Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 14 Pro

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.9-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra (with Exynos 990) that was released on August 5, 2020, against the Apple iPhone 14 Pro, which is powered by Apple A16 Bionic and came out 26 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
  • Has a 0.8 inch larger screen size
  • Comes with 1300 mAh larger battery capacity: 4500 vs 3200 mAh
  • The rear camera has a 5x optical zoom
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1000GB
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • Reverse charging feature
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 14 Pro
  • 71% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (945K versus 553K)
  • Shows 37% longer battery life (36:11 vs 26:27 hours)
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • Delivers 75% higher peak brightness (1799 against 1030 nits)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • Apple releases software updates and supports their phones a few years longer than Samsung
  • The phone is 2-years and 2-months newer
We may receive a commission from Amazon for purchases made using the links below, but this has no bearing on our assessment methodology.

Review

Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Performance
CPU/GPU performance in apps and games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
NanoReview score
Final comparison evaluation

Value for money

You can enter your local price of these phones (in USD or any other currency) and click on the "Calculate" button to see which one has a better value for money.
Price

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.9 inches 6.1 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3088 pixels 1179 x 2556 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.5:9
PPI 496 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes Yes
Max rated brightness 600 nits 1000 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR - 1600 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus Ceramic Shield
Screen-to-body ratio 91.7% 87%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space 96.9% 99.8%
PWM 245 Hz 240 Hz
Response time 6 ms 1 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
1799 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 164.8 mm (6.49 inches) 147.5 mm (5.81 inches)
Width 77.2 mm (3.04 inches) 71.5 mm (2.81 inches)
Thickness 8.1 mm (0.32 inches) 7.85 mm (0.31 inches)
Weight 208 g (7.34 oz) 206 g (7.27 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Brown Black, Silver, Gold, Purple
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Tests of Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and Apple iPhone 14 Pro in the benchmarks
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 990 Apple A16 Bionic
Max clock 2730 MHz 3460 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 2 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 2 cores at 2.5 GHz: Cortex-A76
- 2 cores at 2.73 GHz: Exynos M5
- 4 cores at 2.02 GHz: Sawtooth
- 2 cores at 3.46 GHz: Everest
L3 cache 2 MB -
Lithography process 7 nanometers 4 nanometers
Graphics Mali-G77 MP11 Apple GPU
GPU clock 800 MHz -
FLOPS ~1196 GFLOPS -

Benchmarks

Geekbench 5 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 5 (Multi-Core)
AnTuTu Benchmark 9
945283
CPU 92406 253169
GPU 216567 394023
Memory 125152 149281
UX 116586 145972
Total score 553421 945283
3DMark Wild Life Performance
Max surface temperature 37.3 °C 41.2 °C
Stability 46% 79%
Graphics test 25 FPS 59 FPS
Graphics score 4247 9874
PCMark 3.0
Web score 8939 -
Video editing 6882 -
Photo editing 28631 -
Data manipulation 8806 -
Writing score 10714 -
Sources: 3DMark [3], [4]

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8, 12 GB 6 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR5
Memory clock 2750 MHz -
Channels - 4
Storage
Storage size 256, 512 GB 128, 256, 512, 1024 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 NVMe
Memory card MicroSD No
Memory card max size Up to 1000 GB -

Software

Operating system Android 10 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) iOS 16 (Can be upgraded to iOS 16.2)
ROM One UI 5.0 -
OS size 34.7 GB -

Battery

Specifications
Capacity 4500 mAh 3200 mAh
Charge power 25 W 23 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (7.5 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Fast charging Yes (43% in 30 min) Yes (60% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:20 hr 1:41 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 08:59 hr 12:35 hr
Watching video 13:52 hr 15:45 hr
Gaming 04:58 hr 06:03 hr
Standby 74 hr 120 hr
General battery life
36:11 hr

Camera

Specs and camera test of smartphones
Main camera
Matrix 108 megapixels 48 megapixels
Image resolution 12000 x 9000 8000 x 6000
Zoom Optical, 5x Optical, 3x
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 24FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 240FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 120°
Lenses 4 (108 MP + 12 MP + 12 MP + 0.3 MP) 4 (48 MP + 12 MP + 12 MP)
Wide (main) lens - 108 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 0.8 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.33", Samsung Bright S5KHM1 (ISOCELL Plus CMOS)
- Laser autofocus
- Optical stabilization
- 48 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 24 mm
- Pixel size: 1.22 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.28", Sony IMX803 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
Telephoto lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/3.0
- Focal length: 103 mm
- Pixel size: 1 micron
- Sensor: 1/3.4", Samsung S5K3M5 (ISOCELL CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.8
- Focal length: 77 mm
- Sensor: 1/3.5" (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
Ultra-wide lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.55", Samsung S5K2L3 (ISOCELL CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.55" (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Depth lens - 0.3 MP
Yes
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone 14 Pro from DxOMark
Selfie camera
Megapixels 10 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 3872 x 2592 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.2 f/1.9
Focal length 26 mm 23 mm
Pixel size 1.22 microns -
Sensor type CMOS Exmor-RS CMOS
Sensor size 1/3.2" 1/3.6"
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS

DxOMark camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic camera score

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.1 5.3
Bluetooth features PBAP/PAB, PAN, OPP, MAP, LE, HSP, HID, HFP, DIP, AVRCP, A2DP LE
USB type USB Type-C -
USB version 3.2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, NAVIC GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot Yes No
LTE Cat* 20 20
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio Yes No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness
89.5 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced August 2020 September 2022
Release date August 2020 September 2022
SAR (head) 0.319 W/kg -
SAR (body) 1.557 W/kg -
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPhone 14 Pro is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
12 (75%)
4 (25%)
Total votes: 16

User opinions

You can share your opinion or ask a question in the comments below
Promotion