Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G
THE BIG KAHUNA.
WE’LL ALWAYS BE grateful that the term ‘phablet’ never took off. Instead, we all just gradually got used to bigger screens. But the Galaxy Note has always pushed the boundaries of what’s considered acceptable, and this year’s range is no exception.
For the first time in Note history, Samsung has introduced two sizes: the 6.3-inch Note 10, and the 6.8-inch Note 10+. Only the latter comes with 5G connectivity. But it’s not just the screen that’s super-sized; the Note 10+ is also crammed with a bunch of additional technologies that make it the most featurepacked smartphone of the year.
The plus-sized display makes it larger than the other devices, but only marginally so. Samsung has removed almost all of the dead space around the display and wrapped the screen around the left and right edges, resulting in an astonishing 94.7% screen-to-body ratio. It’s also thinner and lighter than the other 5G devices we tested, but it’s the height and width that makes the Note 10+ a challenge to jam into regular-sized pockets.
The screen isn’t just big – it’s also beautiful. This is hands-down one of the best and brightest displays you’ll find on a smartphone, with vibrant colours, deep blacks and crisp whites. The small ‘hole punch’ at the top of the screen houses a single front-facing camera, but that’s the only non-screen element on the front of the Note 10+. The other distinguishing characteristic of the Galaxy Note range is the inclusion of the S-Pen. To date, it remains the only smartphone that natively incorporates stylus input, and there are a variety of cool things you can do with it. Our favourite, Screen Off Memo, turns the Note into a scrap piece of paper – simply pull out the S-Pen, and you can immediately write on the screen without having to unlock the phone.
Samsung has brought its A-game for the Galaxy Note 10+‘s photography prowess, and there’s plenty to like here. The rear camera array boasts a versatile trio of lenses spanning an ultra-wide, wide-angle and telephoto, and the well-designed camera software makes it easy to move between the different angles of view and shooting modes quickly.
We enjoyed shooting with the Note 10+ immensely. Bokeh can sometimes be a bit crunchy, and bright colours have a tendency to err on the side of over-saturation, but it consistently captures a lot of detail. Samsung has paid attention to video recording as well, which is a detail that’s often overlooked; the Note 10+ supports recording at 4K in 60fps, and ‘super steady’ optical image stabilisation. It also offers ‘video bokeh’, but this only works well if the subject stays still.
As well as the Snapdragon 855 processor found on almost all flagship Android phones, the Note 10+ comes with no less than 12GB of RAM. This powerful combo works a treat with the DeX platform, which lets you run phone apps in a more traditional windows environment when you connect it to an external monitor or a PC/Mac.
Additional features include wireless powershare (which turns the Note 10+ into a wireless powerbank), in-screen fingerprint reader, and 256GB/512GB of storage that can be supplemented with a microSD card. There’s not much that Samsung’s latest flagship doesn’t offer, save for a 3.5mm headphone jack. If you’re a power user with deep pockets (both literally and figuratively), the Note 10+ 5G has it all.
THE SCREEN ISN’T JUST BIG – IT’S ALSO BEAUTIFUL. THIS IS HANDS-DOWN ONE OF THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST DISPLAYS YOU’LL FIND ON A SMARTPHONE, WITH VIBRANT COLOURS, DEEP BLACKS AND CRISP WHITES.