Friday, October 1, 2021

Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G Long Term Review


Back in August 2020, Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G along with Note 20 in India at Rs. 1,04,999. The Note 20 Ultra has garnered positive reviews across the world from critics, and users alike.

In fact, the Note 20 Ultra has been the “Best overall phone of 2020” choice for many reviewers including our team at FoneArena. In a span of six to seven months, several smartphones has been launched from various companies with new technologies. The South Korean tech giant launched the S21 series recently in three variants- S21, S21+ and S21 Ultra.

So we wanted to see how the Rs. 1,00,000 smartphone from the Samsung’s portfolio holding up in today’s scenario. Let’s find it out.

STILL the best display

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra features a huge 6.9-inch Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED Infinity-O Display with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection. At 6.9-inch, the Note 20 Ultra is the biggest Note to date. The resolution is 3088 × 1440 pixels, and pixel density is 496ppi.

The display offers a dynamic 120Hz refresh rate, meaning the Note 20 Ultra automatically adjusts the refresh rate based on the content on the screen. This comes in handy when you want to experience the high refresh rate and save battery whenever possible.

According to Samsung’s claims, the panel can be adjusted in more than three steps – 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz. The used refresh rate is 10Hz rate for viewing still images or browsing social networking services, 30Hz rate for email correspondence, 60Hz rate for movie streaming, and 120Hz scan rate for playing mobile games that require speedy frame changes.

The company achieved this with the help of a new LTPO backplane technology for higher switching performance and lower consumption as well. However, in the case of the Samsung S20 Ultra, it is fixed at 120Hz, no matter the content on the screen.

Even though the technology looks interesting, there are certain limitations, as the dynamic refresh rate works only on the FHD+ resolution. The 1440p resolution locks the refresh rate at 60Hz. This has been resolved in the S21 Ultra though. The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra supports HDR10+ and offers up to 1500 nits brightness.

In this display, you get all you need – resolution, a lot of brightness, amazing color reproductions, deep blacks, and subtle pressure detection for the S-Pen. The display is bright and is easy to read under direct sunlight. If you are the one who emphasises a lot on display, the Note 20 Ultra will certainly make you happy.

Even after 6 to 7 months, using varieties of phones, we are still in love with the Note 20 Ultra display.

Best S-Pen experience so far in Note series

Compared to the Note 10 series, the S-Pen experience has significantly gotten better. Thanks to the improved 9ms latency vs Note 10’s 42ms, making the delay visually indistinguishable. It now offers more natural and fluid writing, giving a pen-to-paper feel.

It also has air gestures that let you perform a task while holding the button. In our case, the air gesture detection worked well, but the consistency remains a concern. On top of that, S-Pen offers five new customisable Anywhere actions, that expand on the capabilities offered by Air Actions.

The new remote controls let you customise new actions for Back, Home, Recent App, Smart Select, and Screen Write, and make navigating and presenting easier. The S-Pen has its tiny Lithium Titanate battery and uses Bluetooth for remote control functions, in case of photography and control videos. It is IP68 certified. Other basic features including Advanced screenshot capture, Smart select, Screen write, and others work well.

Improved overall performance

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is powered by Octa-Core Samsung Exynos 990 7nm EUV processor with ARM Mali-G77MP11 GPU. Right from the launch to this day, we didn’t find any major problems with the performance, except for the thermal issues.

Gradually, the thermal issues have been mitigated through updates and software optimisations. In fact, it is well under control now. We realised this while shooting the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review with the Note 20 Ultra. During the initial days, the camera used to get hot (literally hot) if we shoot for a good 4 to 5 minutes. However, during our review, we shot more than 25 minutes straight, and the phone just felt warm even under hot conditions. When we tried to shoot the Note 20 Ultra review with the S21 Ultra, the device (S21 Ultra) got all heated up and closed the camera app.

We have been using the Note 20 Ultra for around 7 months now under various scenarios and conditions – light and heavy usage, hot and cold conditions. The phone holds up very well and works just as well as the Galaxy S21 Ultra or the other current flagships with Snapdragon 888. Of course, the Snapdragon 888 or Exynos 2100 is superior to the SD 865 or Exynos 990 and you would only feel it through stress test or graphics-intensive gaming.

Overall, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is a champion performer six months back and now.

One UI 3.1

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra was shipped with OneUI 2.5 on top of Android 10. Around December last, year, we have updated the device to OneUI 3.0 on top of Android 11. In our opinion, the overall look and feel of the UI remain quite similar.

Some of the changes we noticed are the revamped look of the volume control slider, fast access to widgets, notification tweaks (smaller and simpler), and Samsung daily. Furthermore, the company also focused a lot on the notification shade in One UI 3.0. Overall, the OneUI is now refined and sleek.

Enhanced camera capabilities

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra comes with a triple camera setup: 

  • 108MP rear camera with f/1.8 aperture, PDAF, OIS, Laser AF Sensor
  • 12MP Periscope lens with f/3.0 aperture, PDAF, OIS, 5X optical zoom, Super-Resolution Zoom up to 50X, 
  • 12MP 120° Ultra Wide sensor with f/2.2 aperture
  • 10MP front-facing camera with f/2.2 aperture

You can check out camera reviews and more samples here.

In a nutshell, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra’s camera takes some amazing pictures even now and tops the videography department. However, if you are into macro, it’s better to go with the Galaxy S21 Ultra. 

Battery life still rocks

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is powered by a 4500mAh battery with 45W fast charging, wireless (WPC and PMA) charging.

The battery life in the Note 20 Ultra is still impressive. With the Adaptive refresh rate, we got around a day and a half with frequent use of YouTube Streaming, S-Pen, and other AR apps. Changing it to 60Hz can prolong the usage.

Also, we have background usage limits option that put unused apps to sleep and power saving mode. Charging is pretty quick, thanks to the 25W charger. The device get fully charged up in less than one and half hours.

Is it still worth buying?

Is the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra still a worthy buy? Well, if you are looking out for smartphone with stylus, we can assure you that no other phones in the market can match Samsung when it comes to stylus functionality. Leaving out the “productivity” factor, recommending the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra gets a bit tricky now.

At Rs. 1,04,999, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is now a generation behind compared to the recently launched Galaxy S21 Ultra, which is a thousand bucks higher at Rs. 1,05,999.

For a thousand bucks extra, you get improved camera tech, latest Exynos processor, equivalent to Snapdragon 888, faster fingerprint scanner, and extra 500mAh battery. It’s worth noting that the S21 Ultra also has S-Pen support but with some limitations.

On the other side, the Galaxy Note 10+ retails at half the price at Rs. 54,999 during Flipkart sales and offers a similar overall experience, if you don’t consider refresh rate or the S-Pen latency issue.

Well, it doesn’t mean the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is not worth recommending, but considering the price to feature factor, the latest Note stands in an awkward situation

Misamma Full movie


Nenu mi kalyna. | Season 1 Episode 1

 


Sri Mahalakshmi Stotram | శ్రీ మహాలక్ష్మీ స్తోత్రం

 


Thursday, September 30, 2021

Tata Nexon Review in telugu


 

Apple iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro Unboxing and First Impressions

 


Apple introduced its iPhone 13 series and iPhone 13 Pro series smartphones earlier this month. We got hold of the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 13 Pro. Both these feature a 6.1-inch OLED Super Retina XDR display with a smaller notch, A15 Bionic 5nm Chip, upgraded cameras and a bigger battery. Here we have the unboxing and first impressions of the phones.

Box Contents

We got the Pink version of the iPhone 13 and the Sierra Blue version of the iPhone 13 Pro which are the new colour variants, both with 512GB storage. Box contents include a  USB Type-C to Lightning cable, SIM ejector tool, Apple sticker and documents in the box.

Even though both the phones feature a similar 6.1-inch (2532×1170 pixels) OLED 460ppi Super Retina XDR display, the iPhone 13’s screen is 28% brighter outdoors at 800 nits, and it offers up to 1200 nits brightness when viewing HDR content.

The phone 13 Pro’s screen is 25% brighter outdoors with maximum brightness of up to 1000 nits, and it offers up to 1200 nits brightness when viewing HDR content. It is also the first iPhone to come with ProMotion, supporting an adaptive refresh rate from 10Hz to 120Hz that varies depending on the content. Both these feature Ceramic Shield protection.

These feature a smaller notch since Apple has merged the flood illuminator and dot projector of the FaceID system into one component, and by moving the earpiece cutout up to the edge. Both the phones feature a 12MP TrueDepth front camera with f/2.2 aperture.

There are no change in button placements compared to the predecesors. As you can see, the iPhone 13 has an aluminum frame that offer a matte finish, but the surgical-grade stainless steel frame on the iPhone 13 Pro has a glossy finish and attracts fingerprints easily. These feature IP68 water resistance (6 meters for up to 30 minutes) ratings.

Even though both the models are powered by new A15 Bionic 5nm Chip with new 6-core CPU with two high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores and a new 16-core Neural Engine. The iPhone 13 has a 4-core GPU and the iPhone 13 Pro comes with 5-core GPU. These run iOS 15 out of the box that bring several new features including focus mode, live text, on-device Siri, Facetime Spatial audio and more.

The iPhone 13 has an improved 12MP (f/2.2) main camera with 1.7 µm pixels, and the company says that it is the biggest sensor ever in an iPhone dual-camera system. The Sensor-shift OIS — a technology introduced in iPhone 12 Pro Max is now available in the main camera for both iPhone 13 and the entry-level iPhone 13 mini. There is a 12MP 120° ultra-wide (f/2.4) secondary camera.

Check out the camera samples from the iPhone 13.

The iPhone 13 Pro has an all-new wide camera with a larger sensor with 1.9 µm pixels, the largest ever on iPhone and has ƒ/1.5 aperture for better low-light imaging. It also has the Sensor-shift optical image stabilisation (OIS). There is a new Ultra Wide camera with a much wider ƒ/1.8 aperture and has a new autofocus system, so it offers macrophotography with a minimum focus distance of 2cm. It can also shoot Macro videos, including Slo-mo and Time-lapse. The iPhone 13 Pro also has a new 77 mm Telephoto camera, offering 3x optical zoom.

Both the phones feature Cinematic mode with depth effect with automatic focus changes. The focus can be changed during and after capture, and you can also adjust the level of bokeh in the Photos app and iMovie for iOS, and  soon in iMovie for macOS and Final Cut Pro. The Cinematic mode records in Dolby Vision HDR. Both models also offer HDR video recording with Dolby Vision. The Pro model also has ProRes (1080p at 30 fps for 128GB storage, 4K 30 fps in other models), an advanced video codec used widely as the final delivery format for commercials, feature films, and broadcasts, to offer higher color fidelity and less compression. This feature will be rolled out in an update.

Check out the camera samples from the iPhone 13 Pro.

Even though Apple doesn’t reveal the battery capacity officially, teardown revealed that the iPhone 13 has a 3,227 mAh battery compared to 2,815 mAh in the iPhone 12, promising up to 19 hours of video playback. The iPhone 13 Pro has a 3,095 mAh battery compared to 2,815 mAh in the predecessor. Apple has managed to pack bigger batteries by using L shaped cell.

The new iPhone models are available through Authorized Apple resellers offline and online retailers like Flipkart, Amazon.in and others, in addition to Apple India online store. HDFC Bank Debit and Credit Card holders get Rs. 6,000 cashback for iPhone 13 and Rs. 5,000 cashback for iPhone 13 Pro.

Amazon Echo Show 15 with AZ2 Neural Edge processor; Astro Household robot; Halo View Fitness tracker and more announced

 


Amazon unveiled a range of new products yesterday, including a brand new Echo Show 15 that features 15.6-inch display and an AZ2 Neural Edge processor for on-device speech processing. The company also introduced the Astro Household Robot, a new Halo View health tracker, and the Amazon Glow interactive device.

The Amazon Echo Show 15 is the newest addition to the Echo family, featuring a 15.6-inch 1080p Full HD display that can be mounted on a wall or placed on a counter. It comes equipped with the next-generation custom designed Amazon AZ2 Neural Edge processor that is capable of processing speech recognition on device and can also process computer vision (CV) workloads in parallel.

The Echo Show 15 can show a household’s shared calendar, add or remove items from the shopping list, reorder favorite items, check the to-do list, and more. It supports Amazon’s visual ID feature that will allow the device to recognize the speaker’s voice and personalize the on-screen information based on them. Users can also stream movies and TV shows from Prime Video, Netflix, or Hulu, and it comes with microphone and camera controls with a built-in camera shutter.

The Amazon Astro is a new household robot that is designed for home monitoring and features built-in Alexa. It uses advanced navigation technology and can be used to remotely check on specific rooms, people, or things in a house.

It is equipped with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant that enables the ability to set up reminders, manage shopping lists, receive activity alerts, and more. It also supports customization such as adding a detachable cup holder, and it can carry items like OMRON blood pressure monitor or a Furbo Dog Camera.

The Amazon Halo is a new fitness tracker featuring an AMOLED color display, and multiple sensors such as an optical sensor, a skin temperature sensor, and an accelerometer. Some of the many features it supports including tracking sleep scores, blood oxygen levels, live workout tracking, text and move notifications, and more. It comes in three stylish sport band colors—Active Black, Sage Green, and Lavender Dream, and the battery life is rated for 7 days with normal use.

Lastly, the Amazon Glow is a new interactive device featuring a dedicated 8” display and the ability to create a 19-inch touch-sensitive, projected space. It comes included with 1-year of Amazon Kids+, that provides access to thousands of books and dozens of interactive games and art activities. It has other kid-friendly features such as Object scanning for creating custom jigsaw puzzle, and Glow Bits learning kit which is a Tangram puzzle game.

The Amazon Echo Show 15 is priced at $249.99 (Approx. Rs. 18,540), the Amazon Halo View tracker is priced at $79.99 (Approx. Rs. 5,932), the Amazon Glow is available for an introductory price of $249.99 (Approx. Rs. 18,540). The Amazon Astro on the other hand is only available through invitations for now.