Samsung Galaxy Note 10 vs S10: Should You Save Some Bucks?

v Bottom Line v

Photo by Jeremy Lwanga on Unsplash

Luis Silva (March 2020, updated: February 2021)

---

Introduction

In March of 2019, Samsung started selling its Galaxy S10, while Samsung's Galaxy Note 10 hit the stores in August of 2019.

We are looking at how the Galaxy Note 10 and the Galaxy S10 compare to each other to help you decide which might be the right one for you.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 are about the same price, but you'll usually find the Galaxy S10 at a lower price. Keep this in mind when comparing both Galaxys.

Down below, there's a "Tek-Score" in every analyzed section of these models. All the specifications were examined to allow you a faster discerning of the variation between the phones. There's also a global rate for you to compare them to other phones if you're willing to consider other phone suggestions.  ? 

We've based our rate on a study from Globalwebindex.com about the most wanted features from people looking to buy new smartphones.

For additional information regarding our smartphone comparisons, check this FAQ.

You'll also see a progress bar underlining some features. That's to show how they compare with other smartphones with similar prices.  ? 

You can click here:  i  to view the ones we're comparing to, but basically, we've excluded every smartphone that's not within a 20% (above or below) price range.

Some features are also shortcuts to several top 10 tables for every budget.

Price*			vs.
Device	Galaxy Note 10	Galaxy S10
Release Date	2019, August	2019, March	0y.
OS Updates	3 years	3 years	0y.
Security Updates	3 years	3 years	0y.

*Reference: Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

Performance

Inside the Galaxy S10 is the Exynos 9820 SoC, while on the Galaxy Note 10, there's the Exynos 9825 chipset.

If you're a gamer, you don't have much to choose from, as they share their GPU: a Mali-G76 MP12.

On the multicore portion of Geekbench 5, which measures overall performance, the Galaxy S10 was, on average, 2% quicker while finishing its tests. On daily usage, you wouldn't be able to notice any real differences here.  ? 

Unfortunately, the Galaxy Note 10 isn't that smooth. It actually is below the average if you consider its rivals. The average rate is 2707, but it got 2101.

By the way, you can define both of them as upper mid-range.

Both phones run on Android 9 (Pie) and OneUI out of the box.

PS: Both the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 (with the Adreno 640 GPU) and the Exynos 9825 (with the Mali-G76), and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 (with the Adreno 640 GPU) and the Exynos 9820 (with the Mali-G76) are market-dependent. Click here for more info.

There's a performance increase of about 20% on the 855 for the Galaxy Note 10 and a performance increase of about 17% on the 855 for the Galaxy S10.

Performance*			vs.
Features	Galaxy Note 10	Galaxy S10
SoC	Exynos 9825	Exynos 9820
Graphics	Mali-G76 MP12	Mali-G76 MP12
Geekbench 5 Score	2101	2153	52
OS	Android 9 (Pie) and OneUI	Android 9 (Pie) and OneUI
Tek-Score	5.5	5.6	0.1

*Reference: Apple iPhone 12.

Display

Would you prefer the 6.1" AMOLED display of the Galaxy S10 or the larger 6.3" AMOLED panel of the Galaxy Note 10? There's no general contest here as each user has his personal preferences. To me, a 6.3 inches screen is where I draw the line.

The Galaxy S10 has a higher-resolution 1440x3040 Quad HD display, and the Galaxy Note 10 makes do with a 1080x2280 Full HD panel.

The Galaxy S10 has one advantage over almost all of its competitors: Its display density is 109 dots per inch above the usual.

It's better to be safe than sorry, so let's get the elephant out of the room. Both are shielded with a previous generation Gorilla Glass 6.

There's an Always-On display on both Galaxys. That's a must-have feature for me.

If you set your brightness to auto, both can do about 800 nits.  ? 

Both phones can play HDR10+ videos.

Given the Galaxy Note 10, you should know that 88% of its rivals can play HDR content and have an Always-On display, and 92% of them have an AMOLED screen.

Considering the Galaxy S10, please be aware that 87% of its rivals can play HDR content, 91% have an AMOLED screen, and 83% of them have an Always-On display.

Display Density (DPIs)*			vs.
Features	Galaxy Note 10	Galaxy S10
Size	6.3	6.1	-0.2
Screen Type	AMOLED	AMOLED
Resolution (px)	1080x2280	1440x3040	1915200
Refresh Rate	60hz	60hz	0
Dots per Inch	400.45	551.44	150.99
Always-On-Display	Yes	Yes
Notch	Hole	Hole
Peak Brightness	800 nits	820 nits	20
HDR	HDR10+	HDR10+
Sub Tek-Score	8.3	9.2	0.8
Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 6	Corning Gorilla Glass 6
Tek-Score	7.7	8.0	0.3

*Reference: Sony Xperia 1.

Cameras

Let's delve into their cameras. Together, a 12 MP sensor, an aperture of f/1.5, a 27mm wide-angle lens, one flash LED, HDR capabilities, and Optical Image Stabilization makes up the Galaxy Note 10 camera set. Adding to that, you'll still get the ability to record videos at up to 2160p.

You'll also find two other cameras, one with 12 MP, an aperture of f/2.1 plus a 52mm telephoto lens. And another with 16 MP (f/2.2) with a 12mm ultra-wide-angle lens.

The Galaxy Note 10 features a dual aperture camera, which means you can choose between f/1.5 or f/2.4.

The selfie camera is a 10 MP sensor with an f/2.2 aperture complemented with a 26 mm wide-angle lens.

I'm sure the guys at DxOMark will not look back at this camera, but we don't need a crystal ball to guess the rate: 114*. And if you take into account the telephoto and wide-angle lenses, it'll get 127** points.

To put things in perspective: all of its rivals can record videos in 4K or more, have an ultra-wide-angle lens, and feature Optical Image Stabilization. On the other hand, only 21% of them feature a macro lens.

Adding to its 12 MP shooter, the Galaxy S10's leading camera has an aperture of f/1.5 and a 26mm, wide-angle lens. You'll be getting one flash LED, HDR capabilities, and Optical Image Stabilization too. You can record videos at 2160p. There's also an extra dual sensor with 12 MP (f/2.4 plus a 52mm telephoto lens) and 16 MP (f/2.2) with a 12mm ultra-wide-angle lens, working together to give more freedom when framing shots.

There's a dual aperture shooter on the Galaxy S10 that allows you to choose between f/1.5 or f/2.4.

You can get selfies with 10 MP Megapixels. It has a lens with f/1.9 of aperture and a 26 mm wide-angle lens.

On DxOMark's reviewing article, they gave this shooter 116 points. And if we consider the telephoto and wide-angle lenses, we end up with a rate of 129** points. For an out-and-out review, click here.

Finally, if you must know, all of its rivals can record videos in 4 or 8K and have an ultra-wide-angle lens, and 91% of them feature Optical Image Stabilization. Still, only 13% of them feature a macro lens.

At least theoretically, you shouldn't see any difference between these cameras.

Considering this score, we can classify these two as lower high-end.

Both phones have something that I truly value in a camera: an optical zoom (of 2x). As soon as you get used to it, you'll know what I mean.

The Galaxy S10's lens can deliver a shallower depth of field and produce clearer pictures with this lens aperture.

*The guys over at DxOMark know how to benchmark these shooters. Unfortunately, there are lots of good cameras left out of their labs. So what do I do? I take every hardware specs (like lenses, sensor size, OIS, aperture, and so on) and give a comparable score. You should give it a topmost discrepancy of 2 points.  ? 

**Consider this as an estimative, particularly on mid-end cameras with less than 40MP and no zoom lens. They moved to a new camera test protocol, and they don't have enough reviews for me to refine the pre-update camera rates.

Picture Quality*			vs.
Primary Camera	Galaxy Note 10	Galaxy S10
Megapixels	12	12	0
Aperture	1.5	1.5	0.0
Lens	27mm	26mm	-1
Lens Type	Wide-Angle	Wide-Angle
Flash	1	1	0
HDR	Yes	Yes
OIS	Yes	Yes
Video	2160	2160	0
Score	127	129	2

*Reference: Huawei Mate 40 Pro.

Extra Camera(s)	Galaxy Note 10	Galaxy S10	vs.
Megapixels	12	12	0
Aperture	2.1	2.4	0.3
Lens	52mm (2x zoom)	52mm (2x zoom)	0
Lens Type	Telephoto lens	Telephoto lens
Megapixels	16	16	0
Aperture	2.2	2.2	0.0
Lens	12mm	12mm	0
Lens Type	Ultra-wide-Angle	Ultra-wide-Angle
Score	13	13	0

Selfie Camera	Galaxy Note 10	Galaxy S10	vs.
Megapixels	10	10	0
Aperture	2.2	1.9	-0.3
Lens	26mm	26mm	0

	Galaxy Note 10	Galaxy S10	vs.
Tek-Score	7.5	7.6	0.1

Body

The Galaxy Note 10 is 151 mm (5.95 inches) tall and 71 mm (2.80 inches) wide. Samsung's Galaxy S10 is a bit smaller, precisely 2 mm (0.08 inches), and a bit narrower too, about 1 mm (0.04 inches).

Both are 7 mm thicker (about 0.28 inches).

All of that goodness is presented in a sleek glass body. The Galaxy S10 weighs 157 g. (5.54 oz), while the other is 11 g. (0.39 oz) heavier. But because this is a bit relative, I've come up with an adapted "display size to phone weight ratio" rate. The Galaxy Note 10 got 7.1, showing it has a pretty nice weight for its screen size. Having said that, the Galaxy S10 has 7.9, which suggests exceptional work from Samsung.  ? 

You can have the Galaxy Note 10 in Aura Glow, Aura Black, Aura White, Aura Pink, and Aura Red. And you can compare that with the Prism White, Prism Green, Prism Black, Flamingo Pink, Canary Yellow, Prism Blue, Cardinal Red, and Smoke Blue, which comes with the Galaxy S10.

They're about the same size, so there's not much to choose from.

What about a fingerprint scanner? They all have one.

The Galaxy Note 10 is resistant to water up to 1 to 3 meters, just like the Galaxy S10. That should be for up to 30 minutes, and it's freshwater in standby mode only.

Looks*			vs.
Body	Galaxy Note 10	Galaxy S10
Size	151 x 71 x 7 mm (5.33 x 2.50 x 0.25 in)	149 x 70 x 7 mm (5.26 x 2.47 x 0.25 in)	-2037
Weight	168 g. (5.93 oz)	157 g. (5.54 oz)	-11
Build	Front and back glass	Front and back glass
Colors	Aura Glow, Aura Black, Aura White, Aura Pink, and Aura Red	Prism White, Prism Green, Prism Black, Flamingo Pink, Canary Yellow, Prism Blue, Cardinal Red, and Smoke Blue
Screen To Body Ratio	92.40%	89.05%	-3.36
Disp.Size To Weight Score	7.1	7.9	0.8
Looks	10.0/10	10.0/10	0.0
Waterproof	IP68	IP68
Biometrics	Under Display Fingerprint	Under Display Fingerprint
Tek-Score	8.4	8.9	0.5

*100% = 4+ colors + front and back glass + S2BR: 86+%.

Battery

When it comes to battery life, in theory, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10, with its 3500 mAh of battery capacity, wins over the Samsung Galaxy S10, with only 3400 mAh of battery capacity. But how would both perform in a real-world scenario? If you charge them up and run some tests, this is what you'll find out about the Galaxy Note 10:  ? 

• For 1 hour of talking, 1 hour of web browsing, and 1 hour of video playback, you'll be at 82% of the battery charge.
• By talking for 1 hour, browsing the web for 3 hours, and playing videos for 1 hour, the battery charge will be about 66%.
• From 1 hour of talking, 1 hour of web browsing, and 3 hours of video playback, you'll be with 70%.

And this is how the Galaxy S10 handles these tests:

• By talking for 1 hour, browsing the web for 1 hour, and playing videos for 1 hour, you'll end up with 78% of the battery charge.
• From 1 hour of talking, 3 hours of web browsing, and 1 hour of video playback, you'll probably have 58% left for the rest of the day.
• If you do 1 hour of talking, 1 hour of web browsing, and 3 hours of video playback, you'll be with 62%.

Have you noticed who the winner is? Yes, it's the Galaxy Note 10.

This is one of the Galaxy S10's worse features. Way worse than other price-liked phones. These tests show that it lasts up to 9% less.

Both phones support fast-charging. You can charge the Galaxy Note 10 at a maximum of 25w/hour and the Galaxy S10 up to 15w/hour.

There's also wireless charging (12w vs. 15w) in both of them. Cool.

These phones can also act as wireless power banks to wirelessly charge other devices. Cool, right?

The Snapdragon 855 chipset has another advantage: A battery life boost of about 15% (screen-on-time) if you compare it to the Exynos 9820.

Battery*			vs.
Features	Galaxy Note 10	Galaxy S10
Capacity (mAh)	3500	3400	-100
1h Talk + 1h Web + 1h Video	82% left	78% left	-4
1h Talk + 3h Web + 1h Video	66% left	58% left	-8
1h Talk + 1h Web + 3h Video	70% left	62% left	-8
Bat. To Phone Size Score  ?	6.5	5.9	-0.5
Sub Tek-Score	7.3	6.6	-0.7
Fast Charging	25w	15w	-10
Wireless Charging	12w	15w	3
Reverse Charging	9w	9w	0
Tek-Score	7.2	6.5	-0.6

*Reference: Samsung Galaxy A31.

Storage

The Galaxy Note 10 comes equipped with 256GB of integrated storage and 8GB of RAM. There's no expandable storage, but I believe you'll manage with only 256GB of storage. Also, similarly priced adversaries usually have less storage and less RAM. They're around 8GB of RAM and 149Gb of storage.

The Galaxy S10, in its turn, has 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. If you need additional storage, you can insert a MicroSD card on it.

Storage*			vs.
Features	Galaxy Note 10	Galaxy S10
RAM (GB)	8GB	8GB	0
Internal (GB)	256GB	128GB	-128
Micro SD	No	microSDXC (shared SIM slot)
Tek-Score	8.5	7.5	-1.0

*Internal Storage + 256GB Memory Card (Max: 512GB).

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.0 is here, on both of them. As for the NFC chips, both have them.

The Galaxy S10 is the only phone here that still supports the good-old 3.5mm headphone jack. Want a piece of advice? Forget about adapters and go for the wireless buds on the Galaxy Note 10.

These two are LTE or (LTE and) 5G compatible. The 5G variant of the Galaxy Note 10 has 12GB of RAM. Similarly, the 5G variant of the Galaxy S10 features a larger 6.7-inch display, a 4500 mAh battery, a 0.3MP depth camera, 256GB of storage, and fast charging at 25w.

Connectivity			vs.
Features	Galaxy Note 10	Galaxy S10
Network	LTE (also available in 5G)	LTE (also available in 5G)
Bluetooth	5.0	5.0
NFC	Yes	Yes
3.5mm jack	No	Yes
Tek-Score	4.6	9.5	4.9

Price

The Samsung Galaxy S10 may not be the best bang for your buck. But with a great deal or a price drop, it can be an impressive finding. The Samsung Galaxy Note 10, in its turn, isn't that cheap, but I'm not here to tell you if it's worth it. At least, it should be easier to sell it in the future.

You can check down below if it worths the extra cash.

Here are the prices that we've come across recently:

I earn a small fee from qualifying purchases. It doesn't affect the price you pay nor my opinions, but it will mean a lot if you click on one of these buttons before purchasing your next phone. You'll be helping to take this to the next level.

Prices on eBay are in $US but Europe-based. You can click to check the prices in your country.

Prices marked with ! are from renewed/refurbished/carrier-locked phones (except eBay prices that, as a last resort, can be from bids or used devices).

How much of a "phone" can your money buy?
That's how much "score" you can get with $100 based on the global score that you'll see in the next section (higher is better).

Have you found better prices elsewhere? The formula is simple: score/price*100.

Value for money	Galaxy Note 10	Galaxy S10	VS
Amazon	0.77	-	-
eBay	1.33	1.19	-0.14
Best Buy	-	-	-
Wallmart	0.77	-	-

And this is the "The Best Smartphones On A Budget" list.

So, what about that global rate? We'll get there. Let me point out the average of its competitors. The Galaxy Note 10 class is at 6.8, and the Galaxy S10 6.6.

Verdict: Does any of them really stand out?

Both are exceptional devices, but I'm sure you already know that. If you love to have a pen always available, then the Galaxy Note 10 should be the way to go. If not, despite having the same global score, the Galaxy Note 10 lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack, and that may be a deal-breaker to some. I personally don't see the purpose of having the Galaxy S10 when the Galaxy Note 10 is so similar. The Note should've been at least 6.5", but then, it would be the Galaxy 10+ that would become unnecessary.

Pros	Galaxy Note 10	Galaxy S10
#1	AMOLED	AMOLED
#2	Always-On-Display	Always-On-Display
#3	Cameras	Cameras
#4	Fast Charging	Fast Charging
#5	Wireless Charging	Wireless Charging
#6	Storage	MicroSD Slot
#7	Glass Protection	3.5mm Jack
#8		Glass Protection

Cons	Galaxy Note 10	Galaxy S10
#1	MicroSD Slot
#2	3.5mm Jack
#3	Price

Relative Score*			vs.
Global Score	Galaxy Note 10	Galaxy S10
Gaming Score	7.1	6.8	-0.3
Tek-Score	7.31	7.31	0.00

*Reference: Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

For suggestions and bug reports, click here. Your help is appreciated. Thank you.

If you want to know more about them, click here: