The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra come with some pretty impressive innovations, including the new and improved means of taking screenshots. There are no fewer than four methods for screen-grabbing, each with its own merits (which we discuss at length in the FAQs below).
To learn how to screenshot on the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 (and Note 20 Ultra), simply follow our various tutorials below. For all other information and queries, please direct your attention to our FAQs located at the end of this article.
Table of Contents
- At any point when using your Samsung Galaxy Note 20, you can capture the screen using the POWER and VOLUME DOWN hardware buttons. First, locate them on the right-side of your device.
- To screenshot using these buttons, press them down simultaneously, and hold this until your device indicates that a screenshot has been taken (this usually takes less than a second)
- If you wish to lengthen your screenshot by scrolling further down the page you’re capturing, tap and hold the icon in the screenshot pop-up which looks like an open box with two downward pointing arrows.
- If you wish to edit, crop, view or share your screenshot, tap the corresponding icon in the screenshot pop-up
- Alternatively, leave the pop-up to fade away and your screenshot will be sent to the screenshots folder in your Gallery, for you to access at a later date
How to screenshot on the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 (palm-swipe)
- First, enable palm-swipe screenshots in Settings > Advanced Features > Motions and Gestures > and then ENABLE the “Palm swipe to capture” feature.
- Next, to screenshot using the palm-swipe function, simply swipe the edge of your hand across the screen at any time.
- Note: You cannot use this function if the keyboard is showing
- If you wish to lengthen your screenshot by scrolling further down the page you’re capturing, tap and hold the icon in the screenshot pop-up which looks like an open box with two downward pointing arrows.
- If you wish to edit, crop, view or share your screenshot, tap the corresponding icon in the screenshot pop-up
- Alternatively, leave the pop-up to fade away and your screenshot will be sent to the screenshots folder in your Gallery, for you to access at a later date
How to screenshot on the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 (Smart Select)
- First, enable the Smart Select function in Settings > Display > Edge Screen > and then tap on ‘Edge Panels’. You can now enable and add to the Edge Screen any panels you want (like contact shortcuts, etc.). Make sure you turn on ‘Smart Select’
- Next, to screenshot using the Smart Select function, locate the slim grey bar on the right hand of your screen, tap and swipe it to the left to expand it.
- Swipe through the Edge Screen until you locate the Smart Select function you enabled earlier. You can now choose to screenshot with a square/rectangular crop, an oval crop, or even an animated GIF. Select whichever you prefer.
- Next, drag and stretch the corners of the crop box over whichever part of the screen you wish to capture or record. Press ‘Done’ to complete the capture.
- Note: To record a GIF, do the same but tap ‘Record’ instead, and then ‘Stop’ once you’re satisfied with the clip you’ve recorded.
- Once you’ve captured the shot, you can either Edit it via the pen icon, Share it via the share icon, or Save it to your Gallery via the share/download icon
How to screenshot on the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 (S-Pen)
- The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra comes with an S-Pen attached, pull this out from the phone to activate this screenshot method
- Next, tap ‘Screen Write’ – this will take a screenshot of your current screen
- You can now annotate the capture as you like. Once you’re satisfied, tap the ‘Download’ (or ‘Save’) icon, and the screenshot will be sent to your Gallery app
And there you have it! There are so many means of screen-grabbing on the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra it may seem daunting, but once you’ve got the hang of it you’ll soon realize just how handy each different method can be.
If you require any additional information, or if you have any unanswered questions, please see our FAQs below.
Frequently asked questions
Why would I want to screenshot on my Samsung Galaxy Note 20?
One of the most invaluable tools on a modern smartphone, and yet arguably one of the most under-appreciated, is surely the ability to screenshot. Also known as screen-grabbing, taking a screenshot simply means capturing a still (or in the case of Samsung, sometimes animated) image of whatever is displayed on your phone’s screen at any given time.
Taking a screenshot can be handy for innumerable reasons. If you’re surfing the internet, you may well want to screenshot a page that you’re not sure you’ll have the internet connection necessary to access later on. Alternatively, you might want to send some information or a funny still to a friend, without having to link them to the full page or video or whatever it is you’re viewing; again, screenshots come in handy.
Samsung is so advanced when it comes to screenshots, though, that you can even make GIFs from a screenshot, or readily annotate whatever screenshot you’ve just taken, making it a tool not just for sharing, but for creativity and for business.
Does the method for this device differ from other Samsung devices?
The base method of hardware-button screen-grabbing does not differ from most other Samsung devices: it’s still based on the pressing of the POWER and VOLUME DOWN buttons at the same time (though note that on the Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra, these buttons are both situated on the right-hand side of the phone, whereas they’ve been on opposite sides in earlier Samsung generations). Similarly, Smart Panel has been a feature of Samsung phones for some time, even though many Samsung users (including myself) often don’t know that it’s there.
However, there are some methods of taking screenshots new to the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra, such as the Pen method, and hand-swipe method.
What happens to the screenshot I take when I take one on my Samsung Galaxy Note 20?
As soon as you take a screenshot on a Samsung device, a bar will pop up along the bottom displaying a few different options.
There is the thumbnail of the screenshot itself, which you can click on to open it in Gallery view.
Then there is the two downward arrows icon, which if you tap and hold will allow you to continue expanding the screenshot by scrolling further down the page you’re capturing, for as long as you like (or until the page runs out).
Next, you have the crop and edit icons, allowing you to immediately edit the screenshot you’ve just taken by cropping it to size, or with a range of different editing tools such as the pen and text tools.
And lastly, you have the share icon, allowing you to immediately and efficiently share the screenshot you’ve just taken via any number of means – social media apps you have downloaded, by text, by email, upload to Google Drive or OneDrive, or some other cloud platform, what have you.
If you decide not to utilize any of these buttons, instead of allowing the pop-up to disappear, then the screenshot will simply be saved to your screenshot folder in your phone’s image Gallery and will remain there until you move it or delete it.
What’s the best method of screenshotting on the Samsung Galaxy Note 20?
This totally depends on your intended outcome, or whatever you find easiest.
If you’re not concerned as to the look of the screenshot and just wish to quickly capture your screen for the purpose of saving information to your phone or sharing the capture with friends, then either the POWER and VOLUME DOWN method or the hand-swipe method are preferable. Which of these you choose is simply up to whichever you find easiest to execute.
If you want to quickly capture only a specific part of your screen, you want the capture to take on a particular shape, or you want to animate your capture, then the Smart Panel method is best. And finally, if you wish to annotate your capture (most likely for professional purposes), then the Samsung Pen method is preferred.
