Note 20 Ultra Review - 6 Months Later By Jesse Chen

What's up guys Jesse here, so the note 20 ultra has been out for a little over six months at this point, and I've gotten to spend a little more time with it, get to know it a little better, and you know there's just certain things that you don't really catch until you spend more than two or three weeks with a phone. So this video is gonna, be kind of a six-month update on how I'm feeling about the phone and whether you should consider buying this in 2021. Now, if you guys want to watch my initial review of this phone that'll be linked down below in the description, so after this video of course go ahead and check that out. But let's start this video off by talking about the design and of course a lot of this is going to be subjective, but I personally feel like even after the s21 came out. This is the best looking Samsung phone that they've ever made. Now I don't think that the s21 looks bad.

I just think that the note 20 ultra looks a little better. The rounded rectangular design that the note has had for the past couple of years looks really nice. In my opinion, the camera bump, while huge fits the design of the phone really well, it seems like they really embraced the camera bump and made it a design feature rather than just trying to hide it and those shiny rings around each of the camera lenses just kind of bring it home for me and makes it look. Super classy, the camera bump, does cause probably the worst table wobbles of any phone I've ever used, but it's not the end of the world because most of the time you're going to be holding the phone, and it feels great in the hands. I have heard people complain a bit about the sharper corners of this phone digging into their hands, but I personally have not experienced that at all, and I find it very comfortable to hold the only complaint I really have about.

The design of this phone is the button and s pen placement. I mentioned this in my initial review, but if you're coming from a note, 10 plus, like I was you're going to notice that all the buttons are on the right side and the s pen is now on the left side and for right-handed people, I feel like it's a little worse, because, if you're holding the phone in your right hand, basically you have to use your thumb to press all the buttons and, if you're, trying to take a screenshot, you basically just have to finagle away to hit both the power button and the volume down button with one finger. And if you want to use the s pen with your right hand, you're going to have to shift the phone around to expose the s-pen. Now this is not a dealbreaker of any kind, but the only reason I'm bringing it up in the first place is. I thought it was going to be one of those things where I just kind of got used to it and forgot about it, but I just find it really annoying.

Every time I want to take a screenshot, I have to switch hands, but if you are left-handed, though, this is going to be a little better for you, anyways the matte glass on the back is still one of my favorite things ever. It feels amazing and rejects fingerprints super well. However, it is extremely slippery and that, combined with the curved edges, make this kind of the most easily dropped phone that I've ever used. But if you use a case like, I think most people do, none of that is going to be an issue, and I've thought about using a case with this, but I feel like it's kind of a criminal offense to cover this up. On the other side, though, you've got this big, beautiful, 6.9 inch, 1440p 120 hertz super AMOLED display. Like every time I check out a new Samsung phone.

I'm always amazed about how they just keep outdoing themselves in the screen department. The note 10, plus that I was using before this already had one of the best screens that I had ever seen, and they basically just kept everything that made that one great and added 120 hertz. It is capped at 1080p. But I feel like that's more than enough resolution for a screen of the size like you can make out individual pixels, but you have to be closer than I think any human being would really need to be the 120 hertz refresh rate, though I think, is a game changer and a legitimate reason to try and upgrade to this from a note, 10 plus, which is good for Samsung, because that is one of the few notable changes that they've made. With this year's version.

It makes everything look buttery, smooth, animations, feel snappier, and once you go back to a 60hz display, it just feels like it's lagging. Apart from the refresh rate, though this screen still has probably some of the best colors contrast, brightness and sharpness of any phone out there and can probably only be beat by a newer Samsung phone. The quality of the screen, along with just the sheer size of the display, makes it probably one of the best content. Consumption phones on the market, watching videos playing games or even just viewing images, is a joy on the screen and the way that the screen falls off. The edges, along with the ultra-thin bezels, just really adds to the immersion of using this.

The edge screen also allows for the edge menu which just allows you to pin apps, where you want to access them quickly. I use it almost exclusively for the calculator app, but you guys can pin any app that you want to on there, and it's just really nice, because you can access it from anywhere. The edge screen does have some drawbacks, though, and the first one is that content does get a little warped at the edges. It isn't that bad, but it definitely still is there. The bigger thing for me, though, is accidental touches.

Now this is one of those things where, in my initial review, I said, wasn't really that bad and was a non-issue, but the more I use this phone. The more accidental touches kind of get in my way. Now again, it's not really that bad, but it does show up in certain situations more than others. For example, if you're using the phone while laying down you, don't really have anything to kind of grip onto except for the screen, and that can lead to a lot of accidental touches that I find pretty annoying, and I'm not really sure if this is the best move, but if the note had kind of flatter edges like the iPhone 12s, but given how square this phone is to begin with. That might turn this a little too brick-like, but I don't know personally, I would really like to see that anyways last thing about the screen is that there is a hole, punch cutout for the selfie cam, and you know it's not ideal, we're still hoping for that under display camera, but they've managed to shrink it quite a lot, and I don't really find it to be that intrusive also way better than having a huge notch.

Like certain other companies, this healthy quality is okay, it's a 10 megapixel sensor, but it does still do that thing where it smooths out the skin, which I'm just not really a big fan of one thing I still don't really get about. Samsung's selfie cameras, though, is why they put two options for focal length on the selfie camera like there's only one lens, so it has to be a software thing and there's only like a little difference between the two focal lengths. So I don't know why they bothered to even put it in there, and it's not a big deal, I'm just a little confused as to why it's in there I mean- maybe if you guys know, leave it down in the comment section below, but I'm just a little baffled here. Moving on to the camera system, on the back, though, the triple lenses on the main camera system have proven themselves to just be a super reliable, solid camera system. They perform well in all kinds of situations, and they still do have that slightly over saturated sharpened over processed.

Look that Samsung phones have kind of been known for the past couple of years, but it's definitely not as bad as it used to be, and I still think it looks pretty good. The laser autofocus system works pretty well, and I haven't really noticed any times when I felt like it wouldn't focus on what I needed it to one thing. That still is a little. Annoying, though, is the shutter lag like the time between you pressing the button, and then the camera actually taking the picture is a little longer than I would expect, but the actual quality of the images that come off of these cameras are pretty good. The main wide camera is noticeably better than the other two cameras, especially in low light, and while it is technically a 108 megapixel sensor, I feel like that.

Number is kind of a marketing gimmick, and you're hardly ever going to need that feature like it definitely is sharper than the regular 12 megapixel mode, but it's only sharper by like a little, and it's hardly enough to justify all the extra file spaces that the 108 megapixels are gonna. Take the two other lenses also perform very well. The ultra-wide is perfect for landscapes or just getting those cool ultra-wide distortion effects. The five times periscope zoom lens is definitely the worst out of the three lenses, especially in low light, but I think it's okay, because it's also the least used lens by most people. It also has 50 times, digital zoom, but it's like 99 a gimmick, and it is crazy, crazy.

Soft. In the comments of my last video, though I did hear an interesting use case like instead of thinking of that feature in terms of using it for photos, you think of it as kind of portable telescope, and you can use it to read signs without having to go out of your way to get within normal viewing distance, which I know is super lazy, but why work harder? If you don't have to anyways video quality, I would describe as good, but not great, like it's fine, and it'll get the job done, but it just has this kind of gritty software sharpened. Look to it that I'm just not a fan of. So definitely not. My favorite smartphone camera for video, but it'll get the job done.

Okay, now moving on to the defining feature of the note line, and that is of course the s pen and personally, I am really not that big of an s pen, user, but Samsung has included a lot of features with it. You can use it to take handwritten notes or draw if you're into that I've seen people create some pretty crazy stuff. Just using the s, pen and Samsung even has an app where s pen, artists can all come together and check out each other's work, which I think is really cool. The new 120 hertz display also makes this s pen feel more latency free than ever, but I mostly just use the s pen for precision tapping in games and as just kind of fidget toy like clicking. This thing is just so satisfying.

One thing to be careful of, though, is: if you drop the phone, the s-pen can come out on its own, so just be careful of that. Samsung has included a feature, though, where, if you get too far away from the s pen, then it'll give you a notification. So software wise. This is running some version of one UI three, and I really like it. The UI elements are really aesthetically pleasing much better than Samsung's old stuff.

The notification tray is really nice. Notifications from the same apps are grouped together, so it's super intuitive and in most stock apps they make it so that you can keep on scrolling once you get to the top. So the tappable elements are all in the middle of the phone that way it minimizes the amount of hand gymnastics that you have to do with such a big phone, but you still will need to kind of shift the phone around when using non-stock apps, but the 120 hertz screen, along with the stellar performance of the hardware in this phone, makes using this just feel crazy, crazy snappy, the snapdragon 865 plus still runs like a champ, and I haven't noticed slowdowns anywhere.12 gigabytes of ram is more than you're gonna need in most real world applications. You've also got 5g, which is very questionable about how much you actually need it, but it is good for future proofing. For me, there haven't really been that many noticeable improvements in speed, and I've heard they've done.

Studies where 5g is only a little faster than 4g in ideal conditions and in the worst conditions, it's actually worse than 4g, but it's nice having 5g just for the future when it becomes more available and performance wise. I don't think you're going to have any complaints, and you're going to be good for a long time to come. The battery life, which is arguably the most important spec, is still very good on this phone. It has a 4500 William hour battery, which recharges via USB or wireless comfortably lasts me all day and while two days might be pushing it a little, I have no complaints on battery life on this phone. It also has an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, which originally I found to be very finicky, but the more I use it.

The more I find that I have less failed attempts, and I can't tell if the phone is learning my fingerprints better or, if I'm learning how the fingerprint sensor works more, but it just works better and in this world, where we have to wear masks everywhere, we go. This is a must-have feature and I don't really see masks going away anytime soon. So I'm really glad that this phone has it. It also has a face unlock feature, but that one's not quite as secure, so you can't use it for certain apps, like logging into your bank, account, for example, so, overall after this phone has been out for six months, I love it. The design is one of my favorites ever the matte glass in this mystic bronze color looks great.

In my opinion, the screen is one of the best in the industry and to me the screen is one of my top priorities in a smartphone, because that's what you're looking at the whole time you're using it. It has awesome performance, great battery life, super solid camera system, and it's honestly just kind of the do everything phone where you don't really have to make any sacrifices, and when this phone came out it was 12.99 and for that price I still find it very hard to recommend this phone. But at this point you can actually find this phone for pretty good deals. So if you can find a good price for this phone that works for your budget, then I say: go for it. Because you're, not gonna, regret it anyways! That's all for this one.

If you guys still have any questions about this phone, then leave it down in the comment section below, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can remember to smash that like button and if you enjoy content like this think about subscribing and hitting the bell, so you don't miss anything as always. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll catch you guys in the next one peace.

Source : Jesse Chen