If you’re anything like us, you’ll always be wondering what the difference in an upgrade actually is. Sometimes it isn’t much, perhaps a better camera or a faster refresh rate on the screen. Sometimes it’s a complete redesign with all the bells and whistles. If you hate the guesswork and don’t want to do the research, we completely understand; which is why we have done it for you.

In this article, we are going to talk a little about the differences between the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 vs. the Samsung Note 10.

Price

Here it is, the kicker, the all or nothing and arguably the most important factor in any decision made about purchasing phones; the price. The refurbished Samsung Note 9 and Note 10 offer way better value for money than new ones.

The Samsung Note 10 offers a lot of features and performs exceptionally well, a refurbished Note 10 256gb is priced $649 at Phonebot.

Since then, the price of the Samsung Note has drastically decreased and you can buy a refurbished Note 9 for $435 AUD.

Design

Both sporting the delightful glass casing on the front and back, sandwiching the metal frame and curved screen, at a glance, the phones appear quite similar in a lot of ways. One of the largest differences that we can find is that Note 9 still possesses a headphone jack, whereas the Note 10 does not. This might seem like a non-issue to some who are happy to use wireless headphones; those who still use wired will see this as a pretty big inconvenience and it may be enough to change a mind or two; that being said, losing headphone jacks appears to part of the future of smartphones. It comes for us all.

The note 10 does have a slightly smaller screen but in tandem with that, it opts for a punch-hole front-facing camera as opposed to the cut-out section at the top. The Note 9 is also a little heavier but it’s hardly noticeable.

Display

As we have mentioned, the Samsung Note 9 technically has the larger AMOLED screen measuring at 6.4 inches with the Samsung Note 10 being only a fraction smaller at 6.3 inch AMOLED display. The Note 9 also has a higher screen resolution at 1440 x 2960 whereas the 10 has 1080 x 2280. In opposition to this, the 10 possesses HDR10+, an improvement on the 9’s HDR10.

Camera

There is a stark difference in the cameras, specifically where the Note 10 has three rear cameras with a 12MP wide-angle, a 12MP telephoto and a 16mp ultra-wide lens. This is in contrast to the Note 9 cameras which there are only two, a 12MP wide-angle and the 12MP telephoto. The 9 has an 8MP selfie cam whereas the 10 has a 10MP, not too different.

Of the two, the main difference is that Note 9’s low light capture isn’t quite as refined and it also lacks the ultra-wide lens.

Battery

The battery life is not worlds apart, both last comfortably throughout the day. The 9 has a bigger battery but a bigger screen to power, this causes them to ultimately hold the same amount of power as amusing as that trade-off is.

The Note 10 does charge a bit faster however as it supports the 45W chargers as opposed to the 9’s 15W. That being said, it doesn’t actually come with a 45W charger so you will need to dish out a little more money to get that extra charging speed.

Specifications

The Samsung Note 9 had the penultimate chipset of its time, the snapdragon 845, as did the Note 10, the snapdragon 855. Both models came with 8GB RAM but differ on actual available memory space. The 9 was offered with either 128GB or 512GB, a pretty substantial difference and that’s with an additional microSD slot that can add up to 1TB of space.

In regards to the Note 10, although it provided no additional space for an SD card, it did come with the larger 256GB as standard.

Both came with the stylus pens but the 10 also came with gesture support giving it slightly better functionality.

Additionally, in regards to the fingerprint scanners, the Note 9 has a small dedicated fingerprint sensor on the back that is easy to find and provides a quick and smooth unlock. The Note 10 comes with an embedded scanner tucked underneath the screen that can be a little tough to find at the beginning but it is something that you quickly get used to.

Both share IP68 water and dust resistance certifications and support the Samsung DeX feature that allows the user to connect the phone to a monitor for greater functionality and control.

Verdict

When all is said and done, we find it easy to recommend both. Albeit for different purposes, they both serve as excellent phones.

Samsung Note 9 is the better phone for viewing; be it watching shows or looking at pictures, the better display is apparent the Samsung Note 10 provides the better cameras and functionality. In the end, it’s about what you look for in a phone as either will serve you well.

Hopefully, this article will provide you with enough information to make an informed decision on what you want to go for.

Can we bend it? The challenge for Samsung and others to make flexible technology