Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ Review: The Verdict
The Galaxy Note 10+ is about as polished and packed as a smartphone can get, but it's a familiar affair. While everything about the Note 10+ tends to range from good to great, competing manufacturers are pulling ahead of Samsung when it comes to features like camera and battery which merely stay the course this time around.
What we love
- Super slick in almost every sense
- S Pen handwriting-to-text recognition is great
- Has pretty much every feature you could want
What could be improved
- A little too iterative
- No headphone jack
- Expensive
The essentials
- Performance: Beastly. No complaints.
- Battery: About a day per charge.
- Screen: One of the best screens on any smartphone.
- Camera: Ranges between good and great, but isn't on par with the best of the best.
80/100
The Galaxy Note 10+ is a greatest hits CD. Tracks have been remastered - and there's even an obligatory cover - but they're all songs we've heard before. All killer, no filler, repackaged in a slick shell to tide fans over until something truly new.
Samsung has built the Note 10+ on already solid foundations, and there's plenty of small improvements that undoubtedly make it the pinnacle of Samsung's decade-long jam with Android. It's a stunning piece of hardware.
But as polished and pristine as the Note 10+ is, I'm found wanting more. Is a phone that merely stays the course worth $1,699? Can you charge such a steep premium for another spin of the same old record?
Absolute unit
- 6.8-inch Quad HD+ display
- Exynos 9825
- 256GB storage, 12GB RAM
- 12MP + 12MP + 16MP + ToF rear-facing camera
- 4,300mAh battery
- IP68 water-resistance
The Galaxy Note 10+ is a whole lot of phone, in almost every sense imaginable.
To start, it's one of the largest phones on the market, with the display measuring in at a hefty 6.8-inches. It sounds imposing, and it some ways, it is. More often than not, you'll find yourself needing two hands.
Typing with just one hand is a frustrating, typo inducing experience. Even just reaching across to the other side of the screen requires you to have freakishly long fingers or to readjust the phone.
But as monstrous as the Note 10+ is, it's more approachable than you might think. The phone is lighter than you'd expect, and Samsung has trimmed down the bezels to just a slim black frame surrounding the screen. It's pretty much just screen.
This, in part, is because of the Note 10+'s camera cut-out. The phone's selfie camera is built directly into the screen, sitting centred at the very top of the display. Samsung first tried out this trick with the S10 family, but had the camera aligned to the screen's right-hand side.
While this ultimately comes down to personal taste, I'd say the Note 10+ camera cut-out looks more elegant than its S series predecessors. I'm a sucker for symmetry. From a more practical perspective, it creates a clear delineation between notification icons on the left of your screen and system icons on the right. The right-aligned camera cutout on the S10 (and especially the S10+) kind of smooshed these together.
And of course, the screen itself is gorgeous, but that's really just par the course for a Samsung flagship. I wouldn't expect anything less.
This sense of elegance extends past the display. You'll find heavily tapered glass on the front and back with only the slightest sliver of aluminium joining them. It creates an illusion the Note 10+ is carved out of a single piece of glass. It's a phone that feels seamless. In some ways, a $1,699 phone is dumb, but at the least, the Note 10+ feels like one. It's an incredible piece of industrial design.
The Aura Glow finish my review unit came in only adds to this. It's a sort of sky blue that blooms into a rainbow as soon as light hits it. It's a bit gorgeous. The technicolour refractions are certainly visible in person, but they become more pronounced in photos. It's pure Instagram bait. It is however a filthy fingerprint magnet, so you'll need to wipe down your Note 10+ before you incessantly sharing photos of it, but hey, you win some and you lose some.
The Note 10+ isn't without its trade-offs, however. The heavily tapered glass on the front is the result of a curved screen, which is still one of the more divisive modern smartphone trends. When combined with the Note 10+'s significant size, the curved screen can lead to false touches. I've sent more accidental "thumbs up" emojis in Facebook Messenger than I have in my life when using the Note 10+. I love to respond to deep and meaningful chats with a big, dumb, blue hand and fret about destroying friendships in the process.
Curved glass also leads to colour distortion on an otherwise pristine screen. The Note 10+'s left and right edges will either appear lighter or darker than the rest of the display, depending on which angle you're looking at it from. I'm nitpicking, but it can be distracting when you're using apps with a light background.
In somewhat of an odd change, Samsung moved the Note 10+'s power button to the left side of the phone, breaking many years of convention. You'll get used to it eventually, but it feels pretty weird for the week you're rebuilding muscle memory.
The only time the change is genuinely problematic is when you're taking a screenshot, which still requires you to tap the volume rocker and power button simultaneously. I've found I have to wrap my right hand around the phone to hit one button, while using my left to press the other. It's not quite as awkward as that time you sent an accidental thumbs up emoji to your crush after they left you on read, but still pretty awkward.
On a more positive note, the dedicated Bixby button Samsung tried forcing on us is gone, but it's not the only casualty this time round the sun. After years of resisting, Samsung has left the headphone jack on the cutting room floor, like some sort of track deemed too avant-garde for top 40. This was inevitable - flagship smartphones with a 3.5mm connector are a rare breed these days - but it's still a little sad to see Samsung join the masses.
Samsung's refined Note 10+ is matched by some pretty beastly specs. You get a top-of-the-line in-house processor matched with more RAM than you ever thought you'd see in a phone. As you'd expect, the combo means the Note 10+ runs like a dream.
The phone's in-screen fingerprint reader isn't quite as reliable as what we've seen on OPPO and Huawei devices, but the Note 10+'s facial recognition is quite good for the most part.
DeX and Air Actions
The Galaxy Note 10+ may not feel overly new, but it does iterate on a couple of unique features in a mostly meaningful way.
The obvious shout out is the S Pen, the Note family's trademark stylus. The S Pen itself is much the same as it has been in previous years, but it's a little bit smarter. All of the S Pen's improvements are predominantly driven my software. My personal favourite is handwriting recognition; the Note 10+ is able to convert handwriting to text, and it does a surprisingly good job. It was even able to decipher my trash fire garbage scrawl with a surprising degree of accuracy, which is better than I can do sometimes.
One other useful feature that makes a return is the ability to use the S Pen to trigger the camera. This is surprisingly great when it comes to taking group selfies; you can let whoever has the longest arms hold the phone, without making them trying to take the photo with the same hand.
A less useful S Pen improvement is Air Actions. Air Actions ostensibly turn your S Pen into a magic wand. Waving it left, right, up, or down - or even making gestures with it - can be used to trigger events in certain apps, without touching the Note 10+'s screen. For example, scrubbing back and forward through a playlist, navigating through your photo library, advancing a slide show presentation, or flipping through camera modes.
While the idea is novel, the implementation is unreliable and imprecise. Actions don't always trigger on the first attempt. Waving the S Pen up and down to try and get the camera app to swap to the front-facing camera can look a little suspect. Touching the screen is guaranteed to work, while Air Actions aren't. As fun as the idea of channeling Harry Potter fantasies with your phone is, the magic quickly disappears when it doesn't work the first time.
DeX is another trademark Samsung feature that's become a little more useful with the Note 10+. From the S8 onward, DeX has essentially let you turn your Galaxy phone into a computer with a Windows-like environment. However, this has always required a dedicated monitor, mouse, and keyboard.
Samsung has fixed this with the Note 10+. Instead of having to plug the handset into its own screen, you can plug it into your Windows PC or Mac and run DeX as an app. The DeX environment runs in its own window, essentially letting you use Note 10+ from the comfort of your computer. Rather than trying to replace your computer, the new implementation of DeX complements it instead, and that's for the best.
Unsurprisingly, Samsung's own apps work best within DeX, and are a bit more PC-like in the interface. For example, Samsung's messaging app has two panes: an overview of all your messages on one side, and the selected conversation on the other. It makes good use of a larger screen. On the other hand, third-party apps tend to render as in a tall and narrow window, mimicking what you see on your phone.
The implementation isn't perfect - it's not quite as responsive as just using your phone, you can't simultaneously run the same app on both your phone and your computer, and Mac users may find it conflicts with the Android File Transfer app - but it's the most compelling DeX has ever been. And hey, at the very least, it's great for sneakily replying to text messages in a meeting, not that I've ever done that or anything.
The same old song
Where the Galaxy Note 10+ feels like a letdown is camera and battery. Neither are bad, but both lag behind the competition. It's here where Samsung feels like its stuck on repeat. There's more to a phone than photo quality and battery life, but I'm a believer that these are two of the most important qualities in any smartphone, flagship or otherwise.
The Galaxy Note 10+ camera setup is a familiar affair. It's almost the same configuration as the Galaxy S10, which itself was pretty similar to the Galaxy S9+, wide-angle lens aside.
It's made up of up a 12MP primary lens, a 12MP 2x zoom lens, a 16MP wide-angle lens, and a Time of Flight lens (which is a new addition). The 12MP + 16MP are identical to the S10, whereas the 12MP zoom is a little bit faster.
For the most part, you'll get good photos, no matter what lens you're using; you won't be disappointed by your shots. However, they're just not quite as good as the competition.
This is most noticeable when it comes to lowlight performance, which isn't as a strong as the Huawei P30 Pro or the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a. Night shots can be a little noisy, are prone to blowing out bright light sources, and can't do as much with little-to-no light.
Samsung has included a dedicated night mode that does help out a bit, however. As we've seen on other devices, night mode takes multiple images over a longer period of time to stitch them together into a brighter image. While the results are certainly better than what you get without night mode, the photos don't look quite as natural as what you'd get from the aforementioned competitors. Night mode shots can look a little over-processed, cartoonish, even, as in the shot below.
In addition, the Note 10+ doesn't provide any indication of how long you should be keeping the phone still for when taking a night mode photo, and doesn't seem as adapt as compensating for any slight hand movements. This can make night mode photos look a little soft, which isn't ideal when the Note 10+ can sometimes struggle to find focus in dark environments. For example:
Samsung has however made some improvements to the Note 10+'s 2x zoom lens. The aperture is faster, which essentially makes it a little easier to get a sharp shot at night, as in this example:
It would have been nice to see Samsung push zoom a little bit further - Huawei and OPPO both have 5x cameras in their smartphones - but I'm starting to sound like a broken record.
The Note 10+'s wide-angle lens is probably the weakest link here. It's not quite as reliable at night, and shots can feature heavy fisheye distortion - an issue that Huawei and LG both managed to address in their latest devices. It's still definitely nice to have however, and being able to fit more into your frame can lead to some stunning shots.
Here's a wide-angle Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ camera sample where the fisheye is pretty evident:
It's hard to tell exactly how much work the Time of Flight lens is putting in, but the Galaxy Note 10+'s portrait mode is pretty natural for the most part. The phone is able to separate your subject from the background quite well, and blend quite naturally. The one exception to this is the "Big Circle" effect which blurs the background a little heavily, and leaves the image look like a shoddy Photoshop.
The Note 10+ camera is consistently good, but feels a little short of greatness. It does the job, but it's nothing to rave about. It feels a bit too much like a retread. It wouldn't be fair to say that Huawei and Google are running rings around Samsung, but it's hard to not want more from the Note 10+ camera, especially when it outprices the P30 Pro and Pixel 3. Doubly so, given those phones are set to soon be superseded by the Mate 30 and Pixel 4, respectively.
Battery life is a similar story. The Note 10+ should give you a full day per charge, but not much more. Recharging your phone every night is pretty normal behaviour, but at the same time, we're seeing flagships from Huawei and OPPO push battery as far as two days per charge. Even if you're still charging the phone every night, they're the kind of devices you can use with reckless abandon. You never have to worry about running out of battery in a single day.
That's not quite the case with the Note 10+. While I've typically an okay buffer of at least 20% at the end of a typical day, if I pushed the Note 10+ just a little bit harder, I'd find myself getting dangerously low. Once again, it's hard to not want more.
You can eek a little extra performance out of the Note 10+ battery by toning down some settings, or disabling them entirely. For example, you can set the display to run at 1080p, as opposed to its native Quad HD, or you can switch off the always-on display. On one hand it's nice to have the option to get a bit more juice, on the other, it's a shame you have to nerf your Note 10+ to do so.
The Note 10+ does however feature some nifty fast charging tech; Samsung says you can get a "full day of use" from a half an hour charge. This does require a 45-watt charger, which is not included in the box. You only get a 25-watt charger packaged with the phone.
Considering the Note 10+ starts at $1,699, this omission is a bit egregious. Apple is just as guilty of this, but when you're charging almost two grand for your handset, you shouldn't expect customers to fork out extra just to get a fast charger.
Who is the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ for?
The Galaxy Note 10+ is an incredibly polished smartphone. It's hard to find genuine faults with the phone; everything about it ranges from good to great. It's a hell of a package. Over a decade of refinement has gone into making the Note 10+ the Note 10+. It's Samsung's industrial design at its best. But as refined as the Note 10+ may be, it's hard to not want more.
Again, there's nothing explicitly bad about the Note 10+. If you were to buy one today, you'd probably like it a lot. Especially if you're upgrading from say a Note 8. It's competent at everything, but in some ways, just being competent doesn't feel enough we're talking about a $1,699 phone.
Phone prices have kept rising over the last few years, but year-on-year upgrades have become more iterative.
I often wonder how much is reasonable to expect from a new smartphone. What constitutes as a worthwhile upgrade, especially when devices are so polished? I think this is best judged by the competition.
As iterative as the industry has become, we're still seeing progress. We're still seeing big changes. Manufacturers like Huawei and Google push their smartphone photography prowess consistently on an annual basis, for example. By comparison, Samsung feels stuck in a holding pattern. The same can be said about battery life.
But if you've loved an old Note, if you've loved a Galaxy S series phone, there's no doubt you'll love the Note 10+ and its familiar melody.
Some more Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ camera samples
I don't want a Galaxy Note 10+, what else can I buy?
Samsung Galaxy Note 10
The Note 10+ is joined by the slightly smaller Galaxy Note 10 this year, measuring in a more manageable 6.3-inches. If you still want an S Pen but don't want to deal with a massive phone, you might want to think about the standard Note 10.
Samsung Galaxy S10+
Samsung's Galaxy S10+ is pretty much 95% off the phone the Note 10+ is, but at a cheaper price. You miss out on the imposing screen and the S Pen, but you'll save yourself around $200.
Huawei P30 Pro
If you're not committed to Samsung, you'll want to consider the Huawei P30 Pro. It still has the best smartphone camera around, and a battery that can comfortably last up to two days. The Note 10+ design and software are a bit more polished and it has a nicer screen, but the P30 Pro is still a solid all-round phone.
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