Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, Galaxy Note 20 launched; here’s everything to know about them

India price and availability will be announced separately.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and Galaxy Note 20 were launched during Samsung Galaxy Unpacked virtual event on Wednesday. As is usually the case with all Galaxy Note devices, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and Galaxy Note 20 are Samsung’s “everything” phones designed from ground up for power users. Their main USP of course being their signature S-Pen stylus, a bundled accessory that Samsung keeps improving upon year-on-year and 2020 is no different.

As their naming suggests, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is the more powerful (and more expensive) of the two Galaxy Note devices launching this year. The Galaxy Note 20 tries to bring many of those hardware features to a more accessible price point. Core hardware is shared between the two though. To that effect, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and Galaxy Note 20, both come with Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 865+ processor. In markets like India however, potential buyers will still have to make do with Samsung’s Exynos 990 processor, like it or not.

The Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra have the same screen size as the Galaxy S20+ (6.7-inch) and Galaxy S20 Ultra (6.9-inch) respectively, but only the Ultra supports 120Hz high refresh rate (the vanilla Galaxy Note 20 has a conventional 60Hz panel). An important differentiator between the new Note and the S20 phones is their boxier design. The Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra also come with matte finish (that’s all-glass in the Ultra and polycarbonate in the vanilla model) including an all-new mystic bronze flavor that we’ve already seen enough of in leaks – it looks really, really nice. The Ultra additionally also boasts of Corning’s latest Gorilla Glass Victus.

The S-Pen is also shared between both the Note devices. This year’s new S-Pen feature is “anywhere” actions allowing users to use gestures to control as many as five functions on their phones. Samsung is also extending its partnership with Microsoft to allow Note 20 users to sync notes directly to OneDrive and/or Outlook. The Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra will also be one of the first few devices in the market to get Xbox Game Pass access from September 15.

Elsewhere, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra comes with 12GB RAM and up to 512GB of storage. The Note 20 has 8GB RAM and up to 256GB storage. Battery capacities are 4,300mAh for the vanilla Note 20 and 4,500mAh for the Note 20 Ultra.

Both the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra have triple rear cameras. The combination in the case of the Ultra is a 108MP main+12MP ultra wide-angle+12MP telephoto while the Note 20 has a 12MP main+12MP ultra wide-angle+64MP telephoto combo. The Ultra can do up to 50x space zoom theatrics. Both phones can do 8K videos as well. On the front, both the phones come with a 10MP camera housed inside a punch hole cutout.

Both the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra are 5G-ready phones but in select markets like India, Samsung is launching 4G-only models. The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra LTE comes with up to 8GB RAM and up to 512GB storage. The Galaxy Note 20 LTE comes with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage.

In the US, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra starts at $1,300 while the Note 20 starts at $1,000 and they’ll be available from August 21. India price and availability will be announced separately.