Galaxy Note 20 vs Galaxy Note 20 Ultra - You Might Be Surprised

I don't know, Kirk, am I nuts

Which image looks better here? That one for sure. Yes. Hold on, let me get a shot here

Hmm. Now, it doesn't really make a lot of sense because this is the premium model

This has the better refresh rate and it also has the higher pixel density

Ah, finally, we've got the new Note devices. Man, the strings needed to be pulled, but they are here in studio, so I'm happy about that

It's the Note 20 and the Note 20 Ultra. No plus model this year

They switched it around a little bit, and that's why I've got some other devices on the table to talk about how we got here

Starting with the Note 10, this form factor is gone. That's your tiny little note

I don't know how popular this model was, but it was your entry-level Note for last year

Of course, you had the Plus model, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of the S20 Ultra for scale

though you can tell it's a little bit fatter there. And so now it's just Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra

And as you can see here, there's actually not that much difference in size

It's like 6.7 inches versus 6.9. but there is quite a difference in design

The ultra model has these curved edges, this more premium feel. It's actually the first phone to feature

the new Gorilla Glass Victus, which has this improved scratch resistance. That glass is going to be on the back of the device

and the front of the device. So that's a nice little upgrade. Now, by contrast, the regular Note 20

couldn't be more different. this one i know you're looking at it in camera you've seen it in videos and i don't know if

anybody's told you yet but this one doesn't have that premium feeling this one is made out of

plastic that sort of looks like a blasted glass the kind of matte finish we've seen from other

brands but it doesn't feel that way at all it's not fooling anyone in fact when kirk picked up

this phone he was saying is that a dummy phone and he was being sincere it does have a kind of

dummy phone attribute to it and it's kind of surprising to be honest at the thousand dollar

price point to have a feel like that and i started to think to myself hasn't samsung done a plastic

back before and did they do it better in the past and then i reached for this device here which is

This is an A series from Samsung, budget device, and this is a plastic back, but it's got a glossy finish

which of course doesn't do you any good for fingerprints, but when you tap on it, it's tight

It's tight to the internal components, so you don't feel some kind of air gap when you tap

This one on the other hand, now I don't know if this is gonna change very much

for the retail units, but as it stands right now, I would say that's not a very impressive first impression

for a thousand dollar device. Now I should mention, since you see these other devices

are wearing later cases, you could throw a later case on the Note 20, and we are already taking pre-orders

for this Kevlar Texture Ultra Thin Case, whether it's the Note 20 or the Note 20 Ultra

This one gives you the premium feel on its own with the glass

but then you have to contend with fingerprints, and the regular Note 20 series just doesn't feel premium, in my opinion

and if you slap this texture on there, you can make a significant improvement

but I wear these cases on any phone that I use, and I feel like it improves almost any texture

but in this case, it's even more important because of that kind of cheap vibe that it puts out

Now, outside of the backing on the Note 20, I kind of like the scale of it

I actually don't even mind the boxiness of the edges because I'm one of these people that gets apprehensive

about the unintentional presses that sometimes happen with these aggressively curved displays

Now, this one is not the most aggressive that I've ever seen, so it's probably not going to be an issue here

but as you glance at the side, you see just how slim the frame is

It's actually, well, it's one of these engineering marvels where you've got glass essentially going as far as possible

and a minimized frame wherever possible. This one, of course, because of the Ultra name

it's gonna have some features that are extra on top of the regular Note 20 series

It's got a higher price tag, so that's what you'd expect. You've got a 50 times zoom on this camera module

You've got 108 megapixels on this camera module on the main cam

whereas the regular version, this is only gonna be a 64 megapixel camera

on the main camera unit and it's only gonna be a 30 times zoom. So if you are into the zoom thing

I don't know what the right amount of range is while maintaining quality

The 100x zoom on the S20 Ultra is not something I used frequently

even though I did use this device frequently. So 50x is probably gonna be enough for most users

Now, another thing I should mention about the Ultra model, It's a huge, it's a massive hump

It's an absolute beast. It's even, it looks to be even taller than what you have on the S20 Ultra

And I don't know if Kirk can pick that up or show us what we're working with there

They're very close, but I'm going to say that the new one happens to be taller

Now these two devices, there's so much crossover. It's hard to say which one is preferred

Obviously they've got a different design. The Note series is a bit boxier

The camera layout is a bit more narrow. This model adds the plus version of the Snapdragon 865

which is pretty much the chip that you want right now if you're using an Android device

This new Note, the Ultra model, also has 12 gigs of RAM

so it does have those kind of powerhouse specs, And of course, we can't forget that both models come with the S Pen

And if it's an S Pen or any kind of pen input that you're after in 2020

this is pretty much as good as a pen experience can get on a mobile phone as it stands right now

And both the regular Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra are going to ship with this thing

Now, even though they've both got this S Pen in there, the pen latency which has been improved from the previous model which is going to give you that really fluid experience is actually a little better on the Ultra model So it another thing to keep in mind when you deciding between the two

Now, pricing, we're looking at $999 to start for the regular Note 20

and then the Note 20 Ultra is starting at $1,300. So a very premium device

And of course, this is coming at a time, well, we're in a pandemic time

so it's kind of a hefty price tag for a smartphone, and when you put it up against some of the recent launches

like say for example, the Pixel 4a, it's hard not to look at this thing as expensive

Well, it is expensive and it is premium and it is in its own category

when you consider the fact that it's pretty much all you can get with the pen

All right, so let's go ahead and check out some of the attributes here

I'm gonna start with the ultra model. Maybe we'll do some kind of speaker showdown

to see how they sound. Down to figure out what was going on. which is better

Honestly, it's preference. And then, what is it, a day before the

neither of the photos is bad. The Ultra model sounds better. You're not surprised

They are both good sounding for smartphones, I should say, but I'm gonna give the edge to the Ultra model for dialogue

Maybe we throw up a little bit of music real quick. Yeah, it's the same deal over here

Dialog Music, the Ultra Model, it's up there for some of the better ones I've heard

You would expect that at that price tag. This one's not terrible, but it's not on the same level

The other thing I just wanted to check was the Hole Punch. The Infinity O

Actually, this one looks like it needs a little more brightness. Oh, interesting. That's max, though

What? Am I crazy? What's going on here? These screens actually look quite a bit different

Like, not even close on this graphic. Let's see. Can we... 720p

Let's do that. 720p. It's the same video on YouTube. Whoa. the uh regular model display looks better what well it at least looks more saturated

let me check something real quick display adaptive is off motion smoothness we know this one is different actually i should mention the ultra

model 120 hertz refresh so way smoother operation kind of a must something a lot of people are

looking for at this price tag but obviously it's a different display and it is in vivid mode

it's currently in the vivid color setting and in the center for white balance and let's go ahead

and see this device also in vivid and in the center for white balance oh this is weird

is it possible that the non-ultra model actually has a more pleasing image a more saturated image

look at that i don't know if kirk got a good shot definitely the overhead camera should get

a good shot that's uh not what i expected at all now it is just one image it is just one

YouTube video, but... I don't know, Kirk, am I nuts? Which image looks better here

That one, for sure. Yes. Hold on, let me get a shot here. Hmm

Now, it doesn't really make a lot of sense, because this is the premium model. This has the better refresh rate

and it also has the higher pixel density. It's just, it looks a little more subdued

than the typical Samsung screen on this image. Let me bring up, let's just, I don't know

why don't we look for another photo? Something, let's see here. All right, so some display specifications here

just brought to my attention. 6.7 inch flat, FHD Plus Super AMOLED Plus

Infinity Ode 2400 by 1080, HDR10 Plus certified, 393 PPI. That's this one, the cheap guy, the regular Note 20

That one, 6.9 Edge Quad HD plus dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity-O display

3088 by 1440, 496 PPI, also HDR10 Plus certified. So what are we looking at here

What's going on? Is the vivid mode not the same? Kirk, why is my cheap phone brighter

yeah it's less contrast i don't know it's it looks this display looks less on the surface

it looks more like it's embedded beneath glass kind of like it's just lacking some punch i'm

totally nitpicking these are both awesome look look i mean like their samsung displays their

flagship level displays but uh yeah i'm just a bit surprised to compare these two and be i don't

know just for them to even be comparable you have uh you have a different price point you have a

different name you have a different uh spec you have a higher resolution

yeah that's that's going to make some people's decisions hard i don't know personally for me

going back to 60 hertz is going to be a bit of an issue but if i had to pick without considering

refresh rate and if I didn't care a whole ton about maximum resolution there's something really

pleasing about the way the regular note 20 display is set up right now these two units in front of me

when I know like I said I'm nitpicking they both are great looking displays but it's just odd to

find the cheaper model the more pleasing of the two but like I said I'm not necessarily picking

it because the 60 hertz thing you know I'm into that you know what I'm into I'm into the refresh

It will allow you to select adaptive or standard. That's it. That's all you get

And that's a, that kind of bugs me too. I would, I'd like to lock it at 120 or lock it at 60

Now I know I guess standard does lock it at 60 but I want to be able to lock it at 120 as well and not have it just simply decide for me Other brands let you do this I would hope that Samsung would consider

letting me do that too. The screen resolution here can go up

So let's do that. Maybe that'll fix things. Well, definitely the resolution got better

I mean, yeah, but the image is still, the image is still less punchy

Might be to somebody's taste, but probably some people that might be surprised if they see these side by side

You can get a look here at the difference in the Infinity O

the way the Infinity O is applied in each model. It's quite a bit bigger on the cheap model and you have less screen that you're working with

So your screen to body ratio is actually quite a bit different between the two devices

Some other differences between these, you have 12 gigs of RAM versus 8 gigs of RAM

They both have the 865 Plus chip if you get it in North America

If you're not in North America, you're going to get the Exynos chip

And I know a lot of people hit me up about this. A lot of people are not happy about this, that there's no option for the 865 Plus in their region

I mean, that's the chip. That's the aspirational chip in the Android universe for the time being

Samsung says they worked on the Exynos stuff, or they like it. They would

they are Samsung but I think many users would appreciate maybe even just having an option to

buy the Snapdragon model I understand it's more complicated but I feel bad I'm posting about the

Note series I'm rocking the 865 plus and other people are telling me they're complaining they're

saying why can't I get what you have Lou and I'm saying Samsung give it to them if that's what they

want. It is time for us to check out these cameras. The world famous plant is back. It's been a minute

but don't you worry. Fret not. The plant survives. Wow this object has never been featured as a model

previously. Is this what Vin uses to clean the sensors? Incredible. How about it's a combo effect

Look at this. The plant can be the host of accessories. Look at that

Uh, all right. So first up, let's look at the ultra model. And as expected

number of different settings here in the stock photo, three different camera lenses. We have the

0.5, the 1x and the 5x, and we can keep going from there to 50x. I'm looking at tiny little chips

in the table so lots of different options there we will use the plant to get a sense for

the range of options here we have the ultra wide and followed by the 1x

and the 5x setting and the 50x let's do that whoa

Let's try to get the knife. So, obviously here, we have some pretty tremendous versatility

I mean, 50X indoors. What are we doing? Like, what is this blob

We're probably not going to use that. Now, this, on the other hand, the 5X, that's usable and quite detailed

The, wow. The standard camera, the main camera, I should say. That's doing something for me

That's quite pleasing. I'm cropping in. It's surprisingly, once again, I don't know if it's the display or the image

but once again, the green, not the most saturated for a Samsung display slash camera combo

And don't forget the ultra wide. I find this to be very useful and practical. It's quite the range and versatility represented in the camera department

It's everything you really need in a smartphone camera. When you go beyond this, you start putting extra units

They don't get used all that much. It's kind of a bragging rights thing. So this camera setup, it's got everything you need in it

Now the other model, the other model obviously is doing something different with zoom

It's not going to take the zoom nearly as far. And the main camera sensor is different

So let's do the same thing. Ultra wide. 1X. 3x 30x

all right what's odd is this 30x and the 50x on the other one are really quite similar and

equally useless in most cases that's your 3x that's a decent looking image

Of course, this is your main camera right here. Your 1X. Very nice looking

And your ultra wide, which I see a slight shift in color balance between those two

I want to compare the main camera results from each of the two of these real quick, if you don't mind

Main camera units. Interesting. more and again it's important to note that there are multiple factors at play here it is not simply

the photo but you also have the attributes of the display on the right i have something that's a bit

warmer i have something that if you look in the shadow detail here you're kind of preserving more

of the data there, but you end up losing some of the depth in the black that you get over here

I'm going to, this is kind of crazy, but once again, and part of this has to do with the display

but if I just compare these two, I'm probably picking the left one. This sort of looks more

like an iPhone performance, the way that iPhones are currently treating the shadow department of

photos. It's interesting. It's a preference thing. They both look great. All right, now the camera

Remember the video camera is a whole different deal because these things shoot up to 8K at 24 frames per second

Of course this is gonna be uploaded at 4K, but let's just try it anyway. Let's see what the behavior is like

16 by 9, 8K, that's 7680 by 4320 resolution. Let's do it

And this is gonna be a tremendous file size obviously we are now rolling at 8K resolution on a smartphone

In the past, these have been a little bit susceptible to micro movements

It's so much detail on a smartphone, and you're really asking quite a lot

so sometimes you give up in the stability and the smoothness of your video feed so that's an 8k 24

frame per second video shot on a smartphone at 8k resolution on a smartphone you're listening to me

through the through the phone right now as well so that should give you an idea of the audio

performance also that's pretty good stuff you know one thing that's been a problem for me

on the previous model, especially right out of the box before it got updated a couple times

The ultra model, S20 Ultra, I was using that for a while. My SIM card was in that for a couple of

months at least. And one of the big drawbacks for me was the autofocus in video and also at

high resolutions. This, my first 8K sample, I was kind of all right with that autofocus. Now

I think I should stress it a little bit more. Let's just try this again

Okay, this is test number two. I'm curious about the autofocus on this thing

especially at this really high resolution. So I'm going to hold my hand in front of the camera

and see how quickly it changes focus. Oh yeah, it has definitely sped up from the previous model

now i'm gonna just i'll just pick up a different phone here put that in front try something else yes

and back to the plant oh they did it they did it did you know that kirk they did it

no you didn't expect them to do it you thought it was a spec you thought it was just we could do 8k

We could do 8K. That's how the meeting went down. It was like a jingle

And we could do 8K. Yeah, we could do 8K. No, they actually executed it

It's not like my first attempt with the S20 Ultra once upon a time

This is a different story now. The thing can auto focus now, so now it's really useful

I might have to kick out all these pro cameras right quick, including the one that's being held right there

It's gonna be all Note 20 Ultras. Aka 24 frames per second just, you know

I'm joking, Kirk, you could pick up. I'm just, it's a joke. But still, it's pretty cool stuff

I'm not surprised. I expected these to be camera performers. I expected them to be premium

One of them feels really premium, the other one less so. Have a limited amount of time here

to evaluate these things. And these are not retail units. So, you know, some things could change, particularly in the area of the color balance and what appears to be the slightly nicer

the saturated image that's on the cheaper of the two models. That could change a little bit, but that's what I'm looking at right here, right now

The camera versatility, a little bit better on the ultra model. The horsepower, a little bit better on the ultra model

The speakers, a little bit better on the ultra model. The refresh rate, a little bit better on the ultra model

But as you saw in this video, there's a couple areas where I actually prefer the non-Ultra model

And I'd be like, hey, save $300. Actually, the only thing I don't like about it is the plastic back

But I told you already how you can fix that. All you gotta do is pick up a later case for yourself, which is something I wear on all my phones anyways

That's the S20 Ultra. But you know I'm doing the same right now on the OnePlus 8 Pro

But I think this one's actually sold out at the moment. But anyways, if you happen to pick up the non-Ultra version of the new Note, you may want to check that out

It's on pre-order right now. And actually, we also launched another new product

That's this one right here, Bonus Unboxing. This is the later case for the AirPods Pro

And would you check out that fit? It's all very slick. It's all very precise

This just went on pre-order as well. the buttons still have access it goes on nice and easy and it doesn't come off it's a permanent

installation and it protects and also you know it gives a certain style to your airpods pro when you

do you put the pair together i mean check it out although that's a samsung so some people might not

be happy about that but i think it looks all right to be honest designed in canada made with kevlar

ultra thin 0.6 millimeters featherweight six grams superior texture stronger than steel 5x

magnets in the packaging as well 100 dupont kevlar you slide it open check out the presentation yeah

we improved we heard the criticisms it's a it's a work in progress that's the beauty of it you get

to follow along as things take place and it's going to be no different actually for these two

models that just came out. I have to say I think Samsung's doing some nice things. However, I do

have to reiterate these are some premium tickets, some premium price tags in 2020 when people are

being pretty cost sensitive and you're really gonna have to have that extra cash sitting around

to be looking at a flagship or really want that pen functionality. Otherwise, you might be looking

a little more closely at something like the Pixel 4a. And yes, that thing finally showed up

So I'm going to go shoot that video right now and maybe even compare it to some of my findings in this one

This episode of Unbox Therapy has been brought to you by NordVPN. That is my VPN of choice

I've been using Nord for a number of years now. NordVPN has extensions that you can use in Chrome

You can, of course, also download the app on iOS or Android. It's super easy to use

There are servers all over the world, and you can save some money right now. If you're not using a VPN, you should probably have one

If you head over to the link in the description or use the offer code UnboxTherapy

you can save a bunch of money. In fact, I think you can save up to 70

on a three-year plan. Nord will also give you a 30-day free trial

so you don't even have to make a commitment right away. You can give it a shot, see if you like it

and then go ahead and get the deal if you decide to keep it for a while. As mentioned, it's my VPN of choice

and everybody in the office here uses it and is actually subscribed to it

So check the description and thanks to NordVPN for sponsoring the show