Which flagship should you buy?

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra represents the best that Samsung has to offer on smartphone screens and cameras. But the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, less than half a year old, is still quite powerful, and since it is almost certain to have discounts, it may be the best value for consumers who don’t absolutely need the latest, but still want something powerful. What are the main differences, what’s new in the Galaxy S21 series and which Samsung flagship should you buy if it’s on the market today? Read on to find out.

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra vs Note 20 Ultra: Specs Comparison

Where does the Galaxy S21 Ultra improve over the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra?

The big question for consumers who decide between the Galaxy S21 Ultra and the Note 20 Ultra is probably “what are the improvements made by the Galaxy S21 Ultra over the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra?” There are two main areas of noticeable improvement: the processor and the camera’s zoom system.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra is equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888, a 5 nm SoC that represents the best Qualcomm has to offer at the moment. The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra’s Snapdragon 865+ is not sloppy. Still, whether it’s benchmarks or real-world performance, the Snapdragon 888 is the top chip – although you don’t really see the difference until you’re actually pushing the phone, like recording a video using the front and rear cameras, or shooting 4K / 60fps with all lenses, what the Galaxy S21 Ultra can do, but the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra cannot.

The camera system is where most of the tangible improvements are found. The Galaxy S21 Ultra camera features a new Periscope zoom lens that can achieve 10x optical zoom compared to the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5x optical zoom. Truth be told, the difference in quality of zoomed photos is subtle if kept within a reasonable range (10x) – although if you look at pixels, you can see the difference in quality – but with longer zooms, the difference becomes much more apparent.

For example, in the 10x zoom image above the soccer ball, the two images looked similar if viewed on a phone. Only if I really crop and peek at the pixels on a larger screen, do I see that the 10x photo of the Galaxy S21 Ultra captured more texture and detail.

With a longer zoom, it’s easier to see. The set below contains 20x and 30x zoom for both phones. Note that the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s shot is much sharper.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra also has an additional 3x optical telephoto zoom lens with a focal length of around 70 mm, which is ideal for portraits. The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, for not having that shorter zoom lens, uses digital zoom up to 4.9x. However, the difference between 3x pictures is very difficult to find out. You can see that the Galaxy S21 Ultra keyboard below has more details, and has more texture on the collar around the neck.

The 108MP main camera and 12MP ultra-wide hardware remain almost the same as before – although the Galaxy S21 Ultra uses a newer sensor in the main camera – but the Galaxy S21 Ultra is expected to produce superior photos due to the combination of the Snapdragon 888 ISP top and Samsung’s own fine adjustment.

Moving forward, the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s selfie camera is also denser in pixels at 40MP – which Samsung then puts on a 10MP selfie, while the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has a simple 10MP selfie camera. Aside from the difference in color science, I couldn’t see any substantial difference in the quality of the selfie image.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra screen is also technically superior, with the ability to run at 120 Hz while maintaining a resolution of 1440p; the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra should downgrade to 1080p – although, to be honest, I believe the human eye cannot tell the difference between 1440p and 1080p on a relatively small mobile screen anyway. Both screens look equally beautiful to my eyes.

Where users are likely to feel the difference is the endurance – the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s 5,000 mAh battery is significantly larger than the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra’s 4,500 mAh battery, so the S21 Ultra will certainly last longer before needing a charge.

There are more subtle improvements across the board, like the Galaxy S21 Ultra having a fingerprint scanner on the larger display and support for WiFi 6, but these are relatively minor improvements that most people won’t even notice. For most consumers, it will be the SoC and the zoom capability of the camera that differentiate the two phones.

What areas are similar between the Galaxy S21 Ultra and the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra?

The Galaxy S21 Ultra has more in common with the Galaxy Note series than any previous S phone, because it supports the S-Pen, which has long been a staple of the Note series. This means that, more than ever, the lines between the two phones have become blurred.

While it is important to note that the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s S-Pen support does not include Bluetooth remote controls, using it as a pen for annotating or sketching will look identical as the latency and features of the software remain the same. And while the S21 Ultra has a newly designed camera module, the overall construction between the two phones is similar – both have a frosted glass finish and slightly curved screens. The software experience should also be similar, as well as all other bonus features from Samsung, such as DeX.

Which one should you buy?

If money is no problem, then it’s very easy to choose the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, as it has a much better zoom lens, a brighter screen and a newer processor – unless you really want an included S-Pen for free and is stored inside the phone.

But since the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is an “old” phone now, there are likely to be regular discounts that will knock several hundred dollars off its original $ 1,399 price. So if you want to save some money and still get a premium Samsung experience, the Note 20 Ultra holds up well in many areas so you don’t feel out of date. It’s still a beast of a phone, even in 2021.