When I first got my hands on Accurate TWS HX-03, I was impressed by the features it provided for its price. I have been using it for around six months. The HX-03 has now been succeeded by Accurate AT-01. I got my hands on my new TWS as well. In this review, I will be sharing my experience of the Accurate AT-01 TWS. First, take a look at the specifications of Accurate AT-01.
Let’s talk about the design of the charging case. The charging case of the Accurate AT-01 is more compact and fashionable. The HX-03 came with a rectangular box and rounded corners. Accurate has rounded the corners even more in the AT-01. I kinda dig the new design of the charging case. It is smaller, hence more portable, and sports a curvy design. The surface is a lot more glossy. As a result, it is more prone to fingerprint and smudges.
On the front, there are three LEDs that indicate the battery level. However, the metallic area housing the LEDs has been greatly streamlined. Accurate has also gotten rid of the button on the front. The USB Type-C port is now at the back of the case. The “Accurate” logo has been stamped on the top of the case. Here, the hinge remains the same and it is not the sturdiest. The lid is still hollow from the inside but it feels more comfortable to open and close. Overall, the case feels more premium because of the compact size.
Earphones
AirPods-like stemmy design
Inside, the design of the earphones has remained the same. You get an Apple AirPods-like head and tapering triangular stem. However, I feel that the unit that I received was not put up properly. There were left-over materials sticking to the roof of the lid and on the stem of one of the earbuds. A closer look at the earbuds will give you an idea of how the earbuds were put up together. From my experience of the HX-03, you will need to keep cleaning them or else dust will pile up pretty soon in the gaps.
Pairing and Control
Bluetooth v5.0 connectivity
Touch control for playback only
Nothing has been upgraded in the way the AT-01 TWS can be paired and controlled. After being taken out, the earphones produce a *bang* sound indicating that they are ready to be paired. If the sound is not synchronized, you can reset the earphones by touching the control for about 10 seconds.
The touch control allows users to change play/pause and change the tracks. Unfortunately, users will have to take out their phone to adjust the volume. The earphone uses Bluetooth 5.0 to connect your phone. It’s annoying that the connection can be interrupted by high-frequency devices such as a Wi-Fi router.
Feel and Comfort
No rubber/silicone ear tips
Lightweight and a comparatively loose fit
The HX-03 did not provide the best fit possible for the ears and it’s the same here. I wished these earbuds came with silicone tips instead of the rigid plastic ends. The structure of the head does not allow it to go deep into the ears nor can it conceal the ear properly. Because of the loose fit, you will feel the earbuds shift slightly from its position if you are into head bangs and those kinds of stuff. Thankfully, it has not come off my ears even once.
It may not be apparent in the beginning but after some months, your ears will start feeling the heat of the solid ends too. Other than that, the earbuds are light and the weight won’t be a trouble.
Sound Quality
13mm sound drivers
Frequency response: 20Hz – 18.5kHz
Once I received my review unit, I did a specs-wise comparison between the HX-03 and AT-01. I was not expecting a lot of change in the AT-01 given that it had almost the same specs as its predecessor. The 13mm sound driver is capable of producing loud music. However, you have to keep the earbuds protected, or else the loudness will fade away.
Accurate AT-01 now does a better job of isolating the vocals and the instruments. It was quite evident when listening to “Stray Heart” by Green Day. Similar was the case when listening to “Brain Stew” by the same band. The vocals were muffled but I liked the way it floated on top of the music. The sound does get a little muddy when a lot of instruments are being used at the same time. Listen to “Jesus of Suburbia” for an instance.
Accurate still needs to work on vocal and high pitched sounds. In almost all the songs I listened to, I found the vocals a bit muffled. In the chorus of the song “Home”, the vocal of Bebe Rexha almost resembles a robot in some instances. High pitched sound can get screechy. The sound gets grainy and distorted at high volumes so I suggest you use the earphones with volumes between 50 – 60%.
Call Quality and Latency
Ambient Noise Cancellation for reducing noise during calls
The stereo effect on the AT-01 is also more immersive than on the HX-03. AT-01 does not come with Active Noise Cancellation but the Ambient Noise Cancellation does a decent job. While it does not remove the sound completely, it reduced the outside noise to a great extent. Talking about the call quality, the person on the other side of the call complained about some noises during my time with it.
I did not talk about latency in detail in the review of the HX-03. If you are casually going through random online videos chances are you will hardly notice it. It is evident more evident while watching rap videos. Under gaming, the stereo effect could have been useful in figuring out the direction of incoming enemies but I would not recommend it for online gaming because of the latency. You do not want to be the last one to receive the team message or do you?
Battery and Durability
40mAh (each earbud), 400mAh (charging case)
Accurate has rated the batteries on the AT-01 for 4.5 hours of playback. Interestingly, with the volume set at 50% (which I assume is loud enough for most people), I was able to squeeze about 5 hours of playback on a full charge. The charging case can charge the earbuds completely in about 65 minutes. Once fully drained, the charging case takes about an hour and a half to get fully charged. It comes with a USB Type-C and Accurate has included a data cable in the box (no adapter).
I did not like the fact that Accurate removed the button on the front of the case. Without it, it is difficult to check the battery percentage of the case. It is unfortunate that AT-01 does not come with any sort of certification for protection against water and dust when rivals like the Redmi Earbuds S provide one at a much lower price. Similarly, the driver is so sensitive to environmental factors that if you do not store it properly that it will eventually degrade the performance.
Verdict
Accurate AT-01 TWS is not a bad option for budget users but after the HX-03, I had big expectations from the brand. The new charging case is looking more compact and stylish than before. Accurate has also worked to refine the audio as well. For the price, the call quality and ambient noise cancellation do a decent job. The battery life did not disappoint either. But, the company should have provided some sort of protection against environmental factors. Accurate should also look into the connectivity issue. At last, I would have liked earbuds with silicone ear tips just because they provide better fit and comfort compared to the current design.
Songs referenced in the Accurate AT-01 TWS review:
Ever since Asus launched the Zephyrus G14, I was dying to get my hands on it. I mean great design combined with a powerful processor, who wouldn’t want it right? And I am glad that I finally get to review the Asus Zephyrus G14.
This laptop is a joint effort from Asus, Nvidia, and AMD to bring a top performance laptop in a small-form. So, with that in mind, I went ahead and tested my Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401IH.
My review unit came with Ryzen 5 4600HS processor, 8GB of RAM, 512 GB storage, and GTX 1650 50W GPU. It is the base model of the G14. The top-tier configuration of the G14 comes with Ryzen 9 4900HS processor and Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q graphics.
Competition-wise, the G14 goes head to head with Razer’s Stealth 13 and MSI’s Prestige 14. However, they featured the same old NVIDIA-Intel configuration. And for the most part, those laptops were not appreciated by the masses.
However, the G14 is different. After all, many out there have already labeled it as “the perfect gaming ultrabook”. So, with that expectation in mind, I started testing this laptop. I had high hopes regarding this device, and don’t get me wrong, this laptop does get most of the things right. However, there is one area where it lacks by a country mile. And that has led to me having sort of mixed feelings about this laptop.
Anyway, let’s get on with our review of the Asus Zephyrus G14 GA401IH and find out what I believe works for this laptop and the thing that I found utterly disappointing.
Things that work
Design and Build
Let me start by stating that the device simply oozes class. Now, it might not be as thin as the Stealth 13 however it is portable enough such that you can easily carry it around for your daily commute.
The laptop comes in two different color variants – Space Gray and Mirage White. The one that I’ve is the Mirage White and it is the lighter of the two variants. It weighs around 1.6 kg, so it’s a bit heavy for an ultrabook but I guess it is still perfectly fine for a gaming ultrabook. The space gray variant is a touch heavier than the Mirage White.
Both of them have an array of dots on the cover, however, it acts as a secondary display in only the Space Gray variant. It is what Asus calls the Anime Matrix Display and can be used to display time and so on. It sounds like a good feature to have but I for one did not mind not having one. I mean who would keep checking their laptop lid when they are using it, right?
Moving on, the chassis is built up of magnesium-aluminum alloy and it really feels premium. Furthermore, the build material gives the laptop its toughness. The chassis does not budge when pressed hard and the device feels robust enough to survive a few drops. (don’t try it though!)
The Mirage White G14, that I’ve with me does a very good job in hiding smudges. Neither the interior nor the exterior is prone to fingerprints. And it is all down to the build material.
The laptop has a very ergonomic design. Its corners are blunted, the screen can be lifted with a single hand, and the screen also has an Ergo Lift hinge design. It is something we have seen in Zebooks recently and it raises the main-body of the laptop on the rubber feet at the bottom of the screen. Thereby creating an extra space underneath the laptop to help draw fresh air. And before I forget, the rubber feet in general helps to keep the laptop properly “glued” on the desk.
Talking about the thermal designs, the air exhausts split the hot air downward, sideways and the ones in between the hinges try to push them upward away from the screen. However, they do not do a good job and the lower part of the screen does tend to get heated. I was not at all impressed by the thermals, but more on them later.
There are I/O ports on both the left and right-hand side of the laptop. I prefer all the ports on one side, primarily the left-hand side of the laptop. However, given its small form and the placements of the air vents, I fully understand the need to divide the ports into both sides.
Asus Zephyrus G14 Ports
1 of 2
Right
Left
On the left, you get the power input, a USB-C charging port that also acts as a Display Port video output, an HDMI port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Similarly, on the right side, you get 2x USB-A ports and a USB-C port that supports data. I would have preferred a Type-A port on the left-hand side as it really bugs me while using a mouse that is plugged on the same side that the mouse is placed.
Screen
The Asus Zephyrus G14 has a standard 120Hz IPS panel with FHD resolution. The screen is surrounded by thin bezels but has a rather large chin. And surprisingly, Asus has decided to go for the same approach as that of the top-tire Zephyrus M and Zephyrus S series in terms of the webcam. Basically, it does not have one.
This might be a problem for many as most of us these days are working from home and we have to attend virtual meetings almost every day. So, not having a webcam on your daily device is a problem. Webcams in laptops, in general, tend to be sub-standard. But hey, something is better than nothing, right?
Anyway, getting back to the display, the one I was using had an IPS FHD 120 Hz panel with Adaptive Sync. However, you can get other configurations such as an IPS QHD 60Hz panel, or a standard 60Hz panel.
Well, if gaming is your prime purpose of buying this laptop, then I would suggest that you go for the 120Hz panel. After all, you wouldn’t want any tearings. However, the 120Hz panel too won’t suffice if you plan on playing really fast-paced games. You will most likely suffer ghostings with those titles. But a 120Hz panel is still good enough considering the laptops CPU and GPU power.
Other than that, the display is really great. It offers punchy colors and watching videos on this screen is a delight. The panel is bright, evenly lit and you won’t notice any sort of bleeding around the edges. However, you may notice that the blacks are not as vibrant as one would expect. You can use this display for standard content creation too. It covers 100% of the sRGB color gamut, 70% AdobeRGB, and around 70% DCI P3 color gamut. Granted, it is not the greatest screen out there, but in the 14-inch segment, it has to be one of the best.
Keyboard and Trackpad
The Zephyrus lineups have a track record of sporting some of the great keyboards and this one is no different. It has the full deck of all the main keys with small navigation buttons in the main key panel. Just above the main deck, you’ll find the volume control buttons and a direct key for the Asus Armoury Crate. I really found the dedicated sound control keys to be very useful in my daily use.
Now, due to its small form, Asus was unable to squeeze in a Numpad in the keyboard. And another major miss for me was the Home/End buttons. Given that they have dedicated keys for volume controls, maybe Home and End buttons could have been incorporated in the function keys. Not having the Home, End, PgUp and PgDown buttons can be especially frustrating for those who type often on their laptops.
Typing though is very crisp. And you’ll feel that the keys are very responsive too. Furthermore, they are very quiet and thus make your typing much more enjoyable. As for the lighting, the keys have white LEDs underneath. Now, this Mirage White variant comes with a silver keyboard, and a white LED lighting does not really spell for a good contrast. As a matter of fact, the keys might seem a bit faded with the illumination on.
Just below the keyboard, is a small glass clickpad. It is very responsive and perfect for daily use. Furthermore, it is firm too, and does not rattle at all when clicked.
Oh, and the power button on the G14 is somewhat different than the previous Zephyrs laptops. It is not illuminated and this one comes with an integrated smart fingerprint scanner. That in theory should register your fingerprint as soon as you press the button. And you won’t need an extra swipe to login. However, I found that it is a hit-or-miss kind of thing, as most often than not I had to swipe again in order to login to the system.
Speakers
Another thing that impressed me was the speakers. I was not expecting this small-sized laptop to have such great speakers but as it turned out, I was completely wrong. It has a quad-chamber system with two main speakers firing from the bottom and two from the upwards one near the palm rest. The audio is very punchy and loud. I found the audio jack output to be pretty good too. However, these punchy speakers won’t be effective once you start playing games in the turbo profile.
Battery
The 76Wh lithium-polymer battery Battery does a very good job and you should be able to squeeze in around 5 hours of battery while using it for your standard day to day task on a silent profile with the screen switched to 60Hz. So, if you tend to work on the go most often, then this laptop is the one to go for. Furthermore, as the laptop charges at 65W through the USB-C port, you’ll not have to worry about carrying a heavy power brick in your daily commute. You’ll only need to carry the large brick for gaming or demanding jobs. So, overall, the battery life is great and the inclusion of a USB-C charging port is a bonus.
Performance
Okay, so my review unit is configured with a Ryzen 5 4600HS APU. For more money, you can get one with a Ryzen 7 4800HS or Ryzen 9 4900HS. Anyhow, you get an HS APU, which by far are the best ones from AMD.
They are power-optimized and despite running at 35W, they are capable of delivering the same performance as that of the 45W Ryzen H processors. Furthermore, currently, only Asus has the exclusivity of using these HS processors as AMD is only willing to collaborate with those who can implement these processors on solid hardware. So, you can safely say that the hardware on this laptop is top-notch.
On top of that, it supports the faster DDR4 3200MHz RAM and has 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 storage. However, there is one problem.
The 8GB of onboard RAM is actually soldered. However, there is a vacant slot and I personally recommend you to upgrade it to 16GB and make it dual-channel for slightly better performance.
Talking about the GPU, this base variant comes with an Nvidia GTX 1650 4GB 50W chip. This again is not the best chipset but it is what you get for this price range. In higher-end variants, you can get up to RTX 2060 Max-Q. And those are the best ones for sub-15-inch laptops. Nonetheless, the combination of GTX 1650 and Ryzen 5 4600HS shines in its own way.
You get four power profiles that can be chosen from the armory crate or through the fan toggle button. The profiles are Silent, Performance, Turbo, and Manual. You’d want to play games or perform demanding jobs in the Turbo profile as it increases CPU power allocation and overclocks GPU. With manual, you can control fan cures for CPU and GPU based on temperature thresholds. However, these two are only available when plugged in.
For everyday multitasking though, the performance power profile is the best. Fan noises might bug you but after a while you sort of getting used to it. However, if the battery is your priority, you can opt for the Silent, but you’ll have to be ready for a few stutters every once in a while.
Throughout my usage of this laptop, I played multiple games. And I was pretty impressed with what this laptop offered. I played all the games in the Turbo profile and toggled between the graphics settings in most games. They offer decent fps on most triple-A titles and that should suffice anyone who is planning on playing games on an ultrabook. This is how the laptop fares in most of the games:
Games
FPS
Battlefield V (ultra presets)
45-50
Battlefield V (medium presets)
55-58
Battlefield V (low presets)
60-75
Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (ultra preset)
39-40
Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (high preset)
54-60
Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (medium preset)
68-70
Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (low preset)
77-80
Apex Legends (highest preset)
76
Apex Legends (medium preset)
80
Apex Legends (low preset)
90
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (max preset)
58
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (medium preset)
60
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (low preset)
60
Valorant (highest preset)
112
Valorant (medium preset)
131
Valorant (low preset)
138
We can clearly see that for demanding games, the laptop will struggle with the highest graphics settings. But you can easily switch to medium settings without compromising much of the details and gaining significant fps in return.
Overall, there were few stutters here and there, but given the configuration, I was pretty much satisfied with the performance of this laptop.
The thing that does not work
Thermals
Now, for the thing that has disappointed me the most. The thermal module on this laptop is a very complex one. There are multiple heat pipes and two fans to manage the heat. Over here, the air is sucked in from the top and the bottom and pushed out through the sides and the back. But with a powerful processor and GPU inside it, the metallic chassis runs hot – very hot!
Even with the turbo profile on, the CPU constantly averages around 90 degrees. As for the GPU, it averages around the mid-80s. Furthermore, the chassis heats up real quick and after almost 8-10 mins of gaming, you start to feel the heat in the keys. The laptop delivers smooth performance, but this heating issue just makes games unplayable. Now, that isn’t great, is it?
Also, the ergo lift design and the air exhausts near the hinge do not complement each other. The vents are actually designed to push air away from the screen. But that does not happen and you’ll see that the bottom chin and the lower part of the screen get heated too!
You can opt to play games in the performance or the silent mode, but there you’ll be compromising fps and the laptop runs even hotter in those modes. Also, no matter the type of task that you are doing, the fans are always active. Though you won’t hear them spinning unless in a perfectly silent room.
These heating issues occur when the laptop performs demanding tasks or while playing games. You won’t have to suffer through them while doing your everyday task. However, with a gaming ultrabook, one expects to play games and the G14 quite frankly cannot handle the heat.
The Verdict
The ROG Zephyrus G14 may not come with a high 144Hz refresh rate or a more color-accurate panel, but it does pack in a capable processor and is super portable. Compared to its competitors, the performance of the AMD Ryzen processor is very good. However, the heating issue is a major downside. One demanding task and you struggle to find a cold spot on the keyboard.
So, for a laptop labeled as a gaming ultrabook, you won’t be able to do too much gaming due to its heating issues. But, the laptop still reigns in its own niche 14-inch market. Heating issue aside, you’ll probably not get a better laptop, performance-wise in this segment.
However, If you are not looking for a gaming or using demanding tools, then my suggestion for you would be to go for the likes of Dell XPS 13 or Asus ZenBook.
Last week, Samsung kicked off its #GalaxyUnpacked 2020 event with the new Galaxy Note 20 series. We pretty much already knew almost everything there was to know about the Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra but some surprises were in store. That being said, both these devices are now available for purchase from Samsung stores in Nepal with 1 year of free breakage insurance.
Starting with the design, the Note 20 series ushers in a round of new visual aesthetics for Samsung. The rear panel features a subtle matte finish plus new color options that we haven’t seen in Samsung smartphones before. Here, the regular Note 20 is available in Mystic Gray, Mystic Green, and Mystic Bronze variants. Alongside this, the camera layout sees a makeover as well.
The lens cutouts are now more distanced between each other. Or rather yet, their backplate comes in a contrasting color scheme compared to the standard black layout in practically every other Samsung phone to date. Feels like this is a calculated and an inspired move from Apple’s iPhone 11 series. Anyway, it looks sleek and a whole lot modern. In an interesting note, the S Pen has now been shifted to the bottom left instead of the usual right.
Amidst the design praise, the Note 20 deals some crushing blows. Although it’s the most expensive entry-level Note smartphone to date, Samsung has daringly gone with a plastic back. Well technically, it’s glasstic (glass + plastic) but that’s no better. The frames are still metal and the matte finish may have you fooled, though that’s not what it really is.
Display
In the display side of things, you’re now getting a taller 6.7-inches Super AMOLED panel compared to a 6.3-inches one on last year’s Galaxy Note 10. It’s still an FHD+ panel though I would’ve liked to see Samsung bump it to a higher QHD+ instead. This Infinity-O display has a small cutout for the front-facing camera whose diameter is slightly bigger compared to the one on the Note 20 Ultra.
The next thing I’m about to say could be a bummer to some while being joyous news to many. Samsung, the company that single-handedly pioneered curved displays has shifted to a traditional flat-panel this time around. Personally, I dig it. Yet, what I don’t dig is its regular 60Hz refresh rate. What was going on it the designer, engineers, and other responsible people’s heads, we’ll never know.
At this point already, the Galaxy Note 20 feels like it’s ready to let everyone down. But wait, there’s more! This display is protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5. Yep. Instead of the new Gorilla Glass Victus which is supposed to be 2x tougher and more scratch-resistant compared to GG6, Samsung is going for a solution that was also seen in the Galaxy Note 7 which is a 2016 device.
Performance & Memory
The performance jump is quite significant, I must say, but sadly in some parts of the world only. Galaxy Note 20 ships with the latest Snapdragon 865+ (an overclocked SD 865 that was able to cross the 3.0GHz CPU frequency) in the US, China, and South Korea. As always, Samsung is sticking with its homegrown Exynos chipset for the rest of the world including Nepal.
Had the Exynos 990 been better than its closest Qualcomm counterpart, we wouldn’t be having any debate but that’s simply not the case. Different tests from different sources have ultimately proven the inferiority of Samsung’s Exynos 990 chip compared to the Snapdragon 865. There have even been fan petitions demanding the company stop using Exynos silicon in its flagships. All that for nothing. There was a also rumor that the company would somehow tweak the SoC for better heat management and enhanced performance, but that doesn’t seem to be the case at all.
Jumping to memory, there’s a single 8GB LPDDR5 RAM configuration available for the Galaxy Note 20. Unfortunately, the storage option isn’t upgradeable, just like the Note 10. However, Samsung’s decision to halve the storage option feels undeservedly cruel here. The 5G model has either 128 or 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage while the LTE variant has a single 256GB option. If you recall, last year’s Note 10 featured 8/256GB of internal memory.
Improved S Pen
Thankfully, the stylus sees a bit of an improvement this time around. The most visibly noticeable one being the reduced latency. It’s been reduced to 26ms from 42ms on the Note 10. This should, at least in theory, result in a more fluent writing experience. It also brings 5 new gestures like the one where you can scribble in the air to navigating through the phone.
Samsung phones have always shipped with Microsoft’s Office suite of applications in them but the Microsoft connection is getting more apparent than ever with the Note 20 series. Here, the “Samsung Notes” app has been updated to sync with MS Office applications. You can also link the phone to a Windows 10 computer and run your phone’s apps, make calls, etc. on the PC itself. Similarly, Samsung’s desktop-like experience “DeX” is now fully wireless.
Project xCloud
More importantly, Note 20 owners will also be able to enjoy 100+ Xbox One and Xbox Series X games through Microsoft’s xCloud game streaming service free for 3 months. Some of the popular titles under this include:
Minecraft Dungeons
Gears 5
Forza Horizon 4
Destiny 2
This Xbox Game Pass Ultimate bundle comprises of PowerA’s MOGA XP5-X+ Bluetooth controller and a clip to hold your phone intact. Those who pre-order this bundle will also get $150 in Samsung Credit.
Cameras
Getting to the cameras, Note 20 brings a triple-lens setup at the back. You have a 12MP f/1.8 primary sensor with Dual Pixel PDAF & OIS, a 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide lens, and a 64MP f/2.0 telephoto lens that boasts 3x lossless optical zoom and up to 30X digital Space Zoom. The front camera is a 10MP sensor housed inside a neat punch-hole cutout.
This camera setup is almost the exact same that we saw in the vanilla Galaxy S20 that launched a while back. With this, our camera expectations from Note 20 aren’t that high considering we already know how the S20 performs. You can record 8K footages at 24fps from the rear camera while the front-facing lens is also capable of shooting 4K videos at 60fps.
Battery
The actual battery capacity sees a significant upgrade from last year as the Galaxy Note 20 has a 4300mAh cell which is about 800mAh larger compared to last year. Pair this with an FHD+ 60Hz display, then its endurance should be well within an acceptable boundary. Surprisingly, Samsung has shifted its gear backward in terms of charging speed.
We’ve seen the company’s 45W fast charger in action in phones like the Galaxy Note 10+ and the S20 Ultra. Despite this, you’re only getting 25W USB-PD 3.0 charging (the charger is included in the box by the way), a 15W wireless charging, and reverse wireless charging. In a time when different Chinese OEMs are jumping the gun on triple-digit fast charging like 120W, 125W, etc. it’s unnerving to see Samsung take the contrasting route instead.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Specifications:
Body: 6.36 x 2.96 x 0.33-inches; 192gm; IP68 certification
Display: 6.7-inches Super AMOLED “Infinity-O” panel; HDR10+; Always-on Display; 60Hz Refresh Rate; Corning Gorilla Glass 5; 393 PPI
Resolution: FHD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels); 20:9 aspect ratio
Chipset: Exynos 990 (Global) / Snapdragon 865+ (USA, China, South Korea); 7nm+ Mobile Platform
When it comes to powerful & capable laptops, not everyone is on board with heavy and bulky machines. Some people put comfort, portability, and versatility above the utmost performance. And laptop manufacturers have been coming up with such light machines over the years. Here, Acer’s “Swift” series is a reputed lineup of ultra-lightweight laptops. The latest 2020 edition of Acer Swift 3 is available in Nepal. Here you can check the specs and price of different SKUs of the Acer Swift 3 2020 that are available in Nepal.
Acer Swift 3 2020 Overview
Design & Display
Swift 3 looks just as sleek as ever. Committing to its Ultrabook heritage, Acer has managed to make the 2020 model even lighter than Acer Swift 3 (2019). Nice! It has an aluminum plus magnesium-alloy chassis and although color options are a little more diverse on AMD variants, it’s all silver here. The lid houses the reflective “Acer” branding at the center. Here, the area on the internal chassis where your wrists would rest is thin while getting slightly thicker as you move to the other edge.
Moving to the display, you’re getting a 14-inches FHD panel and as expected. Acer has compromised a fair-bit on this front in order to bring down the cost of the laptop. Although the company sells a 13.5-inch option with a squarish aspect ratio in the western markets, those aren’t currently available in Nepal. This “Acer ComfyView” IPS LCD panel can’t reproduce the most accurate colors. As a result, if you’re into graphics-intensive work, this shouldn’t be something to consider. Having said, it is more than good enough for other casual tasks. The bezels are quite minimal although the chin is quite big that holds yet another “Acer” branding.
Performance & Memory
Here, you can choose to go with team blue or team red. If you go with Intel you get to choose between Core i5-1035G1 and Core i7-1065G7. Both are 10th Gen Intel processors based on a 10nm process. They can hit a top clock speed of 3.60GHz and 3.90GHz, respectively. Interestingly, the i7-1065G7 variant is compliant with Intel’s Project Athena. This is also a quad-core CPU with a base frequency of 1.30 GHz and a max turbo frequency of 3.90 GHz.
If you happen to lean on the other side of the line, you will have to decide between Ryzen 5 4500U and Ryzen 7 4700U.
The Swift 3 2020’s performance has been coupled with either 4 or 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM. And you should just avoid the 4GB RAM variant altogether since that’s just not enough for 2020.
What’s even worse, is the fact that the RAM stick is soldered into the motherboard meaning you won’t even be able to upgrade it if and when necessary. On the graphics side of things, you have the regular Intel UHD graphics and Radeon Vega graphics. Besides this, Swift 3 2020 also enjoys NVIDIA’s MX350 GPU. This means that the laptop will be able to handle tasks like light photo editing and even playing eSports titles. In terms of storage, you can configure the Swift 3 with up to 512GB of M.2 SSD.
Battery & rest of the specs
Coming to the battery, the laptop has a sizable 3-cell 55.9Wh (4200mAh) battery and thanks to the onboard power-efficient CPU, it should easily last you over 8 – 9 hours.
The island-style (chiclet) keyboard’s keys are arranged with a fair bit of spacing and as you could imagine, there is no separate Numpad on this laptop. However, you do get a fingerprint scanner on the center-ish right corner of the chassis.
The port count includes 1x USB 2.0, 1x USB Type-A 3.1 Gen1, 1x USB Type-C Gen2 ( DisplayPort over USB-C), 1x 3.5mm headphone/mic jack, 1x HDMI, Kensington lock, and finally 1x DC-in jack. The USB-C on the Intel variant also supports Thunderbolt. Thankfully, you can also charge the laptop via the USB-C connection (5V/3A). On the wireless side, the Swift 3 comes with Wi-Fi ax and Bluetooth 5.0. There are two speakers on this laptop capable of delivering stereo audio.
Acer Swift 3 2020 (Intel) Specifications:
Design & Build: Aluminum plus magnesium-alloy chassis; 12.56W x 8.54D x 0.59H-inches; 1.18kg (2.62 pounds)
Display: 14-inches FHD “Acer ComfyView” IPS LCD (1920×1080) panel, 16:9 aspect ratio; No touch support
The price of Acer Swift 3 2020 starts at Rs. 89,000 for the Ryzen 5 4500U variant with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD. Doubling the RAM and storage will cost you extra Rs. 11,000. There is also a Ryzen 7 4700U variant priced at Rs. 92,990.
Acer Swift 3 2020
Price in Nepal
14″ FHD, Ryzen 5 4500U, Radeon, 8GB, 256GB SSD
Rs. 89,000
14″ FHD, Ryzen 5 4500U, Radeon, 16GB, 512GB SSD
Rs. 100,000
14″ FHD, Ryzen 7 4700U, Radeon, 8GB, 512GB SSD
Rs. 92,990
Watch our review of the Acer Swift 3 2020 (Intel).
After having launched a couple of feature phones and a budget smartphone in Nepal in the past couple of months, Nokia has now come up with a mid-range device. It’s non-other than the Nokia 5.3. If it wasn’t for the ongoing pandemic, the phone was supposed to be available in the country way back in May. However, things obviously didn’t go as planned. Anyway, let’s take a look at what the Nokia 5.3 is packing including its specs, features, official price, and availability in Nepal.
Nokia 5.3 Overview
Design & Display
Nokia 5.3 is actually the successor to the Nokia 5.1 and 5.1 Plus. While 2018’s Nokia 5.1 came with big bezels at the top & bottom, the company had opted for an iPhone-like notch on the 5.1 Plus. And now, the Nokia 5.3 takes it a step further by including a small teardrop notch and a sizeable chin which houses the Nokia branding. It has a nicer polycarbonate back with a matte finish which the company says is scratch-resistant too.
In a typical Nokia fashion, there’s a dedicated Google Assistant button which we’re assuming from experience can’t be natively remapped (although it is possible using a third-party app). The slightly curved back houses the quad-cameras inside a circular module and a physical fingerprint sensor beneath it. There is yet another Nokia branding parallel to these – this time left-rotated. The phone is available in “Nordic-inspired” Cyan, Sand, and Charcoal color options.
Getting to the display, Nokia 5.3 comes with a sizeable 6.55-inches IPS LCD panel protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3. Unfortunately, it’s just an HD+ panel so sharpness is of concern. With an aspect ratio of 20:9, this phone also boasts TÜV Rheinland certified against harmful blue-light protection. At this stage in the market, a teardrop notch feels outdated which is another major disadvantage on Nokia’s end. If you’re not a fan of this, you can also hide it under the settings for a traditional bezel-esque look.
Performance and Memory
Running the whole show is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 665 which has been coupled with up to 6GB of RAM. Similarly, the storage option remains consistent with every memory config at just 64GB. There is a dedicated microSDXC slot to expand this, so that’s nothing to worry about. Stock Android fans will most definitely appreciate Nokia’s clean UI/UX. Here, Nokia 5.3 ships with Android 10 and is also a part of Google’s Android One program.
What this means is that it will be getting guaranteed OS updates for at least 2 years and three years of security updates. Despite these, the performance on this thing is of concern as the Snapdragon 665 isn’t as competitive as other silicons found in competing devices like Samsung’s Galaxy M21 and the Redmi Note 9. With a similar spec-sheet, Nokia 5.3 is expensive than the Realme 5i which we’d complained about its non-competitive pricing.
Cameras
Moving on to the cameras, the phone features a quad-camera setup at the back packaged inside a circular module with the LED flash in the middle. As a result, Nokia 5.3 manages to stand out among the crowd – at least when looking at it from the back. Leading the setup is a 13MP primary sensor. Other lenses include the 5MP ultra-wide, 2MP depth, and 2MP macro sensors.
Its AI imaging lets you take enhanced photos including a portrait mode. Nokia 5.3 is also capable of taking decent low-light images thanks to its dedicated Night Mode. On to the front camera, there’s an 8MP lens sitting inside the teardrop notch. Besides the fingerprint sensor at the back, you can also use the front camera for face unlock.
Battery
Finally, let’s talk about the battery. Nokia 5.3 packs in a moderate 4000mAh cell which charges via USB Type-C connection. Unfortunately, the phone relies on the traditional 10W charging although the chipset is capable of handling 18W of power.
The 4000mAh battery doesn’t compare to what Xiaomi and Samsung are offering – at least in terms of sheer capacity. Despite this, Nokia claims that it is a 2-day battery phone thanks to its AI-assisted Adaptive Battery. If the past is any indication, that should be true to some extent though wait for our full review for the ultimate verdict on Nokia 5.3’s battery endurance.
Audio: 3.5mm headphone jack, FM radio, 2 microphones
Connectivity: Dual-SIM (Nano), WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/AGPS, NFC, USB Type-C, 4G LTE
Sensors: Ambient light, Proximity, Accelerometer
Battery: 4000mAh with 10W charging
Colors: Cyan, Sand, Charcoal
Nokia 5.3 Price in Nepal and Availability
Nokia 5.3 is now available in Nepal where its price is NPR 23,499 for the sole 4/64GB variant in the Cyan color option. There is no word yet if other variants will be made available in the coming days.
Acer’s premium lineup of gaming laptops – the Predator Triton series is now available in Nepal. Known for its sleek chassis and powerful gaming performance, the 2020 edition of the Triton 300 and 500 launched here are powered by 10th-gen Intel Core i7 processors and RTX 20-series GPU. Let’s learn more about the Acer Predator Triton 300 and 500 (2020) including its specs, features, official price in Nepal, and availability.
Acer Predator Triton 300 (2020) Overview
Design & Display
Starting with the design, the Triton 300 features a dual-material design. Here, the inner chassis is made from plastic whereas the exterior body is built using aluminum. The lid has the classic Predator logo. It glows light blue and can’t be turned off either. Similarly, it isn’t perfectly square as the top edges have been sliced for a slightly aggressive look. Its hinge doesn’t go completely flat and settles to a maximum of 160-degrees.
Predator Triton 300 has two 4th-gen Aeroblade 3D fans, each with 59 blades measuring just 0.1mm in order to complement the laptop’s thin-and-light build. For even more effective cooling, there are three heat pipes in total. Talking more about the build quality, the Triton 300 weighs just 2kg with a thickness of 19.9mm.
Moving to the display, you have the 15.6-inches Full HD LED-backlit matte IPS panel. While the short 3ms response time remains consistent with all variants, you can choose between different refresh rates ranging between 120Hz, 144Hz, and 240Hz. It has a peak brightness of 300 nits while the color space is rated at 72% NTSC and 100% sRGB. The bezels aren’t the most minimum like it’s with other Predator laptops. While the ones on the side are pretty low-profile, the top and bottom bezel house the 720p webcam and a Predator branding – therefore the big bezels.
Performance & Memory
Getting to performance, the Triton 300 runs on Intel’s Core i7-10750H processor. It is high-performance silicon manufactured under the 14nm process with 6 cores/12 threads. This 45W TDP CPU has a base frequency of 2.60 GHz with a max turbo frequency of up to 5.0 GHz. Running the graphics side of things is NVIDIA’s Turing-based RTX 2060 or 2070. However, only the former is available here in Nepal with 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM.
There are two memory slots, so you can enjoy dual-channel RAM as well. The base variant of Triton 300 comes with 16GB of DDR4 SDRAM clocked at 2933 MHz. You can upgrade the laptop’s RAM up to 32GB. In terms of storage, it has two M.2 slots although the company has ditched a 2.5-inch optical drive altogether.
Battery & rest of the specs
Moving on to the battery, Predator Triton 300 has a fairly small 4-cell 58.75Wh Li-Ion battery. You can’t charge it with a Type-C cable and uses a traditional 230W power-brick instead. Interestingly, the DC-in connection is on the back instead, so you can get a clean set up at the sides. The keyboard on this laptop is a full-sized one with 4-zone RGB backlighting. The WASD keys have see-through concave-shaped keycaps. It also has a dedicated “Turbo” key for overclocking the laptop and the “PredatorSense” key for launching the utility app.
Other specs of the device include the Killer WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, and DTS:X Ultra audio for a 360-degree surround sound effect. Port collection on the Triton 300 includes 3x USB-A 3.2 gen2, 1x USB Type-C, 1x RJ45 (Ethernet), and 1x HDMI connection.
Acer Predator Triton 300 (2020) Specifications:
Design & Build: Plastic inner chassis, aluminum exterior; 14.3W x 10D x 0.78H-inches; 2kg (4.41 pounds)
Moving on, the Triton 500 comes with a little more powerful hardware and a more premium build quality. Unlike the mix of plastic and aluminum on the Triton 300, it’s all-metal here. Being the premium model that it is, Acer has included a better cooling system comprising of three 4th-gen Aeroblade 3D fans. While it is slightly thinner than Triton 300, it is a little heavier at 2.10kg.
In terms of display, Triton 500 has a 15.6-inches IPS LCD panel. This can be configured with up to 300Hz refresh rate now and also features NVIDIA’s G-Sync technology for a smoother gaming experience. It has the same 3ms response time so, with that combo, the gaming performance on this machine would probably be a hoot.
Getting to performance, the Triton 500 comes with Intel’s 10th-gen octa-core i7 processor and up to RTX 2080 GPU (in Super design). Memory-wise it supports a maximum of 32GB DDR4 RAM and 2TB of NVMe PCIe storage. There’s a significant upgrade in terms of keyboards as well. Acer has replaced 4-zone RGB backlighting with per-key keyboard lighting on the Triton 500.
Acer Predator Triton 500 (2020) Specifications:
Design & Build: All-metal build; 14.1W x 10D x 0.70H-inches; 2.1kg (4.63 pounds)
Acer Predator Triton 300, 500 2020 Price in Nepal and Availability
The price of Acer Predator Triton 300 2020 with Core i7 and RTX 2070 in Nepal is NPR 214,000. Similarly, the price of Acer Predator Triton 500 2020 in Nepal is NPR 265,000.
After a long hiatus, Tecno finally made a comeback in the Nepali market through the launch of the Camon 15 Pro. However, the company has already announced the first phone under the Camon 16 series. Let’s check out the specs, features, expected price, and availability of Tecno Camon 16 Premier in Nepal.
Tecno Camon 16 Premier Overview
Design and Display
Camon 16 Premier sports a 6.9-inch FHD screen. Techno is calling it the dual dot-in display because of the pill-shaped camera cutout on the top left corner of the screen. It houses the dual selfie cameras. It has a tall aspect ratio of 20.5:9. Like many other mid-range smartphones these days, the Camon 16 Premier comes with support for the 90Hz refresh rate. The other notable feature is that users can also enjoy HDR10+ content on it.
Design-wise, the device is now more ergonomic than the Camon 15 series. The rear panel features a square camera module like the one we saw in the Redmi Note 9 Pro. However, the arrangement of the sensors is distinct. There is only one color option – Glacial Silver.
Performance and Memory
Under the hood, the device packs in Helio G90T chipset. The gaming-focused chipset from MediaTek has been previously used in devices like Redmi Note 8 Pro and Realme 6. It has been well received by the audience. Talking about memory, the device features 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.
Camera
The device flaunts a quad-camera setup on the back. Sony’s IMX686 sensor leads the setup. The primary camera supports 4K video recording at 30fps. It is accompanied by an 8MP ultra-wide technology with a 119-degree of Field of View. The rest of the camera setup includes a 2MP ultra night sensor and a depth sensor. As with other Techno devices, it comes with the proprietary TAiVOS image processing technology. The company has also made some changes to its native camera app.
On the front, there is a 48MP primary selfie camera. It is accompanied by an 8MP ultra-wide angle sensor. The camera will automatically switch to the ultra-wide mode when it detects four or more people in the selfie. This will let you cover 105-degree FOV, which is better than the primary camera by 1.6 times. Similarly, the selfie camera setup comes with an updated bokeh effect, HDR portrait, and Eye focus.
Another highlight of the device is its battery. Tecno has included a 4,500mAh battery with support for 33W fast charging. It can go from 0 to 70% in 30 minutes. To keep the device from heating, the phone features a heat-tube dissipation system. It is said to reduce the temperature by up to 2-degree when charging.
Tecno Camon 16 Premier Price in Nepal & Availability
Tecno Camon 16 Premier is available in Kenya, where its price is KES 28,999. We can expect the price of Tecno Camon 16 Premier in Nepal to be around NPR 32,000.
Smartphone model
Price in Kenya
Price in Nepal (Expected)
Tecno Camon 16 Premier
KES 28,999
NPR 32,000
Watch: The truth about OPPO A-series (ft. OPPO A52, A53)
Realme Nepal has been extending the company’s portfolio of AIoT devices. Last month, they launched the Realme band, Realme watch, and a couple of TWS earphones. And today, the company has unveiled its cheapest TWS earbuds, the BudsQ in the Nepali market.
Realme Buds Q Overview
Design and Build
Unlike Realme Buds Air and Air Neo which debuted last month, the Buds Q doesn’t come with a stem-body design. The new design is a result of the collaboration between Realme and Frech Designer Jose Levy. It isn’t the first time Realme has worked with a professional designer; the Master Design on Realme Narzo 10 was the idea of Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa.
From a distance, you might confuse the design with Samsung Galaxy Buds. But the head on the Buds Q is more circular than rectangular. Realme is calling it the “Pebble design.” The round shape is said to fit the ear contour better, making it more comfortable to wear. Each earbud weighs around 3.6 grams and the weight of the charging case is around is 31.7 grams.
Audio Drivers and Connectivity
Realme Buds Q features a 10mm dynamic driver with bass enhancement technology. It uses the same custom R1 chip as in the Realme Buds Air and Air Neo. The chip allows dual-channel real-time data transmission. The data is transmitted using Bluetooth v5.0 technology.
There is a low-latency gaming mode for gamers that can reduce the latency up to 119ms. You can turn on the mode by pressing and holding both earbuds for two seconds. The mode syncs audio and video better and can be used while watching movies. It supports AAC HD codec, though it may mean you need to enable the decoding manually from the Bluetooth setting.
Control
A double-tap on one of the earbuds will cause the music to play or pause. Similarly, you can also use it to answer any incoming calls. To end a call, simply press and hold on one side. Triple tap will let you skip the current song and move to the next one.
Battery
Each bud has a 40mAh battery, which can last about 4.5 hours of continuous music. Similarly, Realme promises 3 hours of call time, 5 hours of gaming, and 6 hours of movie time. The charging case is equipped with a 400mAh battery that can extend battery life up to about 20 hours. The case supports 30W wired charging via micro-USB port.
Gionee is among the smartphone brands that have almost been forgotten over the course of time. The company had its presence in the Nepalese and was quite successful with its ‘F’ and ‘M’ series of smartphones. It went bankrupt at the end of 2018, but has made a comeback in the Nepali market with Gionee M100.
Gionee M100 Overview
Gionee M100 is the third smartphone announced by the company after coming out of bankruptcy. It was first launched in China last year and is now coming to Nepal. Gionee M100 is also available as Gionee K3 in different markets.
Design and Display
Gionee M100 sports a 6.2-inch In-Cell panel with an HD+ resolution of 1520 x 720 pixels. The display features a waterdrop style notch on the top of the screen, that houses the selfie camera. Gionee has included a 2.5D curved glass to protect the screen from scratches and accidental damage.
On the back, there is a pill-shaped camera module that encloses the cameras and LED flash. The rear panel also has a fingerprint sensor mounted on it.
Performance and Memory
The device is powered by MediaTek Helio P23 chipset. It is an octa-core processor based on TSMC’s 16nm FinFET process. The SoC features eight ARM Cortex A53 cores. Half of them are clocked at 2.0 GHz while the rest are clocked at 1.5 GHz. Gionee is coupling this three-year-old chipset with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage.
Camera
Gionee M100 flaunts a dual-camera setup on its back. The 13MP primary camera is accompanied by a 0.3MP sensor. These two cameras are aligned vertically on the top left corner of the rear panel. On the front, there is a 5MP camera to quench your selfie thirst.
Battery and Others
The smartphone comes equipped with a 5,000mAh battery, that should last long given the under-power specs. It supports 10W fast charging. There is a capacitive fingerprint sensor on the back for biometrics.
Gionee M100 Specifications:
Display: 6.2-inches In-Cell Panel
Resolution: HD+ (1520 x 720 pixels); 19:9 aspect ratio
Chipset: MediaTek Helio P23; 16nm FinFET process
CPU: Octa-core (4 × 2.0 GHz ARM Cortex A53 & 4 × 1.5 GHz ARM Cortex A53 )
Gionee M100 is now available in Nepal for a price of Rs. 13,999. It can be a good choice if you are looking for a long-lasting battery and aren’t concerned about gaming performance.
Smartphone Model
Price in Nepal
Gionee M100 (4/64GB)
Rs. 13,999
Check out our comparison between Redmi Note 9 Pro and Galaxy M31!
August is the month when Samsung launches its flagship “Note” lineup of smartphones. With the ongoing pandemic and the overall trend in the smartphone industry, most of us had thought (or even hoped) that the company didn’t unveil its top-of-the-line product. However, the company still went on with the launch of the new Galaxy Note 20 series. And since its arrival, I have been using the Samsung GalaxyNote 20 Ultra as my primary phone alongside the S20 Ultra for review to see how much Samsung has improved over 6 months.
Also, if you’re planning to get yourself a Note this year, I’d strictly advise avoiding the regular Note 20 because of its ridiculous pricing. Note 20 Ultra is the complete package of the two and Samsung is clearly luring you to buy it instead. Let’s discover more about the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra in this review.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Specifications:
Body: 6.49 x 3.04 x 0.32-inches; 208gm; IP68 certification
Battery: 4500mAh with 25W fast charging; 15W wireless charging
Colors: Mystic White, Mystic Bronze, Mystic Gray
Price in Nepal: Rs. 139,999 (8/256GB)
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Review:
Design
Corning Gorilla Glass Victus back & front, metallic frame
Slight curves but an overall classic boxy design
Massive camera bump at the back & the relocated S Pen
Anyways, let’s begin this review of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra with its design. My first impression when having the phone in my hand was like – wow, that’s a big phone. Putting it side-by-side with the S20 Ultra, we can notice the trademark boxy design with sharp edges on the Note. I also found the Note 20 Ultra to be a little more comfortable and lightweight to hold which is mainly because of its smaller battery.
Left: Note 20 Ultra | Right: S20 Ultra
The color options see a much-needed overhaul as well because frankly, the grey or black options of the S20 Ultra look quite drab and boring. Here, I have the Mystic Black variant of the Note 20 Ultra which unfortunately attracts a lot of fingerprints & smudges.
So if this is the one you’re going after, make sure to slap in a skin or a protective case – or better yet, get the “Mystic Bronze” variant instead which is the talk of the town. Besides the gorgeous color tone, it also has a matte finish thus getting rid of our aforementioned issue.
A new home for the S Pen
Samsung also decided to relocate the S Pen to the left on the Note 20 series, which is mainly to cope with the internal circuitry for these massive-massive cameras that are housed inside this giant camera bump – thicker than the one in S20 Ultra. This is going to throw away a lot of Note fanatics or even newcomers who favor their right hand. Even after a while of using the phone, I am yet to get used to the new position.
Samsung says it’s for the better since most people hold the phone in their right hand and it’s easier for them to pull the S Pen when it’s placed on the opposite side. So, I’m willing to give it a shot.
Moving on, the Galaxy Note 20 comes with the IP68 dust/water resistance as expected but what’s exciting is that it is the first phone to feature Corning’s latest Gorilla Glass Victus – both at the front and at the back. Compared to the last-gen GG6, this promises twice more scratch resistance and it can also survive up to a 2-meter (6.5 foot) drop. But, Samsung has left out the Victus on the camera module.
Therefore, make sure you attach a nice tempered glass on the rear camera module or toughen up the phone with a durable case since repairing the phone in case it breaks is going to a whole lot of money. For instance, the AMOLED panel alone will set you back an upwards of $400!
Up to 120Hz refresh rate; 240Hz touch sampling rate
Uses LTPO for variable refresh rate technology
Speaking of the display, the Note 20 Ultra boasts a gigantic 6.9-inches Quad-HD Dynamic AMOLED panel with up to 120Hz of refresh rate. And according to DisplayMate, this phone has the best AMOLED display ever. Samsung has always been a pioneer of the smartphone display industry and this announcement really doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone. However, in real-life usage, I didn’t find it that different from the one on the S20 series. Note 20 Ultra has a peak brightness of 1500 nits so visibility was never going to be of any issue.
Like the S20 series, the company is still maxing out the 120Hz refresh rate to Full-HD+ resolution instead of QHD+. But interestingly, this panel has a Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide (LTPO) backplane technology because of which the display can adjust the refresh rate in itself depending upon the content on the screen – potentially saving battery in the process.
For example: if you’re watching a movie or similar content, its Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) technology will set the display to 24Hz, or if you’re scrolling through the phone or playing a handful of supported games, it will get buttery smooth at the full 120Hz. Note 20 Ultra’s display can go all the way down to 10Hz refresh rate for certain static contents.
Ultra-sonic fingerprint sensor
The display is also home to an ultra-sonic in-display fingerprint scanner and it’s almost similar in performance to the S20 Ultra. By that I mean, it’s not as fast as… say the ones from OnePlus or OPPO but gets the job done.
But since this is an ultra-sonic sensor unlike the more common optical fingerprint scanners, it works even when your fingers are wet. Additionally, it is more secure as well. Even in a dark environment, the sensor doesn’t rely on shining bright light either. So, if you ask me, I prefer Samsung’s implementation compared to other companies.
Performance… and the controversy
Octa-core Samsung Exynos 990 SoC (7nm) – Global
8/12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage (expandable)
Time to get salty… and rightfully so. There has always been a controversy among the Samsung community since the company chooses to ship the premium “S” and “Note” lineup of smartphones with different chipsets depending upon the region. Certain markets like the US, China, and South Korea enjoy the ones with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon silicon while the rest of the world gets the one with Samsung’s own Exynos brand of chipsets.
had they been some sort of equals, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. but that’s simply not the case.
Many people (us included) had already bashed the company regarding the use of Exynos 990 in its S20 series while the Snapdragon 865 variant was much more powerful. If you recall like 4 months, many Samsung fans were already at the peak of their frustration regarding the use of Exynos 990 in the S20 series; to the point where there was an online petition titled “Stop selling us inferior Exynos phones”.
And to see the company take that mistake a step further by shipping select markets with even more powerful Snapdragon 865+ while the rest of the world is stuck with the same Exynos 990 is honestly very infuriating. The 865+ pretty much thrashes its Exynos counterpart with a much better CPU and GPU performance. Looking at the benchmark scores, you can see how it has about 15-20% better results and you know how much that translates to real-life usage.
Compromised performance on a premium phone
So it’s pretty disappointing to find out that while you’re paying a premium price for the phone, you’re not getting the best performance you’d expect. Samsung’s Exynos brand of silicons needs to do a whole lot better if it ever seeks to compete against the ones from Qualcomm. The company has been in talks with AMD to embed its RDNA-based GPU into flagship Exynos SoC which has us excited in the long run but surely, Samsung must’ve done something about the disparity that currently exists.
Both Exynos 990 and Snapdragon 865+ are 5G capable chipsets that support both sub-6GHz and mmWave spectrum. But depending upon the region, Samsung also ships 4G LTE variants of the Note 20 Ultra, which is the case here in Nepal. That is understandable seeing how many countries still don’t a viable 5G infrastructure. Similarly, the 5G and 4G configs also come with different memory options.
Here, Note 20 Ultra (4G) comes with 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and either 256 or 512GB of UFS 3.1 internal storage. Similarly, the 5G model has 12GB of RAM and an additional 128GB model besides the ones above.
Keeping that aside for a moment, you guys might know that I use the Galaxy S20+ as my daily driver, and shifting to the Note 20 Ultra was not that big of a deal – at least to me. Its performance is as solid as I’d expected and everything runs flawlessly including multitasking between apps or just scrolling around the phone’s UI. Yet, just like the S20 series, the Note 20 Ultra also heats up quite easy when you gaming for a while or are doing some quite heavy tasks like multitasking alongside navigation with full brightness, recording high-res videos for a while, etc.
Gaming
Gaming on the phone is decent as well but like I said earlier, the Exynos 990 is inferior to the 865+. As a result, its Mali-G77 MP11 GPU can’t push certain games like PUBG Mobile to their max settings (Extreme frame rate and HDR graphics) whereas it’s a piece of cake for the other variant.
Likewise, games like PUBGm, COD Mobile, etc. don’t support high refresh rate as of now to make use of phones with smoother display panels. As of now, PUBGm has introduced a 90Hz support which is exclusive to certain OnePlus phones for now and I hope it gets a wider launch ASAP.
Furthermore, the Note 20 Ultra also has Ultra-Wideband (UWB) connectivity that we first saw in Apple’s iPhone 11 series. Unlike Bluetooth, WiFi, or NFC, UWB operates at a very high frequency and allows for a much faster data transfer between devices. With this, Note 20 Ultra could also be used as a digital key. Google’s latest “Nearby Share” data transfer feature (just like Apple’s AirDrop) will also be much faster between UWB-enabled Galaxy devices.
S Pen
Reduced latency from 45ms to just 9ms
New AI Laser Point Prediction feature on top of air gestures
Now let’s talk about the belle of the ball of any Galaxy Note device – the S Pen. Besides shifting it to the left, Samsung has made quite a few improvements to this year’s S Pen but the most important of them all is the input latency. If you don’t know what latency is, allow me to briefly explain it. Latency is the time it takes for your touch input to be registered by the display, processed by the phone, and then reflected back on to the display. Typically measured in milliseconds (ms), the lesser latency, the better.
While the Galaxy Note 10 series had 45ms input latency, Samsung has managed to bring it down to just 9ms on the Note 20 Ultra and 26ms on the standard Note 20.
The minimal latency paired with a 120Hz display and Samsung’s new AI Laser Point Prediction feature which predicts your next move depending on our current writing behavior means this S Pen gives off an almost paper-like writing experience. I’m not an artist or anything so the one on the Note 10 series fared well with me too. But if you are one, this makes all the difference in the world.
Besides latency
Samsung has expectedly borrowed many other S Pen features from its predecessor onto the Note 20 series with some handy improvements. Now, you can annotate PDF files, make e-signatures, etc. which is very handy. Similarly, you can also write notes in a PowerPoint and record an audio comment on it as well making it easy for others to drop their feedback.
And since the S Pen has a gyro sensor, it has some useful or rather gimmicky air gestures that unfortunately don’t work 100% of the time. For instance, the new gestures on the Note 20 lineup include a series of hand movements to navigate around the phone, take screenshots, etc.
DeX
Now fully wireless in Smart TVs with Miracast
Let’s quickly talk about the DeX. This is Samsung’s attempt at transforming your phone into a PC. While the feature required a bunch of peripherals like an HDMI adapter, etc. the feature is fully wireless now. You can turn your Smart TV that supports MediaTek’s Miracast feature into a DeX monitor – provided that both TV and the phone are connected to the same network.
Because Samsung promises a desktop-like experience with DeX (that in itself is an ambiguous claim), it’s not wrong of us to expect something fast & responsive. However, that hasn’t been the case with my usage. The UI is a little too sluggish to my liking and therefore I rarely use this feature. And about wireless DeX, Samsung says it works best on its own Smart TVs released in 2019 or later but I didn’t have one lying around. So, I tried it out on my non-Samsung TV and the experience was pretty much unusable.
10MP front-facing camera inside the Infinity-O cutout
Camera
1 of 3
Rear Cameras
Front Camera
Rear Camera Bump
Finally, let’s talk about the cameras. It has a triple-lens system at the back which comprises the massive 108MP ISOCELL Bright HM1 sensor from the S20 Ultra, a 12MP ultrawide camera, and a 12MP telephoto camera capable of 5x lossless optical zoom and up to 50x digital Space Zoom. There’s also an additional Laser AutoFocus (AF) sensor.
We saw how the S20 Ultra failed to lock focus on close-range objects because of its physically massive sensor, especially in a dimly-lit environment. Thankfully, the Laser AF system fixes that on the Note 20 Ultra.
Improved AutoFocus
And yeah, during my review, I noticed improved autofocus on the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra compared to the S20 Ultra.
AutoFocus
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Note 20 Ultra
Note 20 Ultra
S20 Ultra
Even when taking pictures of subjects like dogs, they retain good focus and sharpness.
Nighttime Images
The nighttime images on the Note 20 Ultra (from both primary and wide-angle lens) has also been slightly improved over the S20 Ultra – which was already incredible, to begin with.
Nighttime
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Note 20 Ultra - Normal Nighttime
S20 Ultra - Normal Nighttime
Note 20 Ultra - Night Mode
S20 Ultra - Night Mode
Note 20 Ultra - Wideangle Night Mode
S20 Ultra - Wideangle Night Mode
Note 20 Ultra - Normal Nighttime
S20 Ultra - Normal Nighttime
The colors are slightly better and it may be because of the improved autofocus but it takes images in night mode a little faster. Remember, both phones that I have with me have the same Exynos 990 SoC with the same Image Signal Processor (ISP).
Normal & Wideangle Images
Getting to the normal daytime images, they are excellent, have good contrast/colors, exposure, and that classic Samsung vibrancy.
Normal
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Images from the ultrawide camera share the same story.
Wideangle
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Normal
Wideangle
Normal
Wideangle
But, Samsung has worked to improved portrait images and it shows.
Portrait Images
Here, you can see how the portrait images on the Note 20 Ultra have a more balanced skin tone compared to the ones from S20 Ultra.
Portrait
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Note 20 Ultra
S20 Ultra
Note 20 Ultra
S20 Ultra
Note 20 Ultra
S20 Ultra
As you can see, the S20 Ultra tends to darken certain portions while creating the bokeh effect.
Selfie Images
Moving on, selfies and portrait selfies are excellent as well with great colors and sharpness.
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Selfie
Portrait Selfie
Selfie
Portrait Selfie
Note 20 Ultra - Lowlight Selfie
S20 Ultra - Lowlight Selfie
And once again, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra yields noticeably better images compared to the S20 Ultra when it comes to selfies in low-light conditions.
Telephoto Images
Now let us talk about the telephoto lens. Samsung has stepped away from the 100x zoom and the Note 20 Ultra, therefore, caps out at 50x Space Zoom.
Telephoto
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1x
5x
10x
1x
5x
10x
It can shoot loss-less images up to 5x zoom and their quality is quite solid – which goes on up to 10x digital zoom.
50x - Note 20 Ultra vs S20 Ultra
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Note 20 Ultra - 1x
Note 20 Ultra - 50x
S20 Ultra - 1x
S20 Ultra - 50x
Yet, the images from 50x Space Zoom still aren’t that useful although they’re a little better than the one from S20 Ultra.
Videos
Getting to the videos, there are a lot of options to play around with just like the S20 Ultra. You can still click 8K/24fps videos but its outcome isn’t that great. However, 4K/60fps are really good with great stabilization and color reproduction. For the best stabilization, you can select the “Super Steady Mode”. I do have a little complaint which is how Note 20 Ultra’s ultrawide camera cannot shoot videos in 4K/60fps.
The front camera is a 10MP sensor residing inside a small punch-hole cutout in the center. It can shoot 4K/60fps videos as well with an excellent stabilization. Other features like Slowmo, Super Slowmo, etc. work great too. Overall, Note 20 Ultra is one of the best options for mobile videography alongside the iPhone 11 series. Besides videos, this phone is also one of the best camera phones currently out there in the market.
Battery
4500mAh battery with 25W fast wired charging
15W wireless charging and Wireless PowerShare
When it comes to the battery, I was a little disappointed during the review because I was hoping for the 5000mAh cell on the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra just like the S20 Ultra. However, the company has gone with a smaller 4500mAh battery which is mainly because of the extra space for the S Pen, while maintaining a pocketable form factor. The smaller battery paired with a giant display that has a 120Hz refresh rate didn’t result in an impressive endurance that I’d hoped for.
Its endurance is B+ which could last you a day but when pushing it to the extreme, you may be left with no charge at the end of the day. There’s even marginal battery drainage under standby mode. I’m someone who goes to sleep after charging the phone to 100% and after 6 – 7 hours of sleep, I wake up to about 92 – 93% charge only. This issue was also persistent with S20 Ultra though I’m yet to see someone with their Snapdragon variant complain about this overnight battery drain issue.
Surprisingly, Samsung has abandoned the 45W fast charging for the Note 20 Ultra and rather sticks to a slower 25W charging protocol instead. With this, it took me about 1 hour and 15 minutes to fully charge the phone. Wireless charging, on the other hand, is painfully slow as well and the 15W power takes around 2 hours to juice up the phone.
Conclusion
To wrap it all up, Note 20 Ultra is a solid phone which could very well be the best phone right now. It’s built well, has an excellent display, cameras, and the S Pen has been improved a lot on this iteration. However, getting the objectively inferior Exynos chipset on a phone for which you’d have to fork out over $1000 simply doesn’t feel acceptable – and we’re right to complain Samsung about it.
Because of this variation, many people are skipping Samsung flagships and the market trend definitely reflects on that. My friend who is a Civil Engineer was also skeptical about buying the Note 20 Ultra because of the very same reason. Having said that, most people can easily get by with the Exynos 990. And if you’re someone who doesn’t make use of the S Pen, you can even go for the Galaxy S20 series instead and save a few bucks.
Watch our video review of the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Review: Pros & Cons
Pros:
Excellent design & surprisingly lightweight for such a big phone
Samsung’s most durable phone thanks to Gorilla Glass Victus
Terrific Super AMOLED display with a variable refresh rate
Improved S Pen functionalities with an almost paper-like latency
Improved zoom, low-light, & portrait camera performance compared to S20 Ultra
Cons:
*the usual Exynos complaint*
Battery endurance isn’t that great, struggling to last a full day
An underwhelming 25W wired & 15W wireless charging
