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The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 screen will reportedly be smoother than the S20’s

We’re just days away from Samsung officially lifting the lid on the Galaxy S20 series, the Galaxy Z Flip and its new Galaxy Buds+, but with very little left to expose, one leaker with a solid track record has turned their attention to the next big release.

Yes, the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 is likely a good six-to-eight months away, but the company will still be noodling away on it in the background. And according to prolific leaker Ice Universe, the new differentiator between the S20 and Note 20 will be the screen. The latter, the leaker says, will have a “more fine-tuned 120Hz refresh rate technology.”

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For those that don’t know, refresh rate refers to how many times the image on a screen is replaced with a new image each second. Most phones are still 60Hz, which means that framerate is capped at 60fps even if the handset is powerful enough to output more. A higher refresh rate will make motion appear smoother and potentially reduce eye strain, albeit to the detriment of battery life.

While undoubtedly a desirable feature, a 120Hz screen isn’t a brand new innovation in the world of smartphones, with the gaming-focused Asus ROG Phone 2 sporting the same smoothness. But the key phrase here might be “more fine-tuned” – does this mean that the S20 will have its own flavour of 120Hz screen that the Note 20 is set to improve upon? We’ll find out at the upcoming Samsung Unpacked event on 11 February. 

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The only other Galaxy Note 20 related leak, also coincidentally from Ice Universe, isn’t really a leak at all, in the sense that it’s wholly predictable. It’s a diagram of the frame of the Note 20, possibly as a guide for case makers. 

Whatever its purpose, it reveals the same details: there’s space for a large square camera array and the S Pen, but no sign of a gap for a headphone jack. Hardly a surprise given the Note 10 abandoned the increasingly unfashionable port, but still disappointing for those of us refusing to make the jump to wireless earphones.

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