While Samsung built the Galaxy Note brand with the main goal of having the best big-screen smartphones on the market, its new Samsung Galaxy Note 10 has something better than all other previous Note models; the fact that it’s actually smaller than all of its predecessors.
If you’re looking to get a new smartphone and you’re learning towards the Note 10, then you should go through this fully detailed review on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10. This way you’ll know everything about it, including the best things that it has to offer you.
So, let’s have a detailed look at the Note 10.
DESIGN, DISPLAY AND SPECS
The Galaxy Note 10’s body measures 5.9 inches long by 2.8 inches wide by 0.31 inches tall (151 x 71.8 x 7.9 mm), and the smartphone weighs 5.93 oz. (168 g). The phone is rated IP68 dust/water resistant, proving capable of staying underwater up to 1.5m for a maximum of 30 mins. As said before, its smaller size (when compared to the previous models) is definitely something worthy of praise. The phone is comfortable to hold, as you can see from the picture embedded below.
The Galaxy Note 10 also comes equipped with a Next-generation S Pen. Its S (stands for “Stylus”) Pen is “the closest thing to a magic wand for your smartphone.” With remote gestures, a shutter and playlist button, handwriting-to-text conversion, video editing and scrubbing, screen-off memo and much more, you can do just about anything, at a much faster pace.
The Note 10’s S Pen features Bluetooth integration, and comes equipped with an accelerometer and a 6-axis gyroscope, giving you exactly the accessibility that you’d expect. It’s a game changer, and makes all tasks much, much easier, meaning that if you use it for work, it will definitely increase your productivity.
The Galaxy Note 10 is compatible with both Nano-SIM and Dual SIM cards and comes with Android 9.0 (Pie) installed. It’s important to note that the Note 10 doesn’t feature neither a 3.5 mm headphone jack or a microSD card slot, which is pretty disappointing.
The smartphone features a high-polish aluminum frame and comes equipped with a Gorilla Glass 6 display. This brings us to its 6.3 inches Dynamic AMOLED capacitive touchscreen (Always-on display), making it capable of offering its users 16M colors. The screen runs a 2280 x 1080 pixels resolution in a 19:9 ratio (~401 ppi density).
However, there’s something negative about this screen that does need to be reminded here. The Note 10’s screen is a direct downgrade to its predecessor’s screen (the Note 9’s), which offered a 2960 x 1440 resolution. Furthermore, while the Note 10’s Dynamic AMOLED display offers a 2280 x 1080 resolution (full HD+), it also falls short to its bigger brother’s (the Note 10+) quad HD+ screen display, which offers a 3040×1440 resolution. Still, most people won’t notice the difference, and you still get amazing colors and HDR10+ certification, just like in the Note 10+.
The Galaxy Note 10 also comes equipped with a Dolby Atmos Sound loudspeaker (stereo speakers) that’s tuned by AKG, offering you ANC (active noise cancellation) with a dedicated mic. The smartphone also supports 32-bit/384kHz audio playback. All of this together will offer you a decent audio experience, and you can expect some nice high-quality audio from the phone’s speaker.
BATTERY & BATTERY LIFE
The Galaxy Note 10 comes equipped with a non-removable Li-Ion 3500 mAh battery that can be quickly charged via its USB 3.0 included charging cable and charger/adapter (25W), which you’ll be able to see in a picture, coming right up in the next section of this article.
This means that its battery just offers below-average longevity. However, the phone does feature quick charging (Fast Qi/PMA wireless charging 12W), and also works as a Power bank (Reverse wireless charging 9W – more on that ahead in the Features section).
As stated before, the smartphone supports fast battery charging (25W) via its included charger, reaching around 50% of its full-battery capacity in just 35 minutes.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
Inside the box users will find: their Samsung Galaxy Note 10, the charging adapter, the charging/data cable, an ejection pin, and one pair of USB-C AKG Headphones.
CONNECTIVITY
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 can connect to Wi-Fi (supporting 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot), and also features Bluetooth 5.0 BLE, A2DP, LE, and aptX, as well as NFC, and FM Radio connectivity (USA & Canada only).
CAMERA
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 features four cameras in total: one at the front (the Selfie Camera), and three cameras at the back (from top to bottom – ultrawide, standard/wide-angle, and telephoto).
The front camera (Selfie Camera) is a 10 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 1.22µm, Dual Pixel PDAF camera. It supports Dual video calls with Auto-HDR (correct brightness), offering you 2160p video at 30 fps, or 1080p video at 30 fps.
Moving on to its triple-camera setup. The Ultrawide Camera is a 16 MP, f/2.2, 12mm (ultrawide), 1.0µm, that features (records) Super Steady video. The standard/Wide-angle Camera is a 12 MP, f/1.5-2.4, 27mm (wide), 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, with Dual Pixel PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus), and OIS (optical image stabilizer). Lastly, the Telephoto Camera is a 12 MP, f/2.1, 52mm (telephoto), 1/3.6″, 1.0µm, featuring PDAF, OIS, and 2x optical zoom.
The company (Samsung) did keep the cameras just about the same, reminding you of the ones integrated in the Galaxy S10, with wide, ultra-wide and telephoto lenses. But Samsung did add Live Focus effects to the video recording, which is another plus.
MOST NOTABLE FEATURES
Fast Qi/PMA Wireless Charging & Reverse Wireless Charging
As said before, the Note 10 features a decent 12W wireless charging, but also offers Reverse Wireless Charging that’s based on and pioneered by the Galaxy S10, meaning you’ll be able to charge other Qi-compatible phones and gadgets using the back of the Note 10, like a pair of Galaxy Buds for example.
Stylus Pen’s Features
The Stylus Pen only takes 6 minutes to charge up, but gives you an amazing total of 10 hours of battery lifetime. That’s a pretty neat start.
The Galaxy Note 10’s Stylus Pen allows you to convert handwriting to text via Samsung’s new OneUI software, which offers a transcription-and-export option, allowing you to save the note as text and send it to a Word doc, PDF or any other file type, in one single action.
Not only that, but the pen also supports Air Actions and gives you remote access to photos, all in an elegant, unibody design that lasts a long 10-hour period before running out of power. The Air Actions feature gives you intuitive control with a wave of your hand, meaning the S Pen was re-engineered to detect your hand’s movement, allowing you to control your phone via simple gestures.
By moving the S Pen clockwise or counterclockwise you can get every photo-shot, from close-crop group shots to the whole scene.
Flicking the S Pen from one side to another lets you advance through photos in the Gallery App, working smoothly as soon as you get used to it.
Gesturing up or down will respectively turn the volume up or down, which means you’ll no longer need to touch the volume key ever again (assuming your S Pen is recharged, of course).
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 is definitely something to look up to. This smartphone puts the “smart” right at your fingertips, and it’s all thanks to its Stylus Pen. The Note10’s power algorithm learns from how you work, offering you enhanced creative freedom via its S Pen, super speed processing, Wireless PowerShare charging, and massive storage.
This means that the Galaxy Note10 will always be able to keep up with whatever you throw at it.
The Galaxy Note10 Smartphone is currently available in 3 different models: Aura Glow (Blue tones w/ Blue S Pen), Aura White (White tones w/ White S Pen), and Aura Black (Black tones w/ Black S Pen).
If you’re interested in buying the Samsung Galaxy Note10, the “magic” Stylus Pen enabled phone is currently available at Verizon’s official website, and you have two different payments options available.
You can get your Samsung Galaxy Note 10 by paying its full retail price of $950, or go with a more affordable option to get it, the 24-monthly payments option, which will only cost you $39.58 per month.
Keep in mind that all three models (Aura Glow, Aura White, and Aura Black) are only available with a 256 GB Internal Storage Capacity.
Clicking this link will take you to Verizon’s official shopping page, where you can choose the model you’re looking to get, as well as the payment option that better suits your wallet.
