Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra vs Google Pixel 6

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 Google Pixel 6, which is powered by Google Tensor and came out 15 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
  • The rear camera has a 5x optical zoom
  • Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1000GB
  • Has a 0.5 inch larger screen size
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Delivers 22% higher peak brightness (1021 against 838 nits)
  • Thinner bezels – 8.3% more screen real estate
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • 21% higher pixel density (496 vs 411 PPI)
  • The front-facing camera can record video at 4K
Reasons to consider the Google Pixel 6
  • Shows 13% longer battery life (30:01 vs 26:27 hours)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.2)
  • 31% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (717K versus 547K)
  • The phone is 1-year and 3-months newer
  • More energy-efficient CPU – Google Tensor
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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

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Price

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.9 inches 6.4 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3088 pixels 1080 x 2400 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 20:9
PPI 496 ppi 411 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 90 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes No
Max rated brightness 600 nits 500 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR - 800 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus Gorilla Glass Victus
Screen-to-body ratio 91.7% 83.4%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space 96.9% 99.8%
PWM 245 Hz 397 Hz
Response time 6 ms 5 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
1021 nits
838 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 164.8 mm (6.49 inches) 158.6 mm (6.24 inches)
Width 77.2 mm (3.04 inches) 74.8 mm (2.94 inches)
Thickness 8.1 mm (0.32 inches) 8.9 mm (0.35 inches)
Weight 208 g (7.34 oz) 207 g (7.3 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Brown Black, Blue, Yellow
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Screen-to-body ratio
83.4%

Performance

Tests of Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and Google Pixel 6 in the benchmarks
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 990 Google Tensor
Max clock 2730 MHz 2800 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 2 + 4) 8 (2 + 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 1.8 GHz: Cortex A55
- 2 cores at 2.25 GHz: Cortex A76
- 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-X1
L3 cache 2 MB 4 MB
Lithography process 7 nanometers 5 nanometers
Graphics Mali-G77 MP11 Mali-G78 MP20
GPU clock 800 MHz 848 MHz
FLOPS ~1196 GFLOPS ~2171 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Geekbench 5 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 5 (Multi-Core)
AnTuTu Benchmark 9
Pixel 6 +31%
717419
CPU 92406 187698
GPU 216567 298218
Memory 125152 100887
UX 116586 137683
Total score 547637 717419
3DMark Wild Life Performance
Pixel 6 +51%
6396
Max surface temperature 37.3 °C 42.1 °C
Stability 46% 55%
Graphics test 25 FPS 38 FPS
Graphics score 4247 6396
PCMark 3.0
10571
Web score 8939 7520
Video editing 6882 6317
Photo editing 28631 17400
Data manipulation 8806 10423
Writing score 10714 15179
Sources: 3DMark [3], [4]

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8, 12 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR5
Memory clock 2750 MHz 3200 MHz
Channels - 4
Storage
Storage size 256, 512 GB 128, 256 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 UFS 3.1
Memory card MicroSD No
Memory card max size Up to 1000 GB -

Software

Operating system Android 10 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) Android 12 (Can be upgraded to Android 13)
ROM One UI 5.0 Stock Android
OS size 34.7 GB 17.6 GB

Battery

Specifications
Capacity 4500 mAh 4614 mAh
Charge power 25 W 30 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (21 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes, (wireless)
Fast charging Yes (43% in 30 min) Yes (41% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:20 hr 1:53 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 08:59 hr 08:58 hr
Watching video 13:52 hr 16:38 hr
Gaming 04:58 hr 05:24 hr
Standby 74 hr 92 hr
General battery life
Pixel 6 +13%
30:01 hr

Camera

Specs and camera test of smartphones
Main camera
Matrix 108 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 12000 x 9000 8192 x 6144
Zoom Optical, 5x Digital
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° 114°
Lenses 4 (108 MP + 12 MP + 12 MP + 0.3 MP) 2 (50 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
- 50 MP
- Aperture: f/1.9
- Focal length: 25 mm
- Pixel size: 1.2 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.31", Samsung GN1 (ISOCELL Plus CMOS)
- Laser autofocus
- 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
-
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: 17 mm
- Pixel size: 1.12 micron
Depth lens - 0.3 MP
-
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 Google Pixel 6 from DxOMark
Selfie camera
Megapixels 10 megapixels 8 megapixels
Image resolution 3872 x 2592 3840 x 2160
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.0
Focal length 26 mm 24 mm
Pixel size 1.22 microns 1.12 microns
Sensor type CMOS CMOS
Sensor size 1/3.2" -
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 1080p (Full HD) at 30 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 6E (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 5.2
Bluetooth features PBAP/PAB, PAN, OPP, MAP, LE, HSP, HID, HFP, DIP, AVRCP, A2DP LE, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.1
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
88.8 dB
86.3 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced August 2020 October 2021
Release date August 2020 October 2021
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
- Fingerprint
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

If the display, software, camera, design, and sound are more important to you, then choose the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. But if the performance and battery life are more of a priority – go for the Google Pixel 6.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
62 (70.5%)
26 (29.5%)
Total votes: 88

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