Samsung Galaxy S10

Samsung celebrated the 10 years of the S series in 2019 by releasing it alongside Galaxy S10e and Galaxy S10 Plus. This article is for the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus which I would love to think of as the bigger brother of the base model S10. I have had a chance to review the S10 and boy, I ran out of superlatives. Samsung Galaxy S10 surely is a next-generation smartphone.  

Design and build

I will start by saying that of the four S10s, this one is the second largest after the S10 5G with dimensions 157.6 x 74.1 x 7.8 mm and it weighs close to 170 grams. I will tell you what I love about the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus. That besides being a being smartphone, a plus-size as its name spells out, Samsung has managed to keep it slim and sleek and somewhat compact in the hand for the size it comes in. It still is a big phone so brace yourself for two-handed usage, something Samsung tries to solve with its all-new One UI.

You will notice something new on the display of the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus in the hole punch at the top left corner. It is where the two selfie cameras are. It’s a new thing Samsung has introduced on any S smartphone with the display. That curved edge we have seen on previous Galaxy S phones is not featured here since you get a flat glass panel. There is no fingerprint scanner on the back or the sides of the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus because it is embedded in the display (this is an expensive technology that works securely and fast).

On the back glass panel, we see a camera module with three lenses. So yes, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus is a 5 camera smartphone. We shall look more into that later in this review. It is a solid smartphone with a fluent design language and striking looks. You can get it in color Prism White, Prism Black, Prism Green, Prism Blue, Canary Yellow, Flamingo Pink, Ceramic Black, or Ceramic White.

Display

When you turn to talk about the display of the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus, you almost know what to expect since Samsung never disappoints when it comes to the display of even their most affordable smartphones. That is true until S10+ happens.

It defies the norm and exceeds expectations. With a Dynamic AMOLED capacitive touchscreen on 6.4 inches that produces HDR 10+ experience, you can never go wrong. This is arguably the best display (yet) you will find on any smartphone ever released (date of review in respect).

A 1440 x 3040 pixels, 19:9 ratio (~526 PPI density) it boasts Corning Gorilla Glass 6 protection to ensure its durability.
That Always-on display feature goes without saying- you can always view your notifications and check the time without waking your phone up.

Camera

There are 5 cameras on the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus. The selfie camera has two lenses a 10 MP and an 8MP depth sensor. Although I cannot tell one from the other, it is best you know switching from one lens to another allows you to shoot a wider area (more people can fit in your selfie).  It is quite impressive of course, but you will be more impressed by the main cameras on the back of the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus. They are three lenses, a normal 12MP (wide lens), a 16MP telephoto lens, and a third 16MP ultra-wide shooter which I personally love.

Video recording can allow you full function in the Pro Mode which lets you control every detail of how you want your images to look. Let’s just say, Samsung lets you shoot like a pro on the S10+ even when you are not. And it is amazing how video stabilization is steady here. Count on high-quality videos here with great sound especially with those AKG loudspeakers.

I did not mention beauty mode which is present for selfie cameras, it is a feature you may find yourself enjoy using, and video recording with the selfie camera is also 4K.

Performance

Refer to the table in the “features of the s10” section for CPU, GPU, and chipset detailed info. Here I will just say the two options you have with respect to CPU (Exynos or Snapdragon), chipset (2×2.7 GHz Mongoose or 1×2.8 GHz Kryo 485), and GPU (Adreno or Mali) respectively. Now either model is a replica of the other only that they have different (but equal in performance) CPU, chipset, and GPU.