Galaxy Note 10 & Note 10+ Hands-On: Lighter, Nicer & No Headphone Jack

The new Galaxy Note 10 series brings a lot of exciting new features and powerful performance, promising to become one of the best smartphones of the year.

Finally, the latest generation Galaxy Note has been released at New York-based Samsung's Unpacked event 2019. Unlike the previous years, the new series from Samsung includes up to 4 different models - Note 10, Note 10+, Note 10 5G, and Note 10+ 5G. This means that users will have more options to choose to meet their different needs, quite similar to what the company is doing with the current Galaxy S series.

This year's Galaxy Note 10 and even the Note 10+ are very light. Perhaps Samsung understands that users who use a stylus to make notes on the phone will have to hold the phone for a long time. Therefore, the device needs to be light to bring the most comfortable feeling to users. Particularly, while the Galaxy Note 9 had a weight of 201g, the newly-launched Note 10 and Note 10+ only weigh 168g and 196g, respectively.

Another notable change is the absence of Bixby button. Instead, Samsung put the volume and power buttons on the left edge of the device. Removing the Bixby button also helps users avoid being mistakenly pressed during use.

And like the Bixby button, the South Korean phone maker also gets rid of a 3.5 mm audio jack on the Note 10 series, which means you have to use USB Type-C port or use a wireless headset. The company also removed the 3.5mm jack on its Galaxy A80. 

In addition, the Galaxy Note 10 also sees a significant change in its display compared to its predecessors. Unlike the hole-punch camera put in the top right of the display of the Galaxy S10, the new-gen Note series has centered hole-punch selfie camera, along with a truly bezel-less Infinity O display. The vanilla Note 10 sports a 6.3-inch FullHD+ display while the Note 10+ comes with a 6.8-inch display with QuadHD+ resolution.

Both Note 10 and Note 10+ are certified to support the HDR10+ standard, promising to deliver a sharper and more colorful movie experience.

Like the Galaxy S10, the new Note duo also has an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor placed under the screen.

In terms of camera, the Note 10 has a triple rear camera setup including a 16MP 123-degree ultra-wide-angle sensor, a 12 MP sensor with a variable aperture of f/1.5 and f/2.4 and a 12MP telephoto sensor with OIS support. The Note 10+ is also equipped with three same rear sensors, but it also has an additional depth sensor for better bokeh effect. On the front, the duo is equipped with a 10MP selfie camera with f/2.2 aperture.

There are quite a number of new features in photography and video recording in this new duo, including "Live Focus Video" that can add depth-of-field adjustments to videos which allow you to blur the background and draw focus to the main subjects, or "Zoom-In Mic" which can amplify audio. With Zoom-in Mic, Galaxy Note 10 will be absolutely useful for V-loggers to have clear voices when they are shooting in crowded places.

Combined with the new S-Pen stylus, the Galaxy Note 10 camera setup also has a series of new features such as drawing on videos, AR Doodle, remotely zooming in/out the camera by drawing a half-circle, moving the stylus back and forth to switch to shooting/video recording modes, moving the stylus up and down to change the front/rear camera. And users can do all of those things remotely and this actually becomes a smart assistant for V-logger or those who like traveling/check-in. Additionally, the Note 10 series also has another new "Super" feature for steady stabilization that is available when recording in Hyperlapse mode as well.

To ensure these above feature work well, Samsung put inside its S-Pen a 6-axis sensor consisting of gyroscope and accelerometer to identify hand gestures.

AR drawing feature on video looks quite impressive.

The new S-Pen also provides greater support for users' work, which can help completely convert hand-written notes into computer fonts (Samsung said that it currently supports 62 languages) and easily export to Microsoft Word, PDF, and images formats. Moreover, as per the company, the S-Pen is also now compatible with Adobe Rush, a more advanced video editing suite which is available for Android devices at the beginning of this year.

In terms of configuration, the Galaxy Note 10 is powered by a Snapdragon 855 chipset or an Exynos 9825 SoC, depending on different markets. Both chipsets were produced under the new 7nm process. In addition, Samsung also said the chipsets' CPU performance increased by 33% and GPU increased by 42% compared to the previous ones found on the Note 9. The Galaxy Note 10 comes with up to 8GB RAM and 256GB internal storage, while the Note 10+ has 12GB RAM and 256GB/512GB internal storage. Powering the Galaxy Note 10 is a 3,500mAh battery with 25W fast charging support and Note 10+ is a 4,300mAh battery with 45W fast charging support.

We were quite surprised that the Note 10+ has Call of Duty Mobile pre-installed, which is only available for trials in Canada and Australia. In a 5-min quick test, the phone brings smooth graphics without any lag, which promises to be a good mobile gaming device this year.

This year, the Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ are available in 3 different color options including Aura Glow, Aura Black, and Aura White. However, at this event, there is also another special Red Pink color variant for the Galaxy Note 10.

To remind, there is also the Note 10+ 5G variant in the series. As its name suggests, this is basically the same smartphone as the Note 10+, but it has the support for the 5G connectivity.

The pricing of the duo in India has also just been revealed. The Galaxy Note 10 is expected to be priced at Rs. 69,999 for the variant with 8GB of RAM / 256GB of storage. As for the Note 10+, it will cost Rs. 79,999 for its base variant with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, while the price of the top-end 12GB RAM / 512GB storage option remains under wraps.

Here some photos of the Galaxy Note 10:

Here are some photos of the Galaxy Note 10+:

Source: Genk