Tip: How I fixed the flaws in the Samsung Galaxy Note10+

After two years with the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, it was time to upgrade to the latest generation, which I was able to do rather cheaply via my carrier, making me the proud owner of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G.

The Note 10+ is undoubtedly a great handset, but coming from the Note 8 there are quite a few niggling issues to sort out. This is how I went about doing it.

The first few are related to the under-screen fingerprint reader. Unlike others, I think it works perfectly fast enough, but I have a few tips related to it.

One is to activate the Always On screen under Settings > Lock Screen > Always On Display and set that to Always.  This way the position of the fingerprint reader will always be easy to find, even when the screen is off.

The second tip is knowing that the fingerprint reader is always active, even when your phone is off. This means touching the fingerprint reader area on the screen will unlock and switch in your phone, similar to pressing on the pressure-sensitive part of the touch screen on the Note 8.

Thirdly, be sure to activate Face Unlock under Settings> Biometrics and Security> Face Recognition. In many circumstances, it can still be a lot faster to merely hold your phone up to your face than find the fingerprint reader.

Fourthly, I, of course, use Microsoft Launcher as my launcher, which has two handy features which I find helpful.

With Microsoft Launcher installed, press and hold on the screen, go to Launcher Settings in the icons at the bottom of the screen, go to Gestures and set Swipe Down to Expand notifications.  On the Home screen, this replaces swiping down on the fingerprint reader to bring down the notification shade.

Also in Microsoft Launcher settings, under Gestures, set Double Tap to Screen Lock, which means you would not have to fumble for the wrongly placed power button to lock your device.

Lastly, under phone Settings > Advanced features > Side Key, setting Double Press to Quick Launch Camera works incredibly well, and makes up somewhat for losing the remappable Bixby key.

By the way, if you want to feel a bit more like you are living in the future, get rid of the navigation keys by going to Settings > Display > Navigation Bar and switch to Full Screen Gestures to enable gesture navigation, which actually works pretty well.

Do our readers have any of your own tips to share on customizing your Galaxy handset? Let us know below.