Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Release Date, Price, News and Leaks

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 needs to seriously impress consumers to hold folks’ attention, and we’re hearing plenty of Galaxy Note 10 leaks and rumors suggesting it might just pull that off.

We’ve even seen the Galaxy Note 10 name on an image at Samsung’s Korean campus and heard Samsung CEO DJ Koh name-drop the soon-to-be-announced handset during a round-table interview.

In fact, the Note 10 launch date has been confirmed as August 7, with an event happening in Brooklyn, New York. It’s coming – and soon.

We’re cautiously optimistic about the phone’s official launch, as while the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is full of worthwhile features, in a lot of ways it felt like a small upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 released the previous year.

So while we’re eagerly anticipating the next version of Samsung’s notable stylus-packing phone, we’re hoping for more from the Samsung Galaxy Note 10. We want robust, recognizable changes and upgrades that justify its inevitably gigantic price tag.

We’ve listed all we’ve heard about the phone below – including leaks, rumors, and some educated guesses at the specs and features of the Galaxy Note 10. Beyond that, you’ll find all we still hope to see in the smartphone.

Could the upcoming smartphone top our list of the best Android phones? We’ll have to wait to find out.

Cut to the chase

• What is Note 10? The next stylus-toting flagship from Samsung
• When is Note 10 launch date? Confirmed to be August 7, 2019
• What will Note 10 cost? More than most other phones

Samsung Galaxy Note 10 release date and price

The official Galaxy Note 10 launch date is August 7, 2019, with a Samsung Unpacked press conference happening in Brooklyn, New York at the Barclays Center.

Once the Galaxy Note 10 is announced it will likely be at least a couple of weeks before you can buy it, so don’t be surprised if it doesn’t hit stores until late August 2019.

We’ve heard a leak regarding the price of the Note 10, which points the price for a 256GB model as €999 (around $1,125, £900, AU$1,600). That’s quite the step up over the Note 9 price, but it’s not that much expensive than a Samsung Galaxy S10.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10 design and display rumors

We’ve finally got a leak of what could be the Note 10 in a trio of photos: a single central punch-hole on the front display housing a selfie camera, no visible speaker (indicating a possible sound-conducting screen), and a vertically-aligned triple rear camera setup.

Rather low-quality images of the Note 10 also came from the FCC in the US, which accidentally released images of the phone, along with measurements.

Our previous close look at the possible design of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 came via another video (below).

Here you can see a curved screen, a single-lens punch-hole camera on the front, a triple-lens camera on the back, a metal frame, and no Bixby button or headphone jack.

A case leak also suggests there’s no headphone jack – though some other leaks below disagree.

The phone also apparently has up to 12GB of RAM and either a Snapdragon 855 or Exynos 9820 chipset, depending on the region.

The source adds that the screen is apparently 6.3 inches, likely with a 1440 x 3040 resolution and that the dimensions maybe 162.6 x 77.4 x 7.9mm – though we’d take all that with a pinch of salt, as it would mean a smaller screen yet a larger body than the Note 9. Plus, one other rumor we’ve heard is that the Note 10 will apparently have a 6.66-inch screen. And we’ve heard that not once, but twice already!

That’s up from 6.4 inches on the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and while we’d take this with a pinch of salt it’s believable, given that phone screens keep getting bigger, and given that the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus is 6.4 inches and we’d expect the next Note to be bigger than anything in the S range.

However it’s very likely there will be two different Samsung Galaxy Note 10 models, as we’ve heard rumors that as well as a 6.75-inch phone Samsung will release a smaller Note 10 only in Europe.

The larger of the two (or more) models had been rumored to be called the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Pro, but we’re now almost certain it will be called the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus, as that name has appeared on Samsung websites.

The sites also mentioned Android 9 Pie, 256GB and 512GB storage capacities, and colors called Aura Glow, Aura Black and Aura White.

Rumors meanwhile point to the Galaxy Note 10 Plus has a screen that’s 6.75 inches, 1440 x 3040 and said to support HDR10+, while the rest of the specs apparently include up to 12GB of RAM, and a Snapdragon 855 or Exynos 9820 chipset, depending on the region.

It’s worth noting that leaked case renders for both models match the designs above, so they could well be accurate.

But there are other sources that say the Note 10 will have a 6.4-inch screen while the Note 10 Pro will have a 6.8-inch one – which is slightly larger than we’d heard before. Finally, they add that the Note 10 will start in a 128GB size, while the Note 10 Pro will start at 256GB, rising to 1TB.

Another source meanwhile says that while the Note 10 Pro will have a microSD card slot, the standard Note 10 won’t.

The Note 10 is also almost certainly going to have a curved Super AMOLED screen, and it will probably be a very good one, with one source claiming there will be no better screen in the second half of 2019.

You can probably expect water resistance too, given that all recent Samsung flagships have that.

A few different rumors have given us a clearer idea of the color choices Samsung might offer for the Note 10. It seems the company will be offering a red version as well as a gradient finish, which we expect to be the silver version of the phone.

Other color rumors include Black, White, Silver and Pink, which suggests we won’t get a Lavender Purple version as we did on the Galaxy Note 9. As noted above, the Plus model looks very likely to come in Aura Glow, Aura Black and Aura White shades.

There may be some hope for those who want to see the headphone jack retained on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10, as a different case leak appears to have a small indentation for a headphone jack. Another source has also said it has one, but for now, we’re not certain whether it does or not.

It doesn’t help that another rumor specifically stated that ditching the headphone jack freed up space to add another 100mAh of battery capacity in both Note 10 and larger Note 10 Pro models. But that’s not the wildest thing to come from that prediction: it claimed that the S-Pen stylus would get some form of gesture control, while the phone would get a ‘Zoom Audio’ style feature to only save one source of audio while recording video.

 Samsung Galaxy Note 10 camera rumors

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Pro could have a quad-lens camera according to one report.

That’s a claim we’ve now heard multiple times. In fact, we’ve even seen leaked renders showing four lenses, along with a design that’s otherwise similar to leaks of the standard Note 10.

You can see cases with camera cut-outs for both models below. Note that one has more cut-outs than the other.

The camera hardware meanwhile is apparently the same as the Note 9 (though that doesn’t necessarily rule out extra lenses).

The source of the renders says that the extra lens is a Time of Flight (ToF) depth-sensing one, with the other lenses apparently being a 12MP main one, a 12MP telephoto one, and a 16MP ultra-wide one.

But the Note 10 Plus might go one better than even this rumor, with some leaks pointing to a five-lens camera (along with a triple-lens one on the standard Note 10).

One leak has suggested the Note 10 will have the same 12MP main sensor used in all Samsung phones since the Galaxy S7, which would suggest the renders showing a 12MP primary camera is accurate.

A source has said that the camera position for both the front and rear lenses will be different on the Note 10, with the rear moving from a horizontal to a vertical arrangement, which would match most leaks.

According to the source, these camera changes are the main design changes to the phone, so the Galaxy Note 10 might look a lot like the Note 9.

The source of these claims has since followed them up with sketches of what seems to be the Note 10’s camera block, showing the vertical arrangement with three lenses. They also claim that the front-facing camera will just be a single-lens one, as we’ve seen elsewhere.

One respected leaker has also suggested the Galaxy Note 10’s main camera will have three apertures, of f/1.5, f/1.8 and f/2.4, instead of the usual one aperture smartphone cameras have. This would make it very versatile at shots in different lighting conditions and for different fields of view. Another rumor reinforced this triple-aperture assertion.

We’ve also seen trademarks for ‘Smart ISO’ and ‘AI-ISO’, which suggest that the Note 10 might be able to intelligently change its ISO based on the scene you’re shooting and/or your own preferences, which it might be able to learn over time. Though this is just speculation based on the names of the trademarks.

 Samsung Galaxy Note 10 battery life rumors

We’ve also heard rumors that the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 (or at least the Pro version) could have a 4,500mAh battery – up from 4,000mAh on the Note 9. And it might charge fast, with multiple sources suggesting it will exceed 25W (the Galaxy S10 is only 15W). One claim points to it reaching as much as 45W, which was reinforced by a recent spec leak.

Then again, another source disputes that, saying that actually, it will just be 25W, so we’re really not sure at the moment.

There’s also some dispute about the battery size, with a source saying that both the Note 10 and Note 10 Pro will have a 4,170mAh battery.

 Samsung Galaxy Note 10 features and spec rumors

We’re almost certain that there will be a 5G version of the Galaxy Note 10 because Verizon has said as much. Plus, mention of a 5G model has also been found in Samsung source code.

One report has a radical prediction: the Note 10 won’t have physical buttons. Instead, the phone will use touch sensors, like the capacitive pads we’ve seen on the Nubia Red Magic Mars and elsewhere, for users to fiddle with volume and power. Presumably, it would also replace the notorious Bixby button with a touchpad.

Having said that, another source has disputed this claim, saying there will in fact be physical buttons. Plus, the leaked renders we’ve seen all show buttons.

In terms of chipset, we’ve heard the Note 10 will have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset in most regions, as the Galaxy S10 had, but in the US it’ll run on Exynos 9825, a high-end chipset we haven’t seen before.

Another, slightly less radical but still impressive feature is Sound-on-Display (SoD), which means the screen vibrates to create sound instead of a front-facing speaker, and we’ve heard the Galaxy Note 10 might have this. We’ve seen SoD in a few phones already, namely the Huawei P30 Pro and LG G8 ThinQ, but it’s still an important feature if the phone does end up having it.

In more vague news, the Galaxy Note 10 is apparently codenamed ‘Da Vinci’.

Given that Leonardo da Vinci was a famous painter that could hint at upgrades to the S Pen, though exactly what those upgrades would be is unclear. Leonardo da Vinci was also very talented in lots of other ways though, so this could equally be a suggestion that the Note 10 will be a very versatile phone.

Beyond that, we can make some educated guesses as to what the Note 10 might offer. For one thing, based on past form it will probably use the same chipset as the Samsung Galaxy S10.

That means either a Snapdragon 855 or an Exynos 9820, depending on where you are in the world. While an early rumor asserted that neither the Note 10 nor the larger Note 10 Pro would be getting the beefier, gaming-focused Samsung 855 Plus, a spec leak asserted that both would get the new midyear chipset – or, if not in the US, an Exynos 9825.

The Galaxy S10 also has an in-screen fingerprint scanner and a camera cut-out in the screen, rather than a notch or big bezels, so those are likely features of the Note 10. Indeed, both of those things have been rumored.

What we want to see

Even with all the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 rumors, we have a good idea of what we still want from it. You’ll find our seven main suggestions below.

1. A customizable Bixby button

As much as Samsung might want us to use Bixby in favor of Google Assistant the reality is that for the most part it’s just not as good, and Google has so much of a head start that we doubt it ever will be.

That wouldn’t be an issue except that Samsung insists on putting a physical Bixby button on its Note phones, so for the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 we either want this to be removed or to be customizable, so you can set it to launch something other than Bixby.

The good news is this should happen because it’s a feature that since writing this wish Samsung has started bringing to its phones – maybe the South Korean company really is listening to us.

2. HDR video recording

Many high-end handsets can now record HDR video, but the Galaxy Note 9 can’t. It’s a shame because it’s a noticeably weak point in a camera that’s otherwise great.

So we really want to see HDR recording offered by the Samsung Galaxy Note 10. And not just any HDR, but 4K HDR (which is also offered by some rivals), so it can shoot videos that look as good as its photos surely will.

3. An in-screen fingerprint scanner

The Note 9 has a fingerprint scanner on the back, which allows for slim bezels on the front (though still more of a bottom bezel than we’d have hoped to see) but arguably makes it slightly trickier to reach than a front-facing scanner.

We also noted in our review that it’s too small and too close to the camera, making it easy to accidentally hit that instead and smudge the lens.

So for the Samsung Galaxy Note 10, we want the scanner on the front, but rather than being under the screen we want it built into the screen, like the Galaxy S10 and some other phones are now doing.

4. A completely new look

The Note 9 is a nice looking phone, but it’s also similar in design to the last few and the bezels are starting to feel a bit much compared to the likes of the iPhone X and Huawei P20 Pro.

So we’d like to see a design overhaul for the Samsung Galaxy Note 10. It can keep the water resistance and the curvy screen, but hopefully, the rest of the design will change to something fresher and more modern.

5. A lower price

There’s no getting around the fact that the Note 9 is a very, very expensive phone and we’re expecting the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 will be at least as pricey.

But we’re hoping it won’t be. If Samsung can shave a couple of hundred dollars/pounds off the price then it could have far wider appeal.

6. Improved facial recognition

The Galaxy Note 9 has both an iris scanner and facial recognition, but – as we note in our review – even combined these sensors are no match for Apple’s Face ID, so we’d like to see real improvements here for the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.

That will probably mean packing in more and better cameras and sensors on the front so it can build up an accurate 3D picture of our face.

That could be expensive and make removing the bezel trickier, but if it leads to a fast, secure scanner that works in almost all lighting then it might be worth it.

7. An even longer-lasting battery

For the Galaxy Note 9, Samsung upped the range’s battery size to 4,000mAh, delivering over a day of life in the process.

That’s good work, but we want to see further improvements for the Samsung Galaxy Note 10, especially given that batteries wear out over time, so if you plan to hold on to the phone for two years or more you might notice significantly reduced life by the end.

On that note, if Samsung can make the battery degrade slower that would be appreciated too.