Samsung Galaxy Note10 review

Competition

The Galaxy Note10 faces stiff competition in its home camp before it even goes up against other makers. The Note10+ is the obvious first choice and it's the true pull-no-punches flagship. Superior display, even faster charging, ToF camera, storage expansion - it's the modern Note for Note purists (especially if they are flexible about audio jacks). In this price range does it even really matter that it's $150 more expensive?

If you are after a more affordable Galaxy, there's always the several-months-old S10+, which can even be had for less than the small Note. You'd be getting storage expansion (though not as much base internal storage, and a slower UFS2.1 one) and a headphone jack, plus a higher-res screen. Obviously there are no S Pens on Galaxy S phones.

If you've already conceded the lack of a stylus, but you're after pocketability, there's always the small S10 - not much along the lines of feature differentiation between the S-series models (other than a depth sensing front cam on the big one) means the S10 is just as good as the S10+, only easier on your pocket in more ways than one.

Samsung Galaxy Note10+ • Samsung Galaxy S10+ • Samsung Galaxy S10

Outside of the Korean maker's roster, the Note10's main rivals are due to be announced in the coming weeks. In the absence of the iPhone 11 (or whatever they call it), Pixel 4, Mate 30, maybe the OnePlus 7T, and why not even the Xperia 2 (a compact flagship from the used-to-be-king of compact flagships?) the Note10 hardly has any flagship competition for the time being.

Apple iPhone XS • Google Pixel 3 • Huawei P30 Pro • Sony Xperia 1

There's always the iPhone XS, if you absolutely must buy one today, but it's missing an ultra wide angle camera, has the mother of notches in its smaller display, and has worse battery life. Seriously though, it's getting replaced in a few weeks, wait them out at least for the price cut on the current model.

The Pixel 3 generation is even more cameras short on their backs, but Google's phones do come with perks like their unique camera experience, Pixel-style Android, and unlimited photo storage, plus they're a bargain these days. The Note10 is a superior phone in most respects though - there's little point in trying to list them here.

Perhaps least obsolete is the P30 Pro - Huawei's S10+ of sorts. It's got a 5x periscope zoom telephoto cam bringing stuff much closer than what the Note can do, has better battery life and faster charging, and offers storage expansion (albeit a niche NM standard). Ah, the Huawei also has an IR blaster, what's the last Note that had one? The P30 Pro is substantially cheaper too, being half a year old already. The Note10's chipset is more powerful (we'll see what the Mate 30s and their next-gen Kirins will bring) and Galaxies capture great video next to Huawei's generally dismal footage. The Samsung handset is also the much more compact phone, which can't be irrelevant if you've come this far in a Galaxy Note10 review.

We did mention the Xperia 2, but since it's not looking like a straight up replacement to the 1, the Xperia 1 could be a viable alternative to the Note10 today. A much taller phone, but slender as the Note10, the 1 is only a little heavier than the 10 and may tick the pocketability checkbox, just maybe. A much sharper display in a cinematic 21:9 aspect could be more important than an S Pen, though the Xperia's much shorter battery life might end up being an issue, coupled with not overly fast charging. We'd go ahead and call this a tie in the imaging department so that's out as a deciding factor. Maybe the stock-ish Xperia launcher beats OneUI in your book?

Verdict

We've been hearing a lot of people question the premise behind the very existence of a small Note - it is, after all, the branch of Galaxy phones that conceived the phablet. But as phablets became the norm (so much so that we seem to have stopped using the word), isn't there enough room in this diverse market for a reasonably compact Galaxy with an S Pen?

Samsung thinks there is. Not without heated debate, and certainly with some naysayers remaining, we've reached a majority vote at the office to agree with them.

The Galaxy Note10 is easy to recommend to someone looking for a compact high-end phone with a stylus - there simply isn't any other. And it's an amazing phone even if the S Pen doesn't do anything for you. It also feels fresh enough design-wise if you are already bored of the design language used for the Galaxy S8 through S10.

Pros

• The most compact Galaxy Note ever.
• Bright OLED screen with a small punch hole and razor-thin bezels.
• Excellent battery life, fast charging.
• Great-sounding stereo loudspeakers.
• S-Pen with tons of unique features.
• Nice camera experience all-around, great image quality.
• High performance, generous 256GB of storage.

Cons

• The arbitrary feature cuts from the big model are at odds with the Note's all-out ethos.
• No 3.5mm audio jack.
• Controversial power button placement.
• The in-display fingerprint reader needs more optimization (mostly software-wise).
• Only 2x telephoto cam while competitors are already at 3x and even 5x.
• The Night mode needs more work.
• The ultra-wide angle camera lacks autofocus.