Though both the Galaxy S10 and Note 10 launched last year, Samsung’s 2019 flagship phones and ultraluxe phones are still fantastic devices. Both offer high-end specs that include brilliant AMOLED displays, powerful cameras and ultrafast processors. In addition, now that the 2020 Galaxy S20 is out, Samsung has discounted the Galaxy S10 significantly from $900, £799 and AU$1,349 to $750, £669 and AU$1,149.
If you’re deciding between the two phones, we recommend the Galaxy S10. You’ll get similar specs and performance to the Note 10 (give or take a few things that we’ll go in detail about later), but at a lower cost.
For more about both phones, read CNET’s walk-through that compares these on the basis of design, camera, performance and storage. And for another comparison, read CNET’s Note 10 Plus vs. Note 9: Which Galaxy Note is the better buy?
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With its big display, cheaper price tag and comparable hardware specs to the Note 10, the Galaxy S10 is the better value. Currently priced at $750, £669 and AU$1,149 from Samsung, the phone’s display is a tad smaller than the Note 10’s by just 0.2 inch, but it has the same processor and nearly the same triple rear-camera setup. It also has a sharper display, a headphone jack and expandable memory. What you won’t have, of course, is the embedded S-Pen. But if you’re not a power user and won’t have much use for it anyway, go for the S10 and pocket the extra cash.
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Is the Note 10’s built-in stylus worth the $200 you’d be saving if you went with the Galaxy S10? To most users who can swipe and tap just fine without it, we’d say no. And since most of what’s under the Note 10’s hood is so similar to the Galaxy S10, we’d recommend going for that instead. However, if you truly think you’d get a lot of use out of the S-Pen (which can do other things than draw, like remotely take photos and control apps), you won’t be disappointed in the $949, £869, AU$1,499 Note 10, as this is still an excellent, albeit expensive, phone.
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Note 10 Plus isn’t just great, it’s outstanding
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S-Pen: The Note 10’s ultimate benefit
You can’t compare the Note 10 and the Galaxy S10 without first addressing the former’s one big advantage: the S-Pen smart pen stylus. Stored inside the Note 10, the S-Pen adds extra functionality to productivity apps and features that are baked into the phone. In addition to quickly jotting down notes and doodles, you can use the S-Pen as a remote, firing off the camera’s shutter or controlling music on Spotify from a distance.
The S-Pen is essentially the biggest draw of the Note 10 and you should ultimately decide if this is an important enough tool for you to pay more money for it. If you see yourself using the stylus often and have the budget for the Note 10, go for it. On the other hand, if it’s not a necessary feature, save your money now and check out the Galaxy S10. If you’re still on the fence between the two, then read on.
The Note 10 is all about the S-Pen
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Design: Galaxy S10 has a sharper screen and headphone jack
When Samsung’s first Note phone launched, its screen was notably much bigger than those of the phones that were out during the time. These days, however, many phones have generously sized screens, including the Galaxy S10. With its 6.1-inch display and the Note 10’s 6.3 inches, you’ll get a big-screen experience with either phone.
But the phones’ displays differ in another way. The Galaxy S10 has a sharper 1,440p resolution and a higher pixel density than the Note 10 (550ppi compared with 401ppi). Side by side, your eyes might not notice a difference between 1,440p and 1,080p. But if you watch a lot of video or play graphics-intensive games on your phone, the Galaxy S10’s screen offers crisper details, at least on paper.
Because the Note 10 houses its stylus pen inside, the phone is slightly heavier and thicker. The phone also doesn’t have a headphone jack, unlike the Galaxy S10. That means you’ll have to use a dongle, wireless headphones or USB type-C headphones to listen to music and calls.
Lastly, both phones have black and white variants, but the Galaxy S10 comes in four more colors as well: green, blue, silver and red. The Note 10 has one extra “fun” color, known specifically as Aura Glow. With its iridescent shine and striking color gradient, though, this third color variant is really, really fun.
Galaxy S10, S10 Plus, S10E: Every camera lens and curve
Camera: Galaxy S10 and Note 10 are nearly identical
For the most part, both phones have the same triple rear-camera setup and video features: a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 16-megapixel ultrawide-angle shooter and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens. Both have a 10-megapixel front-facing camera too.
But Samsung did tweak the camera hardware slightly between the two phones. For the selfie and telephoto cameras, the Galaxy S10 has a fixed aperture lens at f/1.9 and f.2.4 respectively. The Note 10 uses a slightly narrower f/2.1 aperture on the selfie camera and f/2.2 on the telephoto by comparison. Generally, the larger the aperture (or the smaller the f-stop number), the more light the camera can capture. This can help capture sharper low-light photos that don’t suffer from camera shake. However, despite the slight differences in hardware, in most scenarios, you shouldn’t notice much difference in photo quality between either of these phones. (Note that on both phones, the main wide-angle camera has a variable aperture that can shift between f/1.5 and f/2.4.)
At launch, the Note 10 did have a few extra camera features that the Galaxy S10 didn’t have, like applying bokeh blur on video and Night Mode on the front-facing camera. However, many of those features have been ported over to the Galaxy S10 with an October 2019 update. Both phones also have newer Galaxy S20 camera updates like Single Take and Night Hyperlapse.
For more on photo quality, check out photos taken with the Galaxy S10 and Note 10 here
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Galaxy S10 and Note 10’s performance and battery: About equal
Both phones have 8GB of RAM and are equipped with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset, but depen