Now that we have two Galaxy Notes, can we get one with a flat display?

The Galaxy Note family has doubled in size and now consists of two models: the regular Note and a Note+. And unlike the Galaxy S phones that are almost identical aside from the size, the differences between the two Notes are quite significant. You can read more about them in our comparison between the Note 10 and Note 10+. While for some that might be a bad thing, it’s also an opportunity for Samsung.

Looking at the two devices it’s clear that the Note 10+ is the true successor to the Note line. As such, it has to meet certain expectations and follow the heritage of the series. That leaves the regular Note somewhat out of the spotlight, which in terms gives Samsung the freedom to experiment with it. This year, Samsung didn’t really take the opportunity to do so, besides cutting a couple of features from the bigger Note and scaling it down in size, but hopefully, things will be different next year.

Now, I’ll leave most of the decisions to Samsung’s engineers (how gracious of me), as I’m sure they know what they’re doing (even if sometimes they’re forced to, RIP headphone jack). However, if there was one change that I could make for next year’s “compact” Note 11, it would be to put a flat display on it. A lot of you are probably already sold on the idea without any further explanation, but for the rest, let’s take a deeper look into the “why”.

Offering a meaningful choice

As I already mentioned, the differences between the Note 10 and Note 10+ are not insignificant by any means. Still, for the majority of people, they're not a dealbreaker so essentially they have two very similar devices to choose from. Why not, instead, differentiate in a way that would make happy both sides of a polarizing feature. And make no mistake, the curved-edge displays are a polarizing feature. Maybe not for the average user, but people that consider themselves tech enthusiasts (as most Note users do) take into account the shape of their device’s display.

Currently, if they prefer a flat screen on their phone, they have to either make a compromise by getting a Note or they have to look for another model altogether. Why not then have the two phones each with a different type of display? You give both camps a phone they’re happy with and at the same time you can cut some of the cost of the smaller one, two birds with one stone! Keep the fanciness for the expensive model and give the cheaper one the more utilitarian display.