Galaxy Note 10: Video
All information available lover also available in short and informative video.
Galaxy Note 10: Introduction
This is the Samsung Galaxy Note 10. Galaxy Note 10 the bigger flagship phone with a lot of the great things and whistles that sort of fits perfectly in the Note brand. This is the Galaxy Note 10. It’s missing a bunch of what the note 10 plus has and it’s still it is 950 bucks and I still kind of like it. Let’s talk about it. So if I’m being perfectly real Samsung could’ve maybe should have called this the note 10 e. This phone is a sort of a trimmed-down version in a lot of ways. Kind of the same way the s10 e was a trimmed down version of the s10 but for a bit less money. So I think the best way to review this phone is basically to show exactly what’s different about this note 10 versus the note 10 plus.
Galaxy Note 10: Price
So, first of all, it’s a hundred fifty bucks cheaper like I said which posted at 9:49 to start and it’s kind of a little brother.
Galaxy Note 10: Size and ergonomics
And I say that because of the most obvious difference. It’s physically smaller. Now usually I’d always go for the biggest possible version of any phone but so many phones have all gotten so huge these days that it’s kind of refreshing having a smaller flagship phone. So the note 10 is smaller than the iPhone 10S Max, smaller than the 1 plus 7 Pro I’d been using before. I can reach all four corners fairly easily. It’s nice not having to stretch to reach the top of these giant phones just to get to notifications. I don’t have any one-handed assist features turned on anymore on this phone. It’s kind of nice you know?
Galaxy Note 10: Display
I’ve it’s been a while since I’ve used a phone that’s actually this small which is plenty to say about a Galaxy Note. it’s a 6.3-inch display. Bezels are still tiny. Still the boxy overall shape and another spec difference that a lot of people focus on. It’s now a 1080p display instead of the 1440p that the big brother had. Now, this spec is a perfect example of something that matters to many people a lot more on paper than in real life. Like if you haven’t seen the Galaxy Note 10 if you haven’t used this phone you might see on the spec sheet that it’s such an expensive phone but it only has a 1080p display and that sticks out like a sore thumb. BUT in reality, this display is pretty much great.
With that resolution, you’d be concerned about sharpness but it’s still pretty sharp at over 400 PPI. So you never really see any pixels. Still gets extremely bright or extremely dim colors. Still, look pretty good. It’s just mainly smaller. The hole punch cut out even though it’s the same size appears just a tiny bit bigger since the phone is smaller. But overall it’s still not a huge distraction at all. I think if it was a notch like the iPhone I’d find it a bit more intrusive. On this smaller screen but even you know full-screen videos or gaming and things like that are still fine here. I still do miss not having 90 Hertz or any sort of high refresh rate. But aside from that, this screen has been pretty excellent. I just think still because it’s 950 dollars. You just sort of want it to have everything. You want it to have a 1440p display at this price. That’s one of the only ways it really feels disappointing.
Galaxy Note 10: Else
Everything else aesthetically is pretty much identical to the big brother just shrunken down. Which makes things more reachable more pocketable and more holdable. So the cameras are exactly the same. These speakers are exactly the same. The fingerprint reader is the same and the buttons are the same. But they’re even more reachable so they’re a little bit lower I didn’t have a problem reaching them on the note 10 plus. But if you did these are a little closer. The software is also all still the same. But for some reason and they did this on the Galaxy S10e. Also on the smaller phone, they don’t give you the option to change your screen resolution. On a phone with a 1440p display, they let you pick if you want to jump down to 1080 or backup on a phone with a 1080p display. They hide it maybe it’s because they think it’s fine to just leave it at 1080 max res all the time. I don’t know but I would have at least liked to have seen the option here.
Galaxy Note 10: The S-Pen
Since this is the Galaxy Note the S Pen is exactly the same. I was actually kind of wondering if the smaller phone would get a smaller stylus but no. Exact same stylus on the bigger phone with all the same features and gestures.
(on photo Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus)
Galaxy Note 10: Performance & Memory
And then performance is for all intents and purposes the same but with some small spec differences. So the Note 10 spec will always be 8 gigs of RAM and 256 gigs of that high-speed storage. None of that is expandable here. The Note 10 Plus like we talked about before can bump up to 12 gigs of ram and 512 gigs of internal storage and it has the expandable storage via micro-sd. And I think that for 90 something percent of users that 8 gigs of ram is plenty and the 256 gigs of storage is enough. But if you need more you should consider the Note Plus a couple of small things.
Galaxy Note 10: Small Things About Note 10 Plus
One – Note 10 has a bit of a smaller battery 3500 milliamp hours. It is the official number. Kind of small for a flagship actually in 2019. But after using it for a while it became apparent that it doesn’t matter as much because it has a 1080p display. If you bump up the resolution on the 10 plus you will start to get worse battery life. I kind of left it in the middle got my four and a half hours of screen on time. this phone with the smaller battery but a 1080p display got me those same great numbers for battery about a 4-hour screen on time which is pretty good battery life. Then Note 10 also lacks the support for the superfast 45-watt ultra-fast charger. I don’t know if that’s a space thing or just a cost savings thing. But it will still come in the box with the 25-watt charger. Which is pretty good if you get the expense of extra one it’ll only work with the Galaxy Note 10 Plus. And then Note 10 while I said it does have the same cameras it doesn’t have the extra depth sensors on the back as you can see that the Note 10 Plus has.
So yeah no AR doodle or anything crazy with depth-sensing like that. Although it still does port remote and live focus video just fine.
Galaxy Note 10: Overall
So overall, you know, there’s a good amount of stuff missing. But it’s also still very much a premium phone with a premium build and the high-end specs. And it turns out the things that were sort of the most concerning to me which were the display and the battery life sort of worked hand in hand with each other to be fine. So it’s still a great phone in a vacuum. But we’re not in a vacuum. This is a world where other phones where other options exist. This is a world where the Galaxy S10 plus also exists. Now, why do I bring this up? Here’s the thing Samsung is a smart company.
You know plenty of smart people working over there. But back in just March, it seems like they’ve made a phone that’s better in a lot of ways than the note and for less money. Galaxy S 10 plus came out just a few months ago and if you look at how similar they are. They have the same specs. You know some of the s10 plus are actually better. So they both have the Snapdragon a 55. But you can go up to 12 gigs of ram. It has a bigger and higher resolution display. It’s 6.4 inches and 1440p. Same ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. Better speakers in my opinion and it has basically the same triple cameras on the back. But sideways instead of vertical and you get a second sensor on the front fear a depth-sensing that the note doesn’t have and it’s much more rounded and tapered of course. But you also get that extra button so Bixby fans it is remappable. And you basically trade the s-pen for a headphone jack and a much bigger 4100 million power battery. That is that that’s a lot of reasons to get the S10 Plus over the Note. And it’s cheaper. It starts at I don’t eight hundred bucks right now and B&H. And you can find it for way less than that. And then the note is 950$. So why does the smaller Note 10 exist? Well, it turns out there is a select group of people that have always really liked the Galaxy Note experience or wanted to have a galaxy note. You know s-pen and all but just wanted it to be smaller. And the Notes have always been a huge phone.
It’s been basically the phone Samsung makes that’s their biggest for the past couple years this one is smaller. It’s more grip. A bowl or reachable. And that’s part of why I love it so much. So for those who liked the Note but wanted it to be smaller. This phone is for those people so that puts you in like a really specific Venn diagram overlap of people who don’t care too much about the specs or the couple missing features. They just really want the s-pen and a smaller phone. And they have 950 dollars to spend on a phone. This I guess that’s it. This is that phone personally I really like this a lot more than actually thought. I would it’s kind of refreshing actually having a flagship phone be smaller even though it’s still a 6.3-inch display. But all that being said I would still go for One Plus 7 Pro over this Note and over the S10 Plus it costs less than both of these phones and it’s got high refresh rate display that I’ve been so raving over lately that I really hope a lot of phones in the future pick up on. You’re gonna miss out things like the better cameras here and wireless charging but that’s where I’d go. But hey at least now we can answer the question in the title. Who this phone is for? That small group of people could be you.