Samsung Just Launched The Note 10 and Note 10+

By Aasil Ahmed and Haamiz Ahmed

The highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy Note 10 is finally here. The company goes all out on its Note phones, cramming every feature imaginable and this time is no different.

Samsung is launching two different Note phones this time, the regular Note 10 and the slightly larger Note 10+.

There are other differences between the two phones under the hood. Let’s see what they’re all about.

Design

Galaxy Note 10 comes with significant design changes over Note 9. You get a huge, clean looking all-screen front on the Note 10 with almost no bezels. This makes it way more immersive than most other phones on the market.

The conventional top bezel is gone and it now has a punch-hole selfie camera at the top of the full-screen display. Unlike the S10 however, Note 10’s selfie camera appears to be a little smaller and is in the center of the display.

Moving over to the back, Note 10 now looks a lot like the Huawei P30 with its vertical, triple camera module on the side. This camera orientation also makes it ideal for capturing images or shooting videos in the landscape orientation.

The in-display fingerprint sensor also makes its way to the Note 10 straight from the S10-series, hopefully, it’s faster than on the S10. We’ll know for sure when we get a review unit.

The stereo speakers and headphones bundled with the two Note phones are tuned by AKG.

Display

The screen sizes for Note 10 and 10+ are 6.3 inches and 6.8 inches respectively. Both feature Dynamic AMOLED and have HDR10+ support, but that’s where the similarities end. The Note 10 has Full HD+ screen resolution while the other goes up a notch with QHD+.

Both phones also have something that Samsung calls Dynamic Tone Mapping for great image quality, no matter what your phone is showing. This is quite like the Sony Xperia phones which improve the image quality of whatever media you’re playing on your phone for a better viewing experience.

No Headphone Jack

The 3.5mm headphone jack is, unfortunately, gone from the phone. Samsung says that it didn’t have space for it on the phone, but it doesn’t sound believable considering that they managed to fit an S-Pen inside the phone.

Talking about the S-Pen, it comes with a few upgrades as well.

S Pen

The S Pen features all-new touch-less gestures, as it now has an accelerometer and gyroscope. You can control the camera, navigate through the apps and do much more with the S-Pen now, all using “Air Actions”.

Samsung will also launch an Air Actions SDK for app developers for adding S-Pen’s gestures to their games/apps etc.

It also pairs with the new video editor app on the Note 10 siblings, but more on that later.

Internals and Storage

The phones are powered by the company’s all-new Exynos 9825 SoC, which was announced hours ahead of the phone’s release. As mentioned before, different markets will have different SoCs, with some getting Snapdragon 855 instead.

Samsung has also added what it claims to be the thinnest vapor chamber for heat dissipation.

There’s 8GB RAM and 256 GB storage (no other variants) in the standard Note 10 while the Note 10+ will have 12GB RAM with 256GB/512GB storage based on UFS 3.0 for faster access speeds.

Another key difference between the two is that the regular Note 10 doesn’t have a microSD card slot. Only the Note 10+ has one, which is a bummer.

Samsung Dex, Link to Windows and PlayGalaxy Link

The Dex dock is back again and works the same way as before, letting you dock your Note phone with a monitor and using a keyboard and mouse to use it as a desktop PC.

Samsung is adding a new Link to Windows feature to the Note 10 phones, letting you sync photos, notifications, and messages with your PC/laptop. It only works with Windows 10 though. You can access it on your PC through the Quick Settings panel.

As its name suggests PlayGalaxy Link lets you stream games from your PC, kind of like Steam Link, which is a neat feature.

Cameras

The Note 10 and Note 10+ both have a triple camera setup which consists of a 12MP primary sensor with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and dual apertures (f/1.5 and f/2.4), a 16MP 123° ultra-wide lens and a 12MP telephoto lens.

The Note 10+ also has a 3D ToF sensor which can create 3D models of real-life objects using the 3D scanner app.

It also gets Life Focus which records bokeh video and a better Super Steady mode. As mentioned earlier with the S-Pen, Note 10 gets an advanced native video editor. The S-Pen’s new gestures allow you to easily trim videos and scroll through them.

The front-facing selfie camera housed in the punch hole notch is a 10MP shooter with autofocus.

Battery and Pricing

The base model has a battery capacity of 3,400mAh, whereas the high-end model has a 4300mAh power cell. There’s 25W fast charging support on the base model and 45W fast charging on the Note 10+.

Both models also have fast wireless charging and reverse wireless charging for topping up your smartwatch or other compatible devices.

The vanilla Note 10 is priced at $950 and the Note 10+ will go for $1,099 for the base 12GB/256GB model. The 512GB storage variant for the Note 10+ will cost you $1,199.

It will be available from August 23 in three colors, Aura Glow, Aura Black and Aura White.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Specifications

• CPU:
  • Snapdragon 855: Octa-core (1x 2.8 GHz Kryo 485 & 3x 2.4 GHz Kryo 485 & 4x 1.7 GHz Kryo 485)
  • Exynos 9825: Octa-core (2x 2.73 GHz Mongoose M4 & 2x 2.4 GHz Cortex-A75 & 4x 1.9 GHz Cortex-A55)
• GPU:
  • Adreno 640
  • Mali-G76 MP12
• OS: Android 9.0 Pie with OneUI
• Supported Networks: 2G, 3G, 4G LTE, 5G (separate model)
• Design:
  • In-display fingerprint scanner
  • Heart rate sensor
  • Samsung Dex
  • IP 68 water and dust resistance
  • Unibody S-Pen with Air Gestures
• Display:
  • 6.3″ Dynamic AMOLED with Full HD+ (2280 x 1440) resolution; 401ppi, HDR10+
• Memory:
  • RAM: 8 GB
  • Internal: 256/512 GB
  • Card slot: no
• Camera:
  • Rear (triple): 12 MP, f/1.5-1.8-2.4, 27mm (wide), 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS
    12 MP, f/2.1, 52mm (telephoto), 1/3.6″, 1.0µm, AF, OIS, 2x optical zoom
    16 MP, f/2.2, 12mm (ultrawide), 1.0µm
  • Front: 10 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 1.22µm, Dual Pixel PDAF
• Colors: Aura Glow, Aura White, and Aura Black
• Battery: 3,400 mAh with 25W fast charging, 20W wireless charging
• Price: $950

Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Specifications

• CPU:
  • Snapdragon 855: Octa-core (1x 2.8 GHz Kryo 485 & 3x 2.4 GHz Kryo 485 & 4x 1.7 GHz Kryo 485)
  • Exynos 9825: Octa-core (2x 2.73 GHz Mongoose M4 & 2x 2.4 GHz Cortex-A75 & 4x 1.9 GHz Cortex-A55)
• GPU:
  • Adreno 640
  • Mali-G76 MP12
• OS: Android 9.0 Pie with OneUI
• Supported Networks: 2G, 3G, 4G LTE, 5G (separate model)
• Design:
  • In-display fingerprint scanner
  • Heart rate sensor
  • Samsung Dex
  • IP 68 water and dust resistance
  • Unibody S-Pen with Air Gestures
• Display:
  • 6.8″ Dynamic AMOLED with QHD+ (3040 x 1440) resolution; 498ppi, HDR10+
• Memory:
  • RAM: 12 GB
  • Internal: 256/512 GB
  • Card slot: yes, up to 1TB
• Camera:
  • Rear (triple): 12 MP, f/1.5-1.8-2.4, 27mm (wide), 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS
    12 MP, f/2.1, 52mm (telephoto), 1/3.6″, 1.0µm, AF, OIS, 2x optical zoom
    16 MP, f/2.2, 12mm (ultrawide), 1.0µm
    TOF 3D VGA camera
  • Front: 10 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 1.22µm, Dual Pixel PDAF
• Colors: Aura Glow, Aura White, and Aura Black
• Battery: 4,300 mAh with 45W fast charging, 20W wireless charging
• Price: $1,099 (256GB), $1,199 (512GB)