Galaxy Note 10 price and release date expectations: in-depth analysis
The Galaxy Note 10 is almost around the corner, and because of that, there is an abundance of leaks and rumors surrounding Samsung's upcoming heavyweight smartphone. We already know quite a bit about the specs of this future powerhouse, and we've even seen concept renders based on leaked information, revealing an ambitious device that looks both elegant and powerful.
After one gets acquainted with all that the Note 10 is expected to be, which you can easily do if you read our detailed Note 10 rumor review, one thing becomes clear – this is going to be an amazing smartphone for users who demand ultimate power and flexibility from their mobile devices. What's more, rumor has it there may actually be two Note 10 models this year: a regular Note 10, and an even more powerful Note 10 Pro. However, since there is no information right now about the eventual price delta between the two models, and it's fairly likely that both models will be released at the same time (that is, if there are indeed two models), we're just going to treat the Note 10 as a single device for now. Once we get more details about the mysterious Note 10 Pro and its pricing, we'll update the article.
With all that in mind, when exactly is the Galaxy Note 10 going to be released, and how much is it going to cost?
Galaxy Note 10 release date analysis
The current rumors have the Galaxy Note 10 be announced on August 10, and then released about two weeks later, on August 25. These predictions seem to be pretty reasonable, but the dates may need some adjustment still.
Galaxy Note 10 price analysis
These are some good questions! Also, while they don't have definite answers yet, our goal here is to take a good look at all the evidence we have so far, as well as how things turned out in previous years, so that we can make the most accurate prediction possible about when the Galaxy Note 10 is going to be released, and how much it's going to cost. Let's start with the release date!
Galaxy Note 10 release date analysis
Galaxy Note 10 concept image
First, let's move the calendar two years back. The Galaxy Note 8 was announced on August 23 (2017) and released on September 15. You'll notice that the former date is a Wednesday, and the latter is a Friday. Friday releases are quite popular among big smartphone manufacturers.
Fast forward to 2018, and Samsung decided it'd be best if it could pull the Note 9's release a bit earlier, thus distancing it more from Apple's September roll-outs. And so, the Note 9 was announced on August 9 (2018) and released on August 24. Do note that Aug 9 was a Thursday, and August 24 was again a Friday.
There is no reason to believe that the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 won't be released on a Friday as well. So, let's take a look at the rumored Note 10 dates again:
1) Announcement on August 10 rumor: This is pretty unlikely, because August 10 is a Saturday this year. You don't want to announce your fancy smartphone on a Saturday, because tech journalists don't typically work on Saturday. Well, even though many of us would make an exception for Samsung and the Note 10, why not get the maximum coverage possible and introduce the Note 10 on a normal business day?
Now it's possible that the rumored August 10 was in Korean time, which could make it possible to the announcement to happen on August 9 for the western part of the globe, although that doesn't make too much sense as well, because Korea is a big market, and we don't know if Samsung would be willing to announce the Note 10 when it's Saturday in its home country. It's still possible, just not too much. Note that in 2017, the Note 8 was announced on a Wednesday, and in 2018, the Note 9 was announced on Thursday. Because of that, we'd actually stay away from the August 10 date for now, and predict that the announcement will happen sometime over the week of Aug 5 - 9, possibly on August 8. UPDATE: Samsung has officially announced the announcement date of the Galaxy Note 10 – August 7. Well, our initial guess was close enough!
2) Release on August 25 rumor: Again, this date doesn't seem very likely, because it's a Sunday. Now, you don't need as much media coverage on the day of release of your new phone as on the day of announcement, but we know big phone launches typically happen on Friday, and this has been the case with the previous two Galaxy Note generations as well. Because of that, our guess would be that the Galaxy Note 10 will officially become available on August 23 this year.
Announcement date | Release date | |
---|---|---|
Galaxy Note 8 | August 23 | September 15 |
Galaxy Note 9 | August 9 | August 24 |
Galaxy Note 10 | August 7 | August 23 (speculation) |
We should point out here that this is expected to be the release date for the 4G Galaxy Note 10 variants. The rumor is that Samsung is also working on 5G variants, and those may come a bit later, but at this point we have no idea when.
Galaxy Note 10 price analysis
Samsung has been gradually raising its Galaxy Note prices over the years, just like it's been doing with the Galaxy S series, and just like Apple's been doing with the iPhone.
This probably isn't a welcome thing for Note fans, considering the fact that the Galaxy Note is typically positioned above mainstream flagships – it's even more expensive!
So, let's do the same exercise again, shall we? Two years back, we had the Note 8, and it launched at the price point of $929. Back then, it was of course seen as an enormous amount for a smartphone, while today we might as well take it as "reasonable". Funny how quickly times change! The Note 8 was only sold in 64 GB storage variety, so it didn't get any more expensive.
Then, a year later, the Note 9 dialed things up a notch to the anticipated $1000. That was for 128 GB of storage. There was also a more expensive, $1250 variant with 512 GB of memory. Well, the bad news is we don't expect these things to get any cheaper these days!
What's more, Samsung's Galaxy S10 line, which was launched earlier this year already covered the $1000 price point. The regular Galaxy S10 started at $900, but the Galaxy S10+ started at $1000 for 128 GB memory, and went up to $1250 for 512 GB, and then up again to $1600 for 1 TB of storage.
The whole premise of the Galaxy Note is that it's even more powerful, more stacked, and more feature-rich smartphone than the Galaxy S. So, it HAS to be more expensive than the Galaxy S10+; it's always been.
We guess that is why most rumors currently see the Galaxy Note 10 starting at $1100. Such pricing does make a lot of sense. How much storage will the base tier give you? We don't know, but it'll be either 128 GB or 256 GB. Current expectations are that the base model is going to be 128 GB, which would be OK. It'd be great if Samsung suddenly feels generous and loads it with 256 GB, but that seems unlikely right now.
It's possible for Samsung to offer the Note 10 in three storage tiers: 128 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB – these are the configurations that the Galaxy S10+ is available in, and you already know how much they cost. If Samsung does keep these three storage configurations for the Note 10, we wouldn't be surprised if they come in at $1100, $1350, and $1700, respectively.
64 GB | 128 GB | 512 GB | 1 TB | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Galaxy Note 8 | $929 | |||
Galaxy Note 9 | $999 | $1249 | ||
Galaxy Note 10 (speculation) | $1099 | $1349 | $1699 |
And we'll leave it at that for now! Obviously, there's still some time before Samsung unveils the Note 10, so things may change over the next few weeks. Not to mention that we're yet to learn anything meaningful about the rumored Note 10 Pro! If there happens to be a major twist, we'll be quick to let you know, considering how revved up the rumor mill is right now.
Expected color variants for the Galaxy Note 10
Things that are NOT allowed: