Samsung Note 20 Ultra vs Sony Xperia 1 ii By TheDigitalDigest

Ed here with the digital digest- and today I wanted to share a comparison between the Samsung Galaxy note, 20 ultra on the left and the Sony Xperia 1 mark ii on the right now before I even get into comparing these devices, you should know they are, in my opinion, the best smartphones available here in 2020 they're, also some of the most expensive 1300 us dollars for the note 20 ultra 1200 for the Xperia 1 mark ii. This one has 5g in the states. This one only supports 5g overseas. That's very important. Another thing that you should be aware of is that if you care about the s pen on the note 20 ultra well, then there's nothing really to compare, because you're not going to get a pen experience from the Xperia 1 mark ii, and that's really the aim of this video is not to tell you one phone is better than the other, but to educate you as much as possible about which phone is right for you. So the displays are a big point of interest, as they should be 6.9 inches with 120 hertz, refresh rate and ammo led. That is nearly 4k on the note 20 ultra the opera, on the other hand, has a 4k AMOLED that is six and a half inches 21 by nine aspect ratio.

I do believe that the display on the Xperia one mark ii is superior. It's more color accurate, more lifelike, the Samsung as usual, is more vivid but take into account design, which is important and, with the note 20 ultra, you have a basically bezel-less experience, even though we do have a pinhole cut out for the 10 megapixel front facing camera. The opera, on the other hand, instead of having a curved display, has a traditional flat design with a bezel all around, which many would argue is better for practical use, because you won't have any touches from holding the phone. The Xperia is also much more palm friendly because of its 21 by 9 aspect ratio, which makes it thinner, even though it is longer than most phones with a six and a half inch display. Both have stereo sound, but this one the Xperia has front-facing speakers.

Also, you should know the Xperia 1. Mark ii has a three and a half millimeter headphone jack. That is not something you will find on many smartphones here in 2020. In fact, the note 20 hasn't the note line hasn't had a headphone jack since the note 9. So that's going back two generations both of these have great processors, equal, Qualcomm, snapdragon, 865, plus in the note 20 ultra and 865, on the right in the Xperia 12 gigs of ram 8 gigs of ram 128 gigs of storage 256 both are expandable.

We've got a micros card slot and sim card slot right there that you do not need a tool for. I love that you can open that without carrying around a pinhole tool. The slot for storage expansion and the sim is up there on the left side of the note, 20 ultra uh 4 500 William hour battery in the note 20 ultra 4 000 William hour in the Sony. Both are good, but the Sony, even though it has a smaller battery, does a better job with battery management. I could get through the day with the opera.

I could not with the note 20, even when turning off the 120 hertz refresh rate display, because you can switch between the two. So that's something to bear in mind if you actually utilize the hertz refresh rate in the Samsung note.20 ultra do not expect to get much battery life and that's just a matter of the specifications that these phones carry both have wireless charging both have ip68 ratings, which mean they can get wet. They are dust resistant and both have fantastic cameras. Now I didn't mention before I get to the cameras. The 8 megapixel camera on the front of the Xperia is inferior to the 10 megapixel camera cut out the selfie camera on the note 20 ultra, but when we flip over to the back and look at the real cameras, the Sony is the winner and that shouldn't be surprising because well, Sony is one of the best DI that is digital, imaging companies in the world, and they make more than half of the world's smartphone sensors and sensors in general.

For that matter, uh you know no matter who the actual manufacturer is of a camera. You may, like Sony, may be making that sensor. So what do you need to know? Well, we do have a 108 megapixel sensor in the Samsung, but that's a load of crap, because the sensor is tiny. What we do have that's significant is five times optical zoom. On that 108 megapixel sensor with the Sony we have a 16, 24 and 70 millimeter lens and sensor pairing, but that 24 millimeter lens sensor pairing.

It is a significantly larger sensor than what you'll find in most smartphones. In fact, it's comparable to what you'd find in point-and-shoot cameras from years past that is sub one inch so three times optical zoom, five times, optical zoom. Okay, that's something you should be aware of. In addition to that, the autofocus system on the Sony is far superior and this again reflects Sony's own DI business. We have real-time tracking for video eye autofocus for both humans and animals alike.

Those animals being pets both have autofocus systems that are good, but the Sony is better 20. Frames per second can be shot with the Sony, but it's not perfect, and I say that I don't mean the autofocus. I mean the camera experience, because the Samsung does have advantages. For example, I mentioned the five times optical zoom, but something you should be aware of, that the Sony doesn't have, and I'll give you an example of the zoom is when recording video. You can jump between the wide mid and telephoto on the Samsung with Sony.

You cannot do that. Furthermore, you cannot jump from each of these uh sensor lens pairings seamlessly you can zoom three times, but that is it. So, while a lot of flagships like the iPhone like the note 20 ultra here, can zoom between all of its cameras, that is not possible with the Sony who knows maybe next generation. Now, to give you an example of the difference, oh and by the way this is capable the Sony. Excuse me the Samsung of capturing 8k, video.

Now that may be relevant to you. It may not. It is a form of future proofing. Furthermore, it is something I like, but it's not something that I need. Moving to the example, I want to show you of the difference on the optical zoom.

So if I go ahead and just open up two shots, I took of the moon on the same night. You can instantly see the difference. Now, I'm not going to tell you that this image on the note 20 ultra is beautiful because it isn't, but it is the difference between being able to get the shot and not, and that I think, is significant. So when you look at these side by side, be aware that, even though I just told you, the cameras are better on the Sony. This is again where I come back to.

Are they better for you? Because if you care about being able to take, you know a moon, zoom like I did here, and it did come out fairly. Well, it gets crushed as soon as you blow it up. That's only going to happen with the note 20 ultra with the Sony. On the other hand, you're, just not you don't have the optical zoom- that even with digital to compensate or what Sony calls their clear image, you're not going to get this sort of image on the Xperia 1 mark ii. But if you care about the overall quality of the stills you're taking, and you're, mostly going to be shooting people which I think is more realistic than moon zooms and using the telephoto, and you're going to be shooting kids pets family.

Even though we're in a pandemic, the Sony is going to outperform the Samsung every single day, especially again, if you know the children, the pets family members are running around, because this has 20 frames per second and focus to match that is really born out of their a9 series. Camera! That's how Sony has marketed this. What I also really like about the Sony is that you do have a dedicated shutter button right there, something you will not find on pretty much any other flagship device from a major manufacturer, fingerprint scanner power, button volume, rocker the type c charger right there at the bottom, 18 watts uh. What I'd like to have seen faster charging sure, but that's just not part of the equation with the Samsung. We also, of course, have type c charging capped out at 25 watts.

This is a step back from Samsung's previous generation, which supported 45 watts. I assume this was a cost saving measure one. I am not happy about. Similarly, I'm not happy about the 128 gigs of internal storage, this phone, the note 20 that is, is far too expensive and with 8k video recording and a focus on cameras to only have 128 gigs of internal storage is offensive, so uh. Of course, it can be expanded, but Samsung has the bragging rights of having the fastest internal storage of any smartphone on the market.

They make it after all, Sony doesn't have that, but at least they give you enough storage that you won't be struggling very quickly. Some of you probably won't even need to throw in a micro SD card, but with this I guarantee you will so moving away from the cameras. Well, actually, while on the cameras, let's talk about the pro modes, because if I left that out, I would be doing everyone a disservice, because when you're just shooting pictures with the regular camera app, this is actually being the know. The Samsung note 20 ultra is going to be the better device, but when you go into the pro mode, that's when things get different, and let's talk about that with Sony, you have a cinema pro mode which gives you the look and feel of using one of their cinema cameras. Now this is unmatched by any manufacturer.

Samsung does try their best to give you a pro mode, and I'll be showing you that in a moment, but it is not going to give you different filters that are real, like Sony's, giving you like the Venice cs, opaque bright, warm. This is not going to happen. This even gives you a project file timeline for the videos you shoot so that in theory you could actually put together a film if you wanted to it, shows you your HDR mode, your codec being used the battery amount, internal storage, your audio levels, whether they're clipping or not. I mean really everything you could possibly want with the Samsung. On the other hand, you jump into the camera app, and you'll see as I swipe to the right.

We have a pro mode for stills and a pro mode for video, and you should instantly be able to tell there is a pretty big difference between these two pro modes. Now, there's nothing wrong with the pro mode that the Samsung has, but you're quickly reminded that this is just a phone manufacturer trying to give you a lot of features, which is a good thing. That's not a bad thing, but it does not come close to what Sony has put together with their pro mode and also, if I go to the still pro mode. It's the same thing on the Sony. You're quickly reminded that Sony is the camera manufacturer, whereas Samsung is just trying to keep up, and you can see.

You have literally every feature if you're familiar with Sony's e-mount or cyber shot cameras, then you're going to feel at home. With this look, a lot of users aren't going to want to touch this, but if you are someone that wants to and is interested- and you really want to treat your phone like a camera and not a smartphone that just takes pictures, the Sony will outperform the Samsung in literally every fashion. I mean when I look at the pro mode for stills again, it looks a lot like the pro mode for video. That's not something you saw with the Sony and there's a reason. I mean it's not that it's not flexible and capable it is um.

As I mentioned, this has 8k video recording capability. It can sync up with Bluetooth buds so that you can have a microphone acting like a lav. With this, it's very cool you can control the direction of the microphones. These are all good things, but at the end of the day, it does not compare to what Sony has done with the Xperia 1 mark ii, and it shouldn't so the only area in which the cameras are, unfortunately not as good as they should be with the Sony really lives with the front-facing camera. But I prefer the fact that we don't have a cutout for a pinhole, and I'm going to reiterate that, and the other area is that we don't have 8k video and last but not least, what I mentioned earlier is that you cannot transition between all three of those lens and sensor pairings, like you can with the Samsung.

Now that we've covered cameras. Let's talk about the software with the Samsung, you have one UI 2.5 and if you're a fan of Samsung, then you're going to be happy with all the features and capabilities that Samsung has thrown in the bells and whistles. The list is so long that you could argue some of it could be done away with, but I think it's great. If you remember the touch wiz years, then you know that that used to be a curse for Samsung phones, whereas now one UI is actually a bragging right. Sony, on the other hand, went for a pixel feel very stock.

Both of them are running android, 10, of course, but very much stock, android clean light. That's part of the reason the battery life is as good as it is, but that doesn't mean Sony has no features. I mean they have um clearly made an effort to reiterate that you can multitask with their phone, so they have the side sense which should be activated, and it didn't activate there. So, but it did that time, and usually I don't have an issue, so that will blame on me, which gives you the ability to quickly multitask um. So you want to pull up you can't with the cameras multitask, but you can with other apps so again designed for one-handed use.

The other thing is, you can double tap the home button to get a smaller version of your home screen, so that you won't have an issue getting your thumb across the display and that, of course, can be moved left or right, but that doesn't mean you can't do those things with Samsung. Samsung, of course, had what you just saw many years ago and still does, but you know that's pretty much where it ends on the custom software for the Sony. Yes, the game. Enhancer is there which can control heat. You know power management and it is legitimate uh.

If you do enjoy gaming on a phone, it is going to be tough to beat again, you expect that from Sony come on. They are one of the founding fathers of console gaming. So this should be a gaming centric phone, and it is remembered you have front facing uh stereo firing speakers here we don't have that we do have stereo. We have a speaker at the bottom and the earpiece. This phone does get louder than the Samsung than the Sony, but I would argue that the Sony has better a better overall sound stage.

So that's going to be up to you, which one you personally prefer, but you've heard at least my take on audio performance, and if you do really care about audio performance, then the three and a half millimeter headphone jack simply will not be beat that will best every Bluetooth, uh earbud solution on the market, because it actually is good. It's not just a headphone jack. Remember this is the company that gave you the Walkman. So there's a reason. They still give you a three and a half millimeter headphone jack, but in terms of software, where it's really at are again the pro modes for video and still shooting otherwise, Samsung does have Sony beat in terms of features and capabilities and just they've matured.

Many years and credit does go to Sony because, even though they've been in the smartphone business for years, when you think about their footprint here in the US, they really haven't done much, and the fact that these are so close in terms of performance quality pricing tells you a lot about how good a job Sony did with this phone. But of course this is not all love fest, it's about what is going to be right for you and if you prefer a smaller device, the Sony is the one. If you want the phablet to rule them all. The note 20 ultra is the winner. You know if if the front-facing camera the selfie camera being weaker on the Sony, is a killer for you, then all the features I mentioned might not be worthwhile.

Wireless charging I mentioned, works fine on both of these even with a case, but I want to mention accessories because, with the note 20 ultra, you are going to find a wide variety of cases and accessories, not so much so with the Sony. Simply because again, how many units of this are going to sell internationally versus the Xperia one mark ii? These are things you have to think about or not think about, and maybe now I made you think about them, but be aware, and then there, as I mentioned at the beginning of the video, is the s pen. Now I love if it's hard for me to imagine a phone without it, and that is one of the reasons I personally would pick the note 20 ultra over the Sony, but if we take the s pen out of the equation, I'm with the Sony all day long and that's regardless of price, regardless of no 5g here in the US, because in my market there is no 5g anyway, and I've already told you- the cameras are better here. So I really don't have much to regret by selecting this, and even though this doesn't have a 120 hertz variable refresh rate on the display you can, there is a mode inside the software to smooth that does replicate or emulate 90 hertz. So that is a very good substitute for the 120 hertz smoothness.

That the note 20 ultra has to offer when it comes to multimedia experience, they're both fantastic, but I do feel like this is a little movie theater in my pocket because of the 21x9 aspect ratio because of the front firing speakers, even if they're not as loud as the note. It's just you know a better experience for me personally, but that's something you will need to see in person to really make a choice on, in my opinion, but both of these devices, regardless of the difference in ram 12 versus 8 multitask exceptionally well, both are not going to have a problem, doing anything that a smartphone should, or you would want to do. But there is something really satisfying about uh the look and feel of the Sony and the ability to actually play back 4k videos just on YouTube, for example in true resolution, whereas here you're going to be limited to 1440p. Is that a big deal? No, it might be, though, depending on who you are and what you want to get out of your smartphone, especially when you're spending, 13 or 1200 us dollars. Remember the note.20 ultra came out a month after the Sony, but you know regardless, as I've said, these are two of the best smartphones ever made. Now I've covered processor I've covered 5g.

I've covered the display charging. I do wish both of them had faster uh charging than the 18 and 25 watts respectively. Can't do anything about that uh. I do wish the Sony had some sort of pen input, but we don't have that option. But what is unique about the Sony is that this is the first smartphone I've seen that for me could almost replace something like this: a rx100 uh over one thousand dollar point-and-shoot camera with a one-inch sensor.

Now, if it ever has a one-inch sensor, which I think it will eventually not sure when that's when this phone's going to be or Sony will be very hard to beat in the business because all the shift with apple google and of course Samsung- is on camera prowess and that's where Sony finally realized: hey we've got a card. No one else has, so that's one of the reasons I'm disappointed with the front-facing camera, but that's also one of the reasons I'm excited about Sony's future here, especially in the US where they haven't been a major player in the smartphone world, but eventually I think we're going. It could just be the next generation of this device see something that really could make our heads spin. There is a pro coming out later, but that's not what today's video is about it's about what's available now. So, as I said at the top of the video, I don't think you will be in bad shape with either of these.

These are two of the best devices on the market. Hopefully, I've addressed basically everything that you could think about, because you know at the end of the day it's about personal preference when it comes to build quality, which is something I didn't mention they're both really well-made both wrapped in gorilla glass. Although the note 20 ultra does have the latest gen Vitus, I will tell you I do like the feel of the Sony more than the note 20 ultra, and I've been a note user. Basically, since almost since gen 1. Gen 1 is the only one I really passed on for the most part.

So keep that in mind. That's a very big compliment to Sony. I feel like it's a little more solid. I don't know the back of the note.20 ultra feels a little hollow to me. I mean you're hearing the same noise, but I don't know it's just the Sony is more of a dense device, whereas the note 20 ultra just is a huge footprint because of its display, and on top of that I have to say for me personally, I do prefer not having the curve display.

I just do as I also prefer not having a pinhole cut out in my display. So again you will not be in bad shape with either of these. These are the best handsets on the market right now, if you're not interested in a folding phone, but I think I've covered everything you need to know again. If you care about the s pen, and you care about having Samsung's one UI, there's nothing to compare, but if you're willing to look beyond that, if you're willing to take a step into another realm, you've got the Sony and, by the way, the camera hump. This thing is inexcusable totally inexcusable.

What Sony's got going on here is definitely something I can make an argument for. I think it's much more realistic, uh! It's you know it's what we basically had last gen on the note 10 plus this thing that they started well apple, really started this ugly nonsense. I just think is atrocious. It's awful, and I wish it didn't exist, but if the market pays for it, manufacturers will continue to make it if you're looking for more than this, that's where folding devices come in. The z-flip has been my daily driver now since launch that may change when the z-fold 2 drops but either way, as I've said throughout the course of this video.

These are the best candy bar flagship phones on the market, but I would personally pick the note 20 ultra only because of the s pen and my fianc? reiterates that point she loves the Sony device thinks the cameras are unmatched. You know when you actually pixel peep on these things, don't get crushed on the Samsung they do, but she also concurs that without the s pen, it's hard for her to pick the Sony. So that's just our both of our personal uh opinion and that's why I mentioned the s pen at the top, because if you really care about it, is there really another phone to consider? No we'll see if the fold pulls me away from the note 20 ultra or my z, flip, the Sony is going back. It is a review unit, but that pretty much is it 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