I brought every galaxy note ever 📲📱

 

Transcript

welcome to the ultimate galaxy note

comparison from the original note to the

galaxy

note 20 ultra so the very first note in

2011

was a real wtf moment the packaging is

pretty standard for 2011

because i mean at this time phones were

still seen as tools as opposed to items

of luxury

just simple things inside like a micro

usb cable and of course

a removable battery after years of

palm-sized smartphones

samsung was one of the first companies

to be like you know what screw it

we think there's room for something

bigger the galaxy note was more of an

experiment than anything else

so samsung didn't invest too much in

creating new distinct features for it

it was essentially a big hd galaxy s2

with a larger battery and an s pen

but it really was big the 4.3 inch

display on the s2

became 5.3 inches and even though with

today's screen numbers that sounds like

a piddly figure because of how wide the

aspect ratios on phones used to be

it still feels quite chunky anyways the

media was torn

some people said this was exceptional

and groundbreaking other people said

you'd look like a fool when trying to

use it

but the fact of the matter is the note

sold well for a new product category

with 10 million units being shifted so

with the galaxy note 2 the next year

samsung was confident they knew it was

going to sell well so

they decided to make the note better the

box looks

basically the same to be honest the

phone first made of plastic just like

the first note

with accessories underneath the note 2

took the pebble inspired design language

of the galaxy s3 released earlier that

year but this time

as well as sizing up their s series

phone the note overclocked the chipset

from 1.4 gigahertz to 1.6 gigahertz and

they doubled the ram to 2 gigabytes

instead of one this was

quite a lot of ram also i would say that

it was with this phone

that the s pen became more than a stylus

air view allowed you to peek inside

folders

and you could now select an area and

take a screenshot of just that

something about the note 2 really

appealed to me whether it was the clean

white finish or the

feather-like wallpapers i just felt like

this was a really elegant phone

and as a result the note 2 is actually

the first note that i bought

admittedly way after launch when i could

actually afford it but

i loved it and so did a lot of people

compared to the roughly 10 million sales

of the first note

the note 2 shifted 30 million units

so it's a bit of a shame that the note 3

from 2013

didn't really do it for me this was the

same year that samsung made the galaxy

s4

and with these phones i feel like

samsung got a bit carried away with

their past sales figures

they felt like oh look everyone wants

samsung phones maybe they also want

samsung services too

so these phones were just packed with

bloatware in fact the t-mobile version

of the galaxy note 3

came pre-installed with 62 applications

think about that number that's more apps

than i think three phones put together

should have

this was also actually the first year

that samsung really started pushing

their eco-friendly agenda

hence the pretty garish fake wooden box

bloatware aside though the note 3 was

actually a really good phone

this was really samsung cementing the

note as their powerhouse phone

it was one of the first phones with 4k

video recording it had three gigs of ram

instead of two for the galaxy s4

and they'd even fully upgraded the

chipset from that phone plus

the catalog of features from this s pen

just kept growing you could already take

screenshots with it on the last phone

but

now you could scribble all over them and

the stylus became a more suitable

alternative to typing

with better handwriting recognition and

integration with the rest of the

software

now the 2014 galaxy note 4 is

a phone that i would say i almost forgot

about the note 4 stuck with a very

similar body

and 5.7 inch screen size to the note 3

and i guess just because of how

externally similar it was

this never really stuck out to me i will

say this it's way nicer packaging than

the note 3.

they've gone white and a much cleaner

white with a simpler design than their

early white boxes

to be honest i'm just glad that the fake

wood is gone i will say this though i

love the matte

chamfers around the edges of the phone

and even though it was less visually

exciting than some of the past note

phones the note 4 was probably the

biggest

jump over the s series that came before

it versus the s5 the snapdragon 801

became the snapdragon 805

16 gigabytes of base storage became 32.

gorilla glass 3 became gorilla glass 4

and

they introduced optical image

stabilization in the camera and

samsung shot straight from a 1080p

display to a quad hd one the note 4 was

very much a phone that deserved to exist

plus it was around this time that

samsung started cleaning up the way

their touchwiz skin looked

because let's be honest before this its

reputation wasn't very good

this software looks a mile better than

what we saw on the note 3.

also this is kind of wacky but alongside

the galaxy note 4 samsung also unveiled

their first ever phone with an outward

curved display this is the galaxy note

edge and i remember really wanting one

of these even if it is

kind of weird because of how that curve

is only on one side

2015 was a turning point it felt like

before this

every year the note was becoming more

and more impressive and more and more

separate from the s series before it

but the note 5 was an afterthought

packaging wise

this was the first year that samsung

started putting sleeves on their boxes

which makes sense because it's probably

easier to mass print and then transport

sleeves as opposed to the boxes

themselves

now the reason i say this phone is an

afterthought is actually not at all

because the note 5 was a bad phone

i used this as my main phone for a while

and i really liked it it's more just

that

this was the year when samsung started

doubling down on their s series

earlier in this year they released not

just a galaxy s6 but a galaxy s6 edge

and samsung gave those phones everything

all the perks that the past note phone

had the optical image stabilization the

gorilla glass 4 the higher resolution

quad hd display

samsung gave those features to its wider

reaching s series of phones

so just as a result of that the note

felt like what it did

right at the start a bigger s phone with

a pen only that this year

it wasn't even bigger in a weird turn of

events at the same event where they

launched the note 5

samsung also dropped the galaxy s6 edge

plus

which had an identical 5.7 inch screen

size only that that was kind of the more

premium phone because it had

the fancy new curved sides on the bright

side though the s pen now clicks into

place within the phone

and every samsung flagship released in

this year was made of glass

so this definitely feels more premium

than any note before it okay

2016 was the year of the galaxy note 7

and this was a very interesting phone

for a lot of reasons

for starters they jumped to number they

went straight from the note 5 to the

note 7

because for the longest time the galaxy

note series had lagged one number behind

their s series

the note 1 came out just after the s2

the note 2 came out just after the s3

etc so they finally fixed it in 2016

they had the galaxy s7 phones

and now the note 7. good decision but

actually as well as jumping in numbers

they also jumped in price if you've been

paying attention to the prices of the

last phones

they were all pretty much around 700

this thing was 850. now in order to

charge more for their phones they had to

position them as luxury items

hence the complete packaging redesign to

this all-new black theme

which they've actually stuck with since

they also started giving their earphones

in a box

because i guess that makes it feel more

special we still kind of had the same

issue as last year in that now that we

had an s7 and a bigger s7 edge

this note was still struggling to find

its place it didn't feel as

differentiated as a note

lineup once was but as a phone as a

prospect as something a customer would

consider buying

this also felt like the best bits of

samsung coming together at once

it took the edge displays of the galaxy

s7 edge and integrated them by default

they brought back micro sd cards which

would ditch the year before

and double the base storage of the s7 to

64 gigs

it's also the first note that's ip

certified against water and dust

which is actually quite tricky to do

with these phones because they have that

removable pen

oh and also this phone is where samsung

first integrated iris scanning

that didn't age well oh and of course

there was a bigger problem with the note

7.

the first five days of this phone going

on sale were glorious

it was doing great numbers the reviews

were fantastic but then all of a sudden

out of nowhere

they started exploding first one report

and to be honest when i saw that a

galaxy note 7 had exploded for the first

time

i didn't really think much of it after

all when a new phone is released people

often try to find problems with it but

then there was another

and another and another and within 12

days of the phone being on sale

every single unit sold 2.5 million

galaxy note 7s

were recalled samsung then tried to fix

them claimed they had fixed them

sent them out again only for them to

start exploding again the fallout from

this was ridiculous

it got to the stage where even airlines

had notice boards telling you not to

board the plane if you had one of these

phones

it was like a suicidal ad campaign for

samsung so

given that the note 7 was recalled you

might be wondering what this phone i

have here

is well this is the note fan edition

samsung obviously couldn't sell the

galaxy note 7 anymore but they still had

a factory full of parts

that they'd ordered for those phones so

they basically used those parts

and built a phone that is basically the

galaxy note 7 but it's rebadged as the

fe

on the subject of explosions though 2017

was the year that screen sizes

exploded and it's not that phones got

bigger in particular it's just that the

bezels got shaved dramatically

so much so that the 5.7 inch display on

the galaxy note 7

became 6.3 inches on the galaxy note 8.

this phone's box is pretty much just an

evolution of the all black theme they

introduced last year it's very premium

all accessories have their place as

opposed to just sitting loosely inside

and samsung has also leveled up the

earphones thanks to a partnership with

akg

like the last few years the note8 was

pretty similar to the plus sized s phone

just before it

same chipset similar display size both

went up to six gigs of ram but

this was the year that samsung finally

figured out the direction they wanted to

take their note phones in

the note 8 was where samsung cemented

their design language pebble-like curves

for s

writing padlight boxiness for the note

and this establishment of a new identity

was helped by the removal of the home

button

and a new space theme for their entire

galaxy range this definitely felt like a

futuristic rebrand

even in terms of marketing this is the

year when samsung finally started

framing their s phones as the fun ones

for social media and the note phones as

the professional phones for people who

mean

business and this separation makes total

sense

see in the early days of smartphones

samsung could just take one of their s

series phones add in a bunch of features

that we're missing

and be like look guys we've got a new

phone but as this smartphone market has

matured

and as pretty much all flagship phones

have become good with no

obvious missing features samsung has

realized that this isn't a sustainable

strategy

it's much harder now to add features

that create a noticeable improvement

so instead samsung's just shifted to

framing their s series and their note

series in different ways

the one thing the note 8 did have though

was two cameras this was actually the

first samsung phone ever with a dual

camera setup

one normal and one two times optical

zoom but

all that said i liked but i didn't love

this phone those dual cameras

were okay samsung shrunk the battery in

trying to be extra careful and so

endurance wasn't great

plus the fingerprint scanner was way too

higher i just couldn't get used to it

oh yeah and it was even more expensive

at 930

following on from that phone 2018

brought us the galaxy note

9 which was basically just samsung

fixing a few problems and

doubling down on their newfound

direction for the note for the packaging

pretty much the only change is that the

outer sleeve has been swapped from

showing the name of the phone

to just showing the s pen the note 9 is

on top and

apart from that it is practically

identical the note 9 was basically a

bunch of small improvements that made

the phone a lot better to use but just

not hugely exciting they brought the

fingerprint scanner further down they

whacked the battery up to a very

respectable 4 000 milliamp hours

they added bluetooth to the s pen so it

could take photos remotely and added in

a dual speaker setup

bringing samsung's audio from one of the

weaker phones to one of the stronger

phones

they also i guess to try and visually

differentiate it created this two-tone

finish

which i remember at the time describing

it a bit like when you break the door of

your car

and the replacement doesn't quite match

i stand by it but a cool touch this time

was that the writing ink would now be

the same color as the pen you got with

your phone

i used the note 9 for quite a long time

and i really liked it

2019 was a big year for the note in fact

it was the first time ever

we had not just a galaxy note 10 but a

galaxy note 10 plus

but we'll focus on the note 10 plus

because i would say this is the actual

successor to the galaxy note 9.

in terms of the box samsung's definitely

operating on a if it ain't broke

don't fix it policy it's pretty much

identical to the last few years but

that's okay

it's nice now i would argue 2019 as well

as being a big year for the note

was just generally probably the biggest

change samsung has ever made to its

phones

starting with the galaxy s10 series

earlier in the year they ditched the

space theme entirely

and went for minimalism with their new

one ui skin their phones gained these

radiant color changing finishes and

they became super lightweight

considering that their screens and

batteries had actually gotten larger

so just naturally when samsung released

the note version of this redesign

it was a big improvement from last year

the bezels all but disappeared and we

now had a phone that was both slimmer

and lighter there was yet another price

hike now to eleven hundred dollars but

this felt more worth it the note 10

phones reminded me of the elegance i

first noticed with the galaxy note 2

which i feel was somewhat lost along the

way and that

leaves us with 2020 where samsung has

just dropped the galaxy note

20 ultra and again the unboxing

experience

is kind of the same and this one i was a

little more disappointed with

because yes it is another year of the

same thing but also just the fact that

this is an ultraphone

this is the phone that samsung's biggest

fans and longest supporters are going to

buy

it would have been cool to see something

special i've already done a full review

of this phone

which i'll link somewhere up here but

for the sake of this comparison the note

20 ultra represents two things

number one the biggest price hike in the

history of the note series from eleven

hundred

to thirteen hundred dollars and if we

have a look at what that does to the

notes pricing over the years

it represents an almost alarming pricing

trend but also

two 2020 has seen samsung's biggest jump

in ambition

samsung didn't take this ultra name

lightly like how a lot of companies just

slap the word pro on the end of their

phone to make it sound cool in almost

every regard cameras display dimensions

the note 20 ultra is an extreme

phone all right so now that we've got

all of these notes as well as a camera

comparison i want to take a look at how

the s pens have evolved over the years

also it's literally taken me a year to

collect all of these phones for this

video so if you're enjoying it a sub

would be brilliant so fun fact the pen

on the first galaxy note was rounded

after which samsung quickly realized

they could eliminate rolling by making

it squarer

so the note 2's s pen were squarer and

also the chunkiest s pen they ever made

almost the size of an actual pen the

note 3s was a further refinement with a

design that was now

symmetrical so you could put it into the

phone either way up

the note 4's s pen was very similar but

with the note 5 at the same time that

samsung went all glass on their phones

the s-pen got a huge redesign

way slimmer and it now looks like metal

although actually it is still plastic

and to be honest from this point onwards

they did very little to it

they shifted the button a little further

up they eventually ditched the big

samsung logo on it but really at its

core the note 20 ultra's s pen has the

same design as the note

5s but the latency and its software

features are

miles better plus from the note 10

onwards there's almost zero friction the

s pen sort of glides in and glides out

it's also tough to describe just how

much the feel of these phones has

improved

too the note 1 can scroll through pages

fine but almost every action feels slow

and the phone just generally quite

unresponsive the note 2 took that dual

core chip

and made it a quad-core chip so that

phone is noticeably lighter

you can also see though that even though

the note 3 is more powerful than the

note 2

it just does feel a bit bogged down by

the sheer amount of software samsung's

thrown on it

and also notice how between the note 3

note 4 and note 5

the front of the phone has barely

changed but from the note 4 onwards

samsung started to understand how to

make software look clean

and the first thing they did was just to

get rid of the thick obnoxious widgets

with the note 5 they read their design

language entirely to something more

minimalist

the icons retained elements from their

earlier phones but

now with a paper-like flatness which i

liked but a lot of people thought was

too childish so the note 7 took that

aesthetic and made it a little less

playful and a little more stock looking

and this phone was also when samsung

really stepped up their haptics

from the note 7 onwards samsung's phones

felt really premium to use

now the note 8 is probably the biggest

jump in design

it's when the phones got bigger screens

got much bigger and this is when samsung

completely ditched any kind of coloured

bezel

and made all their phones black from the

front they also introduced a space theme

on this generation of phones which they

then decided was a mistake and proceeded

to move away from it

the note 9 looks almost identical even

the wallpaper is pretty much the same

but the note 10 plus was a huge overhaul

an impressive refreshing design and a

phone that just feels light

both in terms of how fast that is and

its lack of physical weight

and so it's no surprise that the note 20

ultra basically takes inspiration from

that phone but it packs in even more

display

a smaller hole punch camera and twice

the screen refresh rate at 120 hertz

making it

so smooth okay so in case you're

wondering yes

i built this rig and also yes it's a

completely excessive idea that serves

little purpose but hey

i wanted this to be a special video so

taking a look at the phone's cameras the

camera app started

very basic there was a phase when it

became cool to have all the menus

disappear to make the phone seem like a

borderless window

samsung tried to make the camera app

cleaner and cleaner as they progressed

but as more and more features got added

it just made sense to start categorizing

them

so the camera app kind of went back to

its original bordered style

you can also see how samsung slowly

added more cameras to their phones to

start with it was an extra telephoto

camera and

soon after also an ultrawide now in

terms of how the actual photos turned

out

here's the note 1 all the way up to the

note 20 ultra and actually in all of

this time

photo resolution barely changes it's 8

megapixel on the very first note

and 12 on the very latest but the

quality of those shots improves with

almost every generation whether that's

through a larger sensor or just

improved software processing it is

genuinely a night and day difference

all right if you enjoyed this video as i

mentioned a sub to the channel would be

brilliant my name is aaron this is mr

who's the boss

and i'll catch you in the next one

[Music]

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