Samsung Galaxy S10+ review

27 February 2019
Punch out a hole in the display, add an extra camera on the back, do the mandatory yearly updates to the internals and you'd end up with a Samsung Galaxy S10+ - that is, if you started out with an S9+ if it wasn't obvious. Only that would be oversimplifying it, and we'd rather explore the nuances.

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • NgV
  • 28 Feb 2019

how can the battery be worse than note 9. is this tested with exynos or snapdragon

    • S
    • Shui8
    • KZ8
    • 28 Feb 2019

    Nick Tagataka, 28 Feb 2019To summerise: -Display has a genuinely class-leading quali... moreAgree, agree, agree with every assumptions u mentioned. Nice conclusion.

    Someone give this man a cookie!

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • M9d
      • 28 Feb 2019

      Anonymous, 27 Feb 2019Samsung > everyone other Samsung copycat ! #HailSamsungSo how come Samsung is copying (for example) Apple?!

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • LQu
        • 28 Feb 2019

        Nick Tagataka, 28 Feb 2019To summerise: -Display has a genuinely class-leading quali... morePixel 3 and XZ2 Premium selfie samples are better. Take a look.

        LG DAC only works for wired.
        It will be regular with wireless.

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • Gfx
          • 28 Feb 2019

          Nice phone. But no $$$ to buy. So continue to enjoy my trusty Note 8.

            To summerise:
            -Display has a genuinely class-leading quality with very high brightness, though you can only select 2 colour profiles now - super vibrant vivid mode, and highly color accurate normal mode. Also manual brightness doesn't go as high as iPhone XS, but nonetheless it's one of the best OLED panel available on a mobile phone.

            -Very good battery life, though for some reason it's not as good as Mate 20 Pro which is using worse quality OLED panel than S10+. The not-so-power-efficient 8nm lithography process of the new Exynos might be the reason, but who knows.

            -Audio quality is, again, class-leading in both speaker and 3.5mm headphone jack output. Loud and clear, only LG can beat it in headphone performance. Kudos to Samsung for not only keeping the jack but also using a great DAC for those who need it! Equaliser settings are feature rich too, though again, it lost some options from previous Samsung UI(the options for virtual surround sound are gone, UHQ upscaler is now always on and cannot be turned off etc.)

            -One UI has got drastically trimmed down from Samsung Experience so as stated above, many options have been removed for the sake of simplicity. It's now closer to the vanilla Android Pie than ever before so stock Android fans might like it more than older Samsung UI. For some reason now the colorings are actually lot more similar to some of Chinese Android skins such as MIUI and EMUI now.

            -Exynos 9820 performs admirably well for simple CPU & GPU benchmarks, though the prolonged performance is a bit questionable at this point. Anandtech's initial CPU tests show that it is well behind both Snapdragon 855 and Kirin 980, and this review reveals this chipset might be prone to oveheating and throttling in prolonged workload. I'll wait until Anandtech will get their hands on retail unit of S10 and do detailed analysis on its performance and efficiency.

            -Still photo quality is probably the worst part of this phone. HDR is now much more consistent than it was on Note 9 so that's a good thing, but you know there's something wrong with it when last year's S9 takes overall much sharper and detailed images. Low light performance is bad considering the price Samsung is asking for this phone, with lots of corner softness, distortion, detail loss and HDR artifacts, trash "night mode".. I bet Redmi Note 7 with Gcam will perform a lot better than this.

            -Video recording is top notch. On the main camera the stabilisation is great, the dynamic range is good and details and sound recording are crystal clear. It's not as good as iPhone XS, but better than all the other smartphones. Fixed focus on Super Steady mode is a bit of a bummer, though.

            -This phone probably has the best selfie camera on a phone.. autofocus, decent low light performance, minimal facial beautification and effective HDR and video stabilisation. It's really hard to find fault with this FFC.

            Overall a great phone and it definitely deserves the score of 4.5, though its main camera needs some serious work regarding the image quality. Hopefully Note 10 will come with a larger camera sensor and NOT compromised optics.

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              • Mach1
              • 3qx
              • 28 Feb 2019

              Why wasn't Mi9 listed among competitors and considered as alternative?

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • LQu
                • 28 Feb 2019

                Shui8, 28 Feb 2019Camera quality of S10+ was just average in Studio Sample pr... moreThat is why they changed the photo tool.

                Studio you can control everything to make sure all phones are working under same environmental conditions, something that you cant provide outdoors.

                If you take photo using phone A, then 10s take photo with phone B, the conditions are not necessarily the same for both

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • LQu
                  • 28 Feb 2019

                  Original-Jamaican, 28 Feb 2019I heard that Samsung was going back to their innovative way... moreNo sensor innovation because Samsung's imaging division is weak. They create a bunch of isocells , then pay Sony Semicon to make copy of them of their flagships.

                  Look at the camera world.. Except Canon, all use Exmor sensors.
                  This includes Leica, Nikon, Fuji, Panasonic, Hasselblad, Ricoh , Olympus , Go Pro etc

                    So...
                    I am a real life customer, looking for my next phone. I am a die-hard LG fan, mainly because of their quad DAC. My choice right now is the G8.
                    Samsung's S line was announced what, a week ago? After just a few days, the full review is already out and I read that it has great sound capabilities. The phone will hit the stores in a few days, if not already there. When will LG push their devices for a full review to the sites? When will they be widely available; And when G8 will be available, what will be its price? Maybe by that time S10 will be cheaper?
                    See why Samsung are what they are? They are swift. They are constant. They fight to win the customer. It's not a coincidence, it's hard work on all levels.

                      If it's not Xperia(xz2c), I would choose view20 over any flagship. Not just for 12mp performance but also for ultra clarity, both bringing sharpness and less detail distortion instead of giving noiseless but detailess look.

                        Anonymous, 27 Feb 2019Anyway, now that this actually came out and it turned out t... moreThe P30 Pro will be way better, it is a certainty.

                          • ?
                          • Anonymous
                          • LQv
                          • 28 Feb 2019

                          Anonymous, 28 Feb 2019Actually you are used to the huge noise reduction of other ... moreSamsung = more noise and more details?

                          Samsung has the strongest NR among all brands. Look how soft are wall, plants and sidewalk. They all look like mass.

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • LQv
                            • 28 Feb 2019

                            This cam looks worse than s9 to me...

                            1) if you use the photo tool you see lab samples are ugly
                            2) night shots are unusable already at iso500. Walls and sidewalk is completely soft.
                            3) mate 20 pro and xz2 premium do much better even at higher iso.

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                              • DMG
                              • NF2
                              • 28 Feb 2019

                              The review seems to be a critic review rather than a unbiased view of a new phone.

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                                • steven
                                • nDA
                                • 28 Feb 2019

                                S10+ ACCETABLE battery life, S10 poor poor battery life. I wanted S10, now I think weather to accept a bigger phone or a weaker battery

                                  Gsmarena low-light S10+ test shots look too blurry to be true.
                                  They look worse than s9+ low-light samples in comparison tool.

                                    So, Samsung renowned for its perfection, this time made a less perfect phone, if I may say so?
                                    Barrel Distortion? Selfie low light performance, really?

                                    Anyhow, overall package is still awesome, but I would choose S10 if its similar in quality... My reasons are:-
                                    1. Less Price,
                                    2. Smaller size,
                                    3. Lesser weight, just 157 grams compared to 180 something here,
                                    4. Less percentage of screen destroyed due to front camera, in contrast to S10.
                                    5. Same 3 rear cams.

                                    S10 it is for me then, BUT after some time though, I always purchase old flagships, they're a fantastic camera, audio and display setup for far lesser cash.
                                    For example, S7 still has better display, camera and audio than A8 or latest non-flagship phones, for similar price!

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                                      • Shui8
                                      • KZ8
                                      • 28 Feb 2019

                                      Camera quality of S10+ was just average in Studio Sample provided, too much smoothening & noise reduction resulting in lack of details. Even the cheaper vanilla Mate 20 & View 20 are better for example. Well u cant beat physics as S10+ using a smaller sensor. Video recording in S10+ is superior though.

                                      I think u guys needs to update the Studio Sample to include outdoor environment (1 image that has building & landscape) both daylight & lowlight. For now its only indoors. Great review anyway!

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • tu6
                                        • 28 Feb 2019

                                        AnonD-97765, 28 Feb 2019Gsmarena battery tests are too flawed. Nowhere near real li... moreTotally agree with this. Their battery test does not depict real world battery life usage and endurance. Its flawed and no one should determine a phone's battery life based on GSM's test. I know this cause their test states tht Galaxy A7 2018 has better battery life than Mate 20 Pro but in real life its the complete opposite when I compare my Mate 20 Pro to my friends A7 2018.

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