Samsung has today announced the launch of it’s flagship smartphones, the Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+, in India. The Galaxy Note 10 comes with a price tag of Rs 6999 and the Galaxy Note 10+ is available for Rs 79,999 for 256GB and 512GB variant is priced at Rs 89,999.
Although the Galaxy Note 10 is meant for those who don’t want to spend too much, it is the Galaxy Note 10+ that is packed with dinner top-of-the-line features. Whether be it the Quad HD+ display, four cameras at the rear and more. However, the question is, can it make a Note-worthy impact? We spent some time with the device and this is what we think of it.
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Design and Display
Let’s start off right from the design part, the Galaxy Note 10+ is a quite big device when you hold it in your hand. However, it is lighter and slightly thinner than the Galaxy Note 9. The company has also added a new gradient finish at the back with the Aura Glow gradient. It basically reflects different colours when light falls on it, though the similar implementation was seen in Galaxy A50 smartphone.
However, it is the front that has changed in the Galaxy Note 10 series. It now come with Infinity-O display, meaning that there is a hole at the top-centre position. Interestingly, the company has significantly reduced the bezels and it gives an immersive look and feel. Talking about key placements, the left houses power on/off button and volume controls, while the right is left bare. The top features Dual-SIM slot, while the base features USB Type-C port along with speaker grille. The rear is loaded with a quad-camera setup along with an LED flash and laser autofocus.
Sadly, the 3.5mm Audio Jack is no more and the company has also not bundled an adapter with box, meaning that you need to buy separately. That said, the Galaxy Note 10+ despite being a tall and large smartphone, it is quite lightweight to handle.
Coming to the display, the Galaxy Note 10+ features 6.8-inch Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED Infinity-O Display, 3040×1440 pixels Resolution and 498ppi Pixel density. The display is HDR+ certified and it supports 1200 nits brightness. The new AMOLED Display deliver some crisp colours and deep blacks looks quite interesting. It features Gorilla Glass 6 protection. We will talk about more in our upcoming review.
Hardware and Software
On the hardware front, the Galaxy Note 10+ is powered by a 2.7Ghz Octa-Core Samsung Exynos 9 Series 9825 7nm Processor with Mali-G76 MP12 GPU. The phone is loaded with a 12GB of RAM and it is available in two storage options including 256GB and 512GB. The Chipset is currently one of the most powerful chipset available in the market and it will be interesting to see how well it performs when you put some heavy workload.
On the software front, it is loaded with OneUI, which is based on Android 9.0 Pie. The user interface is smooth and the company has added some optimisation to make it more useful. However, it comes with some noticeable amount of bloatware including Microsoft App suite, Facebook and Netflix.
Camera
The major highlight of the Galaxy Note 10+ are the cameras. It features a 16MP Ultra Wide lens with F2.2 Aperture and 123-degree field-of-view; a 12MP wide-angle lens with Dual Pixel technology, 77-degree field-of-view, OIS and F1.5/F2.4 aperture; and a 12MP telephoto lens with F2.1 aperture and OIS. Finally, there is a VGA DepthVision Camera. For the front, it is loaded with a 10MP Dual Pixel wide-angle sensor with an 80-degree field-of-view and f/2.2 aperture.
That said, the company has added some really good modes like Live Focus in video. With this, user can record a video with real-time bokeh effect. Then there is AR Doodle mode, which allows users to draw Doodle and record a video. It also features Super Steady mode, which stabilises the video. We will talk more about the camera capabilities of the Galaxy Note 10+ in our upcoming review.
S Pen, Battery and Connectivity
The Galaxy Note series have been for the support S Pen and the Galaxy Note 10+ is not different. The new S Pen now comes with new air actions support, which allows users to perform certain tasks using air gestures. One can switch different modes in the camera mode with a swipe left or right with the S Pen or can zoom in or out by simply roaring the S Pen. Furthermore, handwritten notes can be translated to text, which is a really helpful feature.
In terms of battery, the Galaxy Note 10+ features a 4300mAh battery with support for fast charging. The company claims that half and hour charge can last up to 11 hours. The claim is yet to be tested out. The phone also support ultrasonic fingerprint scanner along with face unlock feature. For connectivity, it supports 4G VoLTE / 5G, WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C, NFC, GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and BeiDou.