It’s that time of the year when we select the very best products of the year. In the best smartphone category, we chose the Google Pixel 5, after a heated debate between our editors. The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra was a close second. Well, it seems like our readers prefer the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, as Samsung’s current flagship is the winner of our Reader’s Choice Award for the best smartphone of 2020.
We offered our readers four choices of the best smartphone of the year in our Twitter poll. In addition to the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, the Google Pixel 5, OnePlus 8T, and Galaxy S20 Ultra were listed. The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra won with 37.2-percent of the votes, while the Pixel 5 was second-placed with 25.5-percent. The OnePlus 8T reached the third place with 19-percent, while the Galaxy S20 Ultra claimed the fourth spot with 18.2-percent of the votes.
It’s one of the best-looking smartphones out there
The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is one of the best-looking smartphones in the market. Its boxy shape, carefully-designed lines, and thin bezels make it a joy to look at. Truth be said, actually using it without a case can be an issue. The phone is huge, and it’s also quite slippery. The best idea is to put it in a case, but if you don’t plan on doing that, be careful. This phone is not exactly easy to use with one hand even with a case on, and if you add the slippery factor in… it’s a recipe for disaster. The phone does look gorgeous, but it’s slippery, as most other flagships.
Samsung paid huge attention to detail here. The phone’s rear camera housing blends with the design perfectly, while that matte finish on the back of most models looks excellent. Even the display camera hole probably won’t bother you, as it’s quite small, and it doesn’t really jump at you in any way. The top and bottom sides of the device are completely flat, which will provide you with a somewhat different experience than most phones out there.
Top of the line specs, top of the line performance
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is one of the best-specced smartphones in the market at the moment. It comes with all the bells and whistles you’d expect out of a 2020 flagship. It features a gorgeous display, which is huge at 6.9 inches. That display offers a 120Hz high refresh rate, while it’s also an OLED panel. It’s one of the best displays on the market. The Snapdragon 865+ SoC is included in the package, which is still the best chip around. Samsung also packed in a ton of RAM inside this phone, while it’s the best RAM currently available. The UFS 3.0 flash storage only completes this package.
Does that result in good performance? Well, yes, not only good, but great. We can confidently say that the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is one of the best-performing smartphones in the market. No matter whether you’re a gamer, or just a regular, everyday user. This is a productivity smartphone, and it can run through anything you throw at it. If you’d like to process some images and video, that’s fine. If you’re a heavy gamer, that’s not a problem. Whatever you want to do, this phone can back you up, with ease. It also offers a ton of software features, not to mention an S Pen stylus.
Its battery life is nothing to scoff at, quite the contrary
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra comes with a 4,500mAh battery pack, which may seem huge. Well, do consider that this phone has a truly large display, it’s basically a small tablet-size display. On top of that, it’s a QHD+ panel, and it’s a high refresh rate panel. You still can’t use QHD+ resolution and 120Hz refresh rate at the same time, though, so keep that in mind. Having said that, this is a top of the line display, and Samsung did a good job at optimizing power consumption. The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is not the best battery smartphone in the market, but it won’t let you down. This phone can easily cross the 6-hour screen-on-time mark, and then some.
It all depends on what you do with the phone during the day, of course. If you’re a heavy gamer, you can expect considerably less battery life than most people. If you’re not, chances are this phone will last you throughout the day, with ease. The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra does offer fast charging. It actually offers 25W fast wired, and 15W fast wireless charging. On top of that, reverse wireless charging aka PowerShare is also included in the package.
Excellent and diverse camera setup
Samsung’s flagship packs in three cameras on the back. The main one comes from Samsung’s ISOCELL branch, and it’s a 108-megapixel unit. That main camera can capture images with a ton of details, and the performance has been improved compared to the Galaxy S20 Ultra. You can get great shots during the day, and night. Even though this may not be the best camera for low light photography out there, it’s close to the top, that’s for sure. Samsung also included an ultra-wide, and telephoto / periscope cameras here.
The ultra-wide camera performs great. It’s one of the best ultra-wide cameras in the market, without a doubt, and it keeps up with the main sensor. In regards to the telephoto / periscope unit, you can get 5x optical zoom out of that sensor, not to mention that 50x hybrid zoom is also included in the package. No matter what you need, this camera setup has you covered. Whether you like taking pictures of landscapes, far away objects, or regular pics, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is an excellent choice. The phone also shoots great video, by the way, which goes up to 4K at 60 FPS.
The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is the crown jewel for Android
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is one of the most premium phones in the market, and one of the best-known ones. Samsung did an excellent job here, and you, our readers, recognized that. The phone offers great performance, battery life, design, and cameras… and much more. The S Pen stylus adds a whole new productivity factor to the table, for example. The Galaxy S21 series is right around the corner, but even when it arrives, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra will be an excellent choice.