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Samsung is likely to sell Galaxy Note 20 Ultras with the Snapdragon 865+ in its own home market: new leak

The Note 20 Ultra may look like this. (Source: WinFuture)
The Note 20 Ultra may look like this. (Source: WinFuture)
Two devices with model numbers known to pertain to the upcoming flagship Galaxy Note 20 Ultra have appeared on the Geekbench 5 website. One of them has the suffix N, which suggests it is destined for the South Korean market. Oddly, it is the one without the Exynos 990, an SoC made by Samsung itself.

Samsung is now almost certain to launch a super-flagship called the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra on August 5, 2020. Its specs have also been extensively ground out in the rumor-mill by now, revealing among many other things that its maker is likely to perpetrate the veritable two-tier system going on with respect to this series' processors.

The Note 20 Ultra is thought to get the latest and greatest silicon from Qualcomm - but possibly not from Samsung. Indeed, some markets are thought to get units of this extra-premium device with the Exynos 990. Yes, that's the 990: the same SoC found in the slightly older S20-line phones that has become linked to poorer outcomes compared to its closest counterpart, the Snapdragon 865.

A new leak hints that South Korea is not to be one of the markets that will be stuck with SKUs like these. It comes from the Geekbench 5 database, which now includes a set of results for a "samsung SM-N986N". This model number has been avowed to belong to the Note 20 Ultra 5G by the FCC; furthermore, the suffix N is usually a good indication a given phone is associated with Samsung's own home market.

Geekbench has found it is powered by a platform called kona, which translates to the 865 - or perhaps even the 865+. Furthermore, a second listing offers results for an SM-N986B, ostensibly powered by the 990 instead. Comparing the two reveals that they are not particularly far apart in single-core terms. Move to the multi-core section, however, and the N986N flies ahead.

This apparent distribution of non-Exynos Note 20 Ultras mirrors the fortunes of the S20 series in South Korea at launch. Reportedly, this was a source of some adversity for Samsung's own personal chip-making division, and yet didn't stop the company's tacit rejection of its own flagship SoC.

On the other hand, the Exynos 990 coming to the new Ultra is supposedly an updated and improved version of this chipset. However, should all these leaks prove genuine, only reviews and real-world use will validate Samsung's apparent choices.

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The "SM-N986N" vs. the "N986B". (Source: Geekbench 5)
The "SM-N986N" vs. the "N986B". (Source: Geekbench 5)

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2020 07 > Samsung is likely to sell Galaxy Note 20 Ultras with the Snapdragon 865+ in its own home market: new leak
Deirdre O'Donnell, 2020-07-31 (Update: 2020-08- 1)