Launched – The Galaxy Note20 and Note20 Ultra


Samsung announced today that they would “re-define what’s possible with the most powerful devices”. They announced a smartwatch, earbuds, a tablet and the Galaxy Note20 and 20 Ultra phones.

They’ve each been designed “with the next normal in mind” and all wrap into the Samsung eco-system.

The Galaxy Note20 and Note20 Ultra were first out of the gate and, for those of you who may not have touched a Note before, if has a stylus (sorry, “S Pen”) and you used to see these things called “Phablets”.

Samsung tell us that this phone will help you balance work and play.

The Note20 has a 6.7″ screen (1080 x 2400 pixel 20:9 with 393 ppi and HDR10+) and the Note20 Ultra gets a 6.9″ screen (1440 x 3088 pixel with 496 ppi density and HDR10+). It’s got the brightest screen on a smartphone today with 120Hz refresh. There’s also Gorilla Glass Victus protection on the screen.

Both phones have the fastest processors in the Galaxy series. They’ll boost to 50% charge in 30 minutes.

Camera-wise there’s a selfie camera (10 megapixel). The Note20 Ultra has a 12 megapixel ultra-wide, 12 megapixel telephoto and a massive 108 megaxpixel standard camera. Meanwhile the Note20 gets a 12 megapixel standard camera (which is a bit of a jump down from the 108 megaxpixel lens on the Note20 Ultra), a 12 megapixel wide-angle and a 64 megapixel telephoto.

Why put a higher resolution telephoto on the Note20 than than the Note20 Pro? Who knows.

The Note20 comes in a couple of variants – 8GB RAM / 128GB storage and 8GB RAM / 256GB storage. Meanwhile the Note20 Ultra has a 12GB / 256GB and a 12GB 512GB version. The Note20 Ultra also gets a microSD card slot too. The Note20 doesn’t.

The colouring of the phones has garnered a lot of interest, with mystic bronze seeming to be the most wanted. Other colours include mystic green and mystic grey.

Both are powered by Qualcomm SM8250 Snapdragon 865+ CPU’s (octa-core up to 2.73GHz) and they have under-display fingerprint readers, Wireless DeX support, dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5 with aptX, GPS, NFC and USB-C charging for the 4300mAh (Note20) or 4500mAh (Note20 Ultra) battery. You can also charge via fast Qi charging.

The cost of these two? Expect to pay £849 for the base Note20 (4G only) or £949 for the 5G model. You can get the Note20 Ultra for £1,179 (no 4G-only model there). The 512GB version of the Note20 Ultra is £1,279.

Samsung are doing discounts if you trade-in your old phone and there’s various gifts being given away.