gone down. One percentage point on battery from 75 to 74. Uh. If you live in a 5g market, you'll have gigabit speeds, which is even more bonkers, but overall the only way you're going to do better than this is waiting for the next generation, and if there is no next note, you might not be so happy because, as I have reiterated, the money is going to foldable and that's you know for good reason. Foldable absolutely are the future.

I mean this is what it's all about devices like the z-fold 2 right here devices like the z-flip that I have right here. This is where it's at this is where things are headed and as long as devices like this are out there. You better believe that the note is going to have a harder time coexisting, because you've got competing devices that are more technologically advanced, more alluring uh. The wow factor certainly exists more in devices. That fold I mean the fact that I can fold this up and put it in a pocket and still have such a large format device.

I wish this could do this. You know it can't, but I also wish this had. You know water resistance, dust, resistance and pen input, and it can't do that same applies to the magical, z-fold 2 over here, an amazing phone two thousand dollars, certainly not for everyone uh. Furthermore, you know basically two devices in one really. The z-flip is not that's one of the reasons I love.

This is because I have a tablet and a phone in one. It is heavier and bulkier than the note, but because it's narrower easier to handhold in phone mode as I'll call it and uh. You know, because I've got a kickstand. It really does turn into a tablet. Here.

Yeah, there are a million cases with kickstands. It still won't be a tablet, it'll be what we would have considered a tablet back in the day. I'm talking about it. You know six seven years ago, but that says a lot I mean we have come a really long way to have such a powerful phone cameras that have essentially rendered point-and-shoot cameras dead. There's a reason that Sony's Rx line is really all that's left these days and then DEX as I've mentioned the ability to have that and use it wirelessly and basically give you the same feeling and experience that you'd get out of chrome, operating system, chrome, OS or windows, or even something from apple.

It's pretty amazing that Samsung has done this all on their own, just to make this phone the best on the market, and they've done it by the way call quality, stellar, Bluetooth. Everything on this phone just does exactly what it should. Uh the speaker performance speakerphone very good. This is incredibly loud. I mean they already had made the note 10 loud, so I was wondering how they were gonna.

You know boost this even more, and they did it. This note, 20 plus, is one of the loudest uh devices I've ever held in my hand. Of course, my z-fold two is louder, but it's got a lot more room. You know it's got the ability. It's got uh floor space.

You know, surface area that just doesn't exist on this guy. So at the end of the day, if you were, if you're asking me to select between this phone, the z fold, 2 and the z flip, it really comes down to what I've been mentioning through the whole video, if you're after the phone that can go anywhere. Do anything it's this guy. It is the note 20 ultra. It really is the jack of all trades and master of all, not master of none master of all.

But if you are looking for something that's going to change the way that you fundamentally use your device, that's where these two come in. Ladies putting this in your pocketbook, even though you may not be going anywhere, it's the future of phones for you and men with your nurses, I'm not one of them. But if you like to carry immerse, I respect that and everyone else should to shut up, if you don't quite frankly, uh. But for me, it's all about that. Z-Fold too, I mean this is where it's at and if they come out, as I said with the blubber, you know the fold blubber, what's essentially going to be a roll-out with two pocketed like barn doors, design glass, so that you can use pen input, and it's going to be the role they do have to be aware.

I don't think it's an ESL thing that all of these names again, if they're, going to call that the role- and this is the fold they're starting to sound like they're, making fat, jokes, and they've got to be aware of that, and it might be an ESL thing, could very well be so someone over at Samsung, please wake up and realize that if you call the next phone in the foldable arena, the role I'm going to continue to make fun of you because folds and rolls you know what else does that sound like, as I mentioned other than a jab at fatty's? At any rate, the note 20 ultra is the best phone of its kind. If you want a candy bar large form factor. Do everything device that is water resistant, built like a brick house, still incredibly thin and 5g capable you've got it? You don't have to look anywhere else, just make sure you get it on sale. Do yourself a favor and if you can wait a little longer guess what these phones are only going to go down more I mean they were going down in price. Almost you know as soon as the trade-in programs were over this not so much this one's come down in price, but that's because a 5g model came out, but not that much I mean it started out at 1380 went down.

I think it's now 12.50 so bear all that in mind. But there's no question this is the candy bar to beat, but it might be too big for you might be too unruly. You may not care about the cameras. You may not care about the 120 hertz screen. God knows the 120 hertz bothers me because it eats that battery for breakfast still doesn't make it unusable and with quick charging granted your cap to 25 watt you'll still get back to uh half charge pretty quickly.

Had they done 45 or 100, then the battery capacity discussion and overall battery performance would be moot. But it's not the world we're living in folks anyway, pandemic. Special note, 20 ultra is the best candy bar style phone of the pandemic. Surprise, surprise or no surprise. Hopefully it's not the death of this device.

I really hope not um, but that's the end of at least my story with the note 20 perfect note ever made- hopefully not the last, but it looks like we're all just going to have to live with s, pens being in every other phone that Samsung makes and foldable whether they're to make fun of fat people or not being the new standard. Hope you enjoyed the video any questions or comments. Please feel free to post them, hit that like button and as usual, please feel free to subscribe, and please stay safe later.

Source : TheDigitalDigest