The South Korean amalgamation is launching not only 2 but 4 different models in the series. From the top to bottom of the series, we have,
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
• Samsung Galaxy S10
• Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
• Samsung Galaxy S10 5G
There’s a lot to reveal and review about the phone so without wasting any time, let’s get to the unpacking of the phone.
The release date and price:
The release date of Samsung Galaxy S10 is on Friday March 8, with pre-orders opening right away in some countries. In the US, Galaxy S10 pre-order started on February 21.
The Galaxy S10 price is $899 approx 129,797 PKR, meaning you’re going to be spending an additional $180 25,000 PKR on this phone over the S9 launch price.
If you like the look of this phone but think that price is a bit high, you have two options: you can go for the cheaper Galaxy S10e, which starts at $749 which is 104,807 PKR, or suck up the price hike, marvel at the new 6.1-inch screen and 128GB base storage, and realize that Apple charges $100 13,993 PKR more for the smaller 5.8-inch iPhone XS with half the internal storage, 64GB.
Display:
Samsung’s screens are so good “our competitors are even using them,” Samsung brand manager Paul Guzek said and It’s hard to disagree.
In fact, the Galaxy S10’s 6.1-inch Super AMOLED display panel looks better than anything. It has elegantly curved edges with pixels that spill over the sides, amped-up brightness for better outdoor visibility; these are the first phones with HDR10+ support for superior contrast and color.
All of the S series phones have a glass sandwich design, with IP 68 water resistance, stereo speakers tuned with AKG with Dolby Atoms support, and a headphone jack.
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Next up is the S10, with a curved 6.1″ display at QHD+ resolution. A camera hole at the top right corner which houses a single camera unit and there’s also an ultra-sonic fingerprint reader on the display near the bottom edge of the phone.
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Moving on to the large phone territory, there’s the S10 Plus with a 6.4″ 1440p+ display. It has dual front cameras housed on the top right edge of the display, with a similar ultra-sonic fingerprint reader as the S10.
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And finally, there’s a humongous 6.7″ 1440p+ display on the S10 5G model, also with dual front cameras on the display and an in-display fingerprint scanner.
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Design:
You’re not going to be overly surprised by the rest of the Samsung Galaxy S10 design, though there are a few notable enhancements, two hidden surprises, and an old classic here.
Its thinner aluminum frame is sandwiched between smooth glasses, with the back coming in your choice of color: Flamingo Pink, Prism Black, Prism Blue, Prism White, Canary Yellow and Prism Green. Samsung Galaxy S10 colors will vary by region, with the US getting all but yellow and green.
There’s the smallest of camera bumps on the back, housing the triple-lens camera array, while we saw no signs of Samsung’s invisible reverse wireless charging module below this. It’s a particularly clean look in a world of camera bumps and rear-fingerprint sensors.
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Storage and Battery:
The Samsung Galaxy S10 gets proper under-the-hood upgrades, touting the new top-of-the-line Snapdragon or Exynos chipsets, depending on which country you live in.
It's plenty fast. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset we benchmarked came back with a record-breaking multi-score speed... for Android. The iPhone XS is still a bit faster, but Samsung is very close at 11,002 to Apple's 11,481.
It also comes with 8GB of RAM – a serious upgrade over the 4GB of RAM in last year’s S9 – and includes options for 128GB or 512GB of internal storage. There’s no 64GB version to worry about here, and Samsung still supports expandable storage.
It contains a 3,400mAh battery, an upgrade over the 3,000mAh capacity of the S9. Because of the bigger screen, officially, Samsung is still claiming all-day battery life if not a bit more.
What you won’t get on this phone is the S10 Plus and Note 9-exclusive vapor chamber cooling. If you’re a gamer, you may want to upgrade to the larger phone for more than just the bigger screen.
Camera:
Samsung wants you to take photos at any angle, so the Galaxy S10 has a triple-lens camera on back with a 12MP regular lens, 12MP optically zoomed telephoto lens, and a brand new 16MP ultra-wide lens.
We got to test the S10 camera via our S10 Plus review unit (they have the same cameras), and got impressive results.
We’re going to take a hard look at the camera, how it compared to the class-leading Pixel 3, and determines how good the ultra-wide photos look. Samsung’s 123-degree field of view is rather wide, which serves the purpose of not having to back up to get everything in a shot. But that may result in an unnatural fisheye look. This ultra-wide camera also lacks OIS compared to the other two lenses.
On the front, we have a single 10MP camera with dual auto-focuses. If you upgrade to the S10 Plus, you’ll also get an 8MP camera meant for enhancing depth in portrait photos.
Scene optimizer gains 10 new categories, with Samsung’s camera AI now able to tell the difference between a cat and dog to fine tune things like white balance. Shot Suggestions is a new feature that uses the neural processor engine to nudge you to properly level your shots or frame subjects better.
On the video side, the software has been upgraded to record in HDR10+ and offer Digital Video Stabilization. Samsung says that this is meant to make all of your Ultra HD video as smooth as an action cam. Shots fired, GoPro Hero7 Black.
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Conclusion:
The Galaxy S10 is a deserved 10th anniversary phone for Samsung and its storied S series. Its new display type lays out more pixels across less body, has a triple-lens camera so you can now take ultra-wide photos, and contains a bigger battery surrounded by beefier specs.
You’ll like all of these features, while your friends will like the new Wireless PowerShare perk. The S10 marks an anniversary, but it also marks something a bit different among smartphones. It disrupts the sameness of smartphones just enough to become a tempting upgrade.
The price, however, may give you second thoughts. That’s where the Galaxy S10e plays an important role.
Our Galaxy S10 hands-on review isn’t finished yet. This phone requires a lot more testing and day-to-day use to determine if the three-eyed rear camera is the best in the world and the ‘punch-hole’ Infinity-O display is the style of screen we want to stare at in 2019.
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