Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Review: For Those Ahead of the Curve

The Galaxy Note series has, until the advent of the foldable Z line, represented the pinnacle of Samsung’s smartphone engineering. Samsung empowers you to be more productive with the Galaxy Note, and gaining a mastery of all the Galaxy Note’s features can transform the way you use your phone for work (and play). This is especially true with the recently launched Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G. The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G deserves credit not only for making life easier for users but also for inspiring them to seek and achieve more on the personal and professional fronts.

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is ahead of the curve in more ways than one, and you’ll definitely have a hard time keeping your hands off it. I deemed it “irresistible” in my first impressions, and that feeling has stayed with me since. However, after spending another week with Samsung’s ultra-premium smartphone, I have come to appreciate more of its nuances.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Forums ||| Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Forums

I will, of course, discuss these nuances in my review of the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. But first, here is an overview of the specifications of the Galaxy Note 20 series.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Series Specifications

Specification	Samsung Galaxy Note 20	Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
Dimensions & Weight	161.6 x 75.2 x 8.3 mm 194g	164.8 x 77.2 x 8.1 mm 213g
Display	6.7-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED 2400 x 1080 Flat display 60Hz refresh rate HDR10+ support Gorilla Glass 5 Infinity-O Display	6.9-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X 3088 x 1440 Curved display 120Hz refresh rate Adaptive refresh rate support HDR10+ support Gorilla Glass 7/Victus Infinity-O Display
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus, or Exynos 990	Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus, or Exynos 990
RAM & Storage	5G: 8GB LPDDR5 + 128GB UFS 3.1 8GB + 256GB LTE-only 8GB LPDDR5 + 256GB UFS 3.0 No microSD card expansion slot	5G: 12GB LPDDR5 + 128GB UFS 3.1 12GB + 256GB 12GB + 512GB LTE-only 8GB LPDDR5 + 256GB UFS 3.1 8GB + 512GB Dedicated microSD card slot for expansion up to 1TB
Battery & Charging	4,300mAh 25W wired fast charging support 15W wireless charging support Reverse wireless charging support	4,500mAh 25W wired fast charging support 15W wireless charging support Reverse wireless charging support
Rear Camera	Primary: 12MP, f/1.8, Dual Pixel AF, OIS, 1/1.76″ sensor Secondary: 12MP, f/2.2, ultra-wide-angle, 120° FoV Tertiary: 64MP, f/2.0, telephoto, 3x Hybrid Optic Zoom	Primary: 108MP, f/1.8, PDAF, Laser AF, OIS, 1/33″ sensor Secondary: 12MP, f/2.2, ultra-wide-angle, 120° FoV Tertiary: 12MP, f/3.0, telephoto camera, 5x Optical zoom
Front Camera	10MP, f/2.2, 1.22µm	10MP, f/2.2, 1.22µm
Connectivity	5G: NSA, SA, Sub6/mmWave LTE: Enhanced 4×4 MIMO, Up to 7CA, LTE Cat.20 – Up to 2Gbps Download / Up to 200Mbps Upload Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2.4GHz + 5GHz, HE80, MIMO, 1024-QAM Bluetooth 5.0 USB Type-C NFC MST GNSS: GPS, Galileo, Glonass, Beidou	5G: NSA, SA, Sub6/mmWave LTE: Enhanced 4×4 MIMO, Up to 7CA, LTE Cat.20 – Up to 2Gbps Download / Up to 200Mbps Upload Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2.4GHz + 5GHz, HE80, MIMO, 1024-QAM Bluetooth 5.0 USB Type-C NFC MST GNSS: GPS, Galileo, Glonass, Beidou
Other Features	S Pen: 5.8 x 4.35 x 105.08 mm 3.04g Bluetooth enabled Up to 24 hrs of battery standby 4096 pressure levels 0.7mm pen tip diameter IP68 IP68 dust and water resistance In-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor Wireless DeX support	S Pen: 5.8 x 4.35 x 105.08 mm 3.04g Bluetooth enabled Up to 24 hrs of battery standby 4096 pressure levels 0.7mm pen tip diameter IP68 IP68 dust and water resistance In-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor Wireless DeX support Ultra Wide Band (UWB) chip for device-to-device connections and fast file transfers
Android Version	One UI 2.5 based on Android 10	OneUI 2.5 based on Android 10
Colors	Mystic Green Mystic Bronze Mystic Gray Mystic Red Mystic Blue	Mystic Bronze (matte) Mystic Black (glossy) Mystic White (glossy)

About this review: Samsung India loaned me a 12GB+256GB variant of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G powered by the Exynos 990 SoC. However, they did not have inputs on the content of this review. I have been using the phone for 10 days and these are my observations after continuous usage.

Design

My perception of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra’s design has barely changed since I wrote about my first impressions. The frosted glass back — which creates a sensory illusion of a brushed metal finish — flanked by chrome-clad side rails is an expression of luxury and elegance. The side rails are squeezed between curved edges of the back panel as well as the display, while the top and the bottom parts are flattened out, adding a sense of precision to the intricate design. On the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, Samsung is letting go of the curved corners present on the Galaxy Note 10+ (our review), thus, adding to its sharp looks (pun intended).

In terms of dimensions, the new Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is marginally thicker (8.1mm vs 7.9mm) and longer (~165mm vs 162mm) than the Galaxy Note 10+. That allowed Samsung to stretch the display a little further (0.1 inches or about 2.5mm) and achieve a slightly higher screen-to-body ratio (91.7%) on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra compared to the Galaxy Note 10+ (91%). These minute changes may be picked up on by spec nerds but are unlikely to be noticed by most casual observers.

What may, distinctly, grab most people’s attention is the increase in weight by 12 grams. People perceive the weight of a smartphone differently — some use it as the basis for assurance in the quality and rigidity of the material while others may find it bothersome and hindering usage. I happen to fall in the latter category. I prefer smartphones that strictly weigh less than 200 grams. You may have a different level of tolerance in this respect, especially factoring in the real estate this phone offers.

For users looking for a similar package in a smaller form factor, Samsung also launched the Galaxy Note 10 last year which was nearly identical to the bigger Galaxy Note 10+ while being more convenient to hold. That has changed this year with the Galaxy Note 20 that is both visually distinct from the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and is also draped in plastic, which I consider an absolute deal-breaker for its price.

Another aspect that is likely to instantly grab most people’s attention is the overhanging camera bump. The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra’s camera bump is about twice as big as the one on the Galaxy Note 10+  — not only in terms of thickness but also in terms of the area it occupies on the back of the smartphone. The camera module houses three cameras — a primary 108MP wide-angle camera, a 12MP ultra-wide-angle, and a 12MP periscopic telephoto camera.  Additionally, laser autofocus lies adjacent to the triple camera array. Samsung has removed the ToF (time of flight) sensor from the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra presumably due to a lack of interest in AR applications. All of the cameras are accented by the same color as the rest of the phone, and in our case, that color is Mystic Bronze.

Samsung also makes the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra in white and black variants but with smooth finishes. While I haven’t used or even seen either of those two colors in real life, I know I would prefer the satin finish along with the charming bronze color regardless. A Samsung logo has been etched on the top-most glass layer of the back panel which can be felt differently from the rest of the back thanks to its smooth finish.

Speaking of the back glass, Samsung is using a layer of Corning’s new Gorilla Glass Victus for the back surface. Corning claims that with its latest and most resilient version of Gorilla Glass yet, smartphones can survive drops from 2 meters and are more immune to scratches than they were with previous generations of the protective glass. In addition to the back panel, the display is also shielded by Gorilla Glass Victus, ensuring maximum protection on both sides. Given the cost of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, I haven’t proceeded to test these claims but would definitely suggest being cautious if you decide to test them yourself. One way to avoid any damage is to use a protective case, and we have curated the list of our favorite cases for the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra for you to choose from.

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has an IP68 rating that means it’s rated to survive the occasional dip in the water, permitting both mistakes and amusement. Although IP68 has been the norm among premium smartphones, the rating is often misunderstood as guaranteeing total protection against water. An IP68 rating implies that a device can still work after being dipped in 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) of freshwater for 30 minutes. Those are the maximum admissible values, and anything beyond that may — and probably will — damage the phone internally.

The Indian variant of the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has a hybrid SIM slot, but this may vary by region and whether you buy a carrier locked or unlocked device. I have an unlocked unit with an Exynos 990 chipset inside that allows me to use two physical SIM cards or one SIM card and a microSD card. (The regular Galaxy Note 20 does not support a microSD card, by the way!) Samsung has also added eSIM support on the device so that you can utilize the benefits of both dual SIM as well as expandable storage, provided your carrier supports eSIM provisioning, of course.

When it comes to the audio setup, Samsung uses stereo speakers with one facing towards the bottom and another sitting inside the earpiece. The sound quality and balance between the stereo speakers is something we’ll discuss in the Performance section of this review.

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has a sturdy physique that may seem tall and hefty to users at first, but Samsung is utilizing every bit of internal space to maximum effect. The striking back design along with the gorgeous and riveting display lend the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra a definitive and noteworthy appearance.

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Display

Samsung is using its latest 6.9-inch Super AMOLED display on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. As is expected of every flagship Samsung display, the one used in the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is bright and produces captivating colors. Unlike the display on the Galaxy S20 Ultra that has a 20:9 aspect ratio, the display on the Note 20 Ultra display is a tad wider with a 19:9 aspect ratio but without any apparent compromise in resolution. The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra’s display has a resolution of 1440 x 3088 pixels (WQHD+) with a pixel density of 496ppi. You can scale the resolution down to Full HD+ or HD+, and that will reduce the pixel density accordingly. At Full HD+ resolution, the pixel density is about 371ppi. To the naked eye, these variations barely make any difference, so I have stuck to Full HD resolution. That not only helps in conserving battery life but also helps overcome one major drawback of Samsung’s high-quality display.

This drawback is related to the maximum display refresh rate of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. The display used in the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra supports a maximum 120Hz refresh rate, but just like on the Galaxy S20 Ultra, the refresh rate is restricted to 60Hz when the display is running at its native resolution. To compensate for the lack of smoother scrolling at the highest resolution, Samsung has implemented an “Adaptive” refresh rate switching, also known as variable refresh rate. This allows the display to seamlessly switch between the refresh rate values, for example to:

• 120Hz for normal operations in the UI such as scrolling within and/or launching apps,
• 120Hz, 60Hz, or 30Hz for gaming — depending on the maximum frame rate supported by the game,
• 24Hz for movies to match the cinematic frame rate, and
• 10Hz while reading static content.

This implementation of the variable refresh rate differs from Adaptive V-Sync on gaming monitors, as the display isn’t truly adapting its refresh rate to match the frame rate from the GPU. That’s despite the fact that the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is the first device with an AMOLED display to support variable refresh rate switching. It’s speculated that the reason behind this is because of a lack of support from Android. Nonetheless, being able to seamlessly switch to very low refresh rates for static content should improve battery life. According to Samsung, adaptive refresh rate switching can increase battery life by 22%.

Owing to the introduction of true variable refresh rate support with an LTPO backplane, there is no noticeable change in color depth or gamma when the refresh rate is switched.

The colors of the display, in general, leave little room for complaints. The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has one of the most visually vibrant panels available on a mobile device. In addition, Samsung claims a peak brightness value of 1400nits. While I do not have the appropriate equipment to verify this, I’ve found the display is incredibly bright outdoors and easily readable even under direct sunlight.

Notably, however, there is an observable off-axis color shift when viewing the screen from an angle of about 45°. This color shift results in warm tones being countered by an increase in green hues. A similar color shift is also observable along the curved edges of the display, but it is mostly harmless.

Unlike some of the previous-gen Galaxy Note devices, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra only features a gentle curve along the edges. In most uses, the curved edges do not cause any hindrances to touch. The display has a 240Hz touch sampling rate (the frequency at which the display polls for touches on the display). As a result, the display is not only fluid but also incredibly responsive to touch. Samsung appears to have implemented protection against accidental touches along the edges so vertical swipes along the edges may not work while horizontal swipes (for the back gesture) are flawlessly detected.

In all, the display on the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is one of the leading reasons why its a premium device. The only limiting aspect is the lack of support for the 120Hz refresh rate at 1440p resolution, but if that doesn’t bother you much, the build and display combined are likely to furnish an extremely enjoyable experience. Furthermore, the internals of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra also play a vital role in shaping the experience.

That brings us to where we discuss the performance of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, as well as Samsung’s prejudice towards its own Exynos chipsets.

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Performance

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is undoubtedly a premium device, owing to its gorgeous looks and beautiful display. The performance, however, is where things hit a snag. Like most of Samsung’s flagships, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra ships with two different chipsets based on the region. The units sold in North America, China, South Korea, and Japan are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus mobile platform, while the rest of the world gets Samsung’s own Exynos 990 chipset. The chipset is paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM on 5G variants and 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM on 4G-only variants (for select markets).

The Exynos 990 is fabricated on a 7nm process and features an octa-core CPU configuration comprised of:

• 2 Exynos M5 “big” cores clocked at up to 2.7GHz,
• 2 “middle” performance cores based on ARM’s Cortex-A76 design and clocked at up to 2.5GHz, and
• 4 “little” efficiency based on ARM’s Cortex-A55 design with a clock speed of up to 2.0GHz.

The Exynos M5 core is part of the company’s Mongoose project which ended last year with the expulsion of 290 employees from Samsung Austin Research Center (SARC), and therefore, the abandonment of its CPU development endeavor. This means that Samsung will rely fully on ARM’s IP for future Exynos chips, and the Exynos 990 is expectedly the last chipset series with the M5 cores.

The Exynos 990 also features the Valhall-based Mali-G77MP11 GPU clocked at a frequency of up to 800MHz. In addition, the chipset features 5G connectivity with Samsung’s 5G Modem 5123. The LTE-only variants of the device have the same modem but lack an active 5G RF system.

Samsung’s Exynos chipsets have lagged behind their Qualcomm counterparts for several generations now. In contrast to the Exynos 990, the Snapdragon 865 Plus utilizes Prime and Performance cores based on ARM’s Cortex-A77 architecture that is more power-efficient than the Exynos M5 and its Cortex-A76 core architecture.

In his review of the Samsung Galaxy S20+ (Exynos) variant, Idrees notes the deficit in the scores achieved by Exynos 990 in synthetic benchmarks as compared to the Snapdragon 865 SoC, and the findings are reaffirmed in his comparison between the OnePlus 8 Pro and the Galaxy S20+ (Exynos). The gap in performance is expected to widen further with the Snapdragon 865 Plus, and we’ll be comparing these differences in a separate article dedicated to a comparison between the Snapdragon and the Exynos variants of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

For a quick overview, I compared the results of synthetic benchmarks on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra with the ASUS ROG Phone 3 (review) powered the Snapdragon 865 Plus, and the result, to say the very least, was expected. Here’s a table comparing these results:

Benchmark	Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G (Exynos 990)	ASUS ROG Phone 3 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus)
Geekbench 5
Single-core	934	982
Multi-core	2783	3340
PCMark Work 2.0
Overall	11624	15178
Web Browsing	12134	14715
Video Editing	6650	8116
Writing	11095	14772
Photo Editing	27592	43121
Data Manipulation	8591	10589

As illustrated by the Geekbench 5 and PCMark Work 2.0 scores above, the Exynos 990 lags behind the Snapdragon 865 Plus in all aspects. This is a clear indicator that consumers suffer by not being given the choice to buy the Snapdragon 865 Plus variant of the smartphone.

Geekbench 5 (Free, Google Play) →

PCMark for Android Benchmark (Free, Google Play) →

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, at least, does not disappoint when it comes to storage speeds. It features a UFS 3.1 storage, clocking in sequential read speeds — as measured with AndroBench — in the range of 1600MBps. Here are the results from two consecutive runs:

Androbench (Storage Benchmark) (Free, Google Play) →

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Gaming

When it comes to gaming, things aren’t much different. In PUBG Mobile, the Exynos 990 limits gameplay to Ultra frame rate (40fps) on Normal graphics and only allows Extreme frame rate settings (60fps) when the visual quality is set to the lowest setting, ie. Smooth. I used the PUB Gfx Tool app to unlock HDR display settings at Extreme frame rate and measured the results using Gamebench:

Although you would expect a flagship processor to handle these settings well, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra stutters and suffers from major frame rate drops. The frame rate oscillates between 40 and 60fps, dropping with each new view and resulting in a very unsatisfactory experience.

The frame drops are more evident when artifacts in your close vicinity are rapidly changing, so you are at a disadvantage every time you engage in close-range shooting. I achieved a median frame rate of 54fps with an FPS stability of 93%. This means that 93% of the time while playing the game, the frame rate did not deviate from the median of 54fps. Meanwhile, the variability index is 4.40fps, which means the frame rate varied 4.40fps (ie. between 49.6fps and 58.4 fps) during gameplay. For the remaining 7% of the duration, the fluctuation was much higher but did not impact the median value.

GameBench Community Edition (FPS without root) (Free, Google Play) →

GameBench Pro [Account Required] (Free, Google Play) →

Thanks to GameBench for providing us a journalist license. GameBench is a suite of tools for developers to analyze the fluidity, power consumption, and memory usage of games. GameBench is available as an app on Google Play Store (unlisted) and as a desktop application. For more information, visit GameBench.net.

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Audio

When it comes to audio, the dual stereo speakers on the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra sound skewed and unbalanced in terms of volume. The primary bottom-firing speaker is evidently louder and can reproduce a wider range of frequencies while the secondary speaker nestled in the earpiece primarily focuses on the mid-range and high frequencies. The bottom-firing speaker can often get muffled or completely blocked when the phone is being held in landscape mode, deteriorating the audio experience.

Samsung bundles a pair of in-ear style wired earphones tuned by AKG within the box. For a wireless experience, you can either pick up the latest bean-shaped Galaxy Buds Live or any other Bluetooth earphones or headphones of your choice.

In terms of audio software enhancement, the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra comes with Dolby Audio, allowing to you set up a dynamic EQ that changes automatically with the content that is playing. You can also define your own EQ from within the settings and make auditory adjustments similar to other Samsung devices.

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One UI 2.5 on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra runs One UI 2.5 based on Android 10 out of the box. Although the interface is visually similar to One UI 2.0 and 2.1, there are additional features coming first to the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. Among the features that are newly added to One UI starting with the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra are:

• Google’s new Nearby Share protocol for fast short-range file transfers,
• Wireless Samsung DeX that allows users to connect to a wireless display and use DeX mode with the phone’s display serving as the trackpad, and
• Windows 10 integration for accessing files saved on the smartphone from the PC using the Your Phone Companion app and automatically syncing Samsung Notes with Microsoft OneNote. Alas, there is no equivalent feature for Mac users.

In addition, the S Pen is a vital part of the Note user experience. As with the Galaxy Note 10, you pop the S Pen out of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and take notes directly on the screen, even without unlocking the phone. These notes are saved to the Samsung Notes app automatically when you insert the S Pen back into its slot. Samsung claims to have improved the S Pen experience by software optimization that extrapolates your strokes even before you draw them physically. This results in a reduced latency of only 10ms and gives you a feeling of actually writing on paper.

In addition, there are a bunch of air gestures that allow you to control the Note 20 by waving the S Pen in certain motions close to the display. While the air gestures are pretty neat, their use is fairly limited to changing modes on cameras or using the S Pen as a controller for presentations.

The user interface will feel familiar to anyone who has previously used Samsung’s One UI. Like I mentioned before, there is hardly any visual change that comes with One UI 2.5. In addition, Samsung has also promised at least three generations of OS updates, meaning the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra should get updates all the way to Android 13.

The only caveat with this software experience is that despite a premium price tag, Samsung still has the audacity to blast ads through push notifications like these:

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Battery

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra packs in a 4,500mAh battery, which is slightly bigger than the 4,300mAh battery on the Galaxy Note 10+. I have been able to achieve a day’s worth of battery life with about 4-5 hours of screen-on-time running at 120Hz and and Full HD+. To measure the average battery life, I ran PCMark’s Work 2.0 Battery test at different display settings. The different display modes for the test include 60Hz at Full HD+ resolution, 120Hz with Full HD+ resolution, and 60Hz at WQHD+ resolution, and the results are as follows:

Evidently, the 120Hz mode draws more battery but also results in a smoother experience in day-to-day tasks that the PCMark Work 2.0 benchmark simulates. Surprisingly, however, the battery usage in 120Hz is even higher than the 60Hz mode on the WQHD+ display setting. So, battery life is definitely a tradeoff if you wish to cherish the smoothness of the 120Hz display.

In terms of charging, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra comes with a 25W charger that operates over the USB-PD PPS protocol. This is a step backward from the 45W charging support on the Galaxy Note 10 series. Samsung claims that the 25W charger in the box can charge the battery by 50% in 30 minutes and fully in about an hour, but these claims differ from our testing.

Using the in-box charger, the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra takes about 35 minutes to charge from 10% to 50% battery capacity and reaches 100% in a total of 100 minutes. If you are planning a cold start, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra can take a little over two hours to charge from 0% to 100% battery. You can use the 45W Samsung charger — or other USB-PD PPS-supported fast chargers — with the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, but the charging power will not exceed 25W.

You can also charge the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra wirelessly at up to 15W using supported fast wireless chargers, or you can charge it at up to 10W using any Qi-certified wireless charger. Here are our picks for the best wireless chargers you can use with the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

All in all, the battery on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is sufficient — unless, of course, you game a lot, which we have learned the chipset is not the best at. While the smartphone’s charging speed may not exceed expectations, especially compared to other flagships such as the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro, it is sufficient for most users.

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Camera

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra features a triple camera setup on the back with a 108MP primary camera, a 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 12MP periscopic telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom. The hole-punch selfie camera on the front has a resolution of 10MP.

The primary camera uses the same Samsung ISOCELL Bright HMX sensor that we have seen on the Galaxy S20 Ultra and a bunch of Xiaomi smartphones. The ISOCELL Bright HMX has a sensor size of 1/1.33″ which is much bigger than the 64MP Samsung ISOCELL Bright GW1. Images captured with this sensor have a pixel size of 0.8μm. The camera is paired with an f/1.8 lens and can effectively take 12MP images with the help of 9-in-1 pixel binning. Furthermore, the camera supports OIS.

The 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera expands the purview to 120°. It features an f/2.2 lens and can take images with a pixel size of 1.4μm. One caveat with this camera is that it lacks autofocus capabilities.

Samsung is using a 12MP periscopic zoom setup for 5x optical zoom and up to 50x digital zoom. The camera is paired with an f/3.0 lens and supports OIS and focus tracking. Samsung is dropping the gimmicky 100x Space Zoom marketing from the Galaxy S20 Ultra and is hailing this 50x arrangement for its “Space Zoom” capabilities, expectedly for its ability to take pictures of celestial objects including the moon.

In terms of video, the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra can record in up to 8K resolution at 24fps or 4K at 60fps. The phone also supports Full HD recording at 120fps along with a Pro Video mode in which you can change settings such as the exposure, focus, ISO, shutter speed, and the direction of the microphone while recording the video.

Here are some of the samples we have taken using the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra:

Primary Camera with the default settings

27MP vs 108MP

12MP images are on the left while the corresponding 108MP images are on the right

Ultra-wide-angle

Ultra-wide-angle images are on the left, standard images are on the right

5X Telephoto

From left to right: Images at 1x, 5x, 10x, and 50x zoom

You can find all of the images in full resolution in the Flickr album below:

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Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G (Exynos): Raising the Bar for Premium Pricing

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is definitely one of the most charming smartphones that have launched this year. It features one of the most elegant designs on a Samsung device yet, a beautiful and tall display, a promising camera, and the S Pen experience — that still remains unparalleled by any other brand so far.

However, the Exynos 990-powered Galaxy Note 20 Ultra does seem to disappoint when it comes to performance, and that can be a dealbreaker for users who want to game. This is especially disheartening for fans as the Galaxy Note series has always been hailed as the best choice for prosumers. The Exynos Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is only preferable for anyone looking for a premium design, display, and productivity experience but without any care to push the performance to its limits.

That is why I cannot recommend it to everyone. This in no way implies that the Exynos Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is a bad phone — it is not! It is simply not the best smartphone if you wish to impress your peers during a board meeting and earn a chicken dinner after a tiring day at work. Perhaps that’s the case with the Snapdragon 865 Plus variant of the phone.

We will be adding more bits to this review over the next few days and will also expand our observations into other dedicated pieces. The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is currently up for pre-order around the world, and delivery begins at different dates around the world. We have curated the best deals that you can get on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra in the U.S. and in India. Check them out if you’re looking to buy this smartphone.

Starting at $1,299 for 128GB and 12GB RAM

If the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra – featuring the best specs on any Galaxy Note, and some key improvements vs the Galaxy S20 Ultra – is your next phone, pick it up alongside a range of compatible cases at Amazon.

View at Amazon

The post Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Review: For Those Ahead of the Curve appeared first on xda-developers.

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Google Assistant smart displays add support for multi-room audio control

Google’s suite of Nest devices makes for a great home audio system, with a nice feature that allows them to be grouped together in the Google Home app for multi-room listening. With a new update rolling out for Google Assistant-enabled smart displays like the Google Nest Hub, multi-room listening is about to get even better.

Google on Tuesday introduced multi-room audio control, allowing users to start playback on an Assistant-enabled smart display and then dynamically create temporary rooms consisting of other Nest smart speakers, Smart Displays, and Chromecasts in real-time. This will allow you to fill multiple rooms with your favorite music. If you own more than one Google Assistant-enabled smart speaker or smart display, you’ll see an icon in the bottom left corner of the screen on your Nest Hub when any audio content is playing. Tap it and you’ll be able to add or remove your other devices throughout your home.

Users should start seeing the new multi-room audio control feature rolling out to the Nest Hub, Nest Hub Max, and other Assistant-enabled Smart Displays starting today. The same functionality will be made available in the Google Home app this fall.

Google Home (Free, Google Play) →

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Source: Google

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Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Live are the most feature-rich wireless earbuds

The Galaxy Buds Live are Samsung’s latest truly wireless earbuds, and as with any new product, Samsung hyped them up quite a bit. With the weird new design that lends them the “beans” nickname, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live are sure to turn some heads. But the design isn’t everything that goes into a pair of wireless earbuds. There’s also the audio quality and battery life, of course, but also the supported features.

sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssWe’re here today to talk about those features (both included and excluded), and how the combination of what Samsung put in make the Galaxy Buds Live perhaps the most feature-rich wireless earbuds to-date, especially if you have a Samsung Galaxy device.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live is loaded with features

First up, let’s talk about the features that Samsung did include in the Galaxy Buds Live. There are quite a few, so strap in, and let’s get started.

Active Noise Cancellation

Something that’s becoming increasingly popular in the earbuds space is active noise cancellation. This feature uses input from the microphone(s) in the earbuds to generate a soundwave of the opposite phase to what it hears. This has the effect of reducing ambient noise much more effectively than passive solutions, like noise isolation.

Samsung is a little late to the party here, but they’ve finally added active noise cancellation to their lineup with the Galaxy Buds Live. ANC on the Galaxy Buds Live is designed to filter out ambient noises like fans or ACs but doesn’t filter out important audio like speech or announcements.

To activate ANC on the Buds, you have to touch and hold on one of the two earbuds, which is the default touch and hold action for both earbuds. You’ll then hear a beep indicating that ANC is active. To turn ANC off, simply touch and hold again until you hear another beep.

Equalizer

Samsung usually does a really good job of tuning the audio of its TWS earbuds, landing its products at the top of audiophile-recommended lists. But audio quality is subjective, and not everyone will be a fan of the default equalizer tuning. Fortunately, Samsung offers a few equalizer presets you can pick from. These include the default Normal, Bass boost, Soft, Dynamic, Clear, or Treble boost. Sadly, you can’t customize the equalizer settings, but there are third-party apps that can do that.

Bixby voice wake-up

While a lot of wireless earbuds have an action to let you activate your phone’s built-in personal assistant, the Galaxy Buds Live takes this one step further. Instead of using your phone’s assistant for every action, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live feature limited Bixby support built right into the buds. You can either use a shortcut to activate it or even enable voice wakeup so you don’t even have to move your hands. Once activated, you can make a phone call, adjust the volume, check the weather, and more. Bixby support is only available when the Galaxy Buds Live are paired with a Bixby-enabled Samsung phone and the language is set to English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, or Portuguese.

Seamless earbud connection

While we’ve had over four years of revision for Bluetooth earbuds, not everything is perfect. The vast majority of earbuds on the market can’t easily switch between paired devices. You usually have to disconnect from the earbuds on one device and then connect them to another one, or even forget the pairing from the original device and then force your earbuds to pair with a new device.

Luckily, Samsung has a solution for the Galaxy Buds Live. If you have multiple devices signed into the same Samsung account, you can easily switch which device the Galaxy Buds Live is connected to, even if the other devices haven’t been paired with the earbuds yet. While this isn’t quite as robust as, say, a native dual-connection feature, it’s still a step up from the norm.

Swift Pair support

Samsung designs its products to work well with Microsoft Windows, and the Galaxy Buds Live are no different. When you put your Galaxy Buds Live in pairing mode near a PC running Windows 10, you’ll get a pop-up notification with a button that lets you quickly pair your PC to them.

Read notifications aloud

When you’re out and about listening to music on-the-go (hopefully while social distancing!), you want to minimize how often you pull out your phone. Checking notifications is one of the main reasons people pull out their phone, and the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live has a feature that eliminates that need. You can have the Galaxy Buds Live read notifications aloud to you. During an incoming call, you can even have the earbuds say the phone number if the contact isn’t recognized or the name if the contact is saved.

Touch Controls

You might think this is a weird feature to list here, but there are still quite a few wireless earbuds out there that resort to conventional pressure or click buttons. The Galaxy Buds Live, however, has an integrated touch surface near the top to allow you to easily control your audio and phone without the force necessary to press a button.

A lot of true-wireless earbuds also lack adequate gesture controls. So many TWS earbuds ship only with two gestures, which usually include double- and triple-tap. It makes for a pretty limiting experience when you can only execute two actions without using your phone. Luckily, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live ditch this trend by adding two more gestures: single-tap and tap-and-hold. Thus, you can have a single-tap, double-tap, triple-tap, and touch and hold gesture!

Here are the default gesture actions on the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live:

• Single tap.
  • Play a track.
  • Pause a track.
• Double tap.
  • Play the next track.
  • Answer or end a call.
  • Place the current call on hold and answer a second incoming call.
  • Switch between a current call and a call placed on hold.
• Triple tap
  • Play previous track.
  • Start the current track over at the beginning.
• Touch and hold
  • 1 sec
    • Activate a custom shortcut: Active noise canceling, voice command, volume up/down, launch Spotify
    • Decline a call.
    • Turn the microphone on or off during a call.
    • Retrieve a call placed on hold after ending the current call.
  • 3 sec
    • Start pairing mode

What’s interesting about the volume up/down gesture is that you can continue holding to lower or raise the volume as much as you want. With a lot of other earbuds, there’s no way to even change the volume without pulling out your phone!

If for whatever reason you don’t want to deal with gestures, you can toggle the block touches option in the app.

Wear Detection

Like many other truly wireless earbuds on the market, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live feature inward-facing IR sensors to detect when the earbuds enter or exit your ears. When they exit, audio is paused automatically. However, to resume playback, you must use a touch gesture.

Wireless Charging

Since 2016, wireless charging in phones has really taken off. Many upper mid-range and flagship devices ship with this feature. On newer Samsung and Huawei flagships, you can even use your phone to wirelessly charge other devices from the phone battery. Unfortunately, there are still surprisingly many truly wireless earbuds that have a case that doesn’t support being wirelessly charged. Most, instead, opt for charging from the USB-C or Micro-USB port.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live gets the best of both worlds, though. The charging case supports both USB-C and wireless charging. Have your Galaxy Note10 on hand but not a power adapter (or only one adapter)? No problem. Just enable Wireless Power Share and put the Galaxy Buds Live case on the back of your phone. Wireless Power Share is a feature of the Samsung Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy Z Fold 2, Galaxy S20, Galaxy Z Flip, Galaxy Note 10, and Galaxy S10. But if you don’t have any of these phones, you can also use any Qi wireless charger to charge the Galaxy Buds Live.

Whether you charge wirelessly or wired, though, you’ll get a lot of mileage out of a quick top-up. That’s because the Galaxy Buds Live offers 1 hour of playback from 5 minutes of charging.

Gaming Mode

All Bluetooth earbuds have some audio delay. This could be anywhere from 50ms to 500ms (or even greater sometimes). If you’re just listening to music, a half-second delay probably won’t bother you. However, if you’re watching a video or playing a game, you’re probably going to notice this delay.

Gaming Mode (or Game Mode) is another common feature of true-wireless earbuds, and it’s essentially a low-latency mode for your earbuds. It lowers the audio delay at the cost of overall audio quality, which can be useful in a shooter game and insanity-preventing when watching a YouTube video. The Galaxy Buds Live comes with Samsung’s own version of Gaming Mode, which might make them an attractive option for mobile gamers. It only works if you pair the Buds Live to a Samsung phone, though.

Relieve pressure with ambient sound

Another feature of the Galaxy Buds Live is shown in the screenshot above. If you like to leave ANC enabled for long periods of time, your ears might start to feel stuffy. The Galaxy Buds Live plugin has a toggle to relieve this pressure by letting in ambient sound temporarily.

Find My Earbuds

With earbuds the size of beans, there’s a possibility that you’ll lose one or both of them. Hopefully, you haven’t misplaced them too far away, but you may be able to find them with the “Find My Earbuds” feature of the Galaxy Buds Live plugin. This will play a loud beeping sound from your earbuds that you might be able to pick up if you’re close by.

If you do happen to lose just one of your earbuds, then you don’t have to go out and pair an entirely new pair of Galaxy Buds Live. Instead, you can buy a replacement for just one of them and couple the old and new earbuds together. All you have to do is insert the earbuds into the charging case then tap and hold the touch area on both earbuds for at least seven seconds. The earbud battery indicator will flash green and then turn off, indicating that the earbuds are now coupled.

…all of this controlled by the great Galaxy Buds Live Plugin app

All of these neat features are controllable with the Galaxy Buds Live plugin, which is a plugin for the Galaxy Wearable app. Within this app, you can control all of the aforementioned features as well as update the firmware if there’s an update. The apps are available on both iOS and Android.

Galaxy Wearable (Free, Google Play) →

Galaxy Buds Live Plugin (Free, Google Play) →

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Features we miss on the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live

Just because the Galaxy Buds Live may have the most features of any TWS earbuds doesn’t mean they’re perfect. This wouldn’t be a complete post without mentioning what the Galaxy Buds Live is missing.

Qualcomm aptX support

Qualcomm’s aptX technology is an attempt to make the Bluetooth audio experience more enjoyable. And it does. From lower audio delay to better music quality, aptX is a feature all earbuds should support. You don’t even need a phone with a Qualcomm chipset to take advantage, as Qualcomm has licensed the technology to companies like Huawei for use in their Kirin processors. Unfortunately, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live doesn’t support aptX. Instead, they support Samsung’s proprietary Scalable codec in addition to the standard SBC and AAC codecs. If you’re using a Samsung phone, audio is going to be stable and also sound great, with the bitrate scaling between 96-512kbps. On any other device, however, you’re going to miss out due to a lack of aptX support.

Longer Battery Life

Long battery life is arguably one of the most important features of any pair of truly wireless earbuds. No one wants to be listening to their favorite song only to be interrupted by a low battery warning. Unfortunately, with active noise cancellation enabled, the Galaxy Buds Live is only going to provide about six hours of battery life before they need to be charged. With ANC disabled, that number goes up to about eight hours, but that’s still not as great as other options on the market. When cheaper options like the Tronsmart Apollo Bold provide more than double the battery life with ANC enabled, it’s hard to see why the Buds Live are lacking in this department.

Better water resistance

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live are IPX2 rated for water/sweat resistance. That means they can resist water hitting them at a 15° angle or less. In contrast, the Apple AirPods Pro are IPX4 rated, which means they’re resistant to water splashes from any direction. While this isn’t a major distinction between the two, it could mean the difference between a working and fried pair of earbuds when met with some water.

And there we have it. The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live has an absolute ton of features (maybe even a tonne). While they may be missing a small number of features, Samsung’s strategy of including everything it possibly can in its products is sure to attract plenty of customers, especially if they already own other Samsung products.

If you’re interested in the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live, Samsung offers them in three color variants — Mystic Bronze, Mystic Black, and Mystic White — at a price of $169 in the U.S., ₹14,990 in India, £179.00 in the UK, or €189 in Europe.

What do you think of these features? Is there anything else Samsung should have included? Let us know!

The post Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Live are the most feature-rich wireless earbuds appeared first on xda-developers.

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LG Velvet comes to Verizon in Aurora Red for $699

Verizon subscribers are being treated to a nice surprise today: the LG Velvet 5G UW is coming to the carrier on Friday, August 21, and Verizon will be the only U.S. carrier to have the mesmerizing Aurora Red color.

The device will retail for $699, which breaks down to $29.17 a month for 24 months. For a limited time, if you purchase the LG Velvet online, you can pick up the device for just $10 a month with a new line of service on a Premium Unlimited plan.

The wait is over. The LG Velvet 5G UW is coming to @Verizon this Friday and it's the only place you can get it in Aurora Red, which is the best color ever. pic.twitter.com/cYvMj7O291

— George Koroneos (@GLKCreative) August 18, 2020

Announced back in May, the LG Velvet is a sleek new flagship from LG that features a 6.8-inch OLED display, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G, triple rear cameras, 6GB of RAM, a 4,300mAh battery, expandable storage, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and stylus support. It also features support for LG’s unique Dual Screen accessory.

When the device launches on Verizon, it’ll support the carrier’s 5G mmWave “Ultra Wideband” network, along with its 5G sub-6GHz “Nationwide” network, which is coming soon. Support for mmWave 5G is the reason why Verizon’s model is $100 more expensive than the model for other carriers. Though to offset the cost somewhat, Verizon said if you upgrade to the device, you’ll get $350 guaranteed with a trade-in for the LG Velvet. There are stipulations, though: You must be on a Premium Unlimited plan, your trade-in device must be in good working condition, and the discount is applied via a recurring 24-month bill credit. You can learn more about the LG Velvet from our original announcement.

And remember, if you do buy the LG Velvet from Verizon, you won’t be able to unlock the bootloader. Only the European model can be unlocked at the moment.

LG Velvet Forums

Specification	LG Velvet
Dimensions and Weight	167.2 x 74.1 x 7.9 mm 180g
Display	6.8” POLED display 20.5:9 2460×1080 FHD+
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G
RAM and Storage	6GB LPDDR4X + 128GB UFS 2.1 8GB + 128GB Expandable using microSD card slot
Battery & Charging	4,300mAh Fast wired charging up to 25W Fast wireless charging support up to 9W
Rear Camera	Primary: 48MP Secondary: 8MP Ultra Wide-Angle Camera Tertiary: 5MP Depth Sensor
Front Camera	16MP
Other Features	3.5mm headphone jack Wacom stylus support with 4096 pressure levels Support LG Dual Display USB Type-C In-display fingerprint scanner IP68 water resistance
Android Version	Android 10 with LG’s custom UI on top

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Unofficial builds of TWRP and OmniROM are now available for the Motorola Moto G8 Power

Back in February, Motorola refreshed its Moto G lineup by launching a pair of Qualcomm Snapdragon 665-powered smartphones. The Lenovo-owned brand dropped the numeric identifier from the names of these two phones in some regions, e.g. the “Moto G8 Power” launched as the “Moto G Power” in the U.S. To make things further complicated, Motorola maintains two different sets of firmware packages for the Moto G Power (code-name “sofia”) and the Moto G8 Power (code-name “sofiar”). The whole situation is certainly a bit chaotic for aftermarket development on these phones, but XDA’s brilliant developer community has managed to kickstart the journey anyway. Here is our first custom development roundup for the Moto G(8)Power.

Moto G Power XDA Forums

Unofficial OmniROM 10

XDA Recognized Developer vache has come up with a source-built version of OmniROM for the Moto G8 Power. Despite being in an early stage of development, the custom ROM is surprisingly stable and most of the basic features work flawlessly. You don’t need to flash Google Apps separately, however, the ROM package must be flashed via Fastboot interface. Head over to the forum thread linked below and follow the instructions in the first post to get the ROM up and running on your device.

Unofficial OmniROM 10 for the Moto G8 Power

The current version of the ROM may not work properly on the Moto G Power, due to the fact that the developer has yet to offer a unified build.

Unofficial TWRP

An unofficial build of TWRP is also available for download, courtesy of the same developer. Unlike the aforementioned OmniROM build, the custom recovery image is compatible with both the Moto G8 Power and the Moto G Power. You should be able to boot it on the Moto G Stylus (code-name “sofiap”) and the Moto G Pro (code-name “sofiap_ao”) as well.

Unofficial TWRP for the Moto G8 Power

The post Unofficial builds of TWRP and OmniROM are now available for the Motorola Moto G8 Power appeared first on xda-developers.

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