The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra (starting at $1,299) could be the best big phone yet, and it packs a lot more premium features than the regular Galaxy Note 20. It boasts a bigger 6.9-inch display with a dynamic 120Hz refresh rate, a sharper 108MP camera with laser auto focus and a more responsive S Pen.
I’ve spent the last day using the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, and I’m really impressed by the display and the zoom capability of the camera. And while the new S Pen gestures are nifty, they require a learning curve.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra specs
Price: $1,299 OS: Android 10 with One UI 2.0 Display: 6.9-inch AMOLED (QHD; 120Hz) CPU: Snapdragon 865 Plus RAM: 12GB Storage: 128GB, 512GB Rear camera: 108MP wide (ƒ/1.8); 12MP telephoto with 5x optical zoom (ƒ/3.0); 12MP ultrawide (ƒ/2.2) Front camera: 10MP (ƒ/2.2) Battery: 4,500 mAh Colors: Mystic Bronze, Mystic Black, Mystic White Size: 6.48 x 3.04 x 0.32 inches Weight: 7.33 ounces
The Note 20 Ultra also offers a bigger battery than the standard Note 20, more RAM and a microSD card slot. Just like the regular Galaxy Note 20, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra also has a fast Snapdragon 865 Plus processor, streams Xbox games and syncs your S Pen notes to the cloud.
Still, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is $300 more than the regular Note 20 — and $1,300 is a lot of money to spend on any phone, especially in today’s climate. I’ve spent the last day playing around with the Note 20 Ultra, and here are my initial impressions.
Galaxy Note 20 Ultra cheat sheet: What I think so far
(Image credit: Future)
The design makes the iPhone look boring: Samsung knows how to make sleek looking hardware. The Mystic Bronze finish on the Note 20 Ultra not only looks elegant but manages to give off a sheen without attracting lots of fingerprints.
This camera bulge is out of control: The camera patch on the back of the Note 20 Ultra protrudes a great deal from the chassis and props up the phone at an angle when placed on a table.
The Zoom camera is very impressive: I got in very close with the Note 20 Ultra’s 5x optical zoom, putting my iPhone 11 Pro Max’s 2x zoom to shame. And the digital zoom stayed steady up to 20x; it got shaky at 50x.
New S Pen tricks are satisfying yet gimmicky: My son got a kick out of seeing me perform some of the new Air Actions (like drawing a a quick arc in the air to go Home). But I m not sure if I would use these every day yet.
The 120Hz display is silky smooth: Scrolling feels like butter when you have the Adaptive motion smoothness setting turned on, but the jury is out on the toll on battery life.
Wireless DeX mode is finicky: While I managed to get the Note 20 Ultra to connect to a 55-inch Roku TV, I couldn’t do anything after that.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra release date and price
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra will ship on August 21 and will be available through all of the major carriers. The 128GB version of the Galaxy Note 20 costs $1,299. The 512GB version costs $1,449 — the same price Samsung charges for its Galaxy Z Flip 5G foldable phone.
Pre-orders for the Galaxy Note 20 start August 6, and those who do pre-order the device can get a $150 Samsung Credit, which you can redeem on Samsung.com or the Shop Samsung app. You can put that credit toward anything from the Galaxy Watch 3 and Galaxy Buds Live earbuds to to Samsung TVs.
Wireless carriers have started announcing their own Galaxy Note 20 Ultra deals, which you can find in our guide on how to pre-order the Galaxy Note 20.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra design and colors
(Image credit: Future)
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is a big phone with its 6.9-inch display, but it also has minimal bezels with Samsung’s trademark punch hole for the Infinity-O display. The back of the phone uses a new haze finish that’s designed to resist fingerprints, and you have your choice of three colors: Mystic Bronze, Mystic Black and Mystic White.
My review unit is the Mystic Bonze version, and it’s a sophisticated looking finish, even if it’s not as eye catching as the color-shifting Aura Glow hue on the Galaxy Note 10 Plus.
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
The camera housing on the back of the Note 20 Ultra kind of reminds me of brass knuckles — and not in a good way. My bigger issue is just how massive this camera patch is. It lifts the entire back of the phone when sitting on a desk or table.
Measuring 6.49 x 3.03 x 0.32 inches (164.8 x 77.2 x 8.1 mm) and weighing 7..3 ounces (208 grams), the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is not as big as the Galaxy S20 Ultra (6.6 x 2.7 x 0.34 inches and 7.7 ounces), but it’s still a handful compared to the Galaxy Note 10 Plus (6.4 x 3 x 0.31 inches and 6.9 ounces) which had a smaller 6.8-inch display.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra display
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
The massive 6.9-inch OLED quad HD+ display on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is big, bold and colorful. More important, this is the first Samsung phone to offer a dynamic 120Hz refresh rate.
The Galaxy S20 lineup introduced a faster refresh rate to Samsung phones, delivering smoother scrolling as well as better visuals, especially for games and movies. But it was a feature you had to manually adjust. With the Note 20 Ultra, the refresh rate automatically adjusts based on what content is on screen, which should save on battery life.
When using the display I found scrolling to be super smooth and fast in Chrome with Adaptive mode turned on. You can always choose 60Hz manually if you want to save every last drop of juice.
There’s more of curve to the Note 20 Ultra’s screen compared it the flat panel on the Note 20. Personally, I’m not a fan of the curved panel. It sometimes causes some text to be distorted, and it can also lead to accidental screen touches.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra cameras
(Image credit: Future)
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra features a trio of rear cameras, plus a laser auto-focus sensor that should address one of our bigger complaints about the Galaxy S20 Ultra and its issues with focus.
The phablet’s camera array starts with a 108MP wide camera with a a f/1.8 aperture, and it’s paired with a 12MP ultra-wide camera with a 120-degree field of view and f/2.2. The 12MP telephoto lens delivers a 5x optical zoom and up to a 50x super resolution zoom.
I was immediately impressed with how close the 5x zoom get me to this dianthus flower without have to move the Note 20 Ultra right up to the flower bed. However, while the pink and white flower looks colorful, the detail was a bit fuzzy.
(Image credit: Future)
I also tired out the powerful Space Zoom on the Note 20 Ultra with this tree as the subject. As you can see in the gallery below, the results look fairly sharp all the way up to 10x zoom, but the 20x and especially the 50x shots look blurry. Still, this is better than what you get from the iPhone right now.
Image 1 of 6
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra no zoom (Image credit: Future)
My bigger concern is that some of the images have a haze to them while others do not. For these shots, the sun was behind me.
If you want to record the sharpest video possible, you’ll be pleased to know that the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra can record 8K video with a 21:9 aspect ratio at up to 24 frames per second. There’s also a new Pro Video mode that lets you control the focus, exposure and zoom speed. Plus, you can use the onboard mics or external mics, such as the Galaxy Buds Live.
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
The 12MP selfie camera up front (f/2.2) has a 120-degree field of view, which should come in handy for group selfies.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra specs and performance
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra should be one of the fastest Android phones around, as it’s one of the first handsets with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 Plus processor. This chipset boosts the clock speed by 10% up to 3.1 GHz and the graphics is also 10% faster than the regular Snapdragon 865 chip inside the Galaxy S20.
This processor is paired with 12GB of RAM and either 128GB or 512GB of internal storage. For $1,299, I wish the Ultra started with 256GB of storage, but at least you can expand it via microSD card slot by up to 1TB.
As you would expect for a premium flagship, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra supports both flavors of 5G, so you should be able to hop on both sub 6-GHz networks and mmWave networks with ease where they are available.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra S Pen
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra benefits from a swift 9ms response time for its S Pen, which is designed to deliver more of a pen-to-paper feel when taking notes or drawing.
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
In addition, the S Pen now offers five new Anywhere actions, which build on the Air Actions from the Galaxy Note 10 series. You can return to the home screen, take a screen shot, return to a recent app and more through various gestures. But it will likely take some practice before you can remember every gesture-based Anywhere action.
Other S Pen upgrades come on the software front. The improved Samsung Notes app now includes Live Sync so you can save all of your notes to the clouds and then access them from any device. Plus, the Note 20 Ultra is smart enough to time sync your notes along with voice recordings, so you can hear what was being said right when you scribbled down that thought.
I tried recording a voice memo in the Samsung Notes app, and sure enough, I could see the words I wrote highlighted as I played back the clip.
In addition, the Samsung Notes app now makes it easier to find your notes with a more PC-like file folder structure. The software can even straighten out your handwriting.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra battery life and charging
Equipped with a fairly large 4,500 mAh battery, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra should be able to last you through most of the day. We’re most curious to see how well this phone lasts on our battery life test given the dynamic nature of the phone’s 120Hz display. With the 120Hz mode on, we saw a dramatic decrease in endurance on the Galaxy S20 Ultra, with the phone running out of power 3 hours faster than when we kept the display at a 60Hz refresh rate.
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
To juice back up, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra includes a 25W fast charger that should get you back to 50% capacity in 30 minutes. Samsung does not say if the Note 20 Ultra supports 45W charging, but it does support Fast Wireless Charging 2.0 if you have a wireless charger that goes 10W or higher.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Link to Windows and DeX features
The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is geared toward power users who are looking for a productivity boost, and this phone offers a couple of big upgrades on that front. The first is Link to Windows integration, which allows you to access mobile apps on your Windows 10 PC.
This should make it easy to send messages, make calls, syncs photos and more from the best laptops and desktops. Samsung says that Link to Windows will eventually let you run up to six mobile apps on your PC at once.
(Image credit: Future)
Multitaskers will also appreciate the improved DeX experience, which is now completely wireless, instead of requiring you to use a cable or dock to connect to a monitor. Now you can beam what’s on your Galaxy Note 20 Ultra screen to a compatible smart TV from across the room; the TV needs to support Miracast, though.
Unfortunately, I had trouble getting Wireless DeX to work on my 55-inch TCL Roku TV. Although I could get the DeX mode to come on the TV and I saw a cursor, I couldn’t move the mouse. The Note 20 Ultra told me that the TV might not be fully supported for DeX wireless mode. Bummer.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Xbox Game Pass
Through the power of Microsoft’s xCloud game streaming, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra can play more than 100 Xbox games. Titles include Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4, Minecraft Dungeons and Halo: The Master Chief collection.
Xbox Game Pass costs $15 a month, but when you pair the Note 20 Ultra with a game controller it could feel like a mini console. And if you don’t, the Note 20 Ultra benefits from a 240Hz touch latency that the regular Note 20 doesn’t have.
The fun gets underway September 15 when the service kicks off, so we’ll report back with impressions when we can.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra review: Early verdict
It’s clear based on the features and specs that the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is a superior phone to the Galaxy Note 20. But is the more expensive phablet right for you? For my money, I would prefer this phone’s bigger and smoother 120Hz display, more powerful zoom, better autofocus for the camera and more responsive S Pen. But I need to live with the phone for more time to tell you whether it’s worth such a high sticker price.
Personally, I never found much of a need for the S Pen, even with the continued improvements. If you don’t want a stylus, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra or Galaxy S20 Plus are both very good alternatives to Samsung’s Galaxy Note series. And if you want a big-screen 5G phone from Apple, a 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max should be on the way in a couple months with improved performance and cameras of its own.
I will report back with more of my hands-on impressions on the Note 20 Ultra and an ultimate verdict. But right now I would say there’s reason to be excited if you’re a Galaxy Note fan.
Although no one likes a know-it-all, they dominate the Internet.
The Internet began as a vast repository of information. It quickly became a breeding ground for self-proclaimed experts seeking what most people desire: recognition and money.
Today, anyone with an Internet connection and some typing skills can position themselves, regardless of their education or experience, as a subject matter expert (SME). From relationship advice, career coaching, and health and nutrition tips to citizen journalists practicing pseudo-journalism, the Internet is awash with individuals—Internet talking heads—sharing their “insights,” which are, in large part, essentially educated guesses without the education or experience.
The Internet has become a 24/7/365 sitcom where armchair experts think they’re the star.
Not long ago, years, sometimes decades, of dedicated work and acquiring education in one’s field was once required to be recognized as an expert. The knowledge and opinions of doctors, scientists, historians, et al. were respected due to their education and experience. Today, a social media account and a knack for hyperbole are all it takes to present oneself as an “expert” to achieve Internet fame that can be monetized.
On the Internet, nearly every piece of content is self-serving in some way.
The line between actual expertise and self-professed knowledge has become blurry as an out-of-focus selfie. Inadvertently, social media platforms have created an informal degree program where likes and shares are equivalent to degrees. After reading selective articles, they’ve found via and watching some TikTok videos, a person can post a video claiming they’re an herbal medicine expert. Their new “knowledge,” which their followers will absorb, claims that Panda dung tea—one of the most expensive teas in the world and isn’t what its name implies—cures everything from hypertension to existential crisis. Meanwhile, registered dietitians are shaking their heads, wondering how to compete against all the misinformation their clients are exposed to.
More disturbing are individuals obsessed with evangelizing their beliefs or conspiracy theories. These people write in-depth blog posts, such as Elvis Is Alive and the Moon Landings Were Staged, with links to obscure YouTube videos, websites, social media accounts, and blogs. Regardless of your beliefs, someone or a group on the Internet shares them, thus confirming your beliefs.
Misinformation is the Internet’s currency used to get likes, shares, and engagement; thus, it often spreads like a cosmic joke. Consider the prevalence of clickbait headlines:
You Won’t Believe What Taylor Swift Says About Climate Change!
This Bedtime Drink Melts Belly Fat While You Sleep!
In One Week, I Turned $10 Into $1 Million!
Titles that make outrageous claims are how the content creator gets reads and views, which generates revenue via affiliate marketing, product placement, and pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Clickbait headlines are how you end up watching a TikTok video by a purported nutrition expert adamantly asserting you can lose belly fat while you sleep by drinking, for 14 consecutive days, a concoction of raw eggs, cinnamon, and apple cider vinegar 15 minutes before going to bed.
Our constant search for answers that’ll explain our convoluted world and our desire for shortcuts to success is how Internet talking heads achieve influencer status. Because we tend to seek low-hanging fruits, we listen to those with little experience or knowledge of the topics they discuss yet are astute enough to know what most people want to hear.
There’s a trend, more disturbing than spreading misinformation, that needs to be called out: individuals who’ve never achieved significant wealth or traded stocks giving how-to-make-easy-money advice, the appeal of which is undeniable. Several people I know have lost substantial money by following the “advice” of Internet talking heads.
Anyone on social media claiming to have a foolproof money-making strategy is lying. They wouldn’t be peddling their money-making strategy if they could make easy money.
Successful people tend to be secretive.
Social media companies design their respective algorithms to serve their advertisers—their source of revenue—interest; hence, content from Internet talking heads appears most prominent in your feeds. When a video of a self-professed expert goes viral, likely because it pressed an emotional button, the more people see it, the more engagement it receives, such as likes, shares and comments, creating a cycle akin to a tornado.
Imagine scrolling through your TikTok feed and stumbling upon a “scientist” who claims they can predict the weather using only aluminum foil, copper wire, sea salt and baking soda. You chuckle, but you notice his video got over 7,000 likes, has been shared over 600 times and received over 400 comments. You think to yourself, “Maybe this guy is onto something.” What started as a quest to achieve Internet fame evolved into an Internet-wide belief that weather forecasting can be as easy as DIY crafts.
Since anyone can call themselves “an expert,” you must cultivate critical thinking skills to distinguish genuine expertise from self-professed experts’ self-promoting nonsense. While the absurdity of the Internet can be entertaining, misinformation has serious consequences. The next time you read a headline that sounds too good to be true, it’s probably an Internet talking head making an educated guess; without the education seeking Internet fame, they can monetize.
TORONTO – A new survey says a majority of software engineers and developers feel tight project deadlines can put safety at risk.
Seventy-five per cent of the 1,000 global workers who responded to the survey released Tuesday say pressure to deliver projects on time and on budget could be compromising critical aspects like safety.
The concern is even higher among engineers and developers in North America, with 77 per cent of those surveyed on the continent reporting the urgency of projects could be straining safety.
The study was conducted between July and September by research agency Coleman Parkes and commissioned by BlackBerry Ltd.’s QNX division, which builds connected-car technology.
The results reflect a timeless tug of war engineers and developers grapple with as they balance the need to meet project deadlines with regulations and safety checks that can slow down the process.
Finding that balance is an issue that developers of even the simplest appliances face because of advancements in technology, said John Wall, a senior vice-president at BlackBerry and head of QNX.
“The software is getting more complicated and there is more software whether it’s in a vehicle, robotics, a toaster, you name it… so being able to patch vulnerabilities, to prevent bad actors from doing malicious acts is becoming more and more important,” he said.
The medical, industrial and automotive industries have standardized safety measures and anything they produce undergoes rigorous testing, but that work doesn’t happen overnight. It has to be carried out from the start and then at every step of the development process.
“What makes safety and security difficult is it’s an ongoing thing,” Wall said. “It’s not something where you’ve done it, and you are finished.”
The Waterloo, Ont.-based business found 90 per cent of its survey respondents reported that organizations are prioritizing safety.
However, when asked about why safety may not be a priority for their organization, 46 per cent of those surveyed answered cost pressures and 35 per cent said a lack of resources.
That doesn’t surprise Wall. Delays have become rampant in the development of tech, and in some cases, stand to push back the launch of vehicle lines by two years, he said.
“We have to make sure that people don’t compromise on safety and security to be able to get products out quicker,” he said.
“What we don’t want to see is people cutting corners and creating unsafe situations.”
The survey also took a peek at security breaches, which have hit major companies like London Drugs, Indigo Books & Music, Giant Tiger and Ticketmaster in recent years.
About 40 per cent of the survey’s respondents said they have encountered a security breach in their employer’s operating system. Those breaches resulted in major impacts for 27 per cent of respondents, moderate impacts for 42 per cent and minor impacts for 27 per cent.
“There are vulnerabilities all the time and this is what makes the job very difficult because when you ship the software, presumably the software has no security vulnerabilities, but things get discovered after the fact,” Wall said.
Security issues, he added, have really come to the forefront of the problems developers face, so “really without security, you have no safety.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.
As online shoppers hunt for bargains offered by Amazon during its annual fall sale this week, cybersecurity researchers are warning Canadians to beware of an influx of scammers posing as the tech giant.
In the 30 days leading up to Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days, taking place Tuesday and Wednesday, there were more than 1,000 newly registered Amazon-related web domains, according to Check Point Software Technologies, a company that offers cybersecurity solutions.
The company said it deemed 88 per cent of those domains malicious or suspicious, suggesting they could have been set up by scammers to prey on vulnerable consumers. One in every 54 newly created Amazon-related domain included the phrase “Amazon Prime.”
“They’re almost indiscernible from the real Amazon domain,” said Robert Falzon, head of engineering at Check Point in Canada.
“With all these domains registered that look so similar, it’s tricking a lot of people. And that’s the whole intent here.”
Falzon said Check Point Research sees an uptick in attempted scams around big online shopping days throughout the year, including Prime Days.
Scams often come in the form of phishing emails, which are deceptive messages that appear to be from a reputable source in attempt to steal sensitive information.
In this case, he said scammers posing as Amazon commonly offer “outrageous” deals that appear to be associated with Prime Days, in order to trick recipients into clicking on a malicious link.
The cybersecurity firm said it has identified and blocked 100 unique Amazon Prime-themed scam emails targeting organizations and consumers over the past two weeks.
Scammers also target Prime members with unsolicited calls, claiming urgent account issues and requesting payment information.
“It’s like Christmas for them,” said Falzon.
“People expect there to be significant savings on Prime Day, so they’re not shocked that they see something of significant value. Usually, the old adage applies: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
Amazon’s website lists a number of red flags that it recommends customers watch for to identify a potential impersonation scam.
Those include false urgency, requests for personal information, or indications that the sender prefers to complete the purchase outside of the Amazon website or mobile app.
Scammers may also request that customers exclusively pay with gift cards, a claim code or PIN. Any notifications about an order or delivery for an unexpected item should also raise alarm bells, the company says.
“During busy shopping moments, we tend to see a rise in impersonation scams reported by customers,” said Amazon spokeswoman Octavia Roufogalis in a statement.
“We will continue to invest in protecting consumers and educating the public on scam avoidance. We encourage consumers to report suspected scams to us so that we can protect their accounts and refer bad actors to law enforcement to help keep consumers safe.”
Falzon added that these scams are more successful than people might think.
As of June 30, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said there had been $284 million lost to fraud so far this year, affecting 15,941 victims.
But Falzon said many incidents go unreported, as some Canadians who are targeted do not know how or where to flag a scam, or may choose not to out of embarrassment.
Check Point recommends Amazon customers take precautions while shopping on Prime Days, including by checking URLs carefully, creating strong passwords on their accounts, and avoiding personal information being shared such as their birthday or social security number.
The cybersecurity company said consumers should also look for “https” at the beginning of a website URL, which indicates a secure connection, and use credit cards rather than debit cards for online shopping, which offer better protection and less liability if stolen.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.
