Samsung Galaxy S10, S10+ and S10e First Impressions
Samsung just announced the Galaxy S10e, S10 and S10+ 10 years after the original! These are our impressions!
The original Galaxy S that was released 10 years ago was a landmark achievement because it was the one device that could truly stand toe-to-toe with the dominating Apple iPhone at the time.
See also: 10 best highlights of the Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+
It was also my first Android phone. It is mind blowing to think that it has been ten years and the Galaxy S line of phones have come so far.
The S10 series brings noteworthy new features like the Power Share (reverse wireless charging), the Infinity-O display with HDR10+ compliance, the new 8nm Exynos 9820 processor and the up to 12GB RAM and 1TB storage capacity.
Let's take a closer look!
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| Meet the S10 family |
The original Galaxy S that was released 10 years ago was a landmark achievement because it was the one device that could truly stand toe-to-toe with the dominating Apple iPhone at the time.
See also: 10 best highlights of the Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+
It was also my first Android phone. It is mind blowing to think that it has been ten years and the Galaxy S line of phones have come so far.
The S10 series brings noteworthy new features like the Power Share (reverse wireless charging), the Infinity-O display with HDR10+ compliance, the new 8nm Exynos 9820 processor and the up to 12GB RAM and 1TB storage capacity.
Let's take a closer look!
Note: As of this writing, we only received the smartphone itself without a box and its inclusions. We will update this section once a full retail unit becomes available.
Build Quality/Design
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| Glossy back design |
The Samsung Galaxy S10e, S10 and S10+ continues the Korean's giants attention to detail and high standards. At a distance or up close, the premium materials and design catches your attention with its alluring and elegant curves.
Elegant curves, solid and hefty feel!
Once you've held each handset, you feel a solid and hefty feel to the phone while the glass elevates its luxurious appeal. The downside to the glass and the limited edition ceramic materials is it is a major fingerprint magnet but it feels so good in the hands.
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| S10/S10+ top |
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| S10/S10+ bottom |
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| S10/S10+ left |
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| S10/S10+ right |
The most obvious change is at the front with the slimmest bezels yet on a Samsung phone with the cameras housed in a circle or oblong shaped hole on the top right corner. One nitpick is the chin bezel is thicker than the top bezel is.
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| S10+ two holes in front |
The Dynamic AMOLED Infinity-O display is now HDR10+ compliant which means it can display High Dynamic Range content. It also comes with the apps edge and the rest of the Edge software features that Samsung has offered for years.
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| S10 screen |
The Dynamic AMOLED Infinity-O display is now HDR10+ compliant which means it can display High Dynamic Range content. It also comes with the apps edge and the rest of the Edge software features that Samsung has offered for years.
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| S10e has a slightly thicker chin |
The whole S10 series looks more like the Note9 than the S9/S9+ which may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your preferences.
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| S10+ and S10 screens |
The S10 and S10 Plus has the fingerprint scanner in the display while the S10e has a fingerprint scanner that doubles as the power button on the right side.
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| S10e side-mounted fingerprint scanner |
On top of all three phones are microphones, antenna lines and the SIM card and microSD card tray while at the bottom are the Antenna lines, microphones, 3.5mm headphone jack, the bottom firing speaker and the USB Type-C.
The Galaxy S10 and S10+ carry triple rear cameras that are made up of a 16MP Ultra-wide lens, a 12MP standard wide and a 12MP 2x optical zoom while the S10e will only have two cameras that are made of the 12MP standard wide and 12MP 2x optical zoom lens.
Only the S10+ has the dual front facing camera and the oblong shaped punch hole while the S10e and S10 will have a rounded punch hole.
Initial findings
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| The Samsung Galaxy S10 and the Infinity-O display |
1. The S10e, S10 and S10+'s new Infinity-O Dynamic AMOLED displays reinforces Samsung's dominance in display manufacturing. The colors are more vibrant, the details are sharper and the contrast is deeper than our Galaxy Note9 and no other phone display can catch up.
The punch hole on the top right is at the right position where there are just enough gaps between the hole and the top and the right edge of the display to be visually appealing.
Like the notches of the competition, the punch hole will either be loved or hated. Personally, I think it is prettier in person and I think it is better than the notch because it takes up less space and there is more room for notification icons on top.
Galaxy S10+ is the most impressive Samsung phone yet!
The punch hole on the top right is at the right position where there are just enough gaps between the hole and the top and the right edge of the display to be visually appealing.
Like the notches of the competition, the punch hole will either be loved or hated. Personally, I think it is prettier in person and I think it is better than the notch because it takes up less space and there is more room for notification icons on top.
2. The Samsung Galaxy S10e, S10 and S10+ comes with the new 8nm Exynos 9820 and Mali-G76 MP12 GPU with up to 12GB RAM and up to 1TB of storage.
In terms of navigating through the new One UI and launching multiple apps simultaneously, the S10 series of phones never felt like they stuttered, slowed down or had any hiccup.
As of this writing, we have yet been able to install games or benchmarks on the device so we cannot give you an in-depth performance experience. Rest assured that we will also update this section once a review unit becomes available.
In terms of navigating through the new One UI and launching multiple apps simultaneously, the S10 series of phones never felt like they stuttered, slowed down or had any hiccup.
As of this writing, we have yet been able to install games or benchmarks on the device so we cannot give you an in-depth performance experience. Rest assured that we will also update this section once a review unit becomes available.
3. The Samsung Galaxy S10 series are now running on the Android 9.0 Pie based One UI skin from Samsung which reviewed in-depth here.
The gist of our review is that the new One UI is a radical redesign that focuses on a lightweight and faster version of Android that takes advantage of features that focus on eas of use and one-handed use. This is done while carrying all the favorite features that have been introduced through the Galaxy devices over the years.
In short, One UI is a welcome change to the ageing Samsung Experience/TouchWiz.
The gist of our review is that the new One UI is a radical redesign that focuses on a lightweight and faster version of Android that takes advantage of features that focus on eas of use and one-handed use. This is done while carrying all the favorite features that have been introduced through the Galaxy devices over the years.
In short, One UI is a welcome change to the ageing Samsung Experience/TouchWiz.
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| Triple-cams |
4. The Samsung Galaxy S10e comes with a 12MP standard wide lens and a 12MP 2x optical zoom while the S10 and S10+ adds a 16MP ultra wide lens with dual pixel autofocus.
This comes with 30 new scenes detected and improved by the scene optimizer feature. The rear cameras can also shoot up to 4K 60fps.
For the selfie camera, the S10e and the S10 have a single front facing camera while the S10+ has a dual front facing camera.
Both front and rear facing cameras can now use portrait mode with new motion blur effects.
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| Dual-cams |
This comes with 30 new scenes detected and improved by the scene optimizer feature. The rear cameras can also shoot up to 4K 60fps.
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| Selfie UI |
For the selfie camera, the S10e and the S10 have a single front facing camera while the S10+ has a dual front facing camera.
Both front and rear facing cameras can now use portrait mode with new motion blur effects.
5. The S10 and S10+ introduces the ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanner that Samsung says is more secure than the optical in-display fingerprint scanner implementation of the competition because of its ability to scan each grove of the user's fingerprint in 3D. This effectively makes it on par with Apple's face unlock (Face ID).
The S10e on the other hand has the similar right side mounted finger print scanner that doubles as a power button found on the Samsung Galaxy A7. The placement takes a while to get used to and it may not be for everyone.
Since we have yet to receive a retail review unit, we could not dive deeper into some of the features of the new S10e, S10 and S10+.
Yet, with our limited and brief time with the Samsung Galaxy S10 series left a good impression with us because of the stunning display, the large RAM and ROM capacities, the potentially powerful 8nm Exynos 9820, the premium build materials and design and the revamped lighter and easier to use One UI.
We will continuously update this article once we receive a retail copy of the phone for review.
What do you guys think? Do you think Samsung has brought a worthy successor to the original S?
The S10e on the other hand has the similar right side mounted finger print scanner that doubles as a power button found on the Samsung Galaxy A7. The placement takes a while to get used to and it may not be for everyone.
Samsung Galaxy S10e Specs
Display: 5.8-inch 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 5 protected Dynamic AMOLED screen w/ FHD+ 2280 x 1080 resolution at 438 ppi
CPU: 2.7GHz 64-bit Exynos 9820 octa-core processor w/ NPU
GPU: Mali-G76 MP12
RAM: 6GB/8GB
ROM: 128GB/256GB expandable via microSD card up to 1TB
Back Camera: 12MP (f/1.5/f/2.4) w/ Dual Pixel, OIS + 16MP f/2.2 123-degree ultra wide-angle lens and dual tone LED flash
Selfie Camera: 10MP f/1.9 w/ Dual Pixel
Battery: 3,100mAh w/ Adaptive fast charging, fast wireless charging
OS: Android 9.0 Pie w/ One UI
Connectivity: WiFi 6, 4G LTE Cat 20, Bluetooth 5.0, OTG, NFC, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, dual SIM (hybrid)
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic, pressure, heart rate
Others: Fingerprint sensor, face unlock, IP68 water and dust resistance, USB-C, UHQ 32-bit/DSD audio support, AKG stereo speakers, Colors: prism white, prism green, prism black, canary yellow
Dimensions: 148.9 x 70.9 x 7.8 mm
Weight: 150 g
Price: PHP 39,990 (6GB RAM/128GB ROM)
Samsung Galaxy S10 Specs
Display: 6.1-inch 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 6 protected Dynamic AMOLED screen w/ QHD+ 3040 x 1440 resolution at 550 ppi
CPU: 2.7GHz 64-bit Exynos 9820 octa-core processor w/ NPU
GPU: Mali-G76 MP12
RAM: 6GB/8GB
ROM: 128GB/512GB expandable via microSD card up to 1TB
Back Camera: 12MP (f/1.5/f/2.4) w/ Dual Pixel, OIS + 16MP f/2.2 123-degree ultra wide-angle lens + 12MP f/2.4 telephoto lens w/ OIS, AF, and dual tone LED flash
Selfie Camera: 10MP f/1.9 w/ Dual Pixel
Battery: 3,400mAh w/ Adaptive fast charging, fast wireless charging
OS: Android 9.0 Pie w/ One UI
Connectivity: WiFi 6, 4G LTE Cat 20, Bluetooth 5.0, OTG, NFC, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, dual SIM (hybrid)
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic, pressure, heart rate
Others: Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, face unlock, IP68 water and dust resistance, USB-C, UHQ 32-bit/DSD audio support, AKG stereo speakers, Colors: prism white, prism green, prism black
Dimensions: 148.9 x 70.9 x 7.8 mm
Weight: 157 g
Price: PHP 49,990 (6GB RAM/128GB ROM)
Samsung Galaxy S10+ Specs
Display: 6.4-inch 3D curved Gorilla Glass 6 protected Dynamic AMOLED screen w/ QHD+ 3040 x 1440 resolution at 522 ppi
CPU: 2.7GHz 64-bit Exynos 9820 octa-core processor w/ NPU
GPU: Mali-G76 MP12
RAM: 8GB/12GB
ROM: 128GB/512GB/1TB expandable via microSD card up to 1TB
Back Camera: 12MP (f/1.5/f/2.4) w/ Dual Pixel, OIS + 16MP f/2.2 123-degree ultra wide-angle lens + 12MP f/2.4 telephoto lens w/ OIS, AF, and dual tone LED flash
Selfie Camera: 10MP f/1.9 + 8MP f/2.2 RGB w/ Dual Pixel
Battery: 4,100mAh w/ Adaptive fast charging, fast wireless charging w/ reverse wireless charging
OS: Android 9.0 Pie w/ One UI
Connectivity: WiFi 6, 4G LTE Cat 20, Bluetooth 5.0, OTG, NFC, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, dual SIM (hybrid)
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic, pressure, heart rate
Others: Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, face unlock, IP68 water and dust resistance, USB-C, UHQ 32-bit/DSD audio support, AKG stereo speakers, Colors: prism white, prism green, prism black, luxurious ceramic black, luxurious ceramic white
Dimensions: 157.7 x 75 x 7.8 mm
Weight: 175 g
Price: PHP 55,990 (8GB RAM/128GB ROM), PHP 89,990 (12GB RAM/1TB ROM)
As of the moment
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| With the case with LED light |
Since we have yet to receive a retail review unit, we could not dive deeper into some of the features of the new S10e, S10 and S10+.
Yet, with our limited and brief time with the Samsung Galaxy S10 series left a good impression with us because of the stunning display, the large RAM and ROM capacities, the potentially powerful 8nm Exynos 9820, the premium build materials and design and the revamped lighter and easier to use One UI.
We will continuously update this article once we receive a retail copy of the phone for review.
What do you guys think? Do you think Samsung has brought a worthy successor to the original S?
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