Samsung Galaxy S10 Review

The midsize Samsung Galaxy S10 ($899.99 for 128GB), neither the smaller S10e nor the larger S10+ model, brings almost all of the look and features of the Galaxy S10+ for $100 less, in a size that’s more friendly to most hands. We still think the less expensive Galaxy S10e is the best buy of the S10 family, not to mention our Editors’ Choice, but the S10 is a decent step up if you want the phone’s “2x zoom” camera or curved screen.

I’ve covered most of the aspects of the G10 family by now in my Galaxy S10+ and Galaxy S10e reviews. Here I’m considering what makes the S10 different, and who should be buying it over the others.

At 5.9 by 2.8 by 0.3 inches (HWD) and 5.5 ounces, the S10 is noticeably taller, but not really wider than the S10e; it’s still usable in one hand, especially for people with big hands. I find the S10e more comfortable because it doesn’t have the (admittedly attractive) curved glass, though. Like the other models, it comes in white, black, blue, or pink.

The Galaxy S10 has a 6.1-inch, 19:9, 3,040-by-1,440-pixel screen. It’s the same “dynamic AMOLED” panel as on the other S10 models, and it has the same gorgeous colors and relatively high brightness. The pixel density at maximum resolution (551ppi) is invisibly tight.

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The phone has the same body aspects as the S10+, but with a smaller single hole punch on the front rather than a larger oval. It has a glass back, a headphone jack, a USB-C port, and a microSD card slot. It does fast charging, wireless charging, and Samsung’s “reverse charging,” which lets you charge other devices wirelessly using the phone.

Performance

The Galaxy S10 has the same in-display, ultrasonic fingerprint sensor as the S10+ does. Unlike some other reviewers, I didn’t have any trouble with accuracy—as long as I hit it straight on, and that’s the trick. Unlike with physical sensors, like the one on the Galaxy S10e, there’s no obvious guide where to hit the Galaxy S10’s on-screen sensor, and it’s a relatively small target area. You can train yourself after a while, but hit it off-center, and you’ll probably get a failure.

I don’t think this situation is as bad as some of the more negative reviews say it is, and I think you can get used to it. But I think the S10e’s approach is better.

Inside, there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (a 512GB verison is also available for $250 more). That’s, once again, slightly better than the S10e’s 6GB of RAM, but I didn’t see it bear out that often in practice. It’s noticeable if you’re switching between several heavy apps, such as a large game like Asphalt 9.

Like the other family members, the S10 has a Qualcomm X24 modem that supports all of the US carriers at the best LTE speeds possible. These are also the first Wi-Fi 6 phones in the US, promising much better speeds on the popular 2.4GHz Wi-Fi band once enough people get Wi-Fi 6 routers.

Benchmarks were roughly the same as the other S10 models, with the exception of the Basemark Web benchmark, where I saw a big variation between the three S10 models. There, the S10 had the best result, followed by the S10e and then the S10+. Both the S10 and S10e did considerably better than last year’s models, like the Galaxy S9, OnePlus 6T, and LG V40.

The S10 has the same Android 9 with the same Samsung software extensions as the other models. Having switched from a Google Pixel 3 to an S10e at this point, I’m really noticing how Samsung-y the software is. That’s not always bad; the phone dialer and SMS apps, for instance, are nicer than Android’s standard ones, and you can always download Google apps when you don’t like Samsung’s.

Battery life on the 3,400mAh cell was slightly shorter than the other Galaxy S10 models, at 10 hours, 54 minutes in our video rundown over Wi-Fi. It’s still very good battery life, and I’ve been impressed by the S10 family’s standby time—the phones leak relatively little battery power over several days.

Camera

The Galaxy S10, like the larger version but unlike the smaller one, has three cameras on the back: a 12-megapixel main camera, another 12-megapixel “2x” zoom camera, and a 16-megapixel, 123-degree wide-angle camera.

The cameras aren’t that impressive. The regular and 2x lenses are about as good as the Galaxy S9 camera is, which is good but not a differentiator. Low-light performance falls notably short of the Google Pixel 3. Take a look at our low-light comparison for more details.

The wide-angle camera is very wide, wider than the 107-degree camera LG offers; that comes at the cost of images being a bit soft, with some fish-eye distortion if you look at them closely. Take a look at our wide-angle camera comparison for more details.

On the front, there’s a single 10-megapixel selfie camera. I don’t see you losing much without the S10+’s second depth camera on the front, and you gain significantly by shrinking the hole punch on the front from a bothersome oval to a trim little circle.

The S10’s software-based, front-camera bokeh doesn’t match the dual-camera hardware approach used by the S10+ when it comes to mapping faces. In my bokeh selfies I found the hair on the front of my head was in focus, but hair a little farther back was blurred, an issue I didn’t run into with the S10+. If you intend to take a ton of bokeh selfies, that would be an argument to get the bigger phone.

Conclusions

The Galaxy S10 is a little better than the S10e in a bunch of ways, including more RAM, another rear camera, and that snazzy curved-front design. It’s worse in one way, which is Samsung’s in-display fingerprint sensor that I find harder to use accurately than the S10e’s physical sensor.

From left: Galaxy S10+, Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10e

Is that worth upgrading from $749 to $899? I’m going to say, very narrowly, no. I’m using the S10e as my primary phone right now and it’s a delight. You can digital zoom but you can’t create digital wide-angle, so I think Samsung made the right choice by including wide-angle on the S10e.

I can see the argument for going up to the S10 more than I can for the even costlier, bigger, heavier S10+. The S10+ is expensive and slightly unwieldy; the S10 has many of its aspects and feels more usable. If you want a big Samsung phone, wait for the Galaxy Note 10 presumably coming later this year.

For what it’s worth, I also think 2019 is a year to spend a little less on your phone, preparing to spend more for a 5G phone in 2020. That isn’t a call to drop to a $300 Motorola phone, but it’s an argument for paying $750 over $1,000.

Samsung Galaxy S10

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$599.99 at Amazon

MSRP $899.99

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The Bottom Line

The midsize Samsung Galaxy S10 has all the attractive features of the S10+ for less money, but we still think the smaller S10e is a better buy.

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Further Reading

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