In a hugely revealing pair of tweets, Samsung insider Ice Universe has laid bare the vast difference users can expect from the camera capabilities in the new Note range and Huawei’s upcoming Mate 30 Pro. He also makes it clear that Samsung has no-one to blame, but itself.
Ice uses scale drawings to show the Galaxy Note 10 camera sensor will be more than three times smaller than the primary sensor inside the Mate 30 Pro. Furthermore, the Pro will come with a secondary sensor and even that is twice the size. Larger sensors capture more light and light is the most important physical element in determining photo quality.
“There seems to be a lot of people who don't know how big the gap is... Note10 has no chance of beating Mate30 Pro in terms of camera hardware,” Ice explains.
Moreover, Ice also illustrates why such a gap has opened up and it is striking: the Galaxy Note 10 still uses the same sensor as the Galaxy S7, which was released in early 2016. That means the new Note will be the eighth flagship Galaxy smartphone in a row to reuse this sensor. By contrast, Huawei has significantly increased the size of the camera sensor on its smartphones for the last three years and it will double them for the Mate 30 Pro.
Yes, Samsung has done its best to compensate for its ageing hardware with advanced image processing but it is papering over the cracks. Which is why the Galaxy range has fallen from standard-bearers to also-rans behind the iPhone, Mate and Pixel ranges. In fact, the Mate 30 Pro’s predecessor currently sets the industry benchmark and it has just one sensor.
But what if you don’t care about camera quality? Ice’s revelations are only the tip of the iceberg. In terms of performance, acclaimed leaker Evan Blass (aka EvLeaks) has already confirmed that Samsung will not upgrade the Note 10 range to Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 855+ chipset while the Mate 30 Pro will debut with the next-generationKirin 990.
On top of this, the Mate 30 Pro will ship with a significantly larger battery than the Note 10 and equal Samsung’s eye-wateringly expensive new Galaxy Note 10+, while costing less than both of them. Yes, purists will miss the Note’s S Pen but that also comes at a heavy cost, Meanwhile, the Note’s other great differentiator, the headphone jack, willbite the dust as well.
The one caveat against the Mate 30 Pro is for US buyers due to Huawei’s ongoing trade ban, but there are signs this will lift. Yes, the Galaxy S11 looks set to go even further in 2020, but for 2019 upgraders the smart money will be spent on a new champion.