The all rounder - why the Galaxy Note10+ is the flagship to beat right now

27 October 2019
The Galaxy Note10+ stands head and shoulders, or at least in-display camera, above the rest!

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Nice, everybody knows Galaxies are the best smartphones and in their own league, just no one accepts it loudly. But price are really the biggest weakness, if you get it on discounts like mentioned in article you pretty much get best phone of the year every year

    No is not
    After 6 months everyone Wil hate that 1000 euros go's out like nothing, camera not working properly, battery discharge faster all because of the new software downgrades

      • N
      • Note9 User
      • nFh
      • 30 Oct 2019

      Dr.AliRashid, 29 Oct 2019still rocking the note 8, its still so pretty today, just w... moreI did leave options for battery replacement for the Samsung Galaxy Note8 in USER OPINIONS AND REVIEWS (12 Oct 2019):
      I put the link here but it didn't go through.
      It listed your options as:

      1) If you bought your Note8 brand new less than 1 year ago in Europe (idk about elsewhere) from a Samsung authorised seller then the battery has 1 year warranty & the device 2 years.

      2) If the 1 year warranty has expired, then you can get a genuine new battery replacement by a Samsung authorised repair technician with the IP68 still intact.
      For my Note9 it's £60 & the battery & IP rating is guaranteed for 6 months which should will be long enough to identify any problem.
      It'll be a bit extra if they come out to where you live or work, but it'll take less than 1hr.

      Idk price for just the battery replacement on the Note8, I guess £50.
      The Note8 Screen & battery replacement is max £219.
      Details are on their website (>Product support, >Your Service, >Repair my product) or contact Samsung support.
      For UK customers go to:
      https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/repair/mobile­-device/ 

      3) You can replace your own battery (if you know what your doing) with a genuine or equivalent highest quality oem battery yourself for about £25 including the tool kit, (you'll probably lose any IP rating).

      4) Or use a third party (I personally wouldn't unless I was there during the procedure) but make sure they use a brand new genuine or equivalent highest quality oem battery for about £35 (you'll probably lose any IP rating).

        s-pen pusher, 29 Oct 2019the idea of having a headphone jack is to have wired headse... moreThat's my fault, I couldn't explain properly.
        When the S Pen is inside the Note's silo, there are contact points. There is one for power and to signal when the Pen is removed. My suggestion was that, if Samsung says there's "no room" for the opening space/port of the Headphone Jack, just put that port into the end of the S Pen. There will be metal contact between the S Pen/Headphone Port inside the silo, so you will be getting proper DAC when inserted. When the S Pen is removed, the Headphone Port is removed as well. In which case, the headphones either stop working (no signal/power) or they revert to using Bluetooth connection directly with the phone.

        So think of the S Pen as a cigarette, and the Headphone Port as the filter that's attached on the end. When you put the Pen back into the Phone, the phone charges the pen and mechanically connects DAC to the headphone port ("filter").

        So either Samsung puts the Headphone Port on the phone, or Samsung puts the Headphone port into the Pen/Silo... there's no excuse to not have that vital feature. We already have casualties with the loss of FM Radio, IrDa blaster, and Removable Battery. Otherwise OEMs will continue removing features in the name of style: microSD slot, Physical buttons, USB-C port, and SIM Tray. Then everyone will have to buy a pebble phone that's fully wireless, awkward to use, lacks features, can't be opened or tinkered, locked to a network, and the parts and prices are no-longer competitive so it becomes more expensive in the short-term and long-term.

          • s
          • s-pen pusher
          • PMT
          • 29 Oct 2019

          Kangal, 29 Oct 2019Listen, if you are correct about something I will always ta... morethe idea of having a headphone jack is to have wired headset connect directly to the in-built dac on the phone. the s-pen is wireless and doesnt connect to the internal dac, so to have the headphone jack on the s-pen would have it route audio through bluetooth, which defeats the purpose of having the jack in the first place. i agree with you on the aspect ratio- games are stuck in 16:9 and movies on the otherhand are on 21:9, so i too am against aspect ratios between these two.

            still rocking the note 8, its still so pretty today, just wish the battery would had been better well, I'm just living a powerbank life with it. no regrets at all

              Anonymous, 28 Oct 2019There's far too much that makes no sense here. First of all... moreListen, if you are correct about something I will always take the position of truth and accept it and bring my thinking in-line with yours. I do not care for brands or logos (much anyway). So I'm trying to approach this objectively.

              16:9 is the most utilised standard. If you have a 19:9 display, there's going to be many instances where you have empty spots on the screen. This means your device is unnecessarily tall. It is no longer as mobile as it could be. If you "must" have an ultrawide display, then you have to stop fiddling with the 18, 19, or 20-to-9 aspect ratios. And adopt the 21:9 aspect ratio which is a Movie Standard and is also pretty popular with Windows PCs. At least there will be less wasted space, and better compatibility. You might hate this aspect ratio now, but in a couple years, you will be paying your own money to buy it, since OEMs will transition to it eventually (just like 4:3 devices transitioned to 16:9 about 5-10 years ago).

              OIS doesn't use much area inside the phone, if you look at teardowns you would have known this. So that's straight up false (or lie). I use my Ultrawide camera, and you are wrong about the exposure time. The smaller sensor doesn't have enough to produce a cleaner image. Adding OIS will drastically improve my low-light photos, but also drastically improve Video Quality from the Ultrawide camera... if/when manufacturers decide to do so.

              Lastly (and it's a long one), the S Pen is truly a subjective opinion. Putting the Headphone Jack port into the S Pen is only a suggestion. But its a great solution if they fail to put it elsewhere. I don't think many people use S Pen, or even the Headphone Jack and S Pen at the same time. And even if you did, you can then revert to using a Bluetooth connection. Heck, if you really wanted to, you can leave the S Pen-Headphone Jack plugged in, and use a second S Pen to doodle on the display. So at least here you get options.

              I know many people who bought a Brand New Samsung Note phone, and after the first two months hardly/never take the S Pen out of its silo. I know, I bought the original Galaxy Note on-launch (was teased for it), also had the Note 2, Note 3, Note 4 (drowned). I never liked the Note6/S6, and the Note7 had the fire problem. By this time, I started using large screen phones with big batteries, the S Pen wasn't a requirement. My own usage changed drastically from the first Note to my last. One of the factors was that User Interfaces changed a great deal since the days of Gingerbread to now Lollipop and beyond. The S Pen was useful for hitting small targets and doing precise movements, but that change in software (and screen improvements) had me needing or wanting to use the S Pen less and less. And this sentiment is shared by all S Pen users. However, the omission of the Headphone Jack is a much larger impact to users (myself included). It either forced us to buy many dongles, and observe our battery use more strategically, or it forced us to spend even more money on Wireless Headphones which then forced us to watch the phone's battery use even more and a lifestyle change to charge up the battery of another device regularly. I'm on a OnePlus 7 Pro now and I hate it, so I'm having to shift my lifestyle to accomodate this choice. I keep wishing I bought a Samsung S10/e/Plus instead, but it's not quite there yet for me to fiddle with its software/ROMs. I'm twisting my fingers hoping the S11 family has much better Exynos SoC and support, whilst not stuffing-up the device like removing the microSD and Headphone Jack and fixing the notch issue and curved edges.

                • N
                • Note9 User
                • nE}
                • 29 Oct 2019

                Last year Ivan's device of the year was the the Google Pixel 3, but I'm not really surprised that he's not going for the Pixel 4 this year.

                Last year Victor's choice was the Samsung Galaxy Note9,
                https://m.gsmarena.com/our_editors_favorite_smartphones_of_2018-review-1875.php

                but despite being a long time Galaxy Note fan since experiencing the original Galaxy Note N700,
                https://m.gsmarena.com/in_past_tense_the_story_of_victors_phones-news-29890.php
                he was dissapointed with the Galaxy Note10 lineup because of modern design trends taking precedence over the Swiss-army-knife load of features the Note was known for, so he's sticking to his trusty Galaxy Note 9 (& the Galaxy Fold):
                https://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_fold_long_term-review-1996.php

                So it would've been interesting to hear his (or indeed more of GSMArena's team's) counter arguments.
                Still we've got our own counter arguments in this comments section.
                I agree with most of the comments here (except for those who've never used a Note or S flagship).

                In future I hope to see the audio jack back with a great DAC rivalling Portable Music Players, along with bigger better everything, stereo speakers, mic, optics, 1/1.5" sensors, thermal dissapation, battery (although I'm looking forward to graphene batteries to free up space), in the meantime can go 1cm thick, but not taller.
                What I'm saying is don't use space as an excuse for scrimping/ skimping out, whilst making it thinner at the same time.
                Note9 depth= 8.8mm. Note10+= 7.9mm.

                I'm personally not bothered about being the 1st to receive the latest android 10 OS update, they're usually buggy & anyone has the option of being a beta tester, I much prefer my OS updates fully baked which they have been for at least 4 years now.

                But as I've said many times before & it's already been mentioned in this thread, OEM's should give 3 major OS updates to their flagships & 5 years of Security patches.
                Kudos to those that do, & those that don't should be named & shamed.
                Time will tell ;)
                We've already seen that it looks like S8/+ & Note8 won't be getting android 10, I know it was never promised but why not?, surely they're powerful enough.
                The S9/+ Note9 were part of the project treble program, so there should be no excuse for not getting android 11, again time will tell.

                Finally, to those who spout bs comments like, 'with Samsung you get 1 year of updates or 2 if your lucky', No, see for yourself that devices from 2016 like the Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, Galaxy S7 Active are still getting quarterly Security updates (Galaxy Note FE gets Other Regular Security Updates).
                https://security.samsungmobile.com/workScope.smsb

                So have Samsung improved? Yes.
                Is it good enough? No not yet, keep going until you are the best!

                  • s
                  • smartphone junkie
                  • mAE
                  • 29 Oct 2019

                  I will go for the note 10.
                  The mi note 10 i mean!

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • PMT
                    • 29 Oct 2019

                    Kingslayer, 27 Oct 2019You can make a case the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max is the best... moreWatch Out for that Iphone 11 Battery.....

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • g3t
                      • 29 Oct 2019

                      GAMIRSFM, 28 Oct 2019Not all of them, some might be only on the Playstore, like ... moreAll apks including banking apps are available on other trusted websites providing apk files. You can even pull out apk from someone else's phone and install it on your phone.

                        • L
                        • L973
                        • nH{
                        • 29 Oct 2019

                        | Case in point :D
                        V Lovely profile name by the way...

                          Pretty low bar to clear when the Note9 last year was better in every way lol

                            • L
                            • L973
                            • nH{
                            • 29 Oct 2019

                            Honestly I'd just grab a Note 9 on promo (say 550 euros). THAT is a proper allrounder with all bells & whistles, not this slab of weirdness and odd marketing decisions.

                              • f
                              • finophile
                              • 7sq
                              • 28 Oct 2019

                              gosh it was very refreshing to read this bit:
                              This is a read for the conventional person, the one that relies on his or her phone to do the job it's required to and doesn’t impose artificial limits that are more down to prejudice than actual facts on their smartphones.
                              hats off

                                • N
                                • Note9 Users
                                • nE1
                                • 28 Oct 2019

                                No thanks, 27 Oct 2019Samsung products have obscenely high fail rate and are utte... moreI don't know where you are, but in Europe you have 1 month to decide whether to keep any brand new Samsung smartphone or if your not completey satisfied you can return it for a full refund.
                                All their smartphones have 24 months warranty & the batteries have 12 months warranty.

                                The above applies to Samsung authorised dealers, you would need to check the smallprint for 3rd party sellers.

                                  Anonymous, 28 Oct 2019You do realize that you can install all Android apps withou... moreNot all of them, some might be only on the Playstore, like for example Banking Apps.

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • g3t
                                    • 28 Oct 2019

                                    GAMIRSFM, 28 Oct 2019Oh cool, no security problems that get patched very fast, w... moreYou do realize that you can install all Android apps without playstore??

                                      • E
                                      • East coast USA.
                                      • NC7
                                      • 28 Oct 2019

                                      AnonD-731363, 28 Oct 2019Man having no google inside is a win win for Huawei because... moreIt's obvious vast majority of these comments are worthless. Everyone knows that the advanced OLED screens and DRAM and memory chips are provided by Samsung to most of the high end phones in the world, including the iphones and most of the Chinese phones. The large megapixel cameras on one of the Chinese phone is made by Samsung. Most of the remaining technology was stolen or copied by these Chinese phone companies.

                                        • N
                                        • Note9 User
                                        • nE1
                                        • 28 Oct 2019

                                        SpiritWolf, 27 Oct 2019Inferior main and tele cameras to P30Pro. Dunno about ultra... more"So if you are photography enthusiast, you will pass on Note10 family.".

                                        Lol, no, If you're a photography enthusiast you would not skip the Note10 family, especially if you find ultra wide useful like most photography enthusiasts do.

                                        DXOMARK
                                        Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G
                                        Camera 117 (Photo 126: 101 Video): Selfie 99.

                                        Huawei P30 Pro
                                        Camera 116 (Photo 125: Video 97): Selfie 89.

                                        https://www.dxomark.com/category/smartphone-reviews