Samsung Galaxy Note 10 amps up your photo powers with new stylus controls

Samsung takes the Galaxy Note's signature feature and gives it new ways to take unique photos.

Shelby Brown Editor II

Shelby Brown (she/her/hers) is an editor for CNET's services team. She covers tips and tricks for apps, operating systems and devices, as well as mobile gaming and Apple Arcade news. Shelby also oversees Tech Tips coverage. Before joining CNET, she covered app news for Download.com and served as a freelancer for Louisville.com.

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She received the Renau Writing Scholarship in 2016 from the University of Louisville's communication department.

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Shelby Brown

Aug. 7, 2019 2:18 p.m. PT

samsung-unpacked-2019-event-072 — There's a lot you can do with your photos with the stylus.
Sarah Tew/CNET

At Samsung's Galaxy Note 10 Unpacked event, as part of the new Galaxy Note 10 and Tab S6, the company revealed new features for its S Pen -- the Note's signature feature. Along with gesture controls, the embedded stylus can trigger your phone's camera with the press of a button. There's also an augmented reality feature that lets you use the pen to draw on top of photos and videos with three-dimensional AR doodles -- to amp up your social media posts on Snapchat and Instagram Stories.

samsung-unpacked-2019-event-100 — Samsung demonstrated the fun you can have with AR Doodle.
Sarah Tew/CNET

To work with the S Pen camera feature, you set up the Note 10 on a tripod then hold down the S Pen's button to open your phone's camera. You can use the S Pen's new gesture function to scroll through modes, zoom in and out and then snap a photo by pushing the button on the stylus. All this is done without touching your phone.