Flagship smartphone with pen: With the Galaxy Note 20, only the Ultra is top

With the Galaxy Note 20, Samsung is launching the new generation of its monster smartphone with a pen. It is not a big step forward, the South Koreans have simply further developed the tried and tested technology. If you really want to splurge, put the Ultra model in your pocket – if it's deep enough.

Some people are looking for the most compact and affordable smartphones like the Google Pixel 4a, which can do everything you need in everyday life, but nothing more. Others want devices with the largest possible display and all the extras, whatever the cost. For this clientele, Samsung launched the first Galaxy Note on the market almost nine years ago with what was then a huge display and an integrated touch pen. Since then, the screen of the "first phablet" has become larger, the pen more refined and the performance has become higher and higher. Now Samsung has introduced the Galaxy Note 20 and the more powerful Ultra variant, which basically does everything like the ancestor, just much, much better.

The "normal" Galaxy Note 20 seems to be a kind of saving flagship despite a still proud price of around 1000 euros. It has a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with an integrated fingerprint sensor, which surprisingly only resolves with FHD +. This results in a pixel density of 394 ppi, which is relatively modest for high-end devices. The refresh rate at 60 Hertz (Hz) is also only standard. In addition, the panel of the Note 20 is not curved on the sides, which could also be seen as an economy measure. However, there are enough users who prefer a flat display to the side-arched versions.

Plastic does it too

To keep costs down, the device also has a matte plastic back instead of glass. But that is not necessarily a disadvantage. The surface may not be as scratch-resistant, but plastic is almost unbreakable.

In terms of camera equipment, Samsung has largely used its Galaxy S20 series, for the Note 20 the S20 +. The device therefore has a main camera with 12 megapixels (MP) resolution and aperture f / 1.8. There is also a 12 MP ultra wide-angle camera with f / 2.2 aperture and a 64 MP telephoto camera with f / 2.0 aperture. The front camera has a resolution of 10 MP and has an aperture of f / 2.2.

The interior is also S20-like: The device is powered by Samsung's own Exynos 990 chip. In addition, there are 8 gigabytes (GB) of RAM and 256 GB of flash memory. The battery capacity of 4300 mAh (mAh) should guarantee long runtimes.

The S Pen was quite exhausted on the Note 10, and not much was added except for a reduced latency and improved precision. What's more exciting is that Samsung has made the smartphone compatible for Microsoft's cloud gaming.

Would you like a little more?

With the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, Samsung has put a good deal on it almost everywhere. This model has a 6.9-inch display that bends around the long sides. With the WQHD + resolution, its pixel density of 496 ppi and the refresh rate of 120 Hz are befitting.

A huge camera unit stands out on the glass back, which corresponds to that of the Galaxy S20 Ultra. That is why the smartphone has a 108 MP main camera with f / 1.8 aperture, in which the high resolution is used, among other things, for strong zoom magnifications. The telephoto camera with 12 MP and aperture f / 3.0 is more modest. The Ultra model has the same ultra-wide-angle camera as the simple Note 20.

Even under the hood, 12 GB of RAM and 256 or 512 GB of flash memory are a bit more for the top model. Depending on the equipment, the battery of the Ultra with 4500 mAh also has a slightly higher capacity. In addition, the S Pen should have a lower latency than that of the standard model. And there is another small but subtle difference: While the Note 20 only swallows two SIM cards or one eSIM + SIM card, you can also insert a microSD card with the Ultra.

The big differences are also noticeable in the prices of the devices that will be available from August 21. The Galaxy Note 20 is available from 925 euros, the Note 20 Ultra from 1266 euros. With the standard model, you can add another 98 euros for the 5G variant. The Ultra is basically 5G-compatible, here the 98 euros are due extra for the double flash memory.