If you have purchased a Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and have actually used it, you may have noticed that it is running a little hot. This is because Samsung changed the cooling hardware from the Galaxy S20 phone.

Serial gadget disassembler iFixit took apart the Note 20 Ultra and Galaxy Note 20 and found that they use a multi-layer graphite thermal pad to help distribute heat inside the phone. This is quite different from the copper pipe and vapor chamber system of the Galaxy S20 Ultra.

For a $1,300 phone, one might have expected Samsung to be using the best cooling technology available. There is also no clear reason why Samsung chose a thermal pad instead of a vapor chamber or copper pipe cooling system. It may be to reduce costs in certain areas so that Samsung can invest in dynamic refresh rate displays. Alternatively, it could be due to the packaging of the phone, with the thermal pad allowing more space inside the phone for other components such as the 5G antenna.

In any case, this may be a minor concern for those who like to use their phones quite heavily, such as for video editing or graphics-intensive gaming on the go. In our review of the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, we did not encounter any problems with the phone getting hot. However, Android Authority noted that the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra got hotter than other phones with similar Snapdraogn 8 series chips.

It is not known if the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra with the Snapdragon 865 Plus has a different cooling system compared to versions with the Exynos 990 chip outside the US and China.

Samsung has yet to comment on iFixit's findings. And, of course, there are not many examples of $1,300 phones being disassembled to further investigate the cooling systems that other models may have on board.

So while we can thoroughly recommend the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra to those who want a large phone with a lot of screen space, it may be worth proceeding with some caution for those who dislike using phones that get quite warm in their hands.