Note 10 Impressions: Beauty & Beast

Samsung Galaxy Note 10… Where to begin? I’ve been using the Note 10 as my primary device for the past week or so and here are some random thoughts from my time with the powerhouse.

Design & build quality

It seems this is where Samsung invested most of their time and effort. Holding the Note 10 in your hand feels momentous and the Aura Glow version I’ve got shimmers in different colours depending on how the light hits it. That back is also nigh-on-impossible to capture in a picture because it’s also a mirror finish that is extremely reflective.

The fantastic design is held back by two things. The phone is a house for fingerprint smudges and the glass on the back is so slippery, every time I hand the phone to someone else they hand it back for fear of dropping it (ye, I’m yet to case it).

In my humble opinion, Samsung makes the best hardware and I think the Note 10 is testament to that.

Performance

I’m using the Exynos 9825 version of the Galaxy Note. What does that mean to those of you who are not spec junkies? The phone breezes through everything I throw at it, and since its 1 week old, I wouldn’t expect anything else to be honest.

Games like Call of Duty Mobile and Golf Blitz run fantastically and if mobile gaming is of interest to you then this will no doubt handle everything you throw at it with aplomb. And it will continue to do so for another year or two, I think.

The 8GB of RAM is more than enough so far and apps stay in memory just fine. I’m particularly fond of the fact that if I pause a YouTube video, go to a bunch of other apps when I come back it opens the video where I left it. Is that a big deal in and of itself? Nope, but it’s a nice touch I noticed coming from the Galaxy S8 I use as well.

Battery life

The 3500 mAh is on the small side for a 6.3-inch display but so far battery life has been “fine”. It’s definitely not the best in the market and if there’s one thing about this phone that you can point at as inadequate, it’s definitely the battery

Display

Speaking of the display, the 1080p 6.3 inch pannel is pretty gorgeous to lay your eyes on. So much so that it looks better than the S8’s Quad HD panel. I’m not sure if it’s because the technology has just gotten better or if it’s because the Note 10 gets far brighter than the S8 but ultimately I think it does look better than 9/10 displays you’ll find on the mobile market right now.

The fact that you have an all-screen display on the phone means it’s a media consumption beast and maybe I’ll finally get to watch Netflix a bit more on this – I haven’t done so thus far.

This coupled with the stereo speakers makes for a great media experience. The speakers are Dolby Atmos tuned as well – I don’t know what that means but they do sound really good so I guess the Dolby Atmos is doing something.

Camera

The camera is fantastic. I took a few samples but the lighting the past week was pretty gloomy so most of these samples don’t reflect the best of the Note 10 which performs even better when the lighting is better.

Also, I’m a pretty terrible photographer so most of this camera is wasted on me but whenever I want to go out and take photos with other people, I know the camera in my pocket can do that easily.

The night mode is also pretty out of this world – granted this is my first experience with night mode I was taken aback. Here’s an image taken outside in the dark with 0 flash;

Software and extra features

.When it comes to software, I don’t know if I’m the best “reviewer”. What I will say is most of the things you’ll want to do with your phone are here. Screen recording is natively supported so you won’t need to download anything from the app store which is great.

System -wide dark mode is a welcome inclusion as well but I am finally ready to admit that dark mode actually looks pretty bad but I keep it on cause it’s good for battery life and my eyes don’t get fried in bed late at night.

I don’t use launchers or icon packs and on every other phone I’ve had I’ve always gone back to default launcher so I can’t speak on customizability or any of that.

The S-Pen is the reason why most people get the Galaxy Note. It wasn’t why I got it but I have used it occasionally to take notes (shopping lists etc) and I’m sure artists would appreciate the pressure sensitive-stylus.

Oh, another pretty funny use I’ve found for the stylus is the ability to make super accurate WhatsApp stickers. My chat game is about go up a notch!

Overall impressions

Whilst the Galaxy Note 10 is more than anyone needs when it comes to a phone, the biggest takeaway for me is how much these phones have improved over the years. A mid-range phone will do most if not all the things you need from a phone and these high-end phones are now more of luxury objects than anything else…