A lot has changed over the years for Samsung.
Years ago it ran the roost of physically-large smartphones. The original Note pretty much made the phablet category, but today it’s competing against everyone from Huawei to Google, and now even Apple is in competition for your large hands.
Samsung’s response has been the Note 10 and Note 10+, phones that double-down on everything that made the original note great. You get that S-Pen, a new triple-camera setup and a huge bezel-less screen.
So how does it do against the competition?
Samsung Note 10: Design and Screen
This here is the 10+ model of the phone, and it’s different in that it’s bigger and brighter. Apart from that, it’s pretty much the same smartphone, S-Pen and all.
The new Note 10 is actually smaller than the last one, and nearly identical in size to the Galaxy S10. But by pushing those bezels away, it actually represents ten per cent larger screen real estate. It also means the selfie camera has moved right into the center of the phone.
Yes, it gives you a slight hole up top. But that’s the only negative to this fantastic screen. It’s an AMOLED version, which gives you accurate colour reproduction. It’s almost certainly one of the best screens on a smartphone in 2019.
It makes playing games and watching movies a real dream, and that curved screen really does make a difference. Sound is provided by AKG tuned-speakers, and are both loud and clear.
The new model also comes in a wide range of eye-popping colours, all monsterously shiny like this one in Aura Glow.
It wouldn’t be a Note without Samsung’s S-Pen and this one is present and accounted for down the bottom. Notes have been given an overhaul, which makes working with text that much easier. You also can now control the phone from a distance, up to 40-metres says Samsung, which lets you take pretty monsterous selfies.
Samsung Note 10: Performance and Battery
The new Note 10 is powered by Samsung’s latest Exynos chipset, so things are rapid. Both the CPU and the GPU now work together, which means everything from playing games to flicking through apps shouldn’t come with a hint of slowdown. Both models come in 256GB storage, bute while the regular Note doesn’t come with expandable stourage, the new Note 10+ does.
The Note 10 actually has a smaller battery than the previous model, but Samsung has gotten around that. Now it uses smart AI to optimize battery power and – thanks to new fast-charging – can suck up a full day’s worth of power in just 30 minutes.
Samsung Note 10: Camera and shooting modes
The Note 10 actually borrows heavily from the S10, in that it’s pretty much exactly the same camera model. Fortuntaely, the S10 has one of the best cameras of the year, so that’s no bad thing.
You get an ultra-wide 16-megapixel senor, a 12-megapixel wide – with optical image stabilization – as well as an additional 12-megapixel lens. Video gets some big love from Samsung, now giving you LiveFocus and the ability to blur the background on the fly.
To make use of that S-Pen, you also get AR Doodle which lets you doodle onto the screen. For instance, you can draw a crown on your head and it will follow you around. Even the front-facing camera has been given some love – and it can use the same bokeh smarts as the regular cameras.
Samsung Note 10: The Verdict:
The new Note 10 is both slimmer and smaller than the Note 9, keeps the headphone jack and provides even more screen real estate. That puts the Note 10 and its plus-sized cousin once again right at the top of the large-sized smartphone list.
