Samsung Galaxy S10+ review

Competition

Picking just the right high-end phone among all high-end phones is never easy, but the good thing is you can't really go wrong. Take the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, for example. Like the S10+, it too comes with a triple camera and its tele has even more reach than the one on the Galaxy, plus its ultra wide angle cam has autofocus, which the S10+'s doesn't. On the flipside, the Mate takes dismal selfies, while we're really loving the ones out of the Galaxy. The S10+ packs a more powerful chip (the Exynos version, at least), while the Mate's battery lasts longer, plus it charges faster.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro • Apple iPhone XS Max • Sony Xperia 1 • LG V50 ThinQ 5G

The iPhone XS Max doesn't charge faster than anything, but that's hardly a dealbreaker. Another awesome screen, comparable battery life, great camera performance - the iPhone is a top-seller for a reason. The Galaxy, however, has an extra ultra wide camera on the back and a depth sensor on the front - can't beat those with any iOS optimizations.

Seeing how Samsung is usually first to market in the spring, the S10+ beats some key rivals. The Xperia 1 quickly comes to mind with a unique sorta-4K 21:9 display, similar triple-cam setup to the Galaxy's and vanilla Android experience. We're yet to fully test this one though, plus it's a good couple of months away from launch - you could grab an S10+, get tired of it by summer and switch to an Xperia.

Or an LG V50 ThinQ 5G, which should be out sometime in the summer too. It matches the S10+'s rear cameras nearly spec for spec, has LG's custom software running on it instead of One UI (both have their own passionate haters, but hey, get a Pixel, alright?), but it has a notch, and notches are so last year.

Seriously, though, the biggest competitor to the Galaxy S10+ is, in fact, the smaller S10 - at a meaningfully lower price, you're getting virtually identical hardware minus the secondary selfie cam. Just how important could selfie portraits be?

Verdict

The Galaxy S9+ was an S8+ with an extra camera. The Galaxy S10+ is an S9+ with an extra camera. So that would be 2 more cameras then if you're coming from the S8+, all by itself making it a worthy upgrade. If you're coming from the S9+ it's not as simple, though we would argue that with the S10+ the YoY improvements are more meaningful than what we had in 2018 - the ones we can name, but also the cumulative all-around refinement.

We'd happily recommend the Galaxy S10+ if you want the absolute best Samsung has on offer right now. But realistically, the smaller Galaxy S10 would be our pick - essentially the same phone, only more affordable.

Pros

• Standout design, top-quality build, unique colors.
• Spectacular display.
• Battery life about on par with the best in class (still, we expected better from the numbers).
• Superb photo and video quality with minor exceptions.

Cons

• Frustrating fingerprint reader experience (to be improved via an update).
  Update, June 18: Fixed.
• Low-light selfies are meh.
• We wish the ultra wide cam had autofocus.
• Bright night mode isn't up there with the Pixel's or Huawei's night modes.
  Update, June 18: The newly introduced Night mode is on par with the ones from competitors.