Rumored specs for Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G include unannounced Snapdragon chip

Twitter Tipster Ice Universe (@Universeice) has disseminated a tweet that reveals some rumored specs for the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. He told us that the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra will look exactly like the Galaxy Note 10+, so we already have a good idea of what to expect looks-wise. The phone, according to the reliable tipster, will be powered by the Snapdragon 865+ Mobile Platform. We should point out that what would be an enhanced version of the current Snapdragon 865 chipset has yet to be announced by Qualcomm; that doesn’t mean that it won’t be by the time the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is ready to be introduced.

Tipster sees the yet-to-be-announced Snapdragon 865 Plus powering the U.S. Galaxy Note 20 Ultra

Last year’s Snapdragon 855+ improved mobile gameplay by delivering 15% faster graphics rendering and what Qualcomm called “an uplift in CPU performance over the standard Snapdragon 855.” We’d expect that any “+” version of the Snapdragon 865 would feature similar improvements. Outside of the states, the phone could be powered by the Exynos 992. This chip would be churned out by Sammy’s own foundry using the 6nm process. That would be a process node somewhere between the current 7nm used on the Snapdragon 865 (with a transistor density of approximately 96.5 million transistors per square mm) and the 5nm process that will be used on the Apple A14 Bionic and the HiSilicon Kirin 1020, At 5nm, the latter two chips will carry 171.3 million transistors per square mm. The larger number of transistors packed inside an integrated circuit, the more powerful and energy-efficient it is.

While last year’s Galaxy Note 10 series had a standard 60Hz refresh rate, Ice Universe expects the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra to refresh at 120Hz even with the screen’s resolution set to QHD+ (1440p). That means that the screen can update 120 times each second which leads to improved mobile game animation and buttery smooth scrolling. There is no such thing as a free lunch which means that there is a trade-off for having a faster refresh rate and that would be a quicker battery drain. However, the use of LTPO could help extend the battery life of the new Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. Low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPO) was originally developed by Apple and the technology supports dynamic changes to a display’s refresh rate allowing it to change depending on the content appearing on the screen. Being able to change the refresh rate, which Apple is also reportedly doing with the 120Hz ProMotion display on the iPhone 12 Pro models, will help dial back the refresh rate for content that won’t benefit from it thus saving some battery life.

Ice Universe also says that the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra will feature a new camera function that he didn’t elaborate on, and an updated S Pen with new features. It all sounds exciting to be sure and we should see the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and the Galaxy Note 20 unveiled on August 5th during an online event. The remaining rumored specs for the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra include a curved 6.9-inch Super AMOLED screen with a 20:9 aspect ratio. 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM will be inside along with 128GB of storage although a configuration with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage is expected. The Galaxy Note 20 should carry a 6.42-inch flat Super AMOLED display with a standard 60Hz refresh rate.

Pick up the Samsung Galaxy S20 starting at $499.99

5G connectivity and a 120Hz refresh rate create a terrible drain on a battery. It would have been ideal for the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra to sport a 5000mAh battery, but the S Pen’s housing might force Samsung to use a 4500mAh battery instead.

As we get closer to the rumored unveiling of the Galaxy Note 20 line, we should be able to nail down some of the specs. Keep checking in for the latest.