Samsung debuts the Galaxy Note10 with 6.3" screen, wide angle and telephoto rear cameras, Snapdragon 855, coming Aug. 23 with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage for $949

Available on August 23rd starting at $949 — Samsung is announcing not one, but two versions of its flagship Galaxy Note 10 smartphone …

The Verge 2019-08-08 Dieter Bohn

Context & Ripple Effects

Samsung has turned the August Note launch into an annual ritual with a stable price band: the Galaxy Note9 shipped a year ago at $950 after the Note8 landed around €999/$930-960 across carriers in 2017. Today's announcement breaks the single-device pattern — Samsung is shipping two Notes at once, with the larger Note10+ at $1,100+ and 12GB of RAM sitting above the $949 base model.

First-order effects

Buyers choosing a Note this month now face a two-tier decision — 6.3-inch/$949 versus 6.8-inch/$1,100+ — where last year there was effectively one flagship price point.
Samsung pushes its top-end Note price past the ~$950 ceiling held by the Note8 and Note9 generations, with the Note10+ opening above $1,100.

Second-order effects

Rival Android flagships on Snapdragon 855 hardware now compete against a three-camera (wide-angle plus telephoto) baseline and 8-12GB RAM configurations, pressuring them to match camera arrays rather than just chipsets.
Carrier preorder economics shift upward: if carriers repeat the Note8 playbook of bundling accessories to justify ~$950 contracts, they must now merchandise two price tiers instead of one.

Third-order effects

The trajectory visible in this lineup — $950 in 2018, $1,100+ in 2019 — points toward the premium tier normalizing well above $1,000, which the following year's Note20 Ultra at $1,299 confirms.
Splitting the Note into size-and-RAM tiers becomes the template for how Android vendors segment their most expensive flagships, trading a single halo device for a ladder of near-$1,000 options.

The trend: Flagship smartphone pricing is ratcheting upward year over year, with Samsung leading by splitting its Note line into multiple sub-$1,000-and-above tiers.

Discussion

@anshelsag Anshel Sag on x
I just got confirmation from @Samsung. No version of the #Note10 is compatible with the GearVR. Not a huge loss tbh. Standalone is where it's at. #VR
@laurengoode Lauren Goode on x
What's interesting is that Samsung is obviously reliant on Google for its mobile OS, but I'm not sure the word “Android” was even uttered today. Instead we're hearing about direct sharing from Note10 phones to Microsoft software and Windows running on a Samsung clamshell.
@andrewmartonik Andrew Martonik on x
Samsung finally upped its charging game on the new Notes. Note 10: 25W wired, 12W wireless Note 10+: 45W wired, 15W wireless No more weak charging rates. Note 10+ will hit about 70% charge in 30 minutes on a 45W charger. That's fantastic.
@mkbhd Marques Brownlee on x
Bro: What color is your phone? Me: Yes https://youtu.be/... pic.twitter.com/R11naweGE2
@backlon Dieter Bohn on x
@reckless I've updated our hands-on with details from Samsung's keynote — these AR doodles and 3D scanning capabilities seem better here than what I heard about in the pre-brief. Hope they're as fun IRL. https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@sharatibken Shara Tibken on x
.@Samsung told me over 90% of US Note users actively use the S Pen. It's getting gestures and other tweaks in the #Note10 pic.twitter.com/UfGYN0DDGV
@backlon Dieter Bohn on x
I got to spend some time with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10 Plus. I'm intrigued by DeX and totally enamored with the smaller one. https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@soonergrunt @soonergrunt on x
Hopefully this means that Bixby is dead, and the Bixby button will be remap-able from the OS in the next release. Should be able to use Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. https://twitter.com/...
@geoffreyfowler Geoffrey A. Fowler on x
@washingtonpost The Galaxy Note10+ has a gigantic 6.8-inch screen. It's the largest (non-folding) phone Samsung has ever made. Have we officially run out of palm space now? #SamsungEvent #GalaxyNote10 https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@backlon Dieter Bohn on x
@reckless People are OMG-ing the 6.8-inch Note 10 Plus, but honestly it doesn't feel much different in the hand than the Note 9 did. It's a big screen, but the bezels are basically gone. If there's something to complain about, it's the size of the price, not the size of the phone…
@tomemrich @tomemrich on x
“Note 10 will spatially map the room and save where you dropped your drawings. It'll also recognize the faces of people you've marked up, so the same doodles will show up on them again when they re-enter the scene” https://www.engadget.com/...
@andrewmartonik Andrew Martonik on x
Really didn't think Samsung would take the headphone jack out of the Note. Knew it was coming at some point, but feels like the Galaxy S11 would've been a better time to do it. Removing the 3.5 mm jack from the “power user” phone just doesn't make sense.
@stevekovach Steve Kovach on x
COURAGE: Samsung removed the headphone jack to make room for more battery https://www.cnbc.com/...
@geoffreyfowler Geoffrey A. Fowler on x
Queue the funeral dirge for the headphone jack. Samsung's Galaxy Note10 offers just a USB-C port for headphones and charging. You get USB-C headphones in the box — but no dongle to connect your existing buds. http://wapo.st/31qSu5w pic.twitter.com/R14RqyzHEf
@backlon Dieter Bohn on x
I'm more sad that I can't watch Samsung commercials sniping about headphone jacks than I am that the Note 10 doesn't have one. Still tho: bit of a bummer. https://www.theverge.com/...

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