Join The Full Nerd gang as they talk about the latest PC hardware topics. Today’s show covers quite possibly the killer app for real time ray tracing: Control from Remedy, the death of AMD’s Radeon VII, the best best time to buy PC hardware, and more. As always we will be answering your live questions so speak up in the chat.
If YouTube is not your thing you can also watch us on Twitch, Facebook, and Twitter.
Join the PC related discussions and ask us questions on Discord. Follow the crew on Twitter: @GordonUng @BradChacos @MorphingBall @AdamPMurray
Check out the audio version of the podcast on iTunes,Google Play, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app so you can listen on the go and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the latest episode!
Google has partnered with Dell to bring Chrome OS to the enterprise with the launch of two new business-focused Latitude laptops running the search giant’s operating system.
Dell’s Latitude line is already popular with enterprise users running Windows 10 but the company worked together with Google for more than a year to create two new Chromebook Enterprise devices that can be easily managed by organization’s IT departments.
These new Chromebooks will come bundled with a range of Dell’s cloud-based support services that make it easier for IT admins to control how the devices are rolled out inside organizations. It will also be easier for IT to integrate these devices into existing Windows environments and manage them using tools such as VMware Workspace One.
Google has also made changes to its Chrome Admin console to improve load times, add search functionality on every page and the console has even been overhauled with material design elements.
Enterprise Chromebooks
Businesses interested in purchasing Chrome OS devices for their organization will be able to choose from either Dell’s 14-inch Latitude 5400 for $699 or its 13-inch Latitude 5300 2-in-1 for $819. Both Chromebooks can be configured with up to Intel’s 8th Gen Core i7 processors, up to 32GB of its RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage.
While Dell’s new devices won’t include Intel’s recently announced 10th Gen processors, both Chromebooks will offer LTE connectivity and include UBS-C docking capabilities.
Vice president of Chrome OS at Google, John Solomon explained how Chrome OS is able to meet the needs of end-users and IT departments in a blog post announcing Dell’s new enterprise Chromebooks, saying:
“Chromebook Enterprise is a game-changer for businesses looking for a modern OS that provides end-users with speed and productivity, while offering IT the comprehensive security they need. As a longtime global leader in the enterprise, Dell Technologies has a deep understanding of end-user and IT needs and is a natural fit to bring powerful devices with the benefits of Chrome Enterprise to businesses worldwide.”
Google’s enterprise push for Chrome OS may be starting with Dell but the search giant is currently working with a number of OEMs to expand it further and we will likely see other device manufacturers announce Enterprise Chromebooks soon.
Microsoft has issued an invitation for an event on October 2 in New York City, the traditional time and place for new Surface hardware.
Microsoft isn’t explicitly tying the event to Surface—it’s billed as a “#MicrosoftEvent,” complete with hashtag, and with a line drawing of the Windows logo.That likely implies that Microsoft will be touting both new Surface hardware as well as new Windows 10 updates, together with the apps and services that connect to it.
Microsoft launched the Surface Pro 6, the Surface Laptop 2, the Surface Studio 2, and the Surface Headphones in October 2018. None dramatically revamped the Surface experience, though all of the computing hardware featured an updated, quad-core, 8th-gen Intel Core chip. Could the Surface Pro 7, Surface Laptop 3, and a Surface Studio 3 be on the way?
Mark Hachman / IDG
Microsoft chief product officer Panos Panay launches the Surface Pro 6 at last year’s event.
New Surface hardware would have a wealth of processor options from which to choose: Intel’s recently introduced, upclocked Comet Lake; Intel’s slower, more well-rounded Ice Lake processor; or even AMD’s mobile Ryzen processors. Rumors that we might see a Surface powered by Qualcomm’s battery-sipping Snapdragon 8cx chip have also been making the rounds, which would provide yet another alternative to Intel’s strategy of combining a low-power display panel with a larger battery. It’s also been more than a year since Microsoft launched the small, ultraportable Surface Go tablet.
It seems likely we’ll see an updated Surface Laptop, a particularly adept combination of functionality and battery life. Adding an up-to-date processor to the Surface Pro 6 to create a Surface Pro 7 also seems like a wise choice. And with more attention being paid to always-connected, mobile tablets, a Surface Go 2 (or even a Surface Laptop mini clamshell) would be an intriguing reveal. A new Surface Book? Intel’s diversity of processor choices certainly makes room for a Surface Book 3, maybe even with some Nvidia RTX hardware inside. Windows Central also expects new Surface earbuds, code-named Morrison.
Remember, too, that Microsoft hasn’t formally unveiled its latest Windows 10 strategy to the general public. Windows 10 Insiders know that the upcoming low-key Windows 10 “19H2” release will feature optimizations intended for enterprise users, with the next “20H1” release in early 2020 adding the features that consumers expect. Questions remain: Will Microsoft nudge Amazon Alexa to the forefront? One of the 19H2 features includes the ability for ”third party” digital assistants to appear on the PC’s lock screen, and we already know that Alexa is now essentially part of the Windows experience.
In the meantime, Microsoft has migrated more and more apps outside of the Windows Store, so that apps like Notepad can be updated at their own pace. It’s very possible that Microsoft will also provide an update to the features that have been introduced to Microsoft Office 365.
All that leaves room for a relatively jam-packed “#MicrosoftEvent” where the hardware will simply be one facet of the overall experience. We’ll be covering the event live as it happens, so clear your calendar for October 2.
A watchdog has penalised a local authority for trialling facial recognition on high-school students in Sweden to keep track of attendance.
The Swedish Data Protection Authority (DPA) fined the Skelleftea municipality 200,000 Swedish Krona (£16,800, $20,700) for flouting a privacy law.
The trial involved tracking 22 students over three weeks and detecting when each pupil entered a classroom.
This is the first time that Sweden has ever issued a fine under GDPR.
The General Data Protection Regulation, which came into force last year, classes facial images and other biometric information as being a special category of data, with added restrictions on its use.
The DPA indicated that the fine would have been bigger had the trial been longer.
According to technology magazine ComputerSweden, Swedish authorities decided to investigate after reading media reports of Anderstorp’s High School’s trial.
The local authority told Swedish state broadcaster SVT Nyheter in February that teachers had been spending 17,000 hours a year reporting attendance, and the authority had decided to see whether facial-recognition technology could speed up the process.
‘Fairly safe’
The trial, which took place in autumn 2018, had been so successful that the local authority was considering extending it.
Jorgen Malm, who oversees Anderstorp’s High School and Naturbruk’s High School for the municipality, told SVT that the technology was “fairly safe”.
According to the DPA ruling, although the school secured parents’ consent to monitor the students, the regulator did not feel that it was a legally adequate reason to collect such sensitive personal data.
The regulator noted that although some parts of the school could be deemed to be “public”, students had a certain expectation of privacy when they entered a classroom.
It said there were less intrusive ways that their attendance could have been detected without involving camera surveillance.
As a result, the DPA found that Skelleftea’s local authority had unlawfully processed sensitive biometric data, as well as failing to complete an adequate impact assessment, which would have included consulting the regulator and gaining prior approval before starting the trial.
It’s inevitable that technologies are replaced by their newer, more advanced successors – and just as plasma flatscreens were replaced by OLED TVs, so too is OLED at risk of being beaten by a new panel technology.
If that sounds unlikely, given the hold OLED currently has on the premium TV market, it may be too early to say. But Samsung, the world’s largest TV manufacturer, and one that’s been backing its own LED and QLED alternatives to OLED for several years now, is looking ahead to a hybrid TV technology quite clearly aimed at wiping out the competition. That technology is QD-OLED.
Samsung Display CEO Lee Dong-hoon has spoken out on potential plans to bring QD-OLED to market, telling The Korea Herald that “the company is making good efforts” to to manufacture a commercially available model. So while it’s unlikely we’ll see a QD-OLED model at IFA 2019, it looks like it might be on the show floor in the near future.
When contacted directly, a Samsung spokesperson clarified that it was still developing its own QLED and Micro-LED technologies, adding that it had no firm plans regarding QD-OLED, citing issues with existing OLED panels that need to be addressed:
“Samsung Electronics believes various technology improvements should precede for the existing OLED panel technology to be adopted to TVs, and no decision has been made on whether we will adopt the QD-OLED panels to our TVs.”
But with a new manufacturing line being set up to replace recently-closed LED plants (via The Elec), it very much looks like Samsung is betting big on the technology.
Ok, enough with the acronyms already
(Image credit: Samsung)
What does QD-OLED actually mean, you ask? It can be broken down into two parts. The first, “QD”, refers to the quantum dot filter that Samsung employs in its premium QLED (quantum light emitting diode, or quantum LED) televisions. The second, “OLED”, refers to the organic LED panel used in the premium ranges of most other big TV brands today, including Hisense TVs, Sony TVs, Panasonic TVs, and LG TVs.
Rather than being wholly self-emissive, a QD-OLED panel would use a blue-light OLED panel acting as a backlight, with a quantum dot filter able to convert this into red or green light, for a full color display.
OLED TVs have some huge advantages, including thin panels that don’t require a backlight, as the pixels in OLED panels are self-emissive (meaning they emit their own light). This makes for incredible contrast and brightness control, though can make for an overall dimmer output than its LED counterparts.
That’s where QD-OLED comes in. Rather than being wholly self-emissive, a QD-OLED panel would use a blue-light OLED panel acting as a backlight, with a quantum dot filter able to convert this into red or green light, for a full color display.
This would still make for the thin televisions and color-rich displays OLED is known for, while correcting the dim output of OLED panels compared to LEDs.
We know Samsung is working on the technology. We also spoke to the Europe Product Development Director at TCL, Marek Maciejewski, who called QD-OLED a possible solution to the current limitations of OLED panels: “We think that for very large screens with very high color saturation and brightness, that inkjet-printed QD-OLED is a solution.”
Maciekewski added that “We see no future in terms of efficiency and brightness” for traditional OLED panels, and was certain that “all major OLED manufacturers are developing this.”
When will QD-OLED hit the market?
(Image credit: Samsung)
With Samsung refusing to give a timeline, or official confirmation of any QD-OLEDs coming to market, it probably won’t be soon. Manufacturing lines are only now being set up, and there will likely be an intensive R&D process as Samsung makes and amends its prototypes.
It’s likely we’ll see a QD-OLED model arrive in a couple of years’ time, but probably not before 2021.
Samsung won’t throw out its current LED, QLED, or Micro-LED ranges for a single panel technology, so it’s likely we’ll see a QD-OLED model arrive in a couple of years’ time, but probably not before 2021.
An official statement from Samsung on the matter said that “Samsung Electronics is pioneering the premium TV market through a two-track strategy that involves both QLED and Micro-LED TVs.” Even if QD-OLED will have a part in that strategy, the company will be investing in a number of technologies rather than betting on a single horse.
We expect to see a single model appear in the range at first, much in the vein of Samsung’s flagship 8K model, the Q950 8K QLED, but that may depend on the price point for the new TV.
Can a reduced price point be enough to save OLED?
(Image credit: LG Display)
We reported earlier in the year on the prospect of inkjet-printed OLED panels, which vastly simplify the production process and could lead the way for significantly cheaper OLED TVs (around 15-25% off current market value).
Price is seen as the main barrier for more mainstream adoption right now, followed shortly by the limited model sizes currently available – though new production lines are being opened to develop 48-inch models alongside 55-inch, 65-inch, and 75-inch ones. As QD-OLED and inkjet methods develop in tandem, it could be we see OLED gain the advantage it needs to continue in its current form – or morph out of necessity into a new technology entirely.
We often see new TV models shown off at events like the upcoming IFA 2019 expo. We expect it will be too early to see this technology on the show floor, and it will likely be another year or two before any QD-OLED models are actually in sight. But Samsung appears to have a clear development path ahead of it. If that means consumers get an improved picture over the already high-quality OLEDs on the market, we’ll consider that to be a good thing.
Football Manager 2020 is coming to Google Stadia and, according to developer Sports interactive, will play fastest on Google’s new platform.
While the developer didn’t announce any details on new features coming to the football management sim, it did announce that Football Manager 2020 will release in early November for PC, Mac and as a launch title on Google Stadia.
Faster on Stadia
In a press release, Sports Interactive announced that “Football Manager 2020 is set to make its debut on Google’s Stadia and will be the fastest way to experience Football Manager.”
“Football Manager on Stadia includes technology that is only available on that platform, utilizing the power of the cloud and Google’s data centers to ensure that more matches can be processed in parallel utilizing spare bandwidth across the whole system.”
“This means you can have more leagues loaded into your save, or just go for a faster experience by keeping the amount of leagues the same, but having the matches process quicker than you can on any other platform.”
There’s only a single exclusive to date, but with titles like Football Manager 2020 joining the roster (and promising to perform even better than on other platforms) Stadia is becoming a better proposition by the day.
Stadia: everything you need to know about Google’s game-streaming service
As you now know, there’s a plus size model of the Galaxy Note 10 so you need to choose which of Samsung’s phones to get. The Note 10+ is the one, as you would expect, has all the bells and whistles but is both big and expensive. Here’s our full review.
Plus phones are nothing new in the smartphone world but Samsung has never gone this far with the Galaxy Note range. Arguably, the firm has never had to considering the long standing premium phablet status of the handset. The Note range has a loyal following despite hiccups like the Note 7.
Previous models aside, the Note 10+ is the Galaxy device you go for if you want as many features as possible. It’s the big phone power user’s dream with amped up specs compared to the regular Galaxy Note 10 including a few exclusive bits and pieces.
The regular Note 10 will set you back £899/$949 and the Note 10+ is only £100/$150 more despite all the extras at £999/$1,099 so that’s a tempting upgrade if you’re happy with the size of the plus.
The Note 10+ also comes in a 5G variant which costs £1,099/$1,299 or £1,199/$1,399 if you want 512GB. Find out if it might be worth it in our EE 5G review.
The Note 10 phones sort of look like previous generations, but also have a distinctly new look at the same time. Blending familiarity with freshness isn’t easy so Samsung has done a great job in this respect.
There are some small design tweaks which we’ll explain but the big one is around the screen, as you can see. This thing has almost no bezels now, especially on the top and bottom where a lot of space has now become display. Despite having a bigger display compared to the Note 9, the device as a whole is a very similar size.
This is largely due, of course, to the camera being embedded in the screen like Samsung did with the S10 phone – only the sensor is central to get a better angle of your face and to look more appealing. If you find it to be something of an eyesore, then search for wallpapers that hide it.
It’s still the biggest Note to date and it’s unsurprisingly unweildy when holding it in one hand. It’s 196g which is marginally lighter than the Note 9 but not enough to make a big difference.
The aluminium frame is sandwiched inbetween more glass than an opticians. It looks a feels great with it’s curved edges so has the high-end build you’d expect but we still worry about dropping the phone. You probably will too considering how much this thing costs so we’d recommended getting a case to avoid disaster – there’s not one included in the box.
We really like the design of the Note 10 which still has the usual sort of mix of materials and craftsmanship, including things like an IP68 waterproof rating. However, it’s not all plain sailing.
Over the last couple of years it’s become pretty normal for phones to ditch the headphone jack and that’s what’s happened here. Samsung says this is partly to slim the design down (it’s just 7.9mm) and to leave room for the battery. Still, that’s a bit odd considering Samsung has scolded rivals for doing the same thing.
Whether that’s ok with you depends on your stance on using wired headphones. We’d rather have the option to plug some old-fashioned cans in, though. Samsung doesn’t even include a dongle but offer some USB-C headphones instead.
Some changes with the physical buttons are worth pointing out, too. There’s no dedicated Bixby button (did you even notice?) but you can long press the power key to summon the digital assistant if you so wish.
The power and volume keys are now on the left which is highly unusual. This isn’t the most comfortable solution for a right-handed user but we found ourselves simply double tapping the screen to wake the phone anyway and volume changes didn’t feel abnormal.
The Note 10+ comes in a different set of colours to the regular model, so while the Note 10 is available in an exclusive Aura Pink, the plus comes in Aura Glow, Aura Black and Aura White – the latter being the exclusive.
We reviewed the Aura Glow model which is stunning thanks to its swirling, ever changing colours akin to an oil slick. It’s quite mesmorising but the back of the phone is extrememly reflective and also attracts fingerprint marks like they’re going out of fashion.
The other colours are reflective but hide the grubby marks a bit better.
Specs & Features
As alluded to, the Galaxy Note 10+ is the model to go for if you want to go all-out. It’s got quite a few specs that are the same as the regular model, but plenty of extra things to tempt you with.
A tablet sized phone
Starting with the display it’s 0.5in bigger than the regular model at 6.8in – so that’s pretty much the same size as the small 7in tablets like the Nexus 7 which were popular a few years ago. The phone still feels pretty big, but that’s to be expected and will appeal to the Galaxy Note lovers.
This might not be a 90Hz panel but there’s still so much to like about the screen that we highly doubt you’ll be disappointed. Samsung has been bossing it with displays for a number of years now and the Note 10+ is no different.
Samsung calls this the Infinity-O display, which uses Dynamic AMOLED technology. It sports curved edges and even has a support for HDR10+. Both models are stunning but the Note 10+ has a higher resolution and pixel density at 3040 x 1440 and 498ppi if you like playing smartphone Top Trumps.
Like other Galaxy phones, you don’t actually get this resolution by default. It’s set to Full HD+ (2280×1080) but you can change this in the setting if you want. There’s also a lower HD+ option if you, for example, want to save battery power pushing pixels.
We won’t go into various tutorials now but there are various things you can do with the display such as always-on, blue light filter, night mode and Samsung’s Edge screen. You’ll find it all under the ‘display’ section of the setting menu or some things are in the quick settings.
One thing we did straight away was switch on ‘swipe down for notification panel’. The top of the screen is way to far away to reach, even for those with bigger hands, so this allows you to retreive the panel by swiping wherever you find comfortable.
As you might expect, the Note 10+ has an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner embedded in the screen, which is also placed slightly further up compared to the S10 for better comfort. A lot of people would prefer the sensor on the back but you’ll have to deal with that.
The other option is face unlock as there is no iris scanner here. Both work pretty well and you can use them in tandem so you can use the fingerprint scanner if the camera doesn’t pick up your face. Other facial recognition such as Face ID might be better but there’s not a gulf of difference. Samsung allows you to pick a more secure method if you don’t mind it potentially taking longer.
Maxxed out
The processor is the same – a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus or Exynos 9825 depending on where you live. However, the Note 10+ comes with a triple set of benefits if you do splash out.
It’s got 12GB of RAM (50% more than the regular model), the option for 512GB of storage as well as 256GB and is the only one with a microSD card slot so you can add up to 512GB more. On these, fronts the Note 10+ is a power user’s dream and could even replace a laptop for some.
It’s really no surprise that this a slick phone when it comes to performance. Put simply, there’s just no lag no matter what you do so we’ll leave it at that. You can check out the benchmark results below, but remember these are just synthetic tests.
That’s most of the extra bits but you do get a bigger battery in the Note 10+ at 4300- compared to 3500mAh in the smaller Note 10. As with any phone, it depends on your personal usage as to how long it will last. In our experience, the Note 10+ comfortably lasts a day without needing to be topped up.
This is with the default optimised power mode but you can also choose from high performance along with medium and maximum power saving. If you’re not sure which to use then adaptive power saving will pick for you based on your usage.
Of course, if you use features like Wireless PowerShare to charge other phones (yes, that’s a neat trick if you haven’t heard about it before) or devices like the Galaxy Buds then the battery will be drained quicker.
Wirelessly charging the phone is now quicker at 15W and topping up via USB-C, if you unplugg the supplied headphones, can be a whopping 45W. However, Samsung only supplies a 25W charger in the box so you’ll beed to buy the faster one separately if you want.
With the supplied charger you can get the Note 10+ from dead to fully charged in just over an hour which isn’t bad at all.
We didn’t know it at first but these faster charging speeds are reserved for the Note 10+. The regular Note 10 is limited to 12W wireless and 25W over cable.
Extra vision
Back to the Note 10+ extras and the phone has some additional camera sensors compared to the regular model. Samsung calls then DepthVision and they help out with things like Live focus rather than solely relying on software to create those effects. You can see them below the LED flash.
The main cameras are the same so you get a 12Mp dual aperture main camera along with a 12Mp telephoto lens that offers a 2x optical zoom – both feature optical image stabilisation (OIS). Then there’s a 16Mp ultra-wide angle option so you’re basically gettning the same trio as the S10.
At the front the punch-hole camera is 10Mp with an f/2.2 aperture and an 80 degree view. It’s not a dual-setup like the S10+ but you can still choose from regular and wide framing options which essentially crops the image instead.
You should expect excellent photography from a phone this expensive and on the whole, that’s what you get. There’s plenty of detail of offer and rich, bold colours. The camera is good at exposing, too which is handy in bright situations. Samsung provides lots of different modes and features to play with and the app will even make suggestions such as when to try the wide-angle lens.
Our main disappointments are that Samsung still tends to over-sharpen images and the Note 10+ simply isn’t as good as rivals in low light using the Night mode. Compared to the wizardry of phones like the Pixel 3, Samsung just falls short with more like a long a exposure effort which often results in blur.
Videos are even better thanks to improved Super Steady (digital) stabilisation which does an amazing job of smoothing out footage and can also be used in Hyperlapse mode. Of course, a gimbal does a better job but for a phone without aid, this is high-quality.
There are also new features like audio zoom so you can select a particular area of a video to listen to more but the most useful thing is being able to add the bokeh blur effect of Live focus onto videos.
Those into creating video will enjoy the built-in editor which has a range of tools including titles, transitions, sketches, stickers, speed adjustment, background music and filters. All of this is a joy to use with the S Pen.
5G me
We also need to talk about 5G which is not a standard feature of either Note 10 model. If you’re interested in getting on the latest and greatest mobile network, or at least future-proofing, then you’ll have to buy the specific 5G variant of the Note 10+ just like Samsung has done with the S10 5G.
To round off some other wireless stuff, the phone is Wi-Fi 6 enabled, following in the footsteps of the S10, so uses the up and coming 11.ax standard and also has things like Bluetooth 5.0, NFC and GPS.
Samsung said not many people used it so the heart rate monitor which was previously a feature is now gone and we doubt many people will even notice.
Stylus it out
We haven’t talked about the Galaxy Note’s classic feature yet, partly since it’s the same on both models but also because it’s not hugely different from the previous gen.
It’s still got Bluetooth and a very similar design, but does last longer now with up to 10 hours of standby with a quicker charge time, too. This is still the smart, sleek and accurate stylus we’ve come to expect.
A nice update in the software is the ability to quickly convert your note taking into a Microsoft Word file – or other formats like PDF – with pretty decent conversion to text. However, the Note 10+ gets confused when you have a mix of writing and drawing with the latter often being left out completely. It would be good if Samsung Notes could differentiate between the two.
The big fancy new feature is Air Actions which lets you wave the S Pen around like a wand to control the phone. At the moment it’s pretty limited to things like changing between cameras and modes or a somewhat awkward circular motion to control zoom.
An open SDK might mean that developers come up with some interesting uses for it, but as it stands this is largely a gimmick that doesn’t really serve a useful purpose. When it could be helpful is when you can’t see the display but this isn’t an option.
It’s 50% a camera feature, but there’s also AR Doodle to play around with. With face tracking, you can draw on and around someone with the scribbles moving as the subject does. Once you’re done you can record a video to send to someone. Again, it’s fun but probably something you’ll only use a little bit then forget about – especially since it doesn’t work on pets.
S Pen improvement alone are unlikely to temp Note 9 users to upgrade, but the stylus remains a key reason to get the Note over the S10 range or other large screen rivals.
Software & DeX
There’s no difference in software so you don’t get any exclusive apps on the Galaxy Note 10+ or the like, apart from the S Pen stuff of course.
There’s Android 9 Pie with Samsung’s own One UI skin since things can’t be left stock when it comes to Samsung, but things are more reserved than previously. There are even fewer pre-installed apps with only OneDrive in the menu when there are normally a few from Microsoft.
Samsung’s own can largely be dismissed unless you happen to love them. The same is true of Bixby and Bixby Home which we just don’t find ourselved naturally using at all.
As mentioned earlier, everything runs silky smooth and we assume there will be an update to Android 10 at some point.
Ever the problem with modern smartphone is the overwhelming amount of settings and features that are available but a tutorial when you first setup the phone would take hours to show you them all. It’s worth exploring the setting menu to see what’s not been switched on by default. Take a look at things like smart pop-up view, motions and gestures and Edge screen.
Before those things, you should setup ‘Link to windows’ which allows you to control the Note 10+ from Windows 10. It’s easy to sort out and then you can do anything without unlocking the phone. Another bonus is getting your photos instantly.
This is, as though, the Your Phone app that’s been available to any Android user but it’s an exclusive version for the Note 10 with easier installation, mirroring support for any PC and a faster connection. There’s also no need for Bluetooth.
Our only quibble is that the phone need to be unlocked and the screen on to use the mirroring which obviously uses the phone’s battery a lot more and doesn’t seem necessary.
We still found this more useful than DeX, Samsung’s Windows-like software which stands for desktop experience. Although this is better than previous versions.
If plug into a computer via USB-C, it brings up a second desktop window where you can use your Android apps in pop-out windows – just like, er, Windows. Not everything works, though and not everything works that well – after all, these apps have been designed for touch input on a much smaller screen.
A really nice benefit is being able to drag and drop files between the two devices, as well as copy/paste for text. Oddly it works with Windows 7, Windows 10, macOS (10.13+) but not Windows 8.
Considering the raw power of the Note 10+ it would be nice if this phone could go around with you while leaving your laptop at home. However, the need to install the DeX software on the host device means you can’t just plug in and use it on a publicly available machine, then leave knowing you’ve not left any files there or accounts logged in.
Your best option is carrying around a keyboard, mouse and portable monitor like the but that means this is no laptop replacement.
Verdict
It’s pretty clear that this is one of the best phones Samsung has ever made with a nice improvement on the Note 9.
The Note 10+ comes with a sleek new design that features tiny bezels enabling an even bigger screen inside a frame that’s almost no different to its predecessor – while being a tiny bit lighter.
ThatInfinity-O screen is huge and stunning and the Note 10+ is packed with tech that power users will drool over. Importantly it has a number of things that the regular Note 10 doesn’t including expandable storage, depth sensors, faster charging and more.
Samsung hasn’t completely nailed it though as we’re disappointed by the removal of the headphone jack and many of the new features, like Air Actions, feel gimmicky rather than genuinely useful.
It’s pretty understandable that this is a £1,000 phone and we think you get a lot of extras for £100 more than the smaller Note 10. You’ve just got to be ok with the size of this phone, which existing Note users should be, othewise look to its little brother or an S10 model.
