Friends+Design
- Sleek, modern and sophisticated rear design, especially the Samsung's trademark “Aura Glow” variant which reflects all the colours of the rainbow depending on how the light hits the back (though, the red and black version are much more subdued)
- The front also looks sharp and trendy with minimum bezels and only a punch-hole cutout for the front camera at the top centre
- High quality build and premium in hand feel with glass on the front, a 'Glastic' polycarbonate back, and an aluminium frame in the middle
- It wouldn't be wrong to say that the S Pen is the soul of the Galaxy Note range of phones: if you're buying the Note 10 Lite over S10 Lite, it must be because of the S Pen - apart from taking notes & handwriting recognition, the S Pen comes with its usual set of features like Air Command, Air Actions, doodle, remote control functions and snap photos via air gestures (though, some of the highlight features are exclusive to the proper Note10s)
- The power button has three main actions : Bixby, powering off and launching the camera
- Slow and laggy in-display fingerprint sensor, nowhere near a good, nearly-instant optical sensor found in, say, a OnePlus 7T
- It can still prove to be an uneasy phone to hold for those who prefer smaller and compact phones
- At 199g, it feels hefty too
- No certified IP Rating for water and dust resistance
Display
- Huge, vibrant 6.7-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED screen with a punch-hole cutout - expect rich colours and wide viewing angles, something we expect from a premium Samsung Galaxy smartphone - an ideal device to watch videos and play games on (though, the higher refresh rate is still missing which the OnePlus 7T offers)
- The display gets sufficiently bright for outdoor use
Software
- Samsung's OneUI 2 on top of Android 10 is one of the best custom Android skins at present - it's well optimised for single handed use with most controls in the easier to reach bottom part of the screen - it looks clean, and of course has a few useful options on top of stock Android
Performance
- Solid performance powered by an Exynos 9810 chipset, be it running games, switching between apps or loading apps like Chrome or Facebook, the Note 10 Lite is a smooth performer - it can also handle heavy games like Call of Duty with ease
- Having said that, it's a two year old chip seen in Note 9 and not as snappy as the other top performers like the ROG Phone or the OnePlus 7T
Camera
- Very good triple camera setup - a 12MP primary, a 12MP ultra-wide and a 12MP telephoto lens
- In daylight, the photos from the Note 10 Lite's primary camera are very similar to the ones you'd get from a proper Note 10 - level of detail is similarly good, dynamic range is wide and the HDR icon pops up every time it is needed, colour reproduction is likeable too
- Ultra-wide camera is good too, it captures very good detail with fairly wide dynamic range - if you know a bit or two about composition, you'll have a great time playing with the ultra-wide mode (though, the quality is not as good as the primary shooter)
- The telephoto camera takes nice pictures too and gives you a 2X optical zoom to play around with
- The Note 10 Lite surprises with its low light photo capabilities - low-light images show excellent colour preservation and dynamic range, recorded detail is very good and noise is reasonably well controlled - Night mode further improves the quality, bringing out specifics that weren't there in the regular Photo mode - in fact, and that's more than a little surprising, this Lite version can give the Note 10 a run for its money in main camera Night mode (the low light performance is not as good with the other two cameras though)
- Very good portrait or Live Focus mode - let's you shoot with both telephoto and main camera and images come out nice with good subject separation
- Decent 32MP front-facing camera - it gets you Instagram-worthy shots with colours on point and nice and wide dynamic range
- Decent Portrait selfie mode - subject recognition is fairly decent
- Video quality out of the Galaxy Note 10 Lite is very good overall, the phone captures plenty of detail, colours are rendered nicely and are true-to-life with excellent stabilisation, thanks to the Super Steady mode
- Overall, very good versatile cameras, if not up to flagship standard - cameras hold on its own and give the competition a run for their money
Audio
- There's no stereo speaker action on the Note 10 Lite
Battery
- With a 4500 mAh capacity, the Note 10 Lite is one of the most long-lasting smartphones in the premium mid-range segment - the phone can run for two days on a single charge of moderate use
- Very Fast charging with the included 25W charger - it can top the phone from 0% to 100% in 82 minutes
Verdict
- The Galaxy Note 10 Lite is well worth considering if you're looking for a stylus inside a great all-round phone, but you would rather not pay the heavy price of the Note 10 - the Galaxy Note 10 Lite gives you the S Pen, latest software, and some of the best image quality from a non-flagship device
- For anyone who wants better performance and doesn't consider the S Pen to be of much use can look at the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite or OnePlus 7T
