I’ve been an iPhone user ever since the iPhone 6, and I liked it so much that I upgraded
to a new iPhone every single year, up until my iPhone XS Max, which I love!
And with the release of the Note 10 Plus, I decided to test the waters and see what
differences I would notice after a few days of use, so I could give you guys a good idea
of what it’ll be like to go from an iPhone to the Note 10 Plus.
Coming from the XS Max, the build quality of the 10 Plus feels fantastic and I’m really
impressed with how thin they got the frame on both sides of the phone. The huge curve
of the back glass feels really pleasant in the hand.
All of the buttons being on one side is new to me, and I wish the power button was a bit
larger like on the XS Max, but after getting used to it, it’s actually not too bad and
easy to press.
I just wish it had a physical mute switch like on my iPhone.
The 10 Plus is definitely larger than the XS Max, so it sticks out quite a bit more
in some of my jeans and shorts that have smaller pockets, which is a bit annoying, especially
since the shape is more boxy.
In terms of design, I love the vertical camera layout and the back of the phone looks really
premium.
The display is absolutely amazing and it packs perhaps the thinnest bezels I’ve seen on
any smartphone, thanks to a razor thin grille for the earpiece speaker, which is a huge
plus coming from the iPhone XS Max which seems to have massive bezels compared to this Note.
And the centered hole punch for the camera has really grown on me. It feels good to not
have the screen be blocked by the iPhone’s large notch. The hole punch just seems to
fade away after you get used to it.
The curved display is a little more subtle than before, but I do sometimes still have
issues with accidental touches on those edges, and if you’re in a brightly lit room, you
get distracting reflections on those edges which you don’t get on a flat-screen iPhone.
Although the speakers aren’t quite as nice as the ones on the S10+, they’re still better
than my XS Max’s speakers, and I love the bright highs while listening to music and
watching videos.
The Note 9 had serious issues with balancing audio between the earpiece and bottom speakers,
but the Note 10 Plus finally nails it for stereo audio.
1440P video in YouTube looks gorgeous on the Note 10 Plus, something you can’t get on
an iPhone, and I’ve noticed that LTE speeds are faster than on my XS Max.
Also, if you’re into watching Netflix on your phone, the Note 10 Plus is absolutely
the best phone you can buy for Netflix.
And I really love the picture-in-picture mode which is great if you need to quickly do something
else without having to pause the video.
I also like that notifications get larger thumbnails, like from YouTube, but it’s
quite annoying to get ads from games in your notifications, which I absolutely never got
on iOS.
One thing that I missed was the customizable tiles on the home screen tabs, like for the
weather app and a very convenient google search bar. You do get the widget tab on the iPhone
but it just isn’t the same.
However, I do feel like animations and the overall speed of the system felt quicker on
my iPhone XS Max. I can’t really explain it, but the Note 10 Plus doesn’t feel as
fluid.
I don’t really care that the headphone jack is gone, since my previous 3 iPhones didn’t
have it anyway, and I personally use AirPods all the time, which are fantastic, but Samsung
now has their new Galaxy Buds, and they’re honestly really good for the price.
I’m also in love with the cameras on the Note 10 Plus. They completely nailed it this
year in terms of software and processing consistency. If you wanna see why we think it’s the best
camera in any smartphone, click the button at the end of this video.
I like the fact that it comes with an SD Card slot that supports up to 1TB of extra storage,
instead of paying hundreds of dollars more to upgrade storage on an iPhone.
I’m personally a mac user, both at work and at home on my MacBook Pro, so it really
sucks not have AirDrop, which literally makes transferring photos and files to and from
my Mac and other Apple devices the most convenient thing ever.
Transferring photos was a major pain with the S10 Plus, because the Android File Transfer
app would not work, no matter what I tried. So we actually resorted to uploading comparison
photos to Google Drive, and then downloading them onto our Macs.
But thankfully, the app works perfectly fine with the Note 10 Plus, it just sucks that
you can’t preview photos until you transfer them.
I absolutely love the freedom you have with Android devices, allowing you to easily transfer
music files to and from the phone, which you can’t do on iPhones since Apple wants you
to pay for Apple Music.
The USB-C port is also very convenient, allowing me to share my MacBook Pro’s charging cable
with the Note 10 Plus any time I want.
It also charges super quick, so much faster than my iPhone. You get a 25W charger in the
box instead of the embarrassing 5W charger that Apple gives you.
And along with the super fast charging, the Note 10 Plus also gets really impressive battery
life, mostly due to the massive 4300mAh battery.
We played an hour of games on both the Note and the XS Max, and the 10 Plus got significantly
better battery life. You should definitely check out that video if you haven’t already.
The ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is nice because it’s completely hidden, but it takes
a bit of time to get used to the exact location of the sensor, and it’s also not as quick
as the one on the OnePlus 7 Pro.
Touch ID on my iPhone 8 was much quicker, but the home button just took up way too much
space, so I’m glad Samsung put it underneath the display.
However, I still prefer Face ID most of the time because it just happens instantly and
sometimes you don’t even notice it’s there.
As for the S-Pen, the main feature of the Note 10 Plus, I honestly don’t have much
use for it.
The only real use-case I could think of is signing documents, but these days, a lot of
people use e-Sign for legal documents, which automatically generates a signature and initials
for you.
But if you’re someone who can put the S-Pen to good use, it’ll work wonders for you.
I absolutely love the always-on display that tells me all of the info I need to see without
having to turn the display on, which is something that’s sorely missing from iPhones.
I’m also enjoying the UI that allows you to quickly and easily fine tune the volume
of the ringer, media and system sounds.
As many of you know, you get a lot more options for customization in the settings, which is
something you don’t get with iOS, so tech heads will definitely enjoy using the Note
10 Plus.
Overall, I’ve really enjoyed using it over the past few days, and it’s an excellent
phone, but I honestly still can’t give up my iPhone, and it’s because of iOS and the
Apple ecosystem.
Everything is interconnected and it all just works so well together.
And unlike Android, iOS was built specifically for these iPhones and the chips inside of
them.
The main drawback to Android is that it has to support many different smartphone brands
at the same time, so apps and software will never reach the level of optimization that
you get with iOS.
But if you could go either way or if you actually like Android, the Note 10 Plus is literally
the best phone you can buy right now. You’re seriously gonna be so happy with it.
If you guys enjoyed this video, make sure to tap the like button and subscribe for more
videos like this one. And you should definitely check out the camera video by clicking right
over there. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you in the next one!