**** The Official Samsung Galaxy Note 20/Ultra Thread ****

[Ali195]

I guess the rumours of:

120hz at WQHD
Underscreen camera
Next gen Exynos (or close)

I'm sure there are others but Covid seemed to compound supply chain & planning issues.

Of course I expect Galaxy will get most of the above in 2021 & Note 6 months later.

 

[2013]

I guess the rumours of:

120hz at WQHD
Underscreen camera
Next gen Exynos (or close)

I'm sure there are others but Covid seemed to compound supply chain & planning issues.

Of course I expect Galaxy will get most of the above in 2021 & Note 6 months later.

I thought the Note 20 ultra screen was already 120hz WQHD

We did hope for a new exynos but no luck.

Rumour is Galaxy S21 May Skip the Under-Screen Camera Due to Unnecessarily High Costs and Poor Yields and the image quality from the front camera would be degraded.

 

[Squink]

So am I. Too much moaning about the exynos. It may not be perfect, I don't game, so for me personally, it's no big deal.

You don’t care, so everyone who does care is moaning?

 

[Cookie12]

So am I. Too much moaning about the exynos. It may not be perfect, I don't game, so for me personally, it's no big deal.

Yeah but a lot of us care because we do push these phones. Why buy a flagship if you don't want the features or use them. A decent midrange phone is all you need for mundane apps and calls etc.

What people are upset about is paying the same money for a less performing chip than other areas of the world. Upto 20% less performance ive read under certain scenarios.

Sort of like 2 customers going into BMW to buy an M3 and one gets a 330d whilst the other the M3, the 330d is still an amazing product but you would also be mad you paid more than you should, even if you werent going to use the performance the M3 brings to the table.

Not a great analogy I know but hey ho lol.

Samsung have just rubbed salt into the wound with the note 20 and sticking with exynos 990 and going 865+ elsewhere, so that 20% gap increases but the price is still the same.

Something that has been said before too is samsung went snapdragon in their own territory for the first time ever, that speaks volumes of what they think about their own chip. They are just offloading their stock onto us it seems.

 

[smokedog]

So am I. Too much moaning about the exynos. It may not be perfect, I don't game, so for me personally, it's no big deal.

Therein lies the problem, people are just a happy to pay over £1000 for whatever Samsung releases. There is no reason for Samsung to push the boat out or make a perfect phone, when they can just put a lick of paint on it and advertise it as shiny shiny.

 

[xb8browney]

I had a hands on with the ultra in CPW today, loved the colour and the frosted glass on the back but damn the camera bump is big!

The refresh rate is noticeable straight away

 

[Alexrose1uk]

Yeah but a lot of us care because we do push these phones. Why buy a flagship if you don't want the features or use them. A decent midrange phone is all you need for mundane apps and calls etc.

What people are upset about is paying the same money for a less performing chip than other areas of the world. Upto 20% less performance ive read under certain scenarios.

Sort of like 2 customers going into BMW to buy an M3 and one gets a 330d whilst the other the M3, the 330d is still an amazing product but you would also be mad you paid more than you should, even if you werent going to use the performance the M3 brings to the table.

Not a great analogy I know but hey ho lol.

Samsung have just rubbed salt into the wound with the note 20 and sticking with exynos 990 and going 865+ elsewhere, so that 20% gap increases but the price is still the same.

Something that has been said before too is samsung went snapdragon in their own territory for the first time ever, that speaks volumes of what they think about their own chip. They are just offloading their stock onto us it seems.

20%?
In some circumstances the Exynos can throttle down to roughly half performance or less, and it was already behind the Snapdragon, which typically only throttles a small amount on extended loads.

There's a reason we are so unhappy at the USA/Korean device getting an 865+ whilst we still get the 990, its a MASSIVELY inferior processor, that throttles and is plain slower under load or demand, and is less power efficient.

Why the **** should we pay the same premium price for a device that in some cases can be half the speed...

From Anandtech's in depth review of the S20s: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1560...ynos-snapdragon-review-megalomania-devices/17
"The power efficiency differences between the Snapdragon and Exynos are acceptable in everyday usage, however if you’re a power user, particularly in gaming, the Exynos 990 won’t fare very well. The M5 CPU is a disappointment and isn’t competitive with the Cortex-A77 cores of the Snapdragon. But at least it’s the last generation of Exynos SoC having to live with such a disadvantage. The GPU performance of the SoC is also very disappointing, as the long-term performance will only be around half of the Snapdragon models."

And now the Snapdragon is getting upgraded so the gulf grows wider. We get a slower, more power hungry device, which throttles more. Great.

Now look at the price and ask yourself why on earth we should be happy with such a compromise?

There is a reason EVERY Tech reviewer is pretty much saying avoid a Samsung if it's based on the current Exynos and you have the choice of a Snapdragon phone.

 

[tsobo]

Can't belive they are going to sell us the exynos and yet others are getting the sd+

 

[Ali195]

If you're into high fidelity mobile gaming I can see the issue with the above vs price paid. If performance noticeably impacted my gaming experience I would touch Exynos. Gave up with mobile gaming years back when it turned into a micro transaction hell hole with a games built around it.

Have my 10+ on performance mode 100% of the time. The few times it wasn't due to urgent battery saving measures & then forgot I noticed a slight delay, jitter almost (hard to describe) but something 'felt' different when switching around apps. Then I remembered it wasn't in performance mode.

Maybe the difference between the two is more noticable if you went from Snapdragon to Exynos.

 

[Squink]

Can't belive they are going to sell us the exynos and yet others are getting the sd+

It is corporate arrogance of the highest order.

On a slightly related note, I’ve had extensive experience of Samsung’s customer support and everything about it reeked of the same total cynical disregard for the customer. And these muppets think they’re competing with Apple.

 

[sandys]

I have note for big screen and pen my note 10+ is fast enough, 990 would be an upgrade so ...meh whatever

 

[evohicks]

The Snapdragon 855 was a much better performer than the Exynos 9825 also on the Note 10+, at least in multi core. You have to go back to around the Galaxy Note 8 for an even par and before that the Exynos was a far better chip than Snapdragon which the US, China and others had to endure.
Next year the Exynos partnership with Amd looks promising but until then I'm happy with the Note 20 Ultra, if you're not happy about it then just don't buy it, it's not for everyone, at least the Exynos 990 will be better than the Exynos 9825 in my current Note 10+ and we do get 256gb storage base compared to Snapdragon regions of 128gb base, oh and some free buds live or Xbox controller thingy with game access.

 

[Amnesia]

After sending the Note 10+ back I was hoping for some good news with todays release, they can **** right off with that processor.

 

[Alexrose1uk]

I didn't want to lose Samsung Pay, but frankly they can go do one giving us 990 again, after all the feedback from users and reviewers. On the hunt for another device, probably get something a bit more midrange (Poco maybe) and then get a proper flagship next year, as this years devices all appear to be kinda lacking.

There's not any one phone that retains the features of my Note 9 without severe compromises (even excluding the stylus), pretty depressing. Even the OnePlus Pro has hole punch and no expandable storage. Only hope I can see from Samsung is the Fold 2, and that's going to cost stupid amounts and probably won't have expandable storage either.

Might go Poco, at least its much cheaper, has most of the hardware, and the only real drawbacks are the screen res and resolution, but as the Note 9 isn't 90Hz anyway, I may not notice too much.

The LG V60 might have been perfect for me if they'd released it here with all our 4G bands, but nope, not UK release. FFS.

 

[2013]

I didn't want to lose Samsung Pay, but frankly they can go do one giving us 990 again, after all the feedback from users and reviewers. On the hunt for another device, probably get something a bit more midrange (Poco maybe) and then get a proper flagship next year, as this years devices all appear to be kinda lacking.

There's not any one phone that retains the features of my Note 9 without severe compromises (even excluding the stylus), pretty depressing. Even the OnePlus Pro has hole punch and no expandable storage. Only hope I can see from Samsung is the Fold 2, and that's going to cost stupid amounts and probably won't have expandable storage either.

Might go Poco, at least its much cheaper, has most of the hardware, and the only real drawbacks are the screen res and resolution, but as the Note 9 isn't 90Hz anyway, I may not notice too much. Alternatively one of the gaming phones like the Nubia, ROG or Black Shark.

I think this is the main reason everyone is so angry with samsung, the note20u is not bad phone but the fact they ignored the feedback about the CPU, even worse the SD reigns get a improved CPU and they are charging even more then last year

So I do agree if the company wont listen to your feedback, talk with your wallet.

 

[Alexrose1uk]

This is the thing, if they'd listened and given us either an upgraded Exynos or a SD865+, I'd have dealt with the cost and paid up, even if it doesn't have expandable storage, it'd have everything else I wanted more or less, but no...Samsung couldn't even do that, whilst still ramming the price up.
There's not ONE phone I've seen this year that ticks all my boxes, so I kinda feel like I might as well go for something a bit more midrange like the Poco this year, and then next year I can upgrade again, guilt free, assuming much better phones, as I didn't pay anywhere near as much money this year.

It's so frustrating, I'm happy to pay the big bucks but the device I want doesn't seem to exist:

SD 865/865+
Stays cool, either via cooling system or just decent design (albeit the 865 sounds like it doesn't throttle much anyway)
Lots of RAM and Storage
Expandable Storage
QHD HDR AMOLED Screen (high refresh rate bonus, I love it on desktops but as my Note 9 is 60Hz, I've not got used to better on mobile)
Big Battery
NFC [Samsung Pay (would have been nice as I do use it)]
Decent Camera
Stereo Speakers
UK Warranty/Support incase of issues

This is the stupid part, I am willing to go pay £50-80 a month if it ticks all my boxes, I am willing to pay for a premium device that 'does it all' as I travel a lot, and use my phone all the damn time, but no one has made one because they're all chasing thin-ness, waterproofing or in Samsung's case they're so bloody arrogant!
The Samsung's get so damn close, but no expandable storage or headphone jack anymore, and they've got the comparatively godawful Exynos 990 dragging the performance and battery life down, and then the price tag on top...

Poco or Black Shark 3 Pro are almost sounding like the best compromises I'll be able to get this year, at least they'll be cheaper than the Note 20/20 Ultra, and cover MOST of the above.

My Note 9 has Exynos which has it's issues but for its time it had EVERYTHING ELSE going for it (hell even headphone jack for when I occasionally use it), and the 9810 wasn't as far behind it's equivalent Snapdragon as the 990 is from the 865.

 

[2013]

Just wondering what features of the note 9 are you looking to retains that no other phone can match ?

 

[Alexrose1uk]

See above, expandable storage was one I am rather fond of that seems to have disappeared. I've yet to find one phone that 'does it all'.
Black Shark 3 Pro has probably been the closest so far, and its out of stock, or Oneplus 8 Pro maybe. Poco is doing well in mindshare on the basis of raw value.

The Note 9 was a flagship that more or less did everything well for its era, had a big battery even if not best, had expandable storage, even if the Exynos 9810 wasn't perfect it wasn't THAT far behind, it did nothing bad. By contrast Exynos 990 is plain bad.

 

[Gerard]

I snagged the note 10 last year for the stylus...and I've rarely used it.

One of those things where you think it could be handy but it never works out that way.

 

[2013]

See above, expandable storage was one I am rather fond of that seems to have disappeared. I've yet to find one phone that 'does it all'.
Black Shark 3 Pro has probably been the closest so far, and its out of stock, or Oneplus 8 Pro maybe. Poco is doing well in mindshare on the basis of raw value.

The Note 9 was a flagship that more or less did everything well for its era, had a big battery even if not best, had expandable storage, even if the Exynos 9810 wasn't perfect it wasn't THAT far behind, it did nothing bad. By contrast Exynos 990 is plain bad.

I thought the samsung S and note models all came with expandable storage (microSDXC slot) and most other feature have been improved on from what I can see, unless your comparing the note 9 to mid range phones

I snagged the note 10 last year for the stylus...and I've rarely used it.

One of those things where you think it could be handy but it never works out that way.

I was thinking the same about the note 20 u mostly wanted it because I like the design over the s10 and s20 but to be honest im going try and hold out till next year when they prices come down and stick with my s8 for now.

I would worry too much with a phone of that value in my pocket.