Google Pixel 5 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra: Which Is Better?

Introduction

While Samsung's Galaxy Note 20 Ultra hit stores in August 2020, Google's Pixel 5 went on sale in October 2020.

In this article, we see how the Pixel 5 and the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra compare to each other to help you decide and see which one of these is the right one for you.

For additional information regarding our smartphone comparisons, check this FAQ.

 Click here  to check who their rivals are.

Price*			vs.
Device	Pixel 5	Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
Release Date	2020, October	2020, August	0y.
OS Updates	3 years	3 years	0y.
Security Updates	3 years	4 years	1y.

*Reference: 100: Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Which One Has The Best Performance?

As for performance, Geekbench 5 scores the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 55% ahead of its competitor in the multi-core ranking. This should be noticeable when opening apps or games.  ? 

Unfortunately, both smartphones are underperforming against similarly priced phones.

By the way, you can define the Pixel 5 as mid-range and the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra as a lower high-end.

PS: The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ (with the Adreno 650 GPU) and the Exynos 990 (with the Mali-G77) are market-dependent.

There's a considerable performance increase of about 20% on the 865+ for the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

Performance*			vs.
Features	Pixel 5	Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
SoC	Snapdragon 765	Exynos 990
Graphics	Adreno 620	Mali-G77 MP11
Geekbench 5 Score	1647	2561	914
OS	Android 11	Android 10 and OneUI
Tek-Score	4.7	6.1	1.5

*Reference: 100: Apple iPhone 13.

Which Phone Has The Best Display?

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has a better display, and you'd be able to tell the difference.

Are you looking for small screens? Then, the Pixel 5 is the one. Other similarly priced smartphones just aren't that short.

Given the Pixel 5, just know that 83% of its rivals can play HDR content, 96% have an AMOLED screen, and 88% have an Always-On display.

For the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, as a reference, 96% of its rivals can play HDR content. Plus, all have an AMOLED screen, 83% offer you more than 60hz of refresh rate, and 78% have an Always-On display.

Display Density (DPIs)*			vs.
Features	Pixel 5	Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
Size	6.0	6.9	0.9
Screen Type	AMOLED	AMOLED
Resolution (px)	1080x2340	1440x3088	1919520
Refresh Rate	90hz	120hz	30
Dots per Inch	429.53	493.80	64.27
Always-On-Display	Yes	Yes
Notch	Hole	Hole
Peak Brightness	699 nits	1024 nits	325
HDR	HDR10+	HDR10+
Sub Tek-Score	8.7	9.8	1.0
Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 6	Corning Gorilla Glass Victus
Tek-Score	7.9	9.9	2.0

*Reference: 100: Sony Xperia 1 II.

Which Phone Has The Best Cameras?

You should note that the Pixel 5 is in the neighborhood of 85% above other competitors in its class. That's why I'd willingly pick this over the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

About the Pixel 5: DXOMARK tested this camera and gave it a score of 129. If you add its wide-angle lens, it'll get 138 points. For a thorough review, click here.

To put things in perspective: keep in mind that all of its rivals can record videos in 4K or more and have an ultra-wide-angle lens, and 88% feature Optical Image Stabilization. Yet, only 17% of them feature a macro lens.

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is also known for its impressive 50x hybrid Space Zoom. In theory, that's a step down from the S20 Ultra 100x, but since it's an "AI-powered" zoom, it shouldn't matter much.

About the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra: The guys over at the DXOMARK labs scored this camera with 122 points. And by adding the telephoto and wide-angle lenses, we end up with a score of 136 points. If you want to know more about it, check it here.

Winding it up, just so you know, all of its rivals can record videos in 4 or 8K, have an ultra-wide-angle lens, and feature Optical Image Stabilization, and 87% feature a telephoto lens. Moreover, only 4% of them feature a macro lens.

One can place these two as high-end.

Picture Quality*			vs.
Primary Camera	Pixel 5	Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
Megapixels	12	108	96
Aperture	1.7	1.8	0.1
Lens	27mm	26mm	-1
Lens Type	Wide-Angle	Wide-Angle
Flash	1	1	0
HDR	Yes	Yes
OIS	Yes	Yes
Video	2160	4320	2160
Score	138	136	-2

*Reference: 100: Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra.

Extra Camera(s)	Pixel 5	Galaxy Note 20 Ultra	vs.
Megapixels	16	12	-4
Aperture	2.2	3.0	0.8
Lens	17mm	120mm (5x zoom)	103
Lens Type	Wide-Angle	Telephoto lens
Megapixels	-	12
Aperture	-	2.2
Lens	-	13mm
Lens Type	-	Ultra-wide-Angle
Score	9	14	5

Selfie Camera	Pixel 5	Galaxy Note 20 Ultra	vs.
Megapixels	8	10	2
Aperture	2.0	2.2	0.2
Lens	24mm	26mm	2

	Pixel 5	Galaxy Note 20 Ultra	vs.
Tek-Score	8.1	8.0	-0.1

Who has the best frame?

The Pixel 5 does have an advantage here, thanks to its weight.

The Pixel 5 weighs 151 g. (5.33 oz), while the other is 57 g. (2.25 oz) heavier. If you're looking for a lightweight device, I've created an adapted score for a "weight to display size" ratio. The Pixel 5 got 8.4, meaning it's one of the lightest phones for its display size. In the meantime, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has 4.4, so nothing to state here.  ? 

The Pixel 5 is resistant to water up to 1 to 3 meters, and the same goes for the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. It should be for less than 30 minutes, and it's in standby mode only. So don't take photos underwater.

Looks*			vs.
Body	Pixel 5	Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
Size	144 x 70 x 8 mm (5.08 x 2.47 x 0.28 in)	164 x 77 x 8 mm (5.78 x 2.72 x 0.28 in)	20384
Weight	151 g. (5.33 oz)	208 g. (7.34 oz)	57
Build	Front glass and aluminum back	Front and back glass
Colors	Just Black and Sorta Sage	Mystic Bronze, Mystic White, and Mystic Black
Screen To Body Ratio	87.67%	93.17%	5.50
Disp.Size To Weight Score	8.4	4.4	-4.0
Looks	9.1/10	9.1/10	0.0
Waterproof	IP68	IP68
Biometrics	Fingerprint	Under Display Fingerprint
Tek-Score	9.1	6.8	-2.3

*100% = 4+ colors + front and back glass + S2BR: 86+%.

Which has the best battery?

The Pixel 5 does have a battery capacity of 4080 mAh versus the 4500 mAh of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. But by GSMArena's standards, you shouldn't expect any real contrast here.

Battery life on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra isn't anything to write home about. Samsung didn't try that hard here, judging by other similarly sized devices. It got a rate of 2.1 for the "battery to device size" ratio.  ? 

The Snapdragon 865+ variant also has better battery efficiency, about 7% of additional screen-on-time.

Battery*			vs.
Features	Pixel 5	Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
Capacity (mAh)	4080	4500	420
1h Talk + 1h Web + 1h Video	82% left	83% left	1
1h Talk + 3h Web + 1h Video	66% left	69% left	3
1h Talk + 1h Web + 3h Video	69% left	72% left	3
Bat. To Phone Size Score  ?	7.1	2.1	-5.0
Sub Tek-Score	7.2	7.5	0.2
Fast Charging	18w	25w	7
Wireless Charging	12w	15w	3
Reverse Charging	5w	4.5w	-0.5
Tek-Score	6.9	7.2	0.3

*Reference: 90: Samsung Galaxy A42.

Which has more storage?

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, for sure.

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra offers 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM. Also, you'll get less RAM and less storage by picking any rival at that price range. 9Gb for RAM and 167Gb for storage, on average.

Storage*			vs.
Features	Pixel 5	Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
RAM (GB)	8GB	12GB	4
Internal (GB)	128GB	256GB	128
Micro SD	No	microSDXC (shared SIM slot)
Tek-Score	6.0	10.0	4.0

*Internal Storage + 256GB Memory Card (Max: 512GB).

Which is the most connectivity-friendly?

They don't stand out on any of these features.

There isn't much to say about the 3.5mm headphone jack, except that it simply isn't here. Just skip adapters and get a decent pair of wireless earbuds. Luckily, you can still get it on other phones if you're not really leaning towards any of these. The Oppo Find X3 Lite can give you a headphone jack.

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra runs on LTE or (LTE and) 5G networks.

Connectivity			vs.
Features	Pixel 5	Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
Network	5G	5G (also available in LTE)
Bluetooth	5.0	5.0
NFC	Yes	Yes
3.5mm jack	No	No
Tek-Score	4.6	4.6	0.0

Which is more affordable?

Here are the prices that we've come across recently:

Reference: $682

Check now

$520.00

Check now

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Google Pixel 5

Reference: $995

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$1,585.83

$1,199.99

Check now

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra

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Prices on eBay are in $US but Europe-based. You can click to check the prices in your country.

Prices marked with ! are from renewed/refurbished/carrier-locked phones (except eBay prices that, as a last resort, can be from bids or used devices).

How much of a "phone" can your money buy?
That's how much "score" you can get with $100 based on the global score that you'll see in the next section (higher is better).

Have you found better prices elsewhere? The formula is simple: score/price*100.

Also, don't forget to check the latest deals from these four stores, and the state of the art on mobile technology, if you don't want to overpay on your next smartphone.

Related articles:

Best smartphone deals

The Best Unbiased Smartphones For All Budgets

Smartphone Specs Statistics: The State Of The Art (Q1 2021)

Are you ready for that final score? We're almost there. For reference purposes, I'll tell you where most of its rivals average. They're in the ballpark of 6.7 for the Pixel 5 and 7.5 for the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

Verdict: What Makes the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Stand Out?

By now, you should've realized that the Pixel 5 isn't for you. Unless, of course, you can't get a Note 20 Ultra. A Pixel device can indeed give you a cleaner user experience in a lightweight body and perhaps an extra year of software updates but check out what you'll lose by skipping its rival.

You won't get a premium flagship performance, its display won't be as great on direct sunlight, nor will it have up to 120hz of refresh rates, and you'll also be ignoring a fantastic telephoto lens. The Note 20 Ultra can also give you double the internal storage, 12 GB of RAM, and the ability to insert a MicroSD card.

Pros	Pixel 5	Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
#1	AMOLED	Performance
#2	Always-On-Display	AMOLED
#3	Cameras	Always-On-Display
#4	Fast Charging	Cameras
#5	Wireless Charging	Battery Life
#6	Glass Protection	Fast Charging
#7		Wireless Charging
#8		MicroSD Slot
#9		Storage
#10		Glass Protection

Cons	Pixel 5	Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
#1	MicroSD Slot	Weight
#2	3.5mm Jack	3.5mm Jack
#3	Price	Price

Relative Score*			vs.
Global Score	Pixel 5	Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
Gaming Score	6.6	8.3	1.7
Tek-Score	6.77	8.05	1.28
Your Score

*Reference: 100: Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

Scroll the sliders down below to get your own personalized score. Let's suppose you value performance and battery life, and you don't really care about anything else. Then, just set the "Performance" and the "Battery" sliders up to 5 (5+5=10), and then the other sliders down to 0. You'll know what's the best phone for you.

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