A Tale of Two Smartphones (Premium)

The Google Pixel 4a and the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra are both smartphones. And yet they couldn’t be more different. Why does my mind keep drifting back to the smaller, cheaper, and less powerful one?

As you may have seen, I recently published my Pixel 4a review. I did so after about 10 days of use, which is admittedly a bit shorter than I’d like, but with the Note 20 Ultra arriving and me hoping to complete a series of articles about the Microsoft integrations in that device, I felt it was safe to go forward with the obvious assessment: The Pixel 4a is a delightful smartphone that will meet the needs of most users for years to come and do so at an almost embarrassingly low price point. What’s not to love?

Well, that depends on your needs and wants, right? For me, the Pixel 4a falls short in two key areas: There’s no larger XL form factor and it only has a single camera lens; I would very much prefer two, with the second being an ultra-wide lens. If there was a Pixel 4a with those two features, I’d happily move forward with that mythical device as my daily driver.

Now, it’s possible that such a phone is coming: If the rumors are correct, Google is about to launch two more smartphones, the Pixel 5 and the Pixel 4a 5G, and that latter phone will add a second ultra-wide lens and be a bit bigger. Not “true” XL bigger as with previous Pixels. But maybe bigger … enough, if that’s reasonable English. It will start at $500, compared to $350 for the Pixel 4a, which is reasonable, though I doubt I’ll ever be able to take advantage of 5G during the device’s expected lifetime.

So that’s one possible future. But since I’m currently evaluating the much more remarkable Note 20 Ultra, it’s almost comical to compare it to the Pixel 4a I used previously. And I could see many being blown away by the laundry list of impressive features and capabilities that Samsung crams into this beast. I am as well. It’s a truly impressive handset.

And yet.

For all its brains and brawn, the Note 20 Ultra suffers from some aggravating issues that I’ll also highlight in my coming review. And those who have taken a curiously personal exception to my own preference for larger displays can take some dark satisfaction from the fact that my top issues are all related to the fact that this handset is, if anything, too damn big.

I’ve often referenced that I have large hands, but even my gorilla mitts are no match for the Note 20’s ginormous display. And it’s not the height, exactly—I expect to need two hands on any display this tall—but rather the width. One of the things that make handsets with larger displays usable is that they’re often skinny in addition to being tall: That makes them much easier to use with a single-hand.

But the Note 20 is wide enough—overall, big enough—that even I have trouble using it with one hand, even with regards to selecting items at the bottom of the display. Exacerbating matters, Samsung for some reason went with curved display edges on the Note 20 Ultra, whereas the smaller Note 20 has normal, non-curved edges. And it often misreads my palm pressing on the bottom right corner of the display as a tap. The result is that weird things open unexpectedly a lot. Far too often. The most common app that opens like this is the Camera app: Unsurprisingly, it’s in the lower right corner of my primary home screen.

The phone’s size also contributes to another problem: Like many all-glass designs, the Note 20 Ultra is super-slippery, like a bar of soap. But this effect is further amplified by its size, and even when I’m being careful with it, it seems poised to slip and fall at all times, like the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings slyly trying to rid itself of its current owner. This phone has slipped out of my hands, or off of (or into) the couch, or down below the seat in the car so many times that I’m developing a tick. It’s fallen out of my loose shorts pocket multiple times at the gym, so often that I’m surprised I haven’t broken the glass exterior yet. So I ordered a case for it, even though I don’t own the device and will have to return it. Not so much to protect it. But to stop the aggravation.

There are other weird and avoidable issues. I love the three-lens camera system, with its 5X optical zoom and ultra-wide options. But the camera bump is ludicrously large, which wouldn’t be a problem had Samsung simply put it in the top middle of the device’s backside, and oriented it in a landscape configuration instead of a portrait configuration. If it had done so, the phone could have rested without wobbling on any flat surface, and the camera bump could have acted as a way of angling the device upwards, making it a bit easier to read. But no. The camera bump is on the top left of the backside, and the thing wobbles like a goddamned Weeble.

Folks, details matter. And that’s especially true when discussing a luxury device like the Note 20 Ultra.

The point here is that these weird, seemingly small issues have a daily impact on my impressions of this device. And despite all its wonders, these issues weight on me. Make me like it less.

Compare this to the Pixel 4a. Yes, it’s too small (for me). Yes, it only has a single camera lens. Wah-wah-wah, poor Paul.

Beyond these complaints, however, the Pixel 4a is, as I said, delightful and the things that make it delightful have the same impact on me, but in reverse, as I use that handset. The wonderful polycarbonate body, which doesn’t require a case like the all-glass Note 20 Ultra. And the fast and accurate fingerprint reader, which works much faster and more reliably than the authentication options on the $1300 Note. These things make me like the Pixel 4a more each day I use it. Not grumble and complain.

That the Pixel 4a—and, preferably, a slightly bigger XL/5G variant—can fit more easily in a pocket is perhaps obvious, but I would never buy a phone based on that criteria: You should optimize for using the phone, not carrying it. But the Note 20 Ultra is so huge, it barely fits in a pocket, and it’s not comfortable to carry that way regardless. This is a small part of the reason why I now think foldables are the future: Big screen when it’s out, small form factor when you carry it in your pocket. But with the Note 20 Ultra, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t: It’s awkward in your pocket and it’s awkward and slippery to just carry in your hand too.

Could I be leaning towards a much less expensive and less capable device? Yes, I think I am. I still need to address my two issues with the Pixel 4a—the small display and the single-lens camera—but it looks like a solution is on the way. I suppose a lower-end Samsung might also satisfy my needs too. I’ll look into it.