Samsung is going to be keeping the micro SD card slot, for now. But it won’t be on the Galaxy Note10. Instead, it’ll be available on the Galaxy Note10 Pro, as a “pro” feature. Luckily, the headphone jack does appear to be coming to both models, at least for now.
The micro SD card slot is a much bigger deal for Galaxy Note users. As it is seen as a power user feature. Those that buy a Pixel don’t really care that it doesn’t have a micro SD card slot. Those that buy a Galaxy S10 like that it’s there, but likely won’t use it. Galaxy Note10 users, on the other hand, want that micro SD card slot available to store their entire music library offline. And ditching that feature on the standard Galaxy Note10, is not going to go over well with its customers.
Luckily it will be sticking around on the larger Galaxy Note10 Pro, which is also likely going to be over a grand.
This information comes from XDA Developers, Max Weinbach, who posted on Twitter a few tidbits from a source of his that has played with the phone. Stating that only one has a micro SD card slot, and that is the Galaxy Note10 Pro. It’ll be interesting to see how Samsung spins this, or if it is even mentioned at all. Seeing as Samsung rarely talks about specs these days, that is likely not going to even be spoken about at Unpacked in August.
Some other tidbits that Weinbach has mentioned on Twitter over the weekend, include the fact that his source says that the renders are nearly perfect. So what we’ve been seeing leaked out, are basically what we will see in August. The S Pen is basically the same as the Galaxy Note9’s, so that means we still are getting some Bluetooth support. There’s also the fact that both models have headphone jacks. Which lines up with some previous leaks we’ve seen.
It was also mentioned that there is no speaker grille at the top of the phone. This would line up with what we have heard about Samsung going with its Sound On Display technology for the Galaxy Note10 series. Basically putting the speaker under the display, like LG did with the G8 ThinQ earlier this year. This would allow Samsung to make the bezels even smaller, and also make the phone even more waterproof, since the holes for the speaker are not present.
Today, Weinbach also mentioned that there will be a 25W wall charger in the box with the standard Galaxy Note10. But it will likely support up to 45W. Meaning that Samsung is finally upgrading its fast charging. After sticking with around 2.4A for many, many years.
If all of this information is accurate, then the Galaxy Note10 and Galaxy Note10 Pro could turn out to be pretty impressive smartphones. But they are going to come with some hefty price tags. We should know more on August 7, which is when Samsung is expected to announce the new device.