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00:00What's up, MKBHD here and welcome to your very first look and my first impressions of the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra.
00:12So Samsung's unpacked event is today. There's a lot of stuff being announced today and we'll get to all of it eventually.
00:18But we're going to cover the two main new things which are the two new flagship phones.
00:22And here they are.
00:24And as you can see, they look just like the leaks.
00:27You might have seen some of those. Two huge phones. This is that bronze color that they're in here.
00:33And they have a lot of the same DNA as Notes of the past in both design and feature set.
00:38But there is a lot of new stuff here.
00:40And since there are two new phones, I'm going to start with the Note 20 Ultra because that's where a lot of the sweet, interesting new features are.
00:48So let me just get the specs out of the way right off the top because that's the easiest part to take in.
00:52So they're top-notch. Snapdragon 865+.
00:55Up to 12GB of RAM.
00:57256GB of storage.
00:59And that's still expandable via micro SD card slot up top. That's still pretty rare.
01:04And there's a 4500mAh battery inside.
01:07A triple camera array which we'll get to in a second.
01:10And a huge, huge, 6.9 inch, 1440p, 120Hz AMOLED display.
01:19With that little selfie camera hole punch cut out in the middle up top there.
01:23It is a bit of a curved display over the edges which I personally wish we'd stopped seeing.
01:28But there's no denying, even from my limited hands-on time with it, this is probably one of the best displays in any smartphone.
01:35And of course we'll know better once we have it in hand for a longer time for the full review.
01:39But hey, that's what we expect at this point from Galaxy Note.
01:42I mean, just look at this thing.
01:44But one big asterisk though is even for the steep price of, I haven't told you yet, but this phone starts at $1300.
01:52Even for all that money, you still, just like S20 Ultra, can't use it at its highest frame rate and highest resolution at the same time.
02:01So sure enough, if you dig into the display settings and you find motion smoothing, it's 1080p out the box.
02:06So there's either standard 60Hz or adaptive.
02:10So you can't lock it at 120Hz, but it will move between 120 and 60 depending on what's happening on the phone.
02:16But if you go into resolution and switch from 1080p up to 1440p, it tells you this doesn't allow for adaptive high refresh rates.
02:24So I guess I will be rocking this phone again at 1080p and 120Hz because those extra frames look better than the extra pixels.
02:33Overall though, I'm a fan of the Note 20 Ultra design.
02:36Just looking at it, it still feels boxy in my hand the way I like it.
02:39The bezels look impossibly thin.
02:42And overall, the aesthetic with the matte bezels and satin finish on the back just screams premium.
02:49I mean, you look at this thing and you can tell, you feel it, it's premium glass and metal from top to bottom.
02:54It's great.
02:55But then let's check out this camera bump.
02:57So the rounded rectangle housing, the triple cameras and the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is absolutely massive.
03:05I wish I had measured it when I was here with the limited hands-on time just to see exactly how big it is.
03:10But it's huge just like the S20 Ultra.
03:12And I think it even looks bigger because it's just on one giant raised slab rectangle instead of like the S20 Ultra's double stepped curved slab.
03:22Basically, it's a really pronounced defining feature of this phone's design.
03:26And it's funny, I actually kind of started naturally holding the phone up from the back by propping my finger under the huge ledge
03:33that the camera makes because the phone is so big.
03:36But anyway, inside this bump, you have the main camera suite you'd expect with the standard, ultra wide and telephoto.
03:43And this time in the Note 20 Ultra, the telephoto lens is in fact a periscope lens nested sideways in the phone
03:49allowing you 5x optical zoom and up to a 50x space zoom.
03:54Not quite the 100x that they printed on the back of the Galaxy S20 Ultra.
04:00But I think Samsung realizes that was a mistake.
04:02And I think we're all okay with maxing out at 50x as long as the quality of the zoom we actually want like 3x and 5x and 10x are actually better.
04:11And it seems to be.
04:12But of course, that will have to be tested for the full review.
04:15They also kept 8k video from the S20 Ultra and added a few different aspect ratios.
04:19But it's worth noting that all of them will shoot from the 64 megapixel telephoto camera, not the main camera still.
04:25So there is still going to be a crop if you shoot in 8k in case you're wondering.
04:29But of course, this wouldn't be a Galaxy Note if we didn't have that S Pen.
04:35Which is moved over to the left side of the phone.
04:37And this year, the S Pen makes one particularly huge leap forward.
04:42And that's in latency.
04:44So latency is the delay between when you actually touch the screen and when there's actually a register on the screen for what you just did.
04:51And so the latency of the S Pen was up at around 42ms all the way up to the last generation.
04:57And with the Note 20 Ultra, they've gotten it down to 9ms.
05:01So about a fifth of the time.
05:04And you can definitely feel the difference.
05:06You can see the difference.
05:07So the S Pen has now arrived at Apple Pencil levels of responsiveness.
05:12In fact, it's matched that 9ms number.
05:14So there's really zero perceptible gap between the pen and what I'm actually writing.
05:21So it feels like I'm basically writing or painting directly onto the display.
05:25Which is awesome.
05:26And this is great for frequent S Pen users.
05:28Not just for writing text, but even for maneuvering around the UI with a pen like I have for years.
05:34And that combined with a lot of the other subtle Samsung Notes usability improvements and feature enhancements and things like that.
05:41Just feels like a great update for Galaxy Note for those who rely on this accessory.
05:46So that's Note 20 Ultra.
05:47And, again, that's the ultra premium, super high-end flagship.
05:51$1299, like we said.
05:53Kind of the opposite of the Pixel 4a I just reviewed.
05:56But then, of course, there's also now the Note 20.
05:59Which, to me, is a little more confusing.
06:02And that's because when you look at it on paper and with all the different things that Note 20 cuts down from Note 20 Ultra.
06:08And there's a lot.
06:10You would think, oh, this is going to be a significantly less expensive phone to be a more accessible, cheaper Note.
06:16To get people hooked on the S Pen and then want them to get the Ultra later.
06:20But the Note 20 still starts at $999.
06:24So picking it up for the first time, you may not immediately notice a lot of those cut downs.
06:28It's still got that bronze look.
06:30It actually has even more of a soft textured finish on the back.
06:34And it's a little bit lighter than the Ultra.
06:36But that lightness is because it's a plastic back.
06:40Not glass.
06:41So that's number one.
06:42Then the display up front here, it still looks great as you can tell.
06:45It has the little hole punch cut out.
06:47Still has great brightness and color.
06:49But it's now a slightly smaller 6.7 inches.
06:53And it's flat.
06:54Which I actually like.
06:55It really locks in the phone's boxy shape even more than the rounded Note 20 Ultra.
07:00But it also now has a slightly larger hole punch cut out.
07:04And slightly bigger bezels all the way around.
07:08And it's now 1080p.
07:10And 60Hz.
07:11And then you get to the specs.
07:12And they're, again, almost the same.
07:14Snapdragon 865 Plus is still there.
07:16But it now maxes out at 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.
07:20But it also now doesn't have expandable storage like the Ultra does.
07:24So that 128GB is your absolute max.
07:27Then the new S Pen.
07:28Again, it's still here.
07:29But with not quite the same blazing fast 9ms latency.
07:33Instead it cuts it down to 26ms.
07:36Still really fast and nice to see an improvement of about 50%.
07:40But, yeah, not the same as the Ultra.
07:43And it's also a slightly smaller 4300mAh battery instead of 4500.
07:47And the camera system maxes out at 30x zoom instead of 50x.
07:52Which, again, is not really that big of a deal.
07:54But it's because the Note 20 doesn't use a periscope camera like the Ultra does.
08:00It's just a standard 3x telephoto shooter.
08:03Which is why the camera bump also isn't as massive here.
08:06Basically, the Note 20 is to the Note 20 Ultra what the S20 is to the S20 Ultra.
08:12It's a slightly smaller, slightly less premium flagship in its own right.
08:17With a few cutdowns from the ultra premium stuff that most people hopefully won't notice.
08:22And I think this is mostly a good idea.
08:24Like the cutdown from, what, the 30x versus 50x zoom.
08:28Who really cares that much?
08:30The 26ms to 9ms response time.
08:34Again, I had limited hands-on time with them.
08:36But I actually didn't really notice that big of a difference either.
08:39They were both very responsive.
08:41But there's something about asking $1,000 for a 1080p 60hz plastic phone.
08:50With 128gigs of non-expandable storage tops.
08:54Like, just some of that doesn't feel quite up to the money.
08:59I'm going to say that the first time in the Note's history that this Note 20 is a bit overpriced.
09:06I think you can straight up get better phones for $1,000 or get equivalent phones for less.
09:10Like, this isn't my review, but I think there's going to be people cross-shopping in a store who will see Note 20 for $1,000.
09:16And then we'll see Galaxy S20 next to it.
09:19Or OnePlus 8 Pro next to it.
09:21Phones that cost less money that feel like they actually give you more.
09:24And I think the one reason you would get the Note 20 is because the S Pen is still pretty unrivaled in this smartphone world.
09:32As far as premium stylus experiences.
09:35And some people will want that.
09:37And I think Samsung knows that.
09:38And there's also still Samsung Note stuff and some Note exclusive stuff like DeX wireless.
09:44So if you remember what DeX could do on a desktop display, you don't need an adapter for it anymore or a special cable.
09:50It does it wirelessly via Miracast.
09:52That stuff's really impressive.
09:54But I guess I'm just curious how many people are going to want that stuff versus who will just go turn around and buy an S20 or something cheaper instead.
10:04But I'm curious what you think.
10:05Let me know in the comments below and what you think of Note 20 versus Note 20 Ultra and them existing at the same time.
10:11And if you haven't already subscribed for the full review, definitely make sure to do that so you're among the first to see it also.
10:16And until then, thanks for watching.
10:19Catch you guys later.
10:21Peace.