The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra comes with a large 4,500 mAh battery, but how long does it really last at 120 Hz, or at full display resolution?
We put the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra through the paces, and compared it to a few other devices in our lab. Check out the results!
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra : Battery Life Considerations
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra comes with a 4,500 mAh battery, which is just a little larger than the Galaxy Note 10+‘s 4,300 mAh battery.
On paper, this should give it a little more battery life than the Galaxy Note 10+. But the Note 20 Ultra is also the first Note to feature a 120 Hz display.
120 Hz Refresh Rate
A higher refresh rate will give you a smoother display, at the expense of higher power consumption and consequently, lower battery life.
That’s why Samsung doesn’t keep the display running at 120 Hz all the time. Instead, they offer an Adaptive option, doubling the refresh rate to 120 Hz only when it’s “necessary”.
WQHD+ Resolution
The other “trick” that Samsung uses to keep power consumption lower is to use a lower display resolution by default – FHD+ (1080 x 2316 pixels).
You can switch to the full WQHD+ resolution of 1440 x 3088 pixels, but that will increase power consumption and reduce battery life, because the GPU has to process more pixels.
Note : The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra only supports 120 Hz at the FHD+ or HD+ resolutions. Switching to WQHD+ limits you to just 60 Hz.
Let’s find out exactly how much both display options affect the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra‘s battery life!
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Battery Life Comparison
To test the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra‘s battery life, we turned off Automatic Brightness, and set its display brightness to 50%.
Why 50%? That is actually slightly higher than the average indoor brightness level of 40% during the day, and is what we usually use in all our mobile battery life tests.
It is important to fix the brightness level, to make sure the screen brightness does not change as the ambient brightness changes.
We then ran the PCMark Work 2.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, and picked the best result.
Resolution + Refresh Rate Comparison
First, we started with a resolution and refresh rate comparison. The
| Work 2.0 | FHD+ (60 Hz) | WQHD+ (60 Hz) | FHD+ (120 Hz) |
| Battery Capacity | 4,500 mAh | 4,500 mAh | 4,500 mAh |
| Battery Life | 10 hrs 9 mins | 9 hrs 17 mins | 7 hrs 34 mins |
| Battery Utilisation | 5.91 mAh / min. | 6.46 mAh / min. | 7.93 mAh / min. |
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has pretty good battery life of just over 10 hours, but only if you keep it at the default FHD+ resolution and use the standard 60 Hz refresh rate.
Increasing the display resolution to WQHD+ reduced battery life by 52 minutes, or about 8.5%. Not too bad, since you still get 9+ hours.
Switching to Adaptive mode though will drastically reduce battery life by a whopping 155 minutes, which is a full quarter less than its maximum battery life!
Full HD+ Resolution @ 60 Hz
| Battery Performance |
MatePad Pro | Black Shark 2 Pro |
S20 Ultra (FHD 60Hz) |
Galaxy Note10+ |
Galaxy S10+ |
Note20 Ultra (FHD 60Hz) |
| Capacity | 7,250 mAh | 4,000 mAh | 5,000 mAh | 4,300 mAh | 4,100 mAh | 4,500 mAh |
| Battery Life | 14 hrs 1 min | 12 hrs 25 mins | 11 hrs 32 mins | 10 hrs 32 mins | 10 hrs 17 mins | 10 hrs 9 mins |
| Utilisation Per Min. |
6.90 mAh | 4.30 mAh | 5.78 mAh | 5.44 mAh | 5.32 mAh | 5.91 mAh |
| Review Links | Review | Review | Review | Review | Review | Review |
| Price Check | US UK Malaysia Singapore Australia |
UK Malaysia Singapore Australia |
US UK Malaysia Singapore Australia |
US UK Malaysia |
US UK Malaysia |
US UK Malaysia Singapore Australia |
Even with its slightly larger battery, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has a slightly shorter battery life than the Galaxy Note 10+.
It even has a shorter battery life than the Galaxy S10+, which has a 10% smaller battery.
WQHD+ Resolution @ 60 Hz
| Battery Performance |
MatePad Pro | Black Shark 2 Pro |
S20 Ultra (WQHD 60Hz) |
Galaxy Note10+ |
Galaxy S10+ |
Note20 Ultra (WQHD 60Hz) |
| Capacity | 7,250 mAh | 4,000 mAh | 5,000 mAh | 4,300 mAh | 4,100 mAh | 4,500 mAh |
| Battery Life | 14 hrs 1 min | 12 hrs 25 mins | 10 hrs 54 mins | 10 hrs 32 mins | 10 hrs 17 mins | 9 hrs 17 mins |
| Utilisation Per Min. |
6.90 mAh | 4.30 mAh | 6.12 mAh | 5.44 mAh | 5.32 mAh | 6.46 mAh |
| Review Links | Review | Review | Review | Review | Review | |
| Price Check | US UK Malaysia Singapore Australia |
UK Malaysia Singapore Australia |
US UK Malaysia Singapore Australia |
US UK Malaysia |
US UK Malaysia |
US UK Malaysia Singapore Australia |
When we increased the resolution to WQHD+, the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra had a full hour shorter battery life than the Galaxy S10+, which has a 10% smaller battery.
FHD+ Resolution @ 120 Hz
| Battery Performance |
MatePad Pro | Black Shark 2 Pro |
Galaxy Note10+ |
Galaxy S10+ |
S20 Ultra (FHD 120Hz) |
Note20 Ultra (FHD 120Hz) |
| Capacity | 7,250 mAh | 4,000 mAh | 4,300 mAh | 4,100 mAh | 5,000 mAh | 4,500 mAh |
| Battery Life | 14 hrs 1 min | 12 hrs 25 mins | 10 hrs 32 mins | 10 hrs 17 mins | 9 hrs 4 mins | 7 hrs 34 mins |
| Utilisation Per Min. |
6.90 mAh | 4.30 mAh | 5.44 mAh | 5.32 mAh | 7.35 mAh | 7.93 mAh |
| Review Links | Review | Review | Review | Review | Review | |
| Price Check | US UK Malaysia Singapore Australia |
UK Malaysia Singapore Australia |
US UK Malaysia |
US UK Malaysia |
US UK Malaysia Singapore Australia |
US UK Malaysia Singapore Australia |
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra used significantly more power than the Galaxy S20 Ultra, with a 120 Hz refresh rate.
Thanks to its 11% larger battery, and lower power consumption, the Galaxy S20 Ultra lasts 1.5 hours longer than the Note 20 Ultra.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra : Where To Buy?
Malaysia
Here are the direct online purchase links in Malaysia :
- Galaxy Note 20 Ultra (256GB) : Mystic Bronze | Mystic White | Mystic Black
Recommended : Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra: Malaysia Launch + Trade-Up Deals!
Singapore
Here are the direct online purchase links in Singapore :
- Galaxy Note 20 Ultra (256GB) : Mystic Bronze | Mystic White | Mystic Black
United States
Here are the direct online purchase links in the United States :
- Note20 Ultra 5G (128 GB) : Mystic Bronze | Mystic White | Mystic Black
United Kingdom
Here are the direct online purchase links in the United Kingdom :
- Note20 Ultra 5G (256 GB) : Mystic Bronze | Mystic White | Mystic Black
- Note20 Ultra 5G (512 GB) : Mystic Bronze | Mystic Black
Australia
Here are the direct online purchase links in Australia :
- Note20 Ultra 5G (256 GB) : Mystic Bronze | Mystic White | Mystic Black
- Note20 Ultra 5G (512 GB) : Mystic Black
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