Galaxy Note 10 vs 10+ specs and price comparison

Samsung took centerstage today to announce the biggest shakeup to its Note line of S Pen stylus-laden phones in recent memory. We now have the complete specs sheet of Samsung's Galaxy Note 10 and 10+ champs, and can compare them directly. 

It's the first time Samsung is releasing three different Note 10 models in a lot of markets, when we count the 5G version, and while this might be a surprise for some to read, we've been hearing speculation that this will be the case since the spring. 

The initial rumor was that Samsung is outing a Note 10, 10+, and extra 5G-equipped models because its focus groups in Europe showed preferences for smaller handsets, but we see that theory debunked as the company announced the Verizon-exclusive Note 10+ 5G model which is obviously meant for the US market. 

We actually welcome Samsung's decision to put a 1080p display on the smaller Note 10, as the display's pixel density and sharpness to the eye of the beholder will be enough, all the while 1080p phones last 20-30% more than 1440p phones on a charge when normalized for the battery capacity. Thus, the Note 10 will most likely have the same battery life as the 10+ with its 4300 mAh unit, and we can move on to analyze the finer points of the design.

How about 5.94 x 2.83 x 0.31 inches (151 x 71.8 x 7.9 mm)? To put these raw numbers in perspective, the Note 10 will be the most compact true flagship out there (what, 1080p phones can't be flagships you say?), how's that for a hyperbole.

Our cold, hard calculations returned 91% screen-to-body ratio which is a record among brand-name phones in our database. It turns out that all those rumors how Samsung has managed to significantly shrink the top bezel of the Note 10 were true. The Note 10 is, in fact, smaller than the already compact LG G8 or Honor 20 Pro, all the while it has a larger display.

Here we arrive at the kicker - the Galaxy Note 10 will be negligibly larger than the Galaxy S10 and will compensate for that with a much larger display, increasingly blurring the range of what's possible in "all-screen" designs.

What's even better, this most humble for the screen diagonal footprint comes courtesy of a narrow body, in addition to the shaved-off top bezel, so the Note 10 is shaping up to be the perfect fit in your hand, as far as 6+ inchers go. It does, however, omit the microSD card slot that its larger sibling, the Note 10+, has in its hybrid SIM tray.

The two phones share identical processors - a Snapdragon 855 or Exynos 9825 - and the same Aura Black or Aura White colors. The laundry list of differences, however - screen size and resolution, memory and storage, camera kits and exclusive colors - is larger than the similarities, so in the final pricing in the US, the split between the Note 10 and Note 10+ is larger than a Benjamin.