Samsung Unveils Galaxy Note 10

Koh Dong-jin, the head of Samsung's mobile division, introduces the Galaxy Note 10 at the Barclays Center in New York on Wednesday. /Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

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Samsung unveiled the latest "phablet" in its Galaxy Note series in New York on Wednesday.

The Korean giant hopes sales of the Galaxy Note 10 will help it overcome the impact of Japanese export curbs on key high-tech materials and the escalating U.S.-China trade war.

For the first time since the Galaxy Note series of smartphones started eight years ago, Samsung put out two versions of the phone, adding the Galaxy Note 10 Plus with a bigger 6.8-inch screen to the 6.3-inch one. 

Around 4,000 reporters and industry insiders from around the world converged at the Barclays Center in New York for the launch.

"Even though we are faced with diplomatic and political problems, the only way for businesses to survive is through diligent product innovation", a company spokesman said.

The Note 10 and Plus have a full-front display and an upgraded stylus and are thinner and lighter than the previous version, making it easier to hold in one hand. They come in three colors -- aura black, aura white and aura glow, which changes color depending on the angle.

One worthwhile innovation in the phone is that messages written in stylus can be automatically converted into text rather than saved as picture files. The stylus, called the S Pen, can also be used to remotely control the phone by waving it in the air.

But the phones lack space for earphone jacks, so users have to plug their earphones into recharging ports.

With the launch, Samsung got a head start on Apple, which launches the iPhone 11 early next month.

But its profitability in the second half of this year is likely to suffer from its multi-model strategy of releasing both LTE and 5G devices.

In a strategic tie-up with Microsoft, Galaxy smartphones will also become remotely synchronizable with PCs and MS Cloud.