An improved Night Mode is coming to the S10, while Night Hyperlapse for night videos will make its way to both S10 and Note 10 devices. S20’s capability to create custom filters will also be part of the software update, as is the Pro Video feature that lets users adjust settings like ISO, shutter speed and exposure level.

Clean View and Quick Crop are coming to the older phones, as well. That means similar shots will be automatically grouped together in the devices’ Gallery app, and users will be able to zoom in on an image and easily crop it to only show that particular part of the photo. Samsung is also bringing Quick Share to older phones, giving users a way to share photos, videos and other files to people nearby. Finally, the update will include the Music Share feature, which allows a friend to connect to the same speaker a user is connected to via Bluetooth even if they don’t unlink their device.

Samsung doesn’t have an exact date for the rollout yet, but it will be available in the US. A spokesperson said in a statement:

“Samsung continues to add value to users’ devices by helping them discover the newest innovations and features. We are committed to providing the best mobile experience for Galaxy users by bringing together cutting-edge hardware with simple, easy-to-use software. The update will be released in select markets in the coming weeks, including the United States, delivering the latest Galaxy S20 experiences to Galaxy S10 and Note 10 devices.”

But Samsung had to make some tradeoffs to shave those millimeters. For example, the Note 10 has a full HD display, which would maybe be excusable if this were a $500 phone or if it were 2016. But the Note 10 costs $950. And in 2019, pretty much all high-end phones have gone quad HD. Samsung also ditched the microSD slot here — something that has been a staple of the Note series since day one, and that power users will surely miss.

Yet the new, smaller phone isn’t meant for the average Note fan. With it, Samsung is trying to sell the S Pen to a larger audience — whether it’s people who find Notes too big or those who obsess a little less over spec sheets.

Most of the Note 10’s new features are the same as those in the Plus, and Chris Velazco has already gone over those in excruciating detail, so I’m not going to retread all of them. Instead, I’m going to focus on what makes the Note 10 different, and whether you should pick the smaller handset.

The importance of the S Pen

First, though, allow me to gush over the S Pen for a moment, since it is after all one of the biggest selling points of the Note series and is also why getting a smaller Note is a big deal. Back in the day, the stylus was really only useful for those who wanted to draw or write notes on their phones. Now, though, the S Pen is more than just a writing implement.

After adding Bluetooth support to the S Pen last year and turning it into a remote control, Samsung expanded the number of gestures you could use by giving the stylus a gyroscope and accelerometer. Instead of simply clicking once or twice to trigger actions, you can now swing the pen around to do things like switch cameras or zoom in on a scene from afar.

I really enjoyed having the S Pen as a wand-like controller for my camera, especially when my friend challenged me to a yoga pose-off where we needed to send each other pictures and videos of us beating the other at challenging poses. I was always too embarrassed to ask my friend to take a photo for me at the studio, plus I wanted to respect the privacy of my fellow yogis. I tried using my Pixel 3’s timer to capture my achievements, but even with the maximum 10-second window, I couldn’t get a picture of exactly when I had the right limbs up. The Note 10 came to the rescue — I got into position in my own time and clicked the button when I was ready, and I won the challenge. Yay.

It’s nice to have the S Pen in a device that fits in the snug pocket of my yoga pants, but that was a really specific instance where the Note 10 did something I couldn’t do with another phone. What you might use it for more frequently is to take digital handwritten notes. You can write on the Note 10’s face even when it’s asleep thanks to Screen Off Memo, which was a great feature when Samsung first launched it in the Note 5 in 2015. But with the Note 10, the company made it easier to sort through and make sense of your scribbles by improving its handwriting recognition system. All your notes are now automatically converted in the background and the words are indexed so you can search for a specific thing you scrawled and find it even if you hadn’t manually hit convert.

I wrote a list of things I had to do ahead of IFA 2019 on a Screen Off Memo and hit save. Later, I went into the Notes app and found the exact list by searching for “IFA.” This, more than the wand-like controls, felt like magic.

As the many, many leaks indicated, the Note 10 is a refinement on its predecessor, with smaller than ever bezels and a center-aligned camera hole on the front that make for a pretty striking impression. It’s subjective, but I feel like the center camera hole just looks better than the off-center one found on the Galaxy S10 line.

The smaller of the two Galaxy Note 10 models still packs in a 6.3-inch screen, so it’s not exactly small (just one-tenth of an inch smaller than last year’s model). But with the bezels reduced even further, this feels like a more compact Note than before. However, the Note 10 takes a surprising step back in terms of screen resolution: the panel runs at 2,280 x 1,080, basically an extended 1080p screen since we’re all about the extra-tall display these days. That’s down from the quad HD display found in last year’s model. For a device geared towards those who want the biggest and best they can get, it’s a surprising change.

Moving beyond the display, the Note 10 features a refined S Pen that includes an accelerometer and gyroscope for the first time (well, outside the Galaxy Tab S6 that was just announced last week). That means the Note 10 detects gestures like flicking in addition to the button presses and drawing on the actual screen. It sounds like a classic Samsung gimmick, but it enables some neat features like jumping between cameras or switching between shooting modes, using the pen like a Harry Potter wand. The S Pen also can now automatically convert handwriting to digital text and let you export it into whatever format or file type you need, including Microsoft Word.

Circling back to the cameras, it’s a similar setup to what you’ll find on the Galaxy S10+. The three shooters on the back include an “ultra wide” 16-megapixel camera with an f/2.2 aperture; a standard 12-megapixel option with f/1.5 and f/2.2 aperture options and optical image stabilization; and a telephoto 12-megapixel camera with OIS and an f/2.1 aperture. The front camera, meanwhile, clocks in at 10 megapixels with an f/2.2 aperture and an 80-degree field of view. Beyond those specs, Samsung’s low-light Night Mode is included here and works on the front camera as well as the rear. On the Galaxy S10 line, where it was first introduced, it only worked with the rear cameras.

While Samsung may have cut some corners on the display, relatively speaking, the internals here are as powerful as you’d expect from a Samsung flagship. As is often the case with Samsung’s phones, processors vary by region, but the company’s spec sheet claims we’re looking at 64-bit, octa-core processor paired with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. That processor is also Samsung’s first 7-nanometer chip, for those keeping track. The battery is also massive, at 3,500 mAh, and Samsung says a quick charge of 30 minutes gets you enough power to “last through the day.” We’ll have to put that claim to the test, to be sure, but at least you can rest easy knowing fast charging is on board here.

Oh yeah, there’s no headphone jack this year, and the Note 10 is running Android 9 Pie; as usual, you’ll probably wait months before it is upgraded to Android Q. But hey, on the plus side, the Bixby button is gone!

As you probably guessed, the Galaxy Note 10 isn’t going to come cheap: it starts at $949 in the US. Carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, US Cellular, Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) and Xfinity Mobile will all have the phone in stores and online as of August 23rd. Other retailers including Best Buy, Amazon, Target, Walmart and more will sell the phone, as well — if you’re looking for an unlocked version, they’ll probably be your best bet.

Speaking of carriers, it’s worth noting that while the larger Galaxy Note 10+ will have a 5G model (that’s exclusive to Verizon in the US, at least initially), the smaller version sticks squarely in the present with LTE connectivity. If you want to be on the bleeding edge in every way possible, you’ll need to step up to the big boy.