Samsung Galaxy Note 20: will anyone buy the new US$1,000 smartphone? Google and Apple just launched devices less than US$400 ...
Samsung’s US$1,000 Galaxy Note 20 and US$1,300 Galaxy Note 20 Ultra have highly impressive specs, but Apple and Google are taking a different approach with lower-priced models
Samsung took the wraps off its newest Galaxy Note phones this month: the US$1,000 Galaxy Note 20 and US$1,300 Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. The new devices come with faster processors and improved cameras compared to last year's models, and both will launch on August 21.
The two phones have much in common with Samsung's Galaxy S20 line-up, with the biggest differences being the Note's signature stylus and the more expensive model's new Ultra Wideband technology. This feature makes the Note 20 Ultra better at sensing nearby objects so that it can more easily share content with other devices and potentially work more seamlessly with smart home gadgets in the future. Apple's iPhone 11 also supports this technology.
The differences between the Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra
The two models may look similar, but they have a few notable differences, especially when it comes to their screens and cameras.
The standard Note 20 has a 6.7-inch flat screen with a 2400 x 1080 resolution. The larger and pricier Ultra model, however, has a 6.9-inch curved AMOLED display with a 3088 x 1440 resolution and a higher 120Hz refresh rate – a characteristic that is becoming standard on high-end smartphones.
Most devices usually have a refresh rate of 60Hz, but companies like Samsung and OnePlus have been offering higher refresh rates on recent models to offer smoother scrolling.
Both phones come with a 10-megapixel front-facing camera, but their main camera systems differ. The Ultra model has a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, a 108-megapixel wide-angle camera, and a 12-megapixel telephoto camera. There's also a laser sensor on this model to improve autofocusing capabilities, a shooting mode that the S20 struggled with, prompting Samsung to issue a software fix.
That's an improvement over the Note 10 Plus' camera system, which included 12-megapixel wide-angle, 12-megapixel telephoto, and 16-megapixel ultra-wide angle cameras.
If that 108-megapixel camera sounds familiar, it's because Samsung debuted it on the Galaxy S20 Ultra earlier this year. Unlike the S20 Ultra, however, the new Note 20 Ultra will only be able to zoom up to 50x resolution, whereas the S20 Ultra is capable of zooming up to 100x. Do not worry about missing out, however, since some have said photos taken at 100x zoom can be too blurry to be useful anyway.