Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Review
The biggest change with the S Pen in the Note 10 and Note 10+ is just the way it feels. It’s now a unibody design, meaning that it feels more solid and sturdy. While on previous S Pens you could hear a bit of a rattle and they felt a bit cheap, this one feels way more premium.
For all else, it’s of the familiar form and size, with a single physical button. Lockscreen memos where you take the S Pen without even waking up the phone and you could directly jot down notes are still here, and as convenient as ever.
What’s new has mostly to do with the S Pen’s new functionalities as a magic wand. First, it features a new battery inside that lasts up to 10 hours and it automatically charges when you insert it in the Note. But now you can use it to control the camera app: hold the button and swipe up and down to switch between the front and rear cameras, swipe to the side to switch between different camera modes, and make a circle and hold the button to zoom in and out.
On the software side, Samsung’s Notes app is now better at recognizing hand-written text. It would recognize ours, which means it’s quite good at it, and it can then easily convert your hand-written notes into a Microsoft Word file.
You also have the AR Doodle option in the camera where you use the S Pen to draw on top of someone’s face. It’s a fun gimmick, but… a gimmick, and not much more.
The Note 10 and Note 10+ come in two different flavors when it comes to hardware: in the United States, the phones are equipped with the Snapdragon 855 chip (
the most recent 855+), while everywhere else around the globe, the phones are powered by Samsung's own Exynos 9825.
We have not yet had a chance to do a direct 1v1 comparison between these two different flavors, and you should know that the models that we have up for review is the one with the Exynos chip.
With this in mind, we should say that on paper, the Note 10 and Note 10+ are beasts: they fly in benchmarks receiving top scores, they perform excellent in games, and the 10+ in particular features an immense 12GB of RAM which is a sweet overkill.One tiny detail that you might have missed is that the Note 10 and Note 10+ not only have an incredible 256GB of storage in the base version, but that storage is also of the new UFS 3.0 standard and it is the absolute fastest storage of any phone we have tested so far. Below you will find some benchmarks scores performed on the Note 10+, but if you are curious about the real-life implications of having such fast storage, it is just that everything loads and runs faster, from large games and videos to smaller files.
| Phone | Sequential Read | Sequential Write | Random Read | Random Write |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ (UFS 3.0) | 1512 MB/s | 583 MB/s | 192 MB/s | 194 MB/s |
| OnePlus 7 Pro (UFS 3.0) | 1425 MB/s | 220 MB/s | 160 MB/s | 24.3 MB/s |
| OnePlus 6T (UFS 2.1) | 731 MB/s | 206 MB/s | 139 MB/s | 22.6 MB/s |
| Samsung Galaxy S10+ (UFS 2.1) | 815 MB/s | 194 MB/s | 134 MB/s | 24 MB/s |
Yet despite all of these incredible improvements, we can't say that the Note 10 or Note 10+ quite match an iPhone, a Pixel or a OnePlus when it comes to perceived smoothness in daily operations. There is a bit of a delay when opening the keyboard, when swiping the notification shade, and when opening the app drawer. It's not huge by any means, but it's there, and the only thing we can attribute it to is the custom Samsung One UI.You should also know that if the built-in storage is not enough for you, this Note 10+ model does support memory expansion via microSD cards. It features a hybrid card slot meaning that you can either use it in a dual-SIM OR in a one-SIM-one-microSD card config. The smaller Galaxy Note 10 does NOT have a microSD card, but a 512GB version is available.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ have very similar cameras to what we have seen in the Galaxy S10 series, but there are a few slight tweaks made here and there.Technically, the Note 10+ comes with four cameras on its back and one on the front. Here are the specs:
- 12MP main camera, f/1.5-f/2.4, OIS
- 16MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2
- 12MP 2X telephoto camera, f/2.1, OIS
- DepthVision VGA
- 10MP front camera
The difference in the Note 10 is that it lacks the DepthVision camera of the Note 10+. This camera is what other companies refer to as a Time-of-Flight (ToF) camera. It helps the phone better determine the depth in an image for better Live Focus images. Here's a quick example of how the Note 10 couldn't quite separate the frame of the glasses from the background:
Image Quality
So how do images typically turn out?
Well, excellent really! Samsung has changed a bit the color reproduction from the S10 series and it has managed to squeeze a bit more detail from the sensor so you get slightly better photos.
We love the colors here: we would describe them as not quite 100% realistic, but instead they have a bit more saturation and punch. The exposure is a tiny bit brighter, typical for Samsung phones, and you get similar colors from all three different lenses on the back.
In comparison with the iPhone and the Pixel, the Galaxy stands out with its balanced and cheerful colors. It does not go overboard with contrast like the Pixel and it does a better job exposing the face than the iPhone. It’s not always that way, but generally you get very consistent and very likable results with the Note 10+ cameras.
Night Mode arrived as an update for the S10 series, but it did not work with the telephoto lens. With the Note 10 and Note 10+, Night Mode now works with all three cameras. It’s definitely not as fast as Google’s Nightsight mode as it takes a few long seconds shooting and then saving the images, but if you have the patience it does bring a lot more light and color in the frame even in pitch black conditions. Take a look at how it looks below:
Samsung calls its portrait mode where the subject is in focus, while the background remains blurred out Live Focus and you can use this mode with both the regular and the telephoto lens on the Note 10 and 10+. We recommend using the telephoto lens because of its optical qualities: it is more flattering for faces that look better proportioned on it.
You also have a 10-megapixel camera for selfies. It also supports Live Focus so you can blur the background and it does a very good job, with a good amount of detail and with vibrant colors.
Video
Turning over to video, you have your standard options: 4K60, 4K30, and then FullHD 60 and FullHD 30. The above sample shows the 4K video recording quality using the built-in stabilization, but you can also enable the even better Super Steady mode to get... well, super steady shots. The Super Steady mode used to work using a crop of the ultra-wide angle camera on the S10 series, but on the Note 10 series, it now also works with the regular camera. Take a look at a short demo of Super Steady below:
Samsung also has a few new gimmicks here and gimmicks really is the best way to describe these new features.The first one is called Live Focus video and what it basically does is blur the background leaving only the subject in focus. And it looks very, very ugly. The big problem is that with video you inevitably have moving objects, but unfortunately the blurred background effect does not move with the same speed as your subject, it lags behind, leaving a ton of ugly artifacts. Second of all, the effect just looks extremely artificial and fake. It looks like a cheap filter, and not a good one. 
What works a bit better is a second filter under the same category where you only have the subject in color and everything else in the background turns black and white. This effect is quite creative and we can see ourselves using it.
The other new thing that actually works quite good is what Samsung calls “Zoom-in mic” and this is something that is enabled automatically. Basically, whenever you zoom on a subject, the audio that comes from that subject is amplified. This is great if you are recording someone standing far away and speaking, or a performing artist. A really neat feature!
Lastly, you have another gimmick for the teens (and pre-teens) out there: AR Doodle. It lets you use the S Pen to draw mustache, ears, and all sorts of other scribbles on top of a live video and all of those drawings will stick to the face of the person you have in your video. We tried it and we got a laugh out of it, but using it regularly… we might just be a bit too old for that.
Sound & Call Quality
Loud and clear, but could have had a bit more bass
The Note 10+ features dual speakers that are capable of blasting music with quite the powerful punch. The speakers don't cover the lower tonalities as well as, say, an iPhone, but for a phone speaker they sound excellent in the mids and highs. The speakers on the Note 10 are also very good, but lack in clarity compared to the ones on the Note 10+.On both phones, one of the speakers is pointed downwards while the other one blasts sound from two different places: the tiny slit between the glass of the screen and the top frame, as well as a tiny hole at the top of the phone. The result of having a total of three different places where sound comes from is that whichever way you hold the phone, it's very hard to accidentally muffle the speakers.
This is the place where we should remind you about the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack on the Note 10+. There is not even a USB-C to 3.5mm headphone adapter included in the box, so if you need such an adapter, you would have to spend extra $15 to buy it separately. The headphone jack is something that some users will miss, while some others have already moved on to the bright wireless future. You tell us which camp you belong to in the comments.
One more thing: you do get a pair of in-ear USB-C headphones tuned by AKG in the box with a couple of different-sized tips for a proper fit on different ear sizes. They sound quite good for a pair of free headphones, but of course for the music aficionados they are in no way a replacement for high-quality headphones.
When it comes to call quality, we can report that the Note 10+ sounds crisp and clear, with a sufficient amount of volume, so you will have no issue hearing your callers well. On the other end of the line, too, the quality is excellent. With the smaller Note 10, however, we found the sound lacking in clarity and depth.
Battery life
Good, but not exceptional
The Note 10+ features a large, 4300mAh battery, bigger than the ones on many of its rivals and bigger than the 4,000mAh cell on last year's Note 9, so expectations were that it will last a really long time.
The only way to really tell is to run some tests and to actually use the phone, and we have done both. Real-life use shows that the phone performs quite well, but cannot quite compete with phones like the Huawei P30 Pro that feature a truly outstanding battery life. The Note 10+ will last most users a full day without any worries, but it will not be much more than that.
To be a bit more precise, we turn to our battery testing. On our compound test, the Note 10+ scores 8 hours and 21 minutes, which is slightly lower than its predecessor, and slightly above the average for a 2019 flagship phone, but again, not much higher than the average. We also tested the Note 10+ battery life while playing YouTube videos and found that it lasts 7 hours and 6 minutes in that particular case, which is noticeably lower than the Galaxy S10+ and the Huawei P30 Pro that scored around 9 hours on that same test. Keep in mind that we tested the international model that comes with an Exynos chip, while the Snapdragon model might have slightly different results.
One area where Samsung really stepped up its game this year is fast charging on the Note 10+: the phone supports up to 45 watt charging speeds and by default it ships with a 25-watt charger. If you want the full 45-watt speeds, you'd need to buy that charger separately, but even with the 25-watt included adapter the phone charges incredibly quickly. In fact, it ranked among the fastest-charging phones we have ever seen! Quite the achievement!
We measured the charging speeds and here is what we got:
- in 15 minutes: you get 33% charge
- 30 minutes: 61%
- 1 hour: 98%
We should also mention that the Note 10+ also supports wireless charging, which trades slower charging speeds for the convenience of not having to deal with cables.
Price and Alternatives
The Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ are premium phones and you can easily tell this by the price:
- Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 256GB: $1,100
- Samsung Galaxy Note 10 256GB: $950
- Samsung Galaxy S10+ 128GB: $1000
- Samsung Galaxy S10 128GB: $900
- iPhone 11 Pro Max 256GB: $1,250
- iPhone 11 Pro 256GB: $1150
- OnePlus 7 Pro 256GB: $750
- Pixel 3 XL 128GB: $700
This ranks the two among the most expensive phones out there, topped only by the iPhone 11 Pro series with the same amount of storage.
If you want more affordable flagship models, however, you definitely have them: the Google Pixel 3 XL with its excellent camera and timely software updates retails at just $700 these days, and the excellent OnePlus 7 Pro is a great deal too costing just $750 for the 256GB model.
Conclusion
In some areas, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ truly impressed us: with their refined design, the beautiful Aura Glow color, the more functional S Pen, the incredible display, the plentiful storage that is also the fastest of any phone out there, the high-quality loudspeakers, and so on.But then in other areas, we see that the two cannot quite match what some other companies have shown is possible: the high refresh rate display on phones like the OnePlus 7 Pro showed us how a phone can run unbelievably smoothly, and the Note is just not quite there yet; the ultra-long zoom on the Huawei P30 Pro and its impressive low-light performance showed us a new dimension of smartphone cameras, and the Note series does not have those powers; and then it seems that battery life, a critical aspect of any smartphone experience is good, but not quite there with the best on the Note series.
Considering all of this, we still love the Note 10 and 10+. They are excellent, beautiful all-around phones. We do, however, wish they pushed the boundaries a little more in certain aspects.
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