Samsung Note 10 Lite full Review: Definitely not a ‘Lite’ phone
We are just a few weeks away from the Samsung S11 launch event. While everyone is busy guessing what the new Samsung flagship should look like and what features it would offer, the company has launched Samsung Note 10 Lite and Samsung S10 Lite. It seems a bit useless as Samsung S11 series will be coming with a mid-range phone like the Samsung S10e.
In plain sight, S10 Lite might look a bit useless considering the timing, but the phone is here to give OnePlus a run for its money. This is the cheapest Note device ever launched by the company and has the same price tag of OnePlus 7 Pro.
Samsung Note 10 Lite Design and Build
In order to bring the same features from the premium Note 10, Samsung has done some serious thinking and cut down a lot of fancy features from the phone. Top on the list is the side to side display.
Note 10 lite comes with a flat-edged display that we see in mid-range phones. In fact, the company went ahead and slapped the two generations old glass. For the Note 10 Lite instead of the latest Gorilla Glass 5, older Gorilla Glass 3 is used.
Despite that, the device also feels very premium and well-balanced in terms of weight as it has a big 4,500 mAh battery.
Instead of glass design, the company went ahead with a plastic design at the back. It looks like glass from initial impressions, but instead, it is just polycarbonate plastic there to trick you.
It’s good to know that Samsung has kept the same Super AMOLED display that provides a 20:9 aspect ratio and excellent sunlight visibility. The screen is 6.7 -inch which quite big compared to regular Note 10. The corners are much more rounded off compared to the traditional boxy design we see. The power and volume button are also on the right side, unlike Note 10 Plus, which has it on the left.
Samsung Note 10 Camera
The Note 10 Lite has a triple camera setup, which includes a 12 MP ultra-wide sensor, 12 MP wide-angle sensor, and another 12 MP telephoto lens. Samsung has also compromised here, as the wide-angle camera in Note 10 and Note 10 Plus is 16 MP.
While the phone may cost less but then also the camera quality is on par with all the flagships like Note 10 and S10. The images are sharp and offer a lot of dynamic range. But sometimes struggle in terms of details.
In low light, the picture quality struggles and camera falls short compared to Note 10 in terms of consistency and image quality. Selfies in low light can come across grainy, but the camera does a decent job in normal mode.
Same as the Note 10, the Samsung Note 10 Lite can shoot 4K videos at both 30 and 60 fps. The 60 fps have good quality, but if you have shaky hands, then better shoot in 30 fps. There is also a stead state mode that can help you in this kind of situations. The 4K video recording at 30 fps comes across noisy and shaky sometimes so I would suggest using 1080p mode as it does a lot better job.
Samsung Note 10 Lite Performance
Corners have been cut in terms of performance also. Samsung S10 Lite has Exynos 9811 processor, which was used in Samsung Note 9 and Samsung S9 launched in 2018. But that didn’t affect the performance, I found the Note 10 Lite to be smooth and stutter-free.
It can smoothly run any games thrown at it, games like Asphalt 9 and PUBG played very well even at the highest graphic settings. The phone is running on Samsung One UI 2.0 on top of Android 10.
The phone comes with RAM options of 6GB and 8GB with a storage option of 128GB.
If you want more performance, than there is no choice but to pick the more expensive Note 10, which offers 12GB of RAM. The Note 10 also offers 256GB of storage by default, so while the Note 10 Lite might be a cheaper Note device, but it surely doesn’t have the processing power of the premium Note 10 version.
The device lacks in RAM, Storage option and a two-year-old processor lowers the performance we expect from a Samsung Note device
Samsung Note 10 Lite Design Battery
The phone comes with a 4,500 mAh battery, as I mentioned before. It supports 25W fast charging, but sadly due to the polycarbonate back, there is no support for wireless charging. But the battery does last long.
On a full charge, I was able to get five and a half hours of screen on time. With heavy usage also you can easily make it through the day. Also, the phone as now the issue of heating while gaming or even when plugged in for charging.
However, if you are a fan of wireless charging and like to just let your phone charge on without any cables by the bedside, then Samsung Note 10 Lite is not the phone to go for.
S-Pen
And finally, how can we forget the S-Pen. It is the biggest selling point for all the Samsung Note devices and will probably be the reason why Note 10 Lite will do so well.
I can happily say that it comes with all the tricks we see in the premium Notes. You will be able to take notes when the screen is off and capture photos using the S-Pen as a remote control.
Tradeoffs
Let me tell you which features are missing from the phone compared to the premium Note 10 and Note 10+.
- Gorilla Glass 3 instead of on Gorilla Glass 5 we saw on Galaxy Note 10
- Exynos 9811 processor instead of Snapdragon 855
- Absence of Wireless charging due to polycarbonate back
- Slower fingerprint scanner
- No LED notification light
Final Verdict
Samsung Note 10 Lite is definitely a phone to pick if you want a big and high-resolution display, good (not great) camera, remarkable battery life, and a stylus to make your day more productive. The phone will clearly compete with OnePlus 7 Pro and 7T devices.
With companies like Xiaomi launching Poco X2 and RealMe coming with RealMe X2, Samsung needed something to lure the buyers. With Note 10 Lite, you can have the fun of using a productive device like Note 10 Lite at a half price of the premium Note 10+.
Note 10 Lite is available in Aura Black, Aura glow, Aura red colours. With a price tag of Rs 38,999, it is available via a few online stores right now.
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Originally published at https://thetechcomic.com on February 6, 2020.
