Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra vs Note 20

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.9-inch Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra (with Exynos 990) that was released on February 11, 2020, against the Samsung Galaxy Note 20, which is powered by the same chip and came out 6 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 S20 Ultra
  • Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
  • Comes with 700 mAh larger battery capacity: 5000 vs 4300 mAh
  • 30% higher pixel density (511 vs 393 PPI)
  • Delivers 43% higher peak brightness (894 against 623 nits)
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1000GB
  • The rear camera has a 4x optical zoom
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 25W)
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy Note 20
  • Faster storage type - UFS 3.1 versus UFS 3.0
  • Weighs 28 grams less
  • The phone is 6-months newer

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and Note 20 crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
Choose the importance of each parameter to more accurately identify the smartphone that best meets your particular needs.
Adjust priorities
Feature
Priority (Weight)
Display:
Camera:
Performance:
Gaming:
Battery Life:
The higher the priority, the more it will affect the final NanoReview score.

Value for money

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

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED Super AMOLED
Size 6.9 inches 6.7 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3200 pixels 1080 x 2400 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 20:9
PPI 511 ppi 393 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No No
Max rated brightness 800 nits 600 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Glass 6 Corning Gorilla Glass 5
Screen-to-body ratio 89.9% 89.2%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space 99.2% 99.9%
PWM 240 Hz 250 Hz
Response time 6.2 ms 6.4 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
894 nits
623 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 166.9 mm (6.57 inches) 161.6 mm (6.36 inches)
Width 76 mm (2.99 inches) 75.2 mm (2.96 inches)
Thickness 8.8 mm (0.35 inches) 8.3 mm (0.33 inches)
Weight 220 g (7.76 oz) 192 g (6.77 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass Plastic
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Gray Black, Green, Brown
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Tests of Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Note 20 in the benchmarks
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 990 Samsung Exynos 990
Max clock 2730 MHz 2730 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 2 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 2 cores at 2.5 GHz: Cortex-A76
- 2 cores at 2.73 GHz: Exynos M5
L3 cache 2 MB 2 MB
Lithography process 7 nanometers 7 nanometers
Graphics Mali-G77 MP11 Mali-G77 MP11
GPU shading units 704 704
GPU clock 800 MHz 550 MHz
FLOPS ~1126 GFLOPS ~1126 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
AnTuTu Benchmark 10
722863
CPU 202750 214069
GPU 219003 202411
Memory 130201 134994
UX 157575 164236
Total score 709740 722863
3DMark Wild Life Performance
Max surface temperature 38.6 °C 38.6 °C
Stability 53% 88%
Graphics test 25 FPS 25 FPS
Graphics score 4319 4317
PCMark 3.0
Web score 8802 7804
Video editing 6175 5716
Photo editing 31559 29885
Data manipulation 8779 7954
Writing score 12443 11968
Sources: 3DMark [3], [4]

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12, 16 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR5
Memory clock 3200 MHz 2400 MHz
Channels 2 2
Storage
Storage size 128, 512 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 3.0 UFS 3.1
Memory card MicroSD No
Memory card max size Up to 1000 GB -

Software

Operating system Android 10.0 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) Android 10 (Can be upgraded to Android 13)
ROM One UI 4.1 One UI 5.0
OS size 23.7 GB 35 GB

Battery

Capacity 5000 mAh 4300 mAh
Max charge power 45 W 25 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (15 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes, (wireless)
Fast charging Yes (100% in 80 min) Yes (50% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:20 hr 1:05 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 08:26 hr -
Watching video 11:53 hr -
Gaming 04:13 hr -
Standby 93 hr -
General battery life

Camera

Specs and camera test of smartphones
Main camera
Matrix 108 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 12032 x 9204 4000 x 3000
Zoom Optical, 4x Optical, 3x
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 24FPS Up to 24FPS
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 240FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 120°
Lenses 4 (108 MP + 48 MP + 12 MP + 0.3 MP) 3 (12 MP + 64 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 CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 1.8 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.76", Sony IMX555 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
Telephoto lens - 48 MP
- Aperture: f/3.5
- Focal length: 103 mm
- Pixel size: 0.8 micron
- Sensor: 1/2", Sony IMX586 (CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
- 64 MP
- Aperture: f/2.0
- Focal length: 27 mm
- Pixel size: 0.8 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.72", Samsung Bright S5KGW2 (ISOCELL Plus CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
Ultra-wide lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.55", Samsung S5K2LA (ISOCELL CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
Depth lens - 0.3 MP
- Aperture: f/1.0
- Pixel size: 5 micron
-
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Samples - Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy Note 20 from DxOMark
Selfie camera
Megapixels 40 megapixels 10 megapixels
Image resolution 7864 x 5200 3872 x 2592
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm 26 mm
Pixel size 0.7 microns 1.22 microns
Sensor type CMOS CMOS
Sensor size 1/2.65" 1/3.2"
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 b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5 5
Bluetooth features LE, A2DP LE, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.1 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, NAVIC
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot Yes No
LTE Cat* 22 20
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

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

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced February 2020 August 2020
Release date March 2020 August 2020
SAR (head) 0.32 W/kg 0.359 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.56 W/kg 1.366 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Hall-effect sensor
- 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, camera, and design are more important to you, then choose the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. But if the battery life is more of a priority – go for the Samsung Galaxy Note 20.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
104 (66.2%)
53 (33.8%)
Total votes: 157

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