Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Lite Review

The Galaxy Note series and Galaxy S series are the premium high-end segment Android smartphones of Samsung. In the competition with brands such as OnePlus, Samsung planned lower entry point for the Galaxy Note and Galaxy S series, and has launched the Galaxy Note 10 Lite and Galaxy S10 Lite. 

These both new smartphones are priced at around Rs. 40,000 which is quite lower than their respective Non-lite versions. Samsung has left out several premium features though. Such as Wireless Charging, IP rating for water and dust resistance, to meet this lower price. 
Does Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Lite deliver enough to justify its price? Let’s check it out!

Quick Specs

Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Lite Design

Thankfully Samsung hasn’t sacrificed a crisp AMOLED display in the cost-cutting duty. You can still get a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display with HDR and full HD+ resolution. However, this model doesn’t sport an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner like on the Galaxy Note 10/10+, instead it sports a standard CMOS fingerprint scanner.

It has a hole punch cutout at the center towards the top of the display and the thin bezels all around which helps to give a premium look. The display is bright enough when it’s used in outdoors, with the best viewing angles.

The frame of the Galaxy Note 10 Lite is made-up with metal. The power and volume buttons are arranged on the right and are fairly accessible when holding the device in hand. On the left, you’ll find the SIM tray. It has a Loudspeaker grille, 3.5mm headphone jack, USB Type-C port, and the S Pen stylus silo on the bottom. Surprisingly company has included 3.5mm headphone jack in Galaxy Note 10 Lite which isn’t available on Galaxy Note 10/10+.

Found that back of the phone is plasticky to touch, and it is not like the premium glass panel on the Galaxy Note 10/10+. The back has a rectangular camera module fits with three camera sensors and a flash. 
The Note 10 Lite packs in a 4,500mAh battery with a 25W charger in the box. The phone is noticeably 8.7mm thick and weighs around 199g.

Cameras

The Galaxy Note 10 Lite’s camera module comprises three 12MP shooters. The primary sensor has an f/1.7 aperture and OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), the telephoto sensor has an f/2.4 aperture and the wide-angle sensor has an f/2.2 aperture. At the front there is a 32MP shooter with an f/2.2 aperture. The camera app will be familiar to Samsung users, and there are various shooting modes including Super Slow-Motion, Night, Live Focus, and Pro Mode.

The camera app ui laid out well and switching between the three cameras is super easy. The Galaxy Note 10 Lite delivers light correctly when shooting in the day. Photos taken in the daylight have good details. The wide-angle camera delivers same colour tone as the primary camera to match the details.

For close-ups, it managed to take sharp shots. Portrait mode gives you the option to shoot with both the primary and telephoto sensor. The portraits on Galaxy Note 10 Lite have perfect edge detection. The scene optimiser is used to detect low light and setup the camera settings according to the scene.

Night mode made a remarkable difference to the output, shots were brighter and had better details with low noise. The selfie camera has tweaks like beautification mode to capture the smooth shots.

Video recording on Note 10 Lite maxes out at 4k 60fps for the primary camera and 4k 30fps for the front selfie camera. The output can be stabilised even while shooting at 4k and 1080p. It has an option to switch between the three rear cameras while shooting and also has Super Steady Mode which uses the wide-angle camera to record video and crops the frames to stabilize the video for better quality.

Performance 

Samsung has packed the Galaxy Note 10 Lite with an older processor, but it is not noticeable until you run benchmarks and look at the numbers. This smartphone delivers a smooth user experience with no shutter or lags. Fingerprint scanner works slower than the one on the Galaxy Note 10. 

The display on the Galaxy Note 10 Lite has better viewing angles, and the speaker is not that loud to enjoy content on the smartphone. 

The device managed a score of 3,04,593 which is low compared to the 4,63,856 posted by the Galaxy S10 Lite. In Geekbench 5’s single-core and multi-core tests, the Galaxy Note 10 Lite managed 710 and 2,041 points, respectively. As of graphics benchmarks, the device scored 25fps and 40fps in GFXBench Car Chase and Manhattan 3.1 respectively. 

The battery can be easily last about a day, based on the usage which comprised playing few games, browsing internet and using Google Maps for navigation. The 25W charger manage to charge this phone to 65 percent in just 30 minutes and takes over an 60 minutes to get it to a full charge.

Final Verdict

However, the use of an outdated processor is not an excellent move. The Galaxy Note 10 Lite will refer to someone who wants the Note experience without paying full price.