The latest flagship from Samsung matches distinctive design with fast performance.
August 25 update below. This post was first published on August 23, 2020. Samsung’s latest, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G is out. I’ve been testing it for three weeks and it’s a pricey but powerful phone that is the highest point Samsung phones have yet reached. The design is classy, the performance is strong and in Samsung Notes it has the best app the company has built. Oh, and the camera is, almost all the time, exceptional. But does all that mean you should buy it? The first Note, released in 2012, you’ll remember, was so different from what had gone before that it was comical. Ridiculously large with its – can you believe this? – 5.3-inch display. This latest model has come a long way and offers compromise-free performance, sleek design and a compromise-free display measuring just 6.9 inches. August 25 update. There are some aspects of the new phone that I didn’t review, dear reader. One of those is the extensive drop test. Forgive me, I haven’t the heart for it. But I can report that now, YouTube channel PhoneBuff has put the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and the iPhone 11 Pro Max together in a drop test. If you can bear to watch, the results are certainly informative. The Samsung phone comes with Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus to protect it, which the manufacturer says is 25% better at drop performance than Gorilla Glass 6. So, it can withstand a drop onto a rough surface of 2 meters, instead of the 1.6 meters claimed by the earlier version. The drops were conducted from a carefully measured height (around waist height, I’d say) onto a rough, solid surface. In the first drop, on the phones’ back, damaged the Samsung somewhat, but extensive cracking on the iPhone. A corner drop damaged both phones but not by that much. But it was round three, where the phones were dropped on their faces that the difference was most striking. The iPhone glass was heavily damaged but the Samsung, remarkably was pretty much intact. Which was more than my nerves were as I was watching, let me tell you. The drop tests go on and after 10 drops on its pretty face, the Samsung phone survived each drop without damaging, let alone destroying its front glass. Design: Unmistakably Samsung The Note series has always had a business-like and opulent feel, and the Note 20 Ultra 5G is no exception. The display is impressively all-encompassing and the way it curves down the (steeply sloped) edges is attractive. The glass back mirrors the shape of the curve of the display in a pleasing design note. There’s a matte effect on the rear of the phone itself but the antenna band, S Pen and camera lens detailing enjoy a gloss finish. The seam on the edge isn’t quite smooth enough to roll the handset through your fingers like a worry stone, though this may also be because of the size of the Note 20 Ultra. However, the sloping edges back and front mean the phone can fit the hand without leaving it feeling too stretched. Even so, smaller hands will struggle with this phone. The matte-finish back is made of glass on the Ultra, of course, but somehow because it’s not gloss it feels less premium, though still very different from the glasstic (glass and plastic) finish on Samsung’s other release which isn’t an “ultra”, the Galaxy Note 20. The biggest issue with design for me is the camera island. It is so protuberant and has such sharp edges it seems to dominate the back of the phone more than it should. If the phone is lying on its back, it jumps about when you’re tapping on the onscreen keyboard, for instance, which isn’t ideal. And when I held the phone, I found myself absent-mindedly scraping my thumb against the sharp edges and not really enjoying it. It’s sharp because the edge of Camera Island is lightly raised – a clever way to protect the camera lenses, but not great for hand-feel. However, this is solved if the phone is placed in a case. Of course, this is such a beautiful phone that it seems a shame to cover it up, and the downside it that it makes it a little harder to ping the S Pen out of its hidey-hole. But Samsung’s silicone case is understated and effective, and gives great peace of mind. The small cut-out for the Selfie camera emphasizes that this phone is almost all screen on the front, with a very slim bezel – and no notch! – all of which looks attractive.
