When Samsung announced the reaching of two adaptation of its late Galaxy Note — the 6.3 - in Note 10 and the 6.8 - in Note 10+—it signaled a little departure from previous years . In feeling , theGalaxy Note 10+is the true replacement to Samsung ’s iconic expectant - screen telephone set descent , while the stock Note 10 seems like something Samsung ’s bean counters dreamed up as a way of broadening the grocery for the company ’s late high - end phone .

Galaxy Note 10

What is it ?

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Photo: Sam Rutherford (Gizmodo)

A smaller interlingual rendition of Samsung ’s fall flagship with a 6.3 - in silver screen

Price

$ 950 ( unlatched )

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Photo: Sam Rutherford (Gizmodo)

Like

Still has build - in S Pen , feels safe for small hands , triple rearward cameras , well-nigh bezel - less design

Do n’t Like

Photo: Sam Rutherford

Photo: Sam Rutherford (Gizmodo)

No microSD card one-armed bandit or phone diddly-squat , lower - res screen

However , aside from merely have a smaller screen , the Note 10 also lacks a few specs and features found on its big sibling . This forces us to need if Samsung ’s late attempt to adjust the Galaxy Note for citizenry with littler manus has also water down a phone that is typically defined by an excess of power and features .

The resolution : In brusque , no . Despite cause slightly less impressive features , the normal Galaxy Note 10 retains almost everything that make the Note 10 + one of the most well - rounded , accommodating French telephone on the market .

Photo: Sam Rutherford

Photo: Sam Rutherford (Gizmodo)

OK , so what ’s in reality unlike between the Note 10 and Note 10 + ? In addition to have a smaller 6.3 - column inch OLED concealment , the Note 10 ’s showing also come with a lower max closure of 2280 x 1080 as opposed to the 3040 x 1440 showing you get on the Note 10 + . When you put the two side - by - side and look real close , it ’s potential to tell apart a thin decrease in sharpness and pixel denseness . That said , if you pull your nose back a bit , those departure for the most part melt , and what you ’re left with is still one of the most vibrant and best - front smartphone screens on the market . And because Samsung moved the Note 10 ’s 10 - MP punch - hole selfie cam to the center from the quoin like you get on aGalaxy S10 , the front River Cam lean to vanish within the earpiece ’s notification streak more easily .

at heart , the Note 10 ’s Snapdragon 855 bit offers expectedly top - notch carrying out , though because Samsung prefer not to let in a microSD card slot on the received Note 10 , the new 256 GB of base storage becomes even more important . And while 256 GB is probably more space than most hoi polloi ask — even the sort of office exploiter that incline to gravitate towards Samsung ’s Galaxy Notes — not get expandable computer memory on any musical note still sting a scrap .

As for the Note 10 ’s 8 GB of RAM ( versus 12 GB for the Note 10 + ) , that variance is severe to pick out , as it always seemed the Note 10 plus had ample retentiveness to keep tons of software set aside in the background without needing to recharge apps always .

Photo: Sam Rutherford

Photo: Sam Rutherford (Gizmodo)

And finally , there come the Note 10 ’s rear camera , which are contain of a 12 - military police master Cam River , 12 - MP 2x telephoto Cam River , and a 16 - MP ultra - wide-eyed - slant cam . This is the same setup found on both the Galaxy S10 and the Note 10 + , with the only thing miss from the standard Note 10 being the 10 + ’s 3D time - of - flight television camera .

But out of all the thing the Note 10 lacks compared to the Note 10 + , the time - of - flight of steps sensor is by far the easiest to forgive . The Note 10 can still use Samsung ’s new Live Focus video mode with almost no difference in quality , which imply the only thing you ca n’t do is use Samsung ’s Quick Measure app to approximate the size of nearby objects . Not really a huge loss .

When it comes to even photos , the number of different cameras and focal lengths gives you a ton of flexibility to capture pretty much any scene . sure enough , in absolute terms , Google ’s Night Sight Mode on the Pixel 3is slightly more adept at taking low - light source shots than Samsung ’s Bright Night choice , but the results are often quite near , and it ’s unmortgaged the Note 10 ’s image tone is still top tier .

Photo: Sam Rutherford

Photo: Sam Rutherford (Gizmodo)

Finally , the Note 10 has a smaller 3,500 mAh barrage fire compared to the 4,300 mAh might multitude in the Note 10 + . Though that dispute in mental ability does n’t transform into quite as boastful a gap in electric battery life sentence as the identification number might suggest . In our video rundown test , the Note 10 endure 13 hours and 46 minute compare to the Note 10 + ’s time of 15:05 .

As for the rest period of the speech sound , between features like its in - display fingerprint referee , veil rear mic ( which leave the earphone to isolate stochasticity better when you soar up in while register a picture ) , and Samsung ’s dazzling new Aura Glow finale , the Note 10 always feels like it ’s up for a challenge , regardless if you ’re stake or just sample to get some work done .

I must admit , though , I feel like some of the Note 10 ’s other novel power like its Air Actions ( which permit you to interchange camera style by waving the S Pen around ) and AR Doodle ( which lets you withdraw augmented reality sketches in the line ) are fun for a short time , but in the end feel kind of gimmicky .

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And of grade , there ’s the build - in S Pen , which remain a unequaled feature in the smartphone globe . you could use it to make gifs , help translate schoolbook into other speech , sketch , and now on the Note 10 , convert handwritten notes into digital text that can be exported to a number of formats let in PDFS , Word docs , and more . If you want a stylus but with a speech sound that ’s not quite as unwieldy as the 6.8 - inch Note 10 + , well that ’s pretty much exactly why the stock Note 10 subsist .

Really , aside from some minor differences in specs and Samsung axing the phone seafarer for 2019 ’s Galaxy Note , it ’s hard to find a lot of mistake with Note 10 . In fact , properly now , at $ 950 , the standard Note 10 costs $ 50 less than a like Galaxy S10 + , which offers nearly an extra 1.5 hour of battery life sentence , but at the disbursal of not having an S Pen .

So unless have a microSD placard slot and a headphone shit are peck - breakers , the newer Note 10 is actually a better deal . Just be measured to give attention to price alteration , because with the S10 + having gone on sale back in the bound , it may get hit with a round of discounts earlier . But still , just because it does n’t have a massive video display or the fancy clock time - of - flight of stairs detector found on its bigger and somewhat more exciting sib , the measure Note 10 is still embody the best timbre of Samsung ’s power - user phone business line while also being a bit easier to deal .

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README

Unlike the Note 10 + , the standard Note 10 does n’t have a microSD menu slot or a time - of - flight of steps sensing element , and its smaller 6.3 - inch video display is limited to a 2280 x 1080 resolution .

Compared to the Galaxy S10 + , the standard Note 10 trade in about 1.5 hours of battery life in exchange for having the S Pen .

The Note 10 is still on Android 9 , and do n’t carry an update to Android 10 to make it until the end of the year at the early .

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