I got my phone yesterday around 1:30pm. Transferring everything over was a breeze with smart switch, plugged from Note9 to Note20 Ultra. Also, all my media is on my SD card, so that saved HOURS of potential transfer if I relied on local storage.
First impressions? Meh. Yup, "Meh"
Quality
Not saying it's a bad phone, but I don't know, it's just well, a let down. Yes the camera bump is ridiculous, but that was to be expected. But also, the phone in general feels cheap compared to my 9. I swear, the back does NOT feel like glass. I got the Mystic Black, and when you tap on it with your fingertips it feels and sounds like plastic compared to the front. Back to the camera, if you shake the phone, the stuff in the camera rattles quite a bit at times. MKBHD (YouTube reviewer) mentioned this in one of his videos and Samsung told him it's normal.
Signal / Network
Side by side with my Note9 last night on my couch, I opened my security camera app and it seemed laggy trying to display all 10 of my active cameras, The 9 opened and displayed seamlessly. Both phones were connected to my WiFi. This morning in my driveway when trying to close my garage door with my phone (yes, there's an app for that!) I had the Exclamation mark on my WiFi icon. My router is in my office directly in front of the house on top of the garage. I had to disconnect WiFi to get onto 4G to be able to close my door.
Right now, I'm at work, running speed tests right now, with Ookla app, Both phones connected to same WiFi router, sitting a foot apart on my desk.
First test: Note9: 274 megs down, 17.6 up. Note20 Ultra: 31.5 megs down, 14.1 up. (ran simultaneously)
Second test: Note9: 237 megs down, 20.3 up. Note20 Ultra: 16.5 megs down, 16.5 up. (ran simultaneously)
Third test: Note9: 246 megs down, 28.3 up. Note20 Ultra: 10.6 megs down, 27.6 up. (ran apart)
Manually disconnected Note20 Ultra from WiFi and reconnected right away, ran 3 more tests:
First test: 265 megs down, 29.1 up
Second test: 260 megs down, 29.1 up
Third test: 247 megs down, 29.3 up
Much better results. I will attribute this whole thing to a possible random poor connection to router since after manually reconnecting, the results went way up. Still feeling a little uneasy about the situation though, as it seems I had poor connection at home too. Will definitely run it through the ringer this weekend, putting it to the full test.
Just ran speed tests on 4G (all on Note20 Ultra)
First test: 118 megs down, 12.2 up
Second test: 129 megs down, 12.0 up
Third test: 144 megs down, 11.3 up
I don't feel like switching the sim back to my Note9, so no 4G tests to compare to.
Display
Yes, bigger display is NICE! BUT, the colors do not even come close to my Note9. Using the same custom wallpaper on the new phone, it seems warmer, with more orangish red tints. The blacks aren't as black on most screens, and whites aren't as white. I messed around with the vivid mode in display settings, moved the white balance to all settings, but barely makes a difference. I also tried FHD and WQHD resolutions. Seems like no matter what I try, the colors look washed out, and not crisp like they do on the Note9.
Sound
I use my phone as my primary music player everywhere I go. Bluetooth to my car, motorcycle, home speakers, headphones. So far, I've only tested it on the motorcycle, and home speaker, Doesn't seem like it's quite as loud as the Note9, but not too much of a noticeable difference. Will need to play around with it more.
On board sound, notifications, alarms, ringtones, very loud and crisp, that's good.
Battery
I kept it on the charger yesterday when setting it up, and went home with 95% charge. Went to bed with 75%. Right now, I've been off the charger for an hour and a half and am down to 92% Screen on time: 52 minutes. So no real good tests or evaluations yet.
These are just my first impressions, haven't even had it 24 hours yet, but as mentioned, I'm a little let down with it. I mentioned before in another post that the 10 is the only Note I haven't had since the 3, so I guess I was expecting more out of this phone after not upgrading in 2 years this time.
Will see how things go during the weekend and next week before I make any final decisions to keep, or revert back to the 9. I'm still pretty happy with my 9. The only thing wrong with it is the USB port. doesn't seem to want to hold a steady connection to any plugs, and I do only use OEM plugs. But that's not really an issue for me as I rarely have a need to plug it into anything.