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The Monarch Series is the most protective case UAG makes. It includes five layers of protection against drops, bumps, scrapes, and spills.
The Monarch shares its basic appearance with the Pathfinder, but adds metal and leather to the mix. It’s more Motley Crue or Metallica, than Maroon 5 or Mumford & Sons. It would look perfectly at home strapped onto the handlebars of a Harley. The patterned rubber, leather, exposed screws, and metal-colored supports give the Monarch a tough guy look that you’ll either love or hate.
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The inner lining of the shell is a hardened plastic material. It has a faint diamond pattern across most of the flat section, but smooths out along the inner top and inner side edges. The inner lining merges with the rubber sides of the phone, which are are thicker than those of the Pathfinder case. The outer sides of the edges have their own hexagonal pattern for aiding grip.
A skeleton-like frame forms much of the rear surface and gives UAG cases much of their personality. It’s raised with skyscraper-like beams going this way and that. Patterned leather fills the gaps in the frame, providing a dash of rebellion to the case. Three rubber screws tie it all together.
The experience of using the case is more or less identical to that of the Pathfinder. The Note 20 Ultra fits into the Monarch with minimal effort thanks to the pliability of the outer rim. The Monarch is hardly any thicker or heavier than the Pathfinder, but still comes across as more robust. You can stuff the phone into your pockets easily, but the rubber edges are more likely to get caught up in your jeans’ pocket liner.
The Monarch has the same openings for the Lightning port and camera, and the same rubber-coated buttons as the Pathfinder. Everything on the phone works as it should. I didn’t have any trouble using the buttons or ringer switch. As expected, you can charge your iPhone wirelessly even while it’s protected by the Monarch.
UAG’s marketing materials suggest the Monarch exceeds the mil-spec 810G rating by a factor of two. In fact, UAG is offering Monarch owners a 10-year warranty on the case (not the phone), something it doesn’t do for its other cases. The Monarch will outlast the Note 20 Ultra by years.
I performed some drop tests on various surfaces and can report that the Monarch provided plenty of protection. The Note 20 Ultra doesn’t have a mark on it, thanks to the case. The thick top and bottom edges of the Monarch form hefty bulges. As expected, these make it possible to place the phone face down on a flat surface without worry.