Samsung Galaxy Note 20 vs Apple iPhone 12 Pro

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Samsung Galaxy Note 20 vs Apple iPhone 12 Pro

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.7-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 20 (with Exynos 990) that was released on August 5, 2020, against the Apple iPhone 12 Pro, which is powered by Apple A14 Bionic and came out 2 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy Note 20
  • Comes with 1485 mAh larger battery capacity: 4300 vs 2815 mAh
  • Has a 0.6 inch larger screen size
  • Modern USB Type-C port
  • The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5 2400 MHz
  • Has 33% more RAM: 8GB versus 6GB
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • Reverse charging feature
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 12 Pro
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • Delivers 30% higher peak brightness (810 against 622 nits)
  • Apple releases software updates and supports their phones a few years longer than Samsung
  • 17% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (838K versus 718K)
  • 17% higher pixel density (460 vs 393 PPI)
  • More energy-efficient CPU – Apple A14 Bionic
  • 69% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 1953 and 1155 points

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Apple iPhone 12 Pro crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk ( * ) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation

Value for money

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Super AMOLED OLED
Size 6.7 inches 6.1 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2400 pixels 1170 x 2532 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 19.5:9
PPI 393 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 60 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No No
Max rated brightness 600 nits 800 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Glass 5 Ceramic Shield
Screen-to-body ratio 89.2% 86%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 99.9% 99.6%
PWM 250 Hz 277 Hz
Response time 6.4 ms 3.6 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
810 nits

Design and build

Height 161.6 mm (6.36 inches) 146.7 mm (5.78 inches)
Width 75.2 mm (2.96 inches) 71.5 mm (2.81 inches)
Thickness 8.3 mm (0.33 inches) 7.4 mm (0.29 inches)
Weight 192 g (6.77 oz) 189 g (6.67 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Plastic Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Green, Brown Silver, Gold, Gray, Blue
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Tests of Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Apple iPhone 12 Pro in the benchmarks
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 990 Apple A14 Bionic
Max clock 2730 MHz 3100 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 2 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 2 cores at 2.5 GHz: Cortex-A76
- 2 cores at 2.73 GHz: Exynos M5
- 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Icestorm
- 2 cores at 3.1 GHz: Firestorm
L3 cache 2 MB -
Lithography process 7 nanometers 5 nanometers
Graphics Mali-G77 MP11 Apple A14 GPU
GPU shading units 704 256
GPU clock 550 MHz 1278 MHz
FLOPS ~1126 GFLOPS ~654.3 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
AnTuTu Benchmark 10
CPU 214069 235725
GPU 202411 264025
Memory 134994 152158
UX 164236 182343
Total score 718109 838760
3DMark Wild Life Performance
Max surface temperature 38.6 °C 38.1 °C
Stability 88% 76%
Graphics test 25 FPS 44 FPS
Graphics score 4317 7430
Web score 7804 -
Video editing 5716 -
Photo editing 29885 -
Data manipulation 7954 -
Writing score 11968 -

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 6 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR4X
Memory clock 2400 MHz -
Channels 2 2
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 128, 256, 512 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 10 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) iOS 14.1 (Can be upgraded to iOS 17)
ROM One UI 5.0 -
OS size 35 GB 14 GB

Battery

Capacity 4300 mAh 2815 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 18 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (7.5 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Fast charging Yes (50% in 30 min) Yes (59% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:05 hr 1:30 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing - 09:54 hr
Watching video - 12:40 hr
Gaming - 05:29 hr
Standby - 104 hr
General battery life

Camera

Specs and camera test of smartphones
Main camera
Matrix 12 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 4032 x 3024
Zoom Optical, 3x Optical, 2x
Flash Dual LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 24FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 240FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 120°
Lenses 3 (12 MP + 64 MP + 12 MP) 4 (12 MP + 12 MP + 12 MP)
Wide (main) lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 1.8 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.76", Sony IMX555 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/1.6
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/3.4", Sony IMX372 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
Telephoto lens - 64 MP
- Aperture: f/2.0
- Focal length: 27 mm
- Pixel size: 0.8 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.72", Samsung Bright S5KGW2 (ISOCELL Plus CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.0
- Focal length: 52 mm
- Pixel size: 1 micron
- Sensor: 1/3.4" (CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
Ultra-wide lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.55", Samsung S5K2LA (ISOCELL CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.4
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Sensor: 1/3.6" (CMOS)
Depth lens - Yes
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy Note 20 from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone 12 Pro from DxOMark
Selfie camera
Megapixels 10 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 3872 x 2592 4290 x 2800
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm 23 mm
Pixel size 1.22 microns -
Sensor type CMOS Exmor-RS CMOS
Sensor size 1/3.2" -
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS

DxOMark camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic camera score

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5 5
Bluetooth features LE, A2DP LE, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C No
USB version 3.2 -
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, NAVIC GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS
NFC * Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM * 2 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support * Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat * 20 18
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced August 2020 October 2020
Release date August 2020 October 2020
SAR (head) 0.359 W/kg 0.99 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.366 W/kg 0.99 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
* Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

If the display, camera, performance, gaming, software, and design are more important to you, then choose the Apple iPhone 12 Pro . But if the battery life and connectivity are more of a priority – go for the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 .

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