(upbeat music)
Hey, I'm Alejandro Alba,
and today I'm gonna review Samsung Galaxy Note 10+.
This phone is what people call a phablet,
a phone with a screen almost the size of a tablet.
But the word makes me cringe,
so I won't be using it.
Anyway, the new Note 10+ at first sight looks beautiful
But in this review,
I'll not only be looking at the exterior, but what's inside.
So let's find out if this large screen phone
is the right one for you,
and if having a stylus is worth it.
This S Pen sports a new gyroscope accelerometer,
allowing you to control the phone,
which can make you feel a little bit like Harry Potter.
At the end of the day,
most of them feel like gimmicks
that I wouldn't be using a month after I got the phone.
Now, I'm gonna go ahead
and try other features with this pen,
including taking photos.
Let's see, I'm gonna change modes.
I'm gonna flip the camera right now.
Let's see.
Okay, so it takes a little while to understand what's going
but right now I'm on live focus video.
I could change the features within.
I'm on hyper lapse now, live focus.
Let's see, regular video...
Photo, okay so this is the one to really try out
because to be honest,
this is the most practical feature from the S Pen.
So if you're trying to get a group shot,
or if you're on vacation solo,
you could take your own pictures with this.
All right so when it comes to the S Pen,
it's kinda nice that it works as a remote control shutter
for when you're taking group shots,
or you're traveling solo.
You could just set up your phone a few feet away,
take the pen with you,
and very discretely hold it and take a photo.
The thing though is that all the other features
like zooming in, zooming out, switching between camera,
live focus, video recording, night mode;
that is not as smooth as I thought it would be.
Also, you kinda have to make weird gestures
that do make you look like a wizard.
This is basically just a remote control shutter button,
which is pretty cool.
I normally, what I do,
is I have an iPhone,
so I use my Apple Watch to remote control my camera
and take group shots,
but I think this is just easier.
One place I did find the pen to be extremely useful though,
was video editing.
The Note 10+ has some built-in video editor,
which Samsung already had before Apple.
And it's easier to splice clips with a stylus
than your chunkier fingers.
Overall, the pen is not practical to me
and I don't see myself really saying,
Oh I need this in my life.
But it's still cool how the pen
just slides into the phone though.
Although it kinda reminds me of a Palm Pilot.
It's like a Palm Pilot.
I remember when I was little, I had a Palm Pilot.
It didn't work.
I would just pretend like I was a business man.
I wanted to be an adult so bad
and now that I'm an adult,
I don't want to go to meetings or send emails.
Although I'm sure many of you would prefer a headphone jack,
but guess what?
The Note 10+ is yet another phone without it.
Okay there's no headphone jack,
which I'm sure there has to be a dongle or headphones.
Okay, it comes with some AKG headphones,
which are pretty good headphones.
Now it's become a trend more and more
that phone makers are removing headphone jacks
from their smartphones.
I personally don't mind it,
since I love using wireless headphones.
They're just easier to deal with.
But then again,
they do die on me in the most inconvenient times,
like in meetings with my boss.
So I do understand why people are upset when they learn
that their new favorite phone
doesn't have a headphone jack anymore.
So you get some pretty good headphones right out of the box,
but I don't see a dongle.
And if there's no dongle,
there's no dongle.
Samsung said they removed the headphone jack
to make more space for the battery,
which is something consumers keep asking for.
The Note 10+ has three cameras in the back.
One 12 megapixel main lens,
another 12 megapixel telephoto lens,
and a third 16 megapixel ultra-wide lens,
which again,
Then there's the 10 megapixel front-facing camera
for selfies which looks like a hole punch
at the top of your screen.
And they're all great cameras.
Also look at the beautiful focus on this camera.
So this is like perfect for vlogging.
If you're a vlogger,
you could record and edit on the same phone.
So, look at how automatically my background is blurred.
I do think this is beautiful.
Of course, these cameras are not meant to replace
high-end point and shoot cameras yet,
but they are way more camera than most consumers need.
Okay this phone, first glance,
beautiful, too big.
The Note 10+ has a 6.8 inch dynamic AMOLED display.
All you really need to know is
But it's honestly too big to properly handle.
All right so this isn't necessarily a flaw,
but I just want you to see something.
This phone is too big that it doesn't fit
in my front jean pocket.
I have to put it on my back
and even then, it still sticks out.
So, that's just how big this phone is.
Again this is not a flaw.
This is just a preference.
Some people like big phones with big screens
and especially something that has a stylus
so you could go ahead and write on.
I don't think it's practical
and if a phone isn't practical,
then what do I want it for?
And if it doesn't fit in my pocket,
I don't want to carry it.
The Note 10+ has a Gorilla Glass 6 back
which is great for durability.
But, it's a fingerprint magnet
and if you don't have a case on it,
it will scratch easily.
All right, so my time with the Note 10+
is coming to an end
and before I conclude,
I must say that this phone completely took me by surprise.
I was very against it at the beginning
because it was too big for me
and by the end,
I completely had a change of heart
because I see all the benefits to having a larger display,
including video playback, taking notes,
also just having a bigger view when you're recording.
Deciding to buy the Note 10+ comes down to two things:
If the answer to both of those questions is yes,
then get the Note 10+
But you can either pay a hundred dollars more
to upgrade to 512 gigabytes,
or just buy a micro SD memory card to expand the storage.
If you don't want to spend that much money,
then I'd recommend just getting the
You'll still get the S Pen,
but you would have to sacrifice a .5 centimeters in display
and expandable memory.
But it's cheaper
Also a few other specs
that might convince you to purchase this phone
are it's water resistant,
it has expandable memory,
and the battery life is so good.
During heavy use,
I think it lasted me around ten and a half hours.
And then the other time
where I wasn't really using it as much,
and I wasn't really making calls
or listening to music
or playing video games,
it lasted me up to 36 hours, which is crazy.
However, if you really want everything Samsung has to offer,
but the stylus has no appeal to you,
then you should just go for the 6.1 inch Galaxy S10.
It has most of the great features the Note 10 has,
but it's not as expensive.
Now, if you don't want anything to do with Samsung
because you're scared of it blowing up,
although that is not a thing anymore,
or because you heard that the S10 was having issues
with the finger scan.
Apparently anyone could unlock the finger scan,
do not worry about any of that
because there hasn't been any issues reported
with the Note 10+.
So, I think we're good with this phone.
If you want the biggest,
most beautiful phone with expandable memory,
great cameras, and a stylus,
the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ is the phone for you.
Uh wait, this is a full-on rainbow mirror.