Samsung Galaxy S10, S10+, S10e, S10 5G handson review

Software

The new Galaxies run the latest Android 9.0 OS with Samsung's custom skin on top, now called One UI. We're mostly familiar with it from the Pie update to the S9 and the Note9, which brought gesture navigation and sprinkled UI changes all over. Well, gesture navigation can be had on the S10 as well, but it's an option that isn't on by default.

That said, the version that ships with the Galaxy S10 phones comes with iconography that's unlike what we've seen from recent Samsungs. Perhaps we'll get used to it, but the first impression is that the icons are a bit childish and not as consistent as the previous one-line style introduced on the S8. That said, the color coding of the native apps means you don't necessarily need to recognize the actual icon - the colors will do.

Perhaps the one true beef we have with the UI is that the notification shade and settings menu (and light UI elements in general) tend to expose the punch hole more than we'd like. Dark themes will definitely work better and we bet there will be no shortage of those in the Galaxy Apps Store.

Having said that, there's a certain satisfaction to be drawn from the overall curvy UI elements. Everybody's entitled to their own opition on this one, but we can see the One UI growing on us.

Synthetic benchmarks

The Galaxy S10 family it powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 or Samsung's own Exynos 9820 chipset, depending on which part of the world you're in. Historically, the two versions haven't offered dramatically different performance, though there have been advantages to either one over the years. RAM starts from 6GB on the S10e and goes all the up to 12GB on the ceramic version of the S10+. We got an S10+ in Exynos trim with 8GB or RAM and quickly ran some benchmarks.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  11432
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  11181
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  10521
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  10110
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  9712
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  9026
• OnePlus 6T
  8977
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  8883
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  8349

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  4777
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  4543
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  3771
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  3642
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  3503
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  3390
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  3291
• OnePlus 6T
  2431
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  2199

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 9
  372006
• Apple iPhone XS Max
  353210
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  340345
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  308050
• OnePlus 6T
  293994
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  273913
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  264044
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  248823
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  246660

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  130
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  102
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  100
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  88
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  83
• OnePlus 6T
  83
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  83
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  75
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  74

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 9
  60
• Apple iPhone XS Max
  60
• OnePlus 6T
  59
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  56
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  51
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  50
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  50
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  46
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  45

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  99
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  70
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  69
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  61
• OnePlus 6T
  60
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  54
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  53
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  47
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  45

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  60
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  56
• OnePlus 6T
  53
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  37
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  34
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  27
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  27
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  25
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  24

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  60
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  42
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  42
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  35
• OnePlus 6T
  35
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  33
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  29
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  28
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  28

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  47
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  35
• OnePlus 6T
  31
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  23
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  20
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  17
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  16
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  14

Aztek Vulkan Normal (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  67
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  41
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  40
• OnePlus 6T
  37
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  24

Aztek Vulkan Normal (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  52
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  34
• OnePlus 6T
  33
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  19
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  9.9

Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  32
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  23
• OnePlus 6T
  21
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  13
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  7.5

Raw CPU performance appears to be pretty much on par with the Snapdragon 855 taking turns to lead in the different benchmarks. But as far as single-core performance goes, well, the huge Mongoose M4 core clocked at 2.7 GHz simply blew away the Qualcomm competitor. The single-core performance is impressive and blows everyone else out of the water, except for Apple's A12 Bionic on the new iPhones.

GPU performance is right up there with the best in the class but it falls short in some tests against the Adreno 640 found in the Snapdragon 855.

So no surprises there - the Exynos 9820 is a beast and with no shortage of performance power. Yet we still need to see how it holds up in everyday use and how optimized it is, which will be addressed in the full review.