Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra vs Galaxy Note 20 Ultra

Salman Amjad
6 min readJan 14, 2021

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All the details about Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra have already been disclosed way ahead of its launch, and for the first time on the Galaxy S series, it is apparently to support the Samsung’s Note Series Signature S Pen, even if the S Pen itself won’t be included inside the phone like it is on the Note series. if you are looking for the very best Samsung smartphone Does this mean that you should now buy the Galaxy S21 Ultra instead of the Note 20 Ultra? And what other differences are there between the Note 20 Ultra and the S21 Ultra?

Display, Design, and S Pen support

There is no doubt they both are big phones, the main difference between the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and the Galaxy S21 Ultra is the design. The Note 20 ultra comes in this Good rectangular shape with sharp corners that is unlike any other phone, and it is a bit wider than a typical phone too, while the Galaxy S21 Ultra features a slightly confined shape with more traditional, rounded corners. On the other hand, the Galaxy S21 Ultra has that new Stylish camera that kind of mixed with the metal sides of the phone and looks very modern and stylish. The Galaxy S21 Ultra is also a little bit thicker, not much, but thicker enough for one to notice, and that thickness becomes even more noticeable if you use the phone with a case.

And of course, since for the first time, a Galaxy S series phone will support S Pen, and now creative people will have one more reason to consider the S21 Ultra. But there is one disadvantage The S Pen, will not live inside the phone as on the Note Series, but it will be offered either separately or will insert into certain cases.

None of the two phones has a headphone jack, as you would expect, but both phones do support a micro SD card to expand the basic storage.

The Note 20 Ultra also has a slightly larger screen size than S21 Ultra. Not much On paper, the difference is just 0.1 inches, but the Note 20 Ultra being wider, it actually has a noticeably bigger screen area.

Still, the S21 Ultra is the latest phone and that means it benefits from a few technological breakthroughs, it comes with the highest brightness of any smartphone till now, (it can stretch up to 1,600 nits as needed), so don’t need to worry about the sunlight, you can comfortably use it and its color output will be a bit better as well reportedly.

Both phones support a QHD resolution for extra sharp detail, but interestingly, the Note 20 Ultra cannot use the 120 Hertz fast refresh rate at the maximum resolution, while the S21 Ultra has that option. both phones support a dynamic 120 Hertz refresh rate adjustment, meaning that it only happens when needed, while the rest of the time the phones run at a lower refresh rate to save battery for longer battery life.

Performance

The Galaxy S21 Ultra equipped with the latest and most powerful new chip Snapdragon 888 by Qualcomm, compared to an older version Snapdragon 865+ used on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

The latest Snapdragon 888 chip takes a leap in performance thanks to the newer 5nm manufacturing process used that allows for more transistors and higher performance without much of an effect on power consumption. But it doesn’t mean that the Note 20 Ultra is slow, it definitely isn’t, but obviously, if you want the most latest technology that is future proof, the S21 Ultra is the way to go.

Both phones will also start at base storage of 128GB in the United States, and that’s a reasonable amount of storage, and both will support microSD cards to expand that. Note that in some markets outside the United States, the phones might be offered with 256GB of storage for the base model.

If we talk about the 5G connectivity, both phones support all of the 5G bands that are currently in use, but again the Galaxy S21 Ultra has the advantage of a modem built inside the chipset, which allows it to be more sensible in terms of power efficiency.

Camera

The Note 20 Ultra impressed everyone in the camera department with the beautiful styling of the camera Bump with those metal rings around each lens, a stylish look. But when it comes to the actual quality of the cameras, it’s the S21 Ultra that is pushing the boundaries. Last year, Samsung introduced 100 times Space Zoom on the Galaxy S20 Ultra, but many users complained that photos with above 50x zoom are barely usable. Samsung took this seriously and limits the zooming ability of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra which supports “only” up to 50 times zoom.

Well, with the Galaxy S21 Ultra, 100 times zoom is coming back, but this time with better quality. The Galaxy S21 Ultra is able to bring this back thanks to a new, 10X zoom periscope lens, the longest range zoom ever used on any Galaxy phone, and it will use this camera feature combined with intelligent digital zoom to go all the way up to 100X zoom capability. A 10X periscope zoom lens, however, would mean a big gap in the zoom range from 1 to 10X, and that’s why Samsung is also including a secondary lens, which is a 3X zoom telephoto lens. Both telephoto cameras on S21 ultra come with optical image stabilization, which is very important to get clear images at those longer zoom ranges. All of this together easily makes the S21 Ultra truly the ultimate zoom camera smartphone.

Another amazing change is in the main camera which is much wider on the galaxy S21 Ultra, it shoots at 24mm rather than the standard across most phones 26mm length, It might seem like a small difference but it will make for a noticeably different perspective on photos captured with the main camera.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra also brings some improvements in the video recording department, firstly, it will support a laser auto-focusing system to help the focusing issues that the S20 Ultra used to have. And secondly, it will also be a first for a Galaxy phone to enable 8K video recording at 30 fps.

Battery Life and Charging Speeds

Finally, the latest Galaxy S21 Ultra also has a larger battery. It’s projected to come with a 5,000 M A H battery cell, compared to a 4,500 M A H battery on the Note 20 Ultra, more than 10 percent bigger in size. That is a considerable upgrade, as we already know the Note 20 Ultra had just average battery life, not quite as impressive as you would expect out of a flagship phone of its size and stature. Thankfully, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is expected to improve on that.

As for charging, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is expected to support 45 Watts charging speeds, while the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is limited to as much as 25 watt charging rates. Interestingly, the S21 Ultra is said to be the first Samsung phone to ship without a charger in the box. There will be a standard USB-C Type cable included in the box, but you would need to purchase the power adapter separately, just like you do on the most recent iPhone 12 series. and the Note 20 Ultra still ships with at least a charger in the box. Also, both phones support wireless charging at speeds of up to 15 watts with a compatible charger but you have to purchase it separately.

Prices

Lastly, let’s talk pricing. It is rumored that market conditions have forced Samsung to lower its flagship phone prices in 2021. In 2020, Samsung launched its flagship Galaxy S20 Ultra at a sky-high $1,400, while this year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra is rumored to cost around $1,300, but they are also removing the charger from the box and it might anger many customers, but if this allows it to cut the price of the phone, it might be worth it.

As for the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, its starting price was $1,300, but a few months after the launch you can now find it for a much more reasonable $1,000 at many retailers, so it definitely has the edge in terms of price.

  • Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G starting price of around $1,300 for 128GB model.
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G starting price of $1,300, the current price of around $1,000 for 128GB model with instant discounts

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