Recently the screen on my note 9 cracked a bit. I decided to get a new phone. As a lover of large screen phones I have for most of the last decade had a Samsung note with a few notable exceptions like the wonderful Huawei Mate. I am not an artist so I mostly do not use the s-pen. So you need to understand this list of likes and dislikes are very personal in essence that they pertain to my usage pattern and may not be fully relevant to you. Still here is my take on this phone.
What I hate
- The notch. That terrible hole in the middle of top part of the screen where the selfie camera is. Why could they not copy notchless designs like the oppo Reno where the camera pops up from the phone leaving the full screen to be used. The notch takes up valuable screen area and the screen is why I buy large phones like the note.
- The fingerprint reader. Oh my. Again finger print reader is in the screen. This time at least it does not cover it like the selfie cam, so you ask why am I upset. Well the old way was that the finger print reader was on the back and it was easier to reach when casually holding the phone, but most of all, while it was on that back it also acted as an on switch. So all you needed to do to wake and login was touch the finger print reader. Now you need to wake the phone with the on switch or double tapping the screen and then you put your finger on the part of the screen where the under screen finger print sensor is. Take into consideration that you can not do this without looking like you did with the old one that had grooves around it to guide your finger to where it is on the back. Over and above if you want 360 degree protection using a screen cover, you will not be able to use the finger print reader. As someone who cracked the screen of his last Note I am using 360 protection on this one.
- Face unlock is slow and can be fooled since it does not have an Infra Red Camera or depth camera.
- No headphone jack! I mean blindly following apple! Not only this but on the version sold in the Middle East there is no aptX HD support on bluetooth so hi res wireless audio can not be used as a replacement to the headphone jack. For you guys that do not know aptx, normal bluetooth can not transmit high quality audio that a simple headphone jack can. This will hurt you only if you have high end headphones.
What I like about the note 10 plus.
- Gorgeous large screen.
- The included wired usb headphones by AKG ( fully owned by samsung now ) is actually very very good. It is not in the same race as the apple free included earphones.note 10 plus review