Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 128GB Unlocked Android Smartphone - Mystic Black (Renewed)

I don't use face recognition so I can't say how well it works, but for the first week at any rate, the on-screen fingerprint reader has been amazingly easy to use. I don't use my phone super heavy and it's not uncommon to have 70% or more battery when I put it on the wireless charger at night, and it's *significantly* less picky about placement on the wireless charger than the old phone (note 8). The car has wireless charging and it's also much better charging there; the old one would often not be in the right place and not get any electrons, where this never fails to juice up.I got the Note 20 because it's the last Note (currently) that has an SD card slot; I'm absolutely against some company gouging me hundreds of dollars extra for a 256GB phone when a 512GB SD card is under 50 bucks. The drawback to that is this phone came with pretty much nothing at all but a charging cable, which isn't really adding any value. It took me some time to find a way to get the SD card slot open, without their custom tool, because on this phone at least the hole is waaayyyy too small for a paper clip. I finally unwound the spring from an ink pen, which was small enough and stiff enough to release it. Seriously leave out the cable that probably everyone in the world has by now and put that tool in! It's needed for the SIM even without an SD card.Speaking of SIM, moving my line to this phone was trivially simple. The phone was apparently on T-Mobile previouisly and I'm on Verizon, and everything worked flawlessly right from the phone. Put the SIM in, turned it on, and followed the instructions. Done.I got a Note because, well, I've been a Note fanboy since the 4, when my old Droid with the hardware keyboard gave up the ghost, because of the S-Pen. It's not something I use every day, but when I do use it, there is literally no alternative that works like the S-Pen. If Samsung ever stops putting that on their phone I'll probably move on to something more affordable.This is my first ever refurb, and this one at least is exactly what one would hope; it physically indistinguishable from a brand new phone. Even close observation in the light reveals no scratches or blemishes, it hasn't crashed or exhibited any wonky behaviour (knocks on head), and it's significantly snappier than the old one. That's not just because it has more resources, I think it's because the UI has been tweaked. For example when scrolling a long list this phone's "inertia", how long it scrolls untouched after a flick up or down, is much higher than the old phone, so it's considerably faster to browse by scrolling. I'm sure other improvements have been made as well, and together they translate into a much more responsive feel.The OS itself is similar to the Note 8, really, but it has even more bloat and unremovable cruft in it. For exampe there's "AR" functionality now, but even though I have nothing AR, and if I do it's highly unlikely I'll use this phone in conjunction with it. There's an "AR Zone" that can't be disabled, can't be removed, can't be told not to nag me with notifications, can't be managed in the slightest. Seriously Samsung, get off your high horse. You don't know what I want my phone to do; fine if you want to have that enabled by default, why do I care? But can't disable it or remove all the massively huge list of permissions? Want to rub some salt in there for me? It's also considerably more in-your-face nagging about things; like I haven't figured out how to get it to stop nagging me to save passwords for web sites, as if the last fifteen times I'd change my mind. Stuff like that isn't helpful, it's obtuse and rude.Migration was a PitA, but that's normal, so I mention it anecdotally. Samsung's "Smart Switch" does make it less than heinously atrocious, but "Everything" isn't (everything), and it still took me days to get all my appointments and other things loaded in. Once I find my browser bookmarks and get them in I'll finally be done. Least favorite part of getting a new phone is setting the @*&#% up. I can back up and restore a computer with trivial ease but no phone maker yet is smart enough to do that with a phone. Pathetic.I considered only four stars because of the missing SD card tool. Not sure how many folks would be able to figure out how to open it with the hole being about 2/3 the diameter of a paper clip, which is by the way what Verizon recommends using if one can't find the tool. I have no straight pins so I don't know if they work, but if I did I'd still want to file the point off to be sure I didn't damage anything.But overall a VERY happy camper. If you like Android it's likely you'll be satisfied with this phone, and if you've never had an S-pen you'll probably be hooked. lol

Great product, this is my second time buying from this seller (1st phone was for me, 2nd phone is for my daughter) and both cellphones work great. Value for my money is outstanding because it looks and feels like we got brand new phones at a quarter of the price. Set up was easy due to the Samsung Switch app. Storage capacity is 128GB, but I used the extra slot for SD cards in the phones to add an additional 1TB to my phone and 518GB to my daughter's phone. The camera works great and takes HD pictures. Overall, I'm pretty happy with my purchase.

And I can attest to this because I purchased a refurbished Galaxy Note 20 G Ultra I got this because I love the pen and this is the last of the note series. Now I have never had an issue with a brand new phone or a refurbished phone I've had many. My standard practice is to pull out the screen protector the OtterBox have them set up and ready and then open up the phone install the screen protector install it into the case and then upload all my information to the phone this ensures there's no dust hair fingerprints are Grime on the phone potentially as it is crisp out of the box however after I got into my OtterBox with the screen protector on which cost $50 I turned it on and after a minute I got an alert that my pen wasn't connected I went into the settings try to reconnect it after about a minute and a half of trying to connect it gave me the same error message I uploaded all my data updated the phone wipe the phone updated the phone without my data wipe the phone and my data updated and all the meanwhile I've changed various settings turn all the settings off turn them back on reset and every time I try to connect and then also every time I turn on the phone it tries to connect and it will not linkNow there is one of two possibilities either I received a defective pen receiver or the flex cable that attaches the receiver to the phone was not plugged inNow this does not require an in-depth the way you literally boot on the phone and you get an alert with a very annoying Audible ping so you could not have missed this if you quality assured the phoneThe biggest issue is I return the phone I lose $50 I keep the phone I have to pay full price for a defective phone I talked to Amazon and we came up with a couple offers for the seller try and rectify things and they flat out refuse so I've been f***** over by these people because they didn't quality assure their own product that would have taken 2 minutes and you would have instantly known because you would have been alerted by the phone he didn't have to do anything and just had to be on for 2 minutes

**UPDATE ** I was able to contact ATT & they sent me the code to unlock the phone, gave 4 stars b/c I shouldn't have had to do that. However, phone is working.**I will update review once problem is solved**I just received the phone YESTERDAY, it clearly states it's an unlocked phone. Took it to my carrier to change devices, as soon as my SIM was inserted, shows LOCKED!!! I havent been able to reach anyone yet.

So far, I am super impressed with this phone. It arrived quickly and is fully operational. Before this, I was using a Motorola. 5G stylus and I absolutely hated it. You could not multi-task whatsoever on that phone. But with this one you can easily watch videos and text your friends at the same time. Lots of storage space and great if you love playing games on your phone! Camera quality is phenomenal and even comes with a built in filter if preferred. Super easy to set up. Just plug in to your existing phone and transfer your files. And you're good to! I will never not own a samsung phone again!

I've waited to write this. This is the third phone I've purchased from them and they're flawless. Can't beat the price and quality. Always bought the excellent condition phones. Never the ones under. Would buy again and recommend.