Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra vs Note 20 Ultra, our S Pen-ed hopes

Granted, those willing to upgrade their two-year-old Notes had a choice of grabbing either the Galaxy S21 Ultra or the Z Fold 3, both of which have an active screen digitizer and support for the S Pen stylus. The big caveat, however, is that Samsung's stylus support in those two comes without a silo, so you had to carry the S Pen as a case tack-on, which is far from an ideal solution.

But that's not the case anymore. Samsung listened, and is unleashing the Galaxy S22 Ultra with a built-in stylus silo, and all the bells and whistles of a flagship Galaxy. A true Note but in name, it only makes sense to clash it with what would be a two-year removed Note 20 Ultra.

Galaxy S22 Ultra pros and cons

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, 512GB, at Amazon

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Galaxy Note 20 Ultra pros and cons

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra: renewed at Amazon

Get a renewed Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra from Amazon at a great price now. The device comes with 128GB of internal storage space.

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Samsung S22 Ultra vs Note 20 Ultra price

• $1199.99 vs $899.99 (refurbished)

The Galaxy S22 Ultra keeps its predecessor's price of $1199.99, making it exactly as expensive as the Note 20 Ultra at launch. There was speculation that the S22 Ultra may arrive for a $100 more than the S21 Ultra, reflecting the built-in silo, but it turned out premature.

Samsung deprecated the Note 20 Ultra upon the S22 Ultra's launch, instead of cutting its price significantly to make it more competitive with what will be its flagship phone with a stylus silo now. It's still available here and there, but not even as a member of Samsung's Certified Renewed program.

Perhaps the most striking fact about the Galaxy S22 Ultra is how Note-like its design is. Not only does it have an S Pen silo for the first time in the Galaxy S line series history, but it also borrows the Note's more angular design, distinguishing it from its S22 and S22+ siblings in more ways than one. Moreover, with the S22 Ultra Samsung is returning to the 19.3:9 ratio that is uses for the Note 20 Ultra, so the two phones have very similar footprints save for the slightly smaller screen diagonal of the S22 Ultra, hence shorter body.

While the S22 Ultra may resemble the Note 20 Ultra in size and shape, flipping it over would quickly dissipate the semblance as it features a camera area without a camera island, but with a camera archipelago where each lens and sensor kit protrudes individually from the rear. We saw a similar design in the LG Velvet which called it "raindrop," but on the S22 Ultra the cameras seemingly won't be arranged in a descending order by size.

Despite the aforementioned nudge of the S22 Ultra towards the Note line form factor, it is available in Black, White, Burgundy, and Green, as well as the Samsung-exclusive Sky Blue, Graphite, and Red at launch, colors that are rather different than the black, white, and bronze hues that the Note 20 Ultra came in. 

Turning the phone over will relieve another big difference that won't be immediately visible - the displays. At first blush they'd be pretty similar - a 6.8" 1440p 120Hz display on the S22 Ultra and a 6.9" panel with the same specs on the Note - but they are two generations apart, after all. 

Score two for the S22 Ultra is its camera kit. Also scores three and four, as not only does it come with the latest generation of Samsung's top-shelf 108MP sensor but also with both a 10x periscope zoom camera, and a 3x telephoto shooter. Not that the Note 20 Ultra's 108MP main sensor and 5x periscope zoom are slouches, but it's clear who is the camera specs boss between the two S Pen-wielding warriors.

Still, Galaxy Note 20 Ultra performed admirably in our camera tests, so for general intents and purposes it is a match for the S22 Ultra. When it comes to detail, magnification, focus, and light sensitivity, though, the S22 Ultra ultimately bends it to its will. 

Here are some more Galaxy S22 Ultra cameras samples in different situations - night, daylight, zoom, selfies, and closeups - to gauge its camera performance.

Moreover, Samsung is employing a drastically (48%) improved image sensor stabilization that aids in night shots and make it superior to the Note 20 Ultra when recording video footage. It rivals Apple's Sensor Shift image stabilization, and you can take a peak how it fares against it in the S22 Ultra camera comparison video below.

 

Being two-year removed from your competitor is putting the Note 20 Ultra at a great disadvantage in terms of processing power. With an aging 7nm Snapdragon 865+ chipset it is no match for the 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (1x 3GHz, 3x 2.5GHz, 4x 1.79GHz cores) or Exynos 2200 that Samsung is employing on the Galaxy S22 Ultra. 

The benchmarks of the Exynos 2200 model of the S22 Ultra here are pretty clear, and Samsung doesn't give it any chance in the memory department as well. 

That depends on the price. If you are able to score the Note 20 Ultra at the $899 price point it is available at in some shops or in renewed condition, it is definitely worth it as a cheaper alternative to the S22 Ultra. It's camera is not as bad compared to the S22 Ultra as one would expect looking at the specs only, while its battery life only gave way in the reading and browsing tests. 

Granted, the screen on the S22 Ultra is much better, it is speedier and it charges slightly faster but for all intents and purposes the differences are not that great to warrant a $500 price difference. In our best Galaxy S22 Ultra deals roundup, however, we noticed that Samsung will give you $850 for your old Note 20 Ultra when you upgrade, plus it tacks on other freebies, which make the price spread negligible, so if you are going to upgrade, do it via Samsung, and you'll get much more bang for your S Pen buck.

512GB Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra for $1119.99 instead of $1399.99

Get the 512GB Galaxy S22 Ultra at up to $280 off with enhanced trade-in credit for a used Galaxy S21 Ultra also available, as is a $160 credit for a device with a cracked screen.

$1119 ⁹⁹

$1399 ⁹⁹

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