Samsung wants to win even more buyers for its Galaxy Note series with pen operation and is therefore launching the Galaxy Note10 Lite, a cheaper version for the first time. You can find out in the test why we think this is a great idea.
The spearhead of Samsung’s smartphone lineup has always been the Galaxy Note series: Here the best is just good enough, the latest technology is used and as a unique feature there is the S-Pen, a stylus that can be used to make notes, draw, mark and do many other things that are not as elegantly possible on other smartphones. The Galaxy Note10 and Galaxy Note10 Plus were well received by us again, but Samsung wants to expand its buyers a bit and is bringing a cheaper Note smartphone to the market for the first time this year: For the launch, the Galaxy Note10 Lite costs 599 euros, which is the starting price of the Note 10 clearly undercut, the price of the Note10 + is almost halved. However, the high-end versions have been on the market for half a year and the prices have fallen.
Nevertheless, the current generation of Note10 Lite still offers the cheapest price if you want to dive into the world of Samsung phablets with pen operation. As a difference, the Lite model has a slightly older SoC, a less high-quality housing, a little less memory and you have to do without some high-quality standards, such as WiFi 6. But the Note10 Lite comes with a rather large battery and is hardly inferior to the Note10 when it comes to cameras.
That all sounds like a very interesting alternative, let’s start with our test and let’s see how the device performs in detail.
NETWORK
Technology
GSM / HSPA / LTE
LAUNCH
Announced
2020, January 3
Status
Available. Released 2020, January 21
BODY
Dimensions
163.7 x 76.1 x 8.7 mm (6.44 x 3.00 x 0.34 in)
Weight
199 g (7.02 oz)
SIM
Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
The housing design differs significantly from the more expensive Note variants: there is no elongated but a square camera module on the back, the corners are more rounded and the front glass is not arched over the sides. The Note 10 Lite differs in terms of haptics from its more expensive siblings: you can feel the plastic back immediately, it doesn’t look cheap, but it’s not really high quality for his smartphone, for which the manufacturer calls just under 600 euros. As with the more exclusive touch smartphones, the frame is made of metal.
The black version is also quite unadorned, and the somewhat unusual red color version is simply plain, without light effects or color gradients. After all, with the silver color variant “Aura Glow” there is still a contemporary color variation with gradient. The back is quite susceptible to fingerprints. The smartphone sits comfortably in the hand and the edges are well rounded.
There are very narrow edges on the front and the camera is simply embedded as a round hole in the screen without notch. The Galaxy Note 10 Lite is significantly larger than the normal Note10 and also puts more weight on the scales, which is probably due to the higher capacity battery. The manufacturer has not had the smartphone certified for water or dust resistance, so you should take care of your cell phone here.