Does the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Camera Perform better than the Note 10 Camera?

Samsung announces the Galaxy Note 20 series to unpack on 5^th August, with a Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra reveal. How does the standard Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Camera perform better than the Note 10 Camera, though?

If you are wondering about not spending over a grand on a new phone, then the Samsung Note 20 is good news for you. The Galaxy Note 20 only costs $999 and is $50 more expensive than last year’s Galaxy Note 10. So, it is worth comparing the Note models of two different generations to identify what has changed in the last year.

We have listed the specification of the Galaxy Note 20 against the Galaxy Note 10 to help you decide which one should you buy, or upgrade to. Continue reading to identify the newest iteration of one of the best smartphones.

Galaxy Note 20 vs Galaxy Note 10: Design and display.

Design

• Galaxy Note 10 has 151 x 71.8 x 7.9mm dimensions and weighs only 168g.
• Galaxy Note 20 has 161.6 x 75.2 x 8.3mm dimensions and weighs 192g.

The Galaxy Note 10 features a curved display mounted on a metal frame with a glass rear. Galaxy Note 10 is available in a few different colors and has an IP68 rating against water and dust resistance.

The built-in S-Pen sits at the bottom of the device, whereas the triple camera lens sensor mounts on the rear in the top left corner and an in-center punch-hole front camera is at the top of the Galaxy Note 10 display.

The Galaxy Note 20 features a similar design, where glass rear back and metal frame are key materials. It has a similar IP68 rating for water and dust resistance. The Galaxy Note 20 is a little larger than the Note 10 and slightly thicker.

The S Pen remains in the same bottom left position. The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Camera is a triple sensor system with a more pronounced design than the Note 10. The S-Pen has remarkable improvements, with a 40% increase in latency, it no longer remains a writing tool.

The Galaxy Note 20 Front-Facing camera follows a similar punch-hole design as the Note 10, which gives both devices an identical look from the front.

Display

• Galaxy Note 10 screen is of 6.3 inches, with 2280 x 1080 resolution at 401 pixels-per-inch, and a 60Hz refresh rate.
• Galaxy Note 20 screen is of 6.7-inches, with 2400 x 1080 resolution at 393 pixels-per-inch, and a similar 60Hz refresh rate.

The Galaxy Note 10 features a 6.3-inch display with a 2280 x 1080 – pixel resolution that offers a pixel density of 401ppi. The screen edges curve into the metal frame and is HDR 10+ certified.

The Galaxy Note 20 features a 6.7-inch display which is quite big in size compared to the Galaxy Note 10. The resolution of the screen is also slightly increased to 2400 x 1080 pixels, delivering a pixel density of 393ppi with the standard 60Hz refresh rate like the Note 10.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 offers a flat display rather than a curved display on Note 10.

Cameras

Galaxy Note 10 camera Key specifications:

• Dual Camera
• 12 MP, f/1.5-2.4, 26mm (wide), 1/2.55", 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS 12 MP, f/2.4, 52mm (telephoto), 1/3.4", 1.0µm, AF, OIS, 2x optical zoom
• LED flash, auto-HDR, panorama
• 2160p@60fps (no OIS/EIS), 2160p@30fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps, 720p@960fps, HDR, dual-video rec., stereo sound rec., gyro-EIS & OIS
• Dual Selfie Camera: 8 MP, f/1.7, 25mm (wide), 1/3.6", 1.22µm, AF 2 MP
• Dedicated iris scanner camera

Galaxy Note 10’s camera is using the same combination of a 16MP ultra-wide lens, a 12MP regular lens, and a 12MP telephoto lens. This combination delivers a mixture of fantastic photography, and the camera performs well in its default or auto settings. This is not the best camera for this era, but the camera gives tough competition to current mid-range Android smartphones.

The Note 10’s camera is more subtle and pronounced for its video recording capabilities. More enhanced image stabilization technology is used, and the Live Focus feature enables to capture blur backgrounds, which kind of Portrait-mode. Many effects that we usually encounter for stills are featured in Note 10’s camera.

Another feature introduced with the Note 10 Camera is called AR Doodle. This feature allows you to write on moving images. This is like the filters we see on Instagram and other social applications with AI tech. With the Note 10’s AR Doodle, you can create images of your own using the S-Pen.

The front camera on Note 10 is a 10MP sensor. It works well for selfies and is satisfactory.

Galaxy Note 20 camera Key specifications:

• Triple camera
• Standard-wide: 12 MP 1/1.76″ sensor with 1.8µm pixels and 26 mm-equivalent f/1.8-aperture PDAF OIS lens
• Ultra-wide: 12MP 1/2.55″ sensor with 1.4µm pixels and 13 mm-equivalent f/2.2-aperture lens
• Telephoto: 64MP 1/1.72″ sensor with 0.8µm pixels and 27 mm-equivalent f/2.0-aperture PDAF OIS lens
• Dual pixel PDAF and OIS
• LED flash
• Up to 8K/24 fps video (tested at 4K/30fps)

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Camera system has three rear cameras and one front-facing camera. Both hardware and software combine to produce better image quality, like what you get to see with the Galaxy S20.

The Note 20 Main camera has a 12-megapixel Samsung s2k2ld sensor which an f/1.8 aperture lens. The 1/1.76-inch large sensor chip allows large 1.8-micron pixels. It’s a powerful sensor compared to the Galaxy Note 10.

The Galaxy Note 20 ultra-wide camera is great too for indoor and outdoor shoots with slight noise but switching to the Night mode kills most of that granularity. Which again makes the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Camera perform better.

One weak point is the Galaxy Note 20’s zoom camera, which does not have true optical zoom. Instead, it uses a standard 64-megapixel sensor with a slightly longer focal length than the main camera.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 zoom camera claims to provide 3x hybrid zoom, which is a tiny amount of optical zoom. This is not true optical zoom, but still, the zoom camera is doing the same job. 3x detail shots from the zoom camera are far better than the main camera.

The 3x zoom on Note 20 allows the same flexibility as the S20 ultra and Note 20 Ultra, but not available on Note 10.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Camera offers an excellent high-dynamic range, boosting all three cameras to make brighter images. Well, images can be made brighter later using filters, but the details are blown out. So, the Note 20 allows you to take brighter images with more sharp details.  

The camera however is poor for macro images, so none of the three cameras lets you get close, and the depth of field on the main camera. But captures nicely blurred backgrounds which are fair enough.

The Night mode is far better than the Galaxy Note 10. The Night mode on the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Camera is just a half step behind the Note 20 Ultra. The night mode is already good at low-light photography.

Overall talking the Galaxy Note 20 Camera performs better than the Galaxy Note 10, by not just lifting details out of the shadows, but by firming every single detail and merging multiple exposures across the frame.

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Camera brings some worthwhile improvements compared to the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 camera.