The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus: Already Reviewed
It's the tallest, heaviest, newest, and most expensive pocket-sized computer I've ever owned, but is it worth our consideration this early in its lifecycle? Find out in today's epic, comprehensive, and no-holds-barred review, told in the fair and honest style that you've come to expect from Browningate.
Impatient? Skip to your favorite section using these timecodes:
00:00 - Intro
00:28 - General Attributes & Aesthetics
02:08 - Body & Screen
05:47 - Weight & Handling
06:55 - Bootloader & Root
09:27 - General Software discussion
11:05 - Camera
16:12 - Sound system
18:20 - Battery performance, replacement, and runtime
19:46 - Fingerprint scanner and magnetic pulse feature
20:51 - Conclusion
Editorial Notes
Certain sections had to be cut from the video due to time. Here are two that I felt still deserve some kind of mention:
1. Microphone - The microphone system is pretty decent. Not quite as good as the reigning champion, (that being the Moto X Pure Edition, of course) but still good. Stereo video recording is a thing. While there is no true front-facing microphone like what we saw on the LG V20, there is a dedicated directional microphone on the back close to the camera array to assist during the recording of telephoto videos.
2. Fingerprint scanner - Samsung was reportedly planning to include the "cutting-edge" optical in-display fingerprint scanner on the Note 9 already, but had to ditch it at the last second. This is, without doubt, the worst cell phone fingerprint scanner I've ever used. It is slow and fussy. It's not even as secure as a capacitive scanner, to add insult to injury (did I mention that the facial scanner was axed from this model as well?). To be clear, it does work "well enough," most of the time. Just be prepared to re-train it every few months. TL;DR? It's acceptable, but nowhere near as good as a proper capacitive fingerprint scanner once the novelty factor wears off. Use of "smart lock" can help defer the impact of this shortcoming.