There may not be a Galaxy Note 20 Ultra model later this year

Samsung is expected to release two Galaxy Note 20 versions later this year, much like it did with the Galaxy Note 10 lineup in 2019. This means there’s going to be a base model available for a lower price, and a larger sibling with a few additional bells and whistles and/or a different camera setup.

There have been a few speculations over the past few weeks as to whether the larger Galaxy Note 20 will be a ‘Plus’ or an ‘Ultra’ model, but now, according to the founder and CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants on Twitter, it’s going to be the former.

This could mean the top-tier Galaxy Note 20 won’t have 100x zoom

The Galaxy S20 Ultra might remain in a class of its own even after the launch of the Galaxy Note 20 series later this year, at least as far as camera capabilities go. This expensive and somewhat controversial flagship features a highly ambitious camera setup with 10x hybrid zoom and 100x digital zoom, and as we’ve discussed over the weekend, this is the one main feature we’d like to see being brought over to the upcoming Galaxy Note 20 series.

Not having an Ultra model could very well mean that the Galaxy Note 20 series might not be able to achieve these levels of zoom. More likely, the Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20+ could share more similarities with the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S20+, respectively. On the other hand, the ‘Ultra’ is a new concept in Samsung’s naming convention.

It’s only been used once so far, and there’s not enough legacy behind it to guarantee that Samsung won’t abandon the ‘Ultra’ moniker in the future, all the while continuing to push its flagships’ camera capabilities to new heights under the more established ‘Plus’ umbrella. In other words, perhaps we should be cautious of falling for a nominal fallacy when trying to determine the upcoming phone’s camera specifications based on monikers alone.

Whatever the case may be, there have been reports that Samsung is ditching the Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensor for the Galaxy Note 20 series, and that’s regardless of how the two models will be called in the end.

No Note 20 Ultra. Note 20 and 20+

— Ross Young (@DSCCRoss) May 11, 2020