Samsung Galaxy Note10 review

Video recording

The Galaxy Note10 is a capable video recording machine, just as it is a great stills camera. It captures video up to 2160p@60fps, there's 720p@960fps Super slow-mo, HDR10+ recording is supported (which pairs nicely with the HDR10+ capable display), and you can choose between the h.264 and h.265 codecs.

Videos out of the main cam have true flagship quality, with excellent dynamic range, lively colors and a lot of fine detail. 4K30 is superior to 4K60 in terms of fine detail and has more natural processing, while 4K60 has some excessive sharpening applied. There's hardly any difference between the two 1080p modes.

The telephoto cam says it has 4K60, but in reality the Note10 uses the main sensor in this mode - the familiar crop-and-upscale routine. It's then of much lower quality than 4K30 which uses the actual tele cam. That mode, on the other hand, produces footage which is noisier than usual - still usable, just not quite impeccably noise-free. There's significant gap in quality between the 1080p modes as well, with the 30fps looking much nicer, but 1080p60 does come out of the tele cam.

The ultra wide angle cam makes no 60fps claims and captures more than adequate videos - both 4K and 1080p.

Live focus video mode is available on the Note10 and we initially figured it would be there just for the sake of parity with the Note10+. We didn't expect it to be any good due to the lack of the ToF cam which supposedly aids the big model in subject detection. The reality turned out more than a little surprising.

We shot on the Note10 and Note10+ side by side and we're really liking the plain 10's footage better. Where on the 10+ the subject's outline follows it like a shadow leaving sharp areas where it's supposed to be blurry background, the Note10 mostly keeps up. Additionally, the background blur on the Note10 has a distinctly more natural look, while the Note10+'s background in Live focus videos is particularly artificially looking.

Samsung highlighted the Super Steady video recording in its Note10 presentation and said that engineers managed to improve the stabilization over the Galaxy S10-series. When we reviewed the Note10+ we spliced together a comparison video between that and the S10+, which is representative of the small Note's performance as well.

The improvement is rather subtle but the field of view has been expanded a little. However, you will notice at the end of the video that when extreme vertical motion is introduced, the Note10+ produces a choppier video for some reason.

Here's a whole bunch of samples taken on the Note10 exploring its stabilization capabilities in the different modes on the different cameras. Mind you, it's a long playlist that starts with a 4K60 clip where there's no electronic stabilization - just the OIS.

Another cool feature of the Note10s is the Zoom-in mic. What it does is honing in on the filmed subject and once you zoom on it, it will also increase the sound coming from that direction. We'll be referring you back to the Note10+'s review for a sample of that.

Here's a glimpse of how the Samsung Galaxy Note10 compares to rivals in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete picture.

Samsung Galaxy Note10 against the Huawei P30 Pro and the Sony Xperia 1 in our Video compare tool