Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus one year later - Is it still worth buying - Android

Every year, Samsung launches a new entry in its ultra-premium Note line. In 2019, though, Samsung upended its own formula and released two devices in the Note line: the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 along with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus. The Plus variant is physically larger with more features, better specs, and a higher price.

We’re only a few days away from the launch of the 2020 iteration of Samsung’s premier phone line. This got us thinking about how the Note 10 Plus has held up over the past year. That’s exactly what this Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus long-term review is going to determine!

We’re going to talk about the highlights of the Note 10 Plus that have aged well over the past 12 months. We’re also going to dig in and discuss the issues one might face if they bought this phone in 2020. Ultimately, we’re going to answer the big question: would it still be a good choice to buy the Note 10 Plus today?

Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus review recap

It’s hard to believe it was a year ago that we first reviewed the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus. Why not refresh your memory of what we said then by checking out the video above or hitting up the written review.

How does the 2019 hardware compare to 2020 hardware?

When it comes to raw specs, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus could still easily go head-to-head with any 2020 flagship. Sure, the Note 10 Plus doesn’t have the mighty Snapdragon 865 processor (nor even the Snapdragon 855 Plus), but the Snapdragon 855 is still a very capable chipset. In my five days with the phone, there wasn’t one moment where I felt things were slow or laggy.

The 12GB of RAM obviously helped out quite a bit with this as did the UFS 3.0 storage. The point is that anyone who would hold back on getting a Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus because the processor isn’t an SD865 would just be silly.

The Note 10 Plus' Snapdragon 855 still flies.

Battery life was also terrific during my time with the device. I’m not going out nearly as much as I would have a year ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so I tested out how the device would do if I simply turned off Wi-Fi at home all day. Doing this wasn’t a problem as I still had about 60% battery by the time I went to bed. Of course, this doesn’t fully replicate a battery draining day walking around New York City, but the 4,300mAh battery didn’t let me down.

As a quick rundown, the Galaxy Note 10 Plus has some other notable specs that still shine today. These are namely a minimum of 256GB of internal storage, microSD card support, the option to charge at 45W speeds (with compatible adapter), wireless charging, and an IP68 rating.

The bottom line is that the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus is still a specs beast even one year later.

The Note 10 Plus is still as pretty as can be

In our original review of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus, we talked about how Samsung clearly abandoned some power-user features in exchange for a stunning design. Let me tell you, the Galaxy Note 10 Plus is still a stunner, especially the Aura Glow model I was using.

It’s so pretty that I went without a case for the whole five days. I even found myself putting the phone on my desk face-down just because it looked cool to have such a gorgeous thing near my keyboard.

The Galaxy Note 10 Plus might be one of the best-looking phones I've ever used.

The iconic squared-off design aesthetic of the Note series carries over here, giving the Note 10 Plus a chunky, almost industrial feel in the hand. I’ll admit that holding the phone in one hand for long stretches of time wasn’t as comfortable as using a phone with curvy edges. It wasn’t horrible, but worth noting.

Related: The best Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus cases

One of the things that was a bit surprising for me was realizing how small the rear camera bump is on the Galaxy Note 10 Plus. After using the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra for a while, I assumed the rear camera module on Note 10 Plus was also pretty thick. However, that’s not true as the Galaxy Note 10 Plus lays nearly flat with very minimal wobble. Obviously, if you put a case on it you might not notice anyway, but I was surprised at how nice it was to not have something protruding so far out of the back. From what we’ve seen so far of the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, that’s likely to not be the case.

Regardless, if you want your phone to be a fashion statement, there aren’t many that have been released over the past year that can compete with this one in the looks department.

The cameras get the job done

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus has a better camera system than the vanilla Note 10, and has more to offer than most devices in the Galaxy S10 series. However, I feel like the camera system is never a true focus of the Note series. Samsung usually pushes the productivity aspects, which makes sense.

Related: The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus camera review: Should be better

That being said, the camera system on the Note 10 Plus is great at nailing the basics. I pitted it — pretty unfairly — against the Galaxy