Australian technology news, reviews, and guides to help you
Australian technology news, reviews, and guides to help you
Samsung Galaxy Note10 Lite

Samsung’s mid-range expands to include “lite” S10, Note10

Love the look of the Galaxy Note and its S-Pen, but hate the price? You might just find a compromise in the near future, as Samsung shows.

If the Google Pixel 3a‘s position as one of 2019’s best phones has given away, the value section of the phone market is a big deal. So big, that while phone companies are still highly pushing the high-end, the mid-range is where much of the action is.

Mid-range devices are coming from practically everyone, with Oppo, Huawei, Nokia, Motorola, and a bunch of the newbies, too. Apple is even rumoured to be launching a new take on its iPhone SE for that crowd, too.

And while Samsung has been across the various parts of the phone market for quite some time, it may be taking the premium mid-range category more serious with its latest move.

Ahead of CES next week and Mobile World Congress in late-February, the company has talked up “lite” versions of its two popular Galaxy models from 2019, the Galaxy S10+ and the Galaxy Note10+.

The new models look to cut down the specs and price somewhat, with similar features with the exception of camera and style.

On the one hand, both the Galaxy S10 Lite (above) and the Galaxy Note10 Lite offer a 6.7 inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED screen, a drop from the higher resolution Quad HD screens found in both the S10 and Note10 models, even though Samsung is keeping its AMOLED technology in play.

Both the Lite phones get 128GB storage internally with a microSD slot to expand it if needed, either 6 or 8 GB RAM (dependent on release country, likely), Android 10, and a 4500mAh battery, as well as a 32 megapixel front-facing camera.

Where they differ are the chips and cameras, and then that extra feature of the S-Pen.

You see, while the Samsung Galaxy Note10 Lite sees a 10 nanometer eight-core chip and three 12 megapixel cameras on the back including a wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto camera, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite sees one 5 megapixel macro, one 48 megapixel wide angle, and one 12 megapixel ultra-wide, making the S10 Lite a little like the Galaxy S10e, but with a little more punch under a bigger screen, plus a newer 7 nanometer eight-core chip.

There’s also the matter of the S-Pen, because the Note10 Lite (below) gets the stylus, while the S10 Lite does not. That’s just one of those main points of difference.

However both could provide better battery life than either the Galaxy S10+ or the Note10+ did, thanks in part to those massive 4500mAh batteries and the lower resolution screens, all while delivering Samsung Pay, three camera setups, and a big screen, both of which look closer to the Note10 design than what the S10 delivered in its top right punch-hole camera design that seemed to offset the screen and experience.

One thing we don’t have is pricing or availability for the Australian market, let alone if they’ve even been confirmed. Both phones will no doubt be shown at CES 2020, and we’ll check with Samsung Australia’s people at the show on whether Australians can expect either of the Samsung Lite phones in the near future.

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