Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra review:What is New?

Samsung’s Galaxy Note line of smartphones has settled into a new routine: take some of the big new features from earlier this year’s flagship Galaxy S revisions, improve on them slightly, and add a stylus. Rather than being the first phone to introduce new technology, the Note has evolved into a phone that refines it.

This new “Ultra” name at the end of Samsung’s top S and Note phones is something new for Samsung’s routine. We’re used to phones being divided into two categories: tiny and large, but Samsung wants to add a third. As far as I can tell, “Ultra” primarily refers to going all-out on every available detail and making the camera bump enormous. Samsung has long felt the likes of OnePlus and Huawei nipping at its heels (at least until this year), and the Ultra tier of its phones is Samsung’s response to anyone who thinks it can’t build the best Android phone.

The Note 20 Ultra is ultra-pricey, starting at $1,299.99 for a device with 128GB of storage.

For $1,449.99, you may upgrade to 512GB of storage.

Routines have many advantages: they are predictable, they help you to develop abilities, and they are pleasant and familiar. However, they have the potential to trap you in a rut. Fortunately, the Note 20 Ultra avoids this pitfall – not because it has fresh ideas, but because it executes them so well.

There isn’t a single thing that I can point to that explains why the Note 20 Ultra is such a great phone. However, there are numerous minor details.

Galaxy Note 20 Ultra hardware

With a 6.9-inch screen, the Note 20 Ultra is a massive phone. It’s so large that I’d want to reintroduce the term “phablet” to characterize it. That’s because it’s large enough to straddle a fuzzy line between feeling like a little tablet and feeling like a giant phone. Normally, when I want to read an ebook, I go for my Kindle, and when I want to play a portable game, I reach for my Switch, but the screen on the Note 20 Ultra is large enough that I never felt the need for either.
The promontory is the most prominent hardware feature of the Note 20 Ultra. The three cameras, a laser focus sensor, and the flash are all housed in a huge, mesa-like camera bump on the back.

Aside from the camera bump, I don’t believe anyone is designing better phone hardware right now than Samsung. Because it boasts the purest lines, the Galaxy S20 is my favorite phone hardware thus far this year. Because of the camera hump, the Note 20 Ultra doesn’t quite reach that level, but it’s otherwise a great execution of what I expect from a Note.

Yes, it has a large screen, but it also features squared-off corners, narrow bezels, and is symmetrical from front to back. The back of the phone now sports a matte texture rather than a glossy one. This not only hides fingerprints, but it also makes the phone a little more slippery.

Another anomaly is that the S Pen pen silo is on the phone’s left side rather than the right. It bothers me as a right-handed person. But I think it’s past time for lefties to get some love.