Month: August 2019

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  The Galaxy Note10. [credit: Ron Amadeo ]

NEW YORK CITY—Samsung showed off its next flagship smartphone last night: the Galaxy Note10. It comes in two variants—large (the Note10) and larger (the Note10+).

In person, the larger Galaxy Note10+ is absolutely huge. And I say this not as someone who carries around a tiny phone all day, but as someone who is used to the already-giant Android phones out there. First the display is actually bigger, with the Note10+ screen topping out at 6.8-inches diagonally, a new high-mark this year. The "smaller" Note10 is a mere 6.3-inches, which is still extra huge. The other thing contributing to the imposing presence is the sharper display corners. The heavily rounded corners of yesterday are out, and the Note10 is a big ol' sharp rectangle.

The front and back of the device is curved along the long edge, which helps you wrap your tiny, pathetic human hands around Samsung's giant slab of glass and pixels. Width is really the thing that makes a phone feel big in your hand, and the Note10+'s 77.2mm-wide body has got to be a new high watermark in phone girthiness. The bigger size is actually quite nice to use with the S-Pen, which always feels like it needs as much real estate as possible for drawing or handwriting. I still never want to do any handwriting or drawing on my phone, but for those who do, bigger is better probably.

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  OnLeaks' Pixel 4 XL render. The notch is gone, and so is the bottom front speaker. [credit: @OnLeaks x Pricebaba ]

Pixel 4 rumor season never stops, even if Samsung is having a major smartphone launch. 9to5Google, which had its earlier Pixel 4 rumors confirmed by Google before the phone has even launched, has a fresh set of Pixel 4 rumors for us.

First up: The Pixel 4 will supposedly have a 90Hz "smooth display" feature, just like the OnePlus 7 Pro. This means the entire interface should refresh at 90 frames per second instead of the usual 60, which—on the OnePlus 7 Pro at least—proved to be an absolute revelation for UI smoothness and making the phone feel fast and responsive. Until 90Hz displays came along, Google was the leader in Android UI "smoothness," so it'll be interesting to see what the company can do with a faster display.

Quicker display refresh rates are rapidly becoming the next big upgrade for Android phones—as evidenced by the aforementioned 90Hz OnePlus phone and even a 120Hz OLED screen from Asus with the ROG Phone 2. At the Note10 launch, we were disappointed to see Samsung shipping a regular old 60Hz display on its $1000 flagship, and now it looks like even Google is going to beat Samsung to the punch.