The recent phone from Samsung is here, and it is the first to feature an all-screen display in the Note line, although it looks different from the Galaxy S10 or Galaxy S10 Plus.
Its edge-to-edge display technology is still called Infinity-O, but here the front-facing camera cutout is located in the middle at the top of the screen of the phone, rather than at the top-right. This positioning of the single circular lens produces a distinctly cyclop-like look – an eye that gazes at you like HAL in 2001: a Space Odyssey.
Samsung has selected to present two Galaxy Note devices at the same moment, for the first time in a while. First one is the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 – that’s the one you’re reading about right here – and the other one is Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus.
Also Read: Samsung Galaxy Note 10 to be launched on 7th August
The Note 10 Plus has a significantly larger screen, and is therefore bigger in general, and it comes with a few upgrades compared to the standard model under the hood and in the camera department.
Samsung Galaxy Note 10 price and release date
At its Unpacking event in New York on August 7, Samsung announced the Galaxy Note 10, and now you can pre-order it around the globe. The release date of Galaxy Note 10 is August 23 in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.
If you’re pre-ordering in the U.S., you’ll get $100 credit for the online store of Samsung. It is not clearly understandable at the moment if Samsung will run a similar scheme for UK customers.
However, pre-ordering the Samsung handset or any of the main distributors in Australia will get you a bonus AKG N700 Wireless Headphones valued at AU$499.
If you buy the phone directly, the cost of the Galaxy Note 10 is set at $945 / £869 / AU$1,499.
Samsung Galaxy Note 10 display and design
The biggest change in design compared to other Samsung phones is the introduction in the top center of the screen of a full-screen display with a punch-hole cut out for the front-facing camera. The Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus both have the top-right selfie camera.
Note 10 has a 6.3-inch AMOLED display with full HD resolution, with 401 pixels per inch at 2280 x 1080 pixels. It includes HDR 10 + technology, and we are impressed with how the display looks, given that Samsung hasn’t opted for a QHD display here.
We used the phone in natural sunlight, and we couldn’t test the display quality in an indoor environment, but it looked impressive out of the doors.
Whether that will remain the case when you compare your phone with other Samsung devices is uncertain, but the video we watched on the screen seemed vibrant and clear.
Some may not be fans of the camera sensor’s main positioning, but it may be much less intrusive than the notches you get on other famous devices, such as the iPhone XS.
Not only is Note 10 smaller than Note 9, it’s lighter and thinner as well. It measures 72 x 151 x 7.9 mm and is one of the lightest available Samsung flagship phones at 168 g.
This is a note designed for those with smaller hands who want the top-end features like the stylus S Pen but don’t want a gargantuan phone that is hard to hold.
Samsung Galaxy Note 10 specifications
Since this is a Galaxy Note phone, there is the S Pen stylus to let you take notes, draw on the screen, and more. If you’re after a stylus phone, this is one of the few phones available at the moment, and the others are mostly other Note handsets.
Note 10 enhancements to the S Pen include gesture controls that enable you to control certain applications, such as the camera, video, or gallery, by moving the S Pen in different directions.
This is presently restricted to Samsung apps, but the firm allows third-party app developers to access this feature, so we may see third-party apps start using it in the months ahead.
Those in the US will have access to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset. If you’re in the UK (and other countries around the world) you’re going to get the newly announced Exynos 9825 chipset, built using EUV 7 nm technology.
This fundamentally makes it possible for Samsung to create a smaller yet more effective chipset, and the firm chose to include the new chip in Note 10.
The phone packs 8 GB of RAM, and only 256 GB of storage is available – there is no support for microSD, and Samsung says this is to help maintain the size of the device down. For the average user, that’s plenty of space, but if you want more, you’ll have to opt for Note 10 Plus, which comes with 512 GB of built-in storage and microSD support.
If you are looking for a 5G-support phone then the Galaxy Note 10 isn’t the one. To get that support on board, you’ll have to opt for a more expensive 5G version of the Galaxy Note 10 Plus.