Samsung Galaxy S10+ Review: Is this still a value for money option and worth in 2020?

The whole Galaxy S10 series has adopted the punch-hole display where the Galaxy S10+ gets two cameras in the front and a large 6.4 inches with a slight curve to the edges of the screen which makes it good to hold.

There are thin bezels to the side providing a good overall experience while viewing any content on the display. The ambient light sensor and proximity sit under the display. The punch hole cut out at the edge of the screen may seem awkward but still, it is a personal preference.

The smartphone doesn’t have a notification LED light but the edge lighting works well and with Always on Display, you won’t have any issue.

The front and back are protected with Gorilla Glass 5.

Coming to back, the camera has a horizontal setup housing the main camera with an ultrawide and a telephoto camera. The back still feels premium and retains the heart rate sensor like the previous Galaxy S series which is a good addition.

Coming to the sides, you have the power button with volume controls and a dedicated Bixby button which can be mapped easily to open any application.

Thankfully the smartphone has a 3.5mm headphone jack which is a big omission for upcoming smartphones in 2020.

The smartphone is IP68 rated which means it is water and dust resistant and the back of the smartphone has support for wireless charging and a new feature was introduced called the Wireless Power Share by which you can charge other Galaxy smartphones supporting this feature or a pair of Galaxy Earbuds wirelessly.

And you get a hybrid SIM card slot which is a good and nothing to worry as you get ample storage. The new design of the Samsung Galaxy S10+ appeals and it will continue to do so.


Check this: Samsung Galaxy Note 10 + Review: The luxurious smartphone that you need.

The Samsung S10 series was the first range of smartphones in the Samsung lineup to come with Dynamic AMOLED displays. The Galaxy S10+ has a 6.41 inches Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED display with a screen to body ratio of 19:9.

Like all Samsung displays, this smartphone has a gorgeous display with good color reproduction, and with AMOLED you get deep levels of blacks and blues with great viewing angles. This was the first Samsung smartphone to have support for HDR10 certification and supports WIdevine L1 to stream HD content from Amazon Prime, Hotstar, etc.

The screen has good visibility under direct sunlight and since it is having 1200 nits of brightness the screen can go very low during the night also.

The display in the Galaxy S10+ continues to impress but misses out on a 90Hz panel like the one on the Realme X2 Pro or the OnePlus 7T. The most striking thing in the Galaxy S10+ is the incorporation of an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner by Samsung which unlocks the smartphone by a slight touch of the hand or when it is wet which is convenient.

The Samsung Galaxy S10+ does lack a 90Hz panel by today’s standards but still, this display has a charm of its own.

Also check: Top 6 reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S10+ over the OnePlus 7T Pro and OnePlus 7T Pro over the Samsung Galaxy S10+.

The Samsung Galaxy S10+ either has a Snapdragon 855/Exynos 9820 which were the flagship chipsets for 2019 smartphones.

The Samsung Galaxy S10+ with the Snapdragon 855 provides slightly better battery life and multicore performance but coming to camera capabilities and single-core performance, Exynos 9820 holds the edge.

The Snapdragon 855 has a: 1×2.84 GHz Kryo 485 Prime core + 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 485 cores for higher performance built on ARM Cortex A76 and 4×1.78 GHz Kryo 485 cores based on ARM Cortex A55 for power efficiency built on a 7nm process coupled with an Adreno 640 GPU.

The Exynos 9820, on the other hand, has a: 2×2.7 GHz Mongoose M4 cores + 2×2.4 GHz ARM Cortex A75 cores for higher performance and 4×1.9 GHz Cortex A55 cores for power efficiency is built on an 8nm process and has a Mali-G76 M12 GPU.

Coming to all tasks whether light or heavy can handle all of them seamlessly. The base storage is 128GB till 1TB which ships with 8GB RAM and can stretch up to 12GB RAM. This is great for playing games and multitasking but the only con remaining is the UFS 2.1 storage instead of UFS 3.0 on other flagships.

Coming to games, the Galaxy S10+ handles all games with ease. PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty all ran fine and in its highest graphics settings. The heat was also maintained as it has a glass back which often feels warm while gaming heavily.

This year the Galaxy S20 series will come with a Snapdragon 865/ Exynos 990 chipset but still if you compare the Galaxy S10+ with the 2019 flagship chipsets is still a powerful buy.

When the Samsung Galaxy S10+ was launched, it came with OneUI 1.0 built on top of Android 9 Pie. The OneUI brought major improvements to the smartphone with many shortcuts and to the user interface. Now the device has been updated to the latest version OneUI 2.0 and is updated to Android 10.

The newer version brings many new features like system-wide dark mode support for all applications, some upgrades to camera application including to Night and Pro modes. The icons have also got a slight refresh and with the edge display, you can access the applications by swiping from the edges.

The Bixby button can also be mapped to another shortcut to open a certain application. There are newer navigation gestures almost like that found on Pixel smartphones. The software and security updates may be slower but with consistent updates, the Galaxy S10+ is a treat to use.

The Samsung Galaxy S10+ came with three cameras: 12MP f/1.5-2.4 main camera with dual pixel autofocus+ 12MP f/2.4 telephoto camera and a 16MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera. Coming to the front you get two cameras one being the 10MP main camera and an 8MP depth camera for portraits.

The photos from the main camera come out very well with punchier and vibrant colors. The dynamic range is also wide making it capture more objects into the frame. The variable aperture was first seen on the Galaxy S9 series which helps in capturing the right photo in different conditions.

During the night the photos come out great and with the dedicated Night Mode, the photos come out good. The OIS helps capture better light bringing many more details.

The 16MP ultrawide camera works really well and captures photos with a wider field of view. The contrast levels are good and with many updates, the Night Mode also works well. At night, the photos come out really well by bringing many details into the shadows.

This is still one of the best ultrawide cameras in a flagship in 2020 and performs much better compared to some of its rivals.

The 12MP telephoto camera with the OIS also takes very good photos with vibrant colors and good contrasts. The 3x zoom works well with good details and similarly last night, the details look punchier and at 10x zoom, it also has good details but washed-out colors.

 This camera can also take some very good portraits with proper edge detection and provides a good background blur.

Comin to the front, the 10MP camera takes very good selfies with natural-looking skin tones. The level of detail is good and the depth camera helps out. The portraits come out great with proper edge detection and background blur.

The new OneUI 2.0 brings many changes to the Portrait mode and also you get a dedicated Pro mode for customizing the exposure and contrast in the background.

The videos also come out great and certain tweaks to videos provide well-detailed videos and with OIS and Super Steady OIS working at 4k and 1080p videos output well. Both the 4k@60fps and 1080p@60fps come out clear and crisp with good sound quality.

The front can take good 1080p videos with good details and Live Focus comes in handy for taking portrait videos. There is a tone of customizations provided in the camera application.

Overall with each update, the camera is one of the biggest selling points of the smartphone and continues to do so.

The Galaxy S10+ packs a 4100mAh battery which is very good for a smartphone having a Quad HD+ display. With normal to heavy usage, the smartphone can last for a day with around 20-30 percent left, and with heavy usage that includes 2-3 hours of gaming, streaming social media, and watching movies there was around 10 percent left.

The standard screen on time clocked is at 6-7 hours which has improved from earlier.

You get a 25W fast charger inside the box which charges it from 0-50 percent in the first 30 minutes. It takes around 1hr 10 mins to completely charge the smartphone which may be slower compared to 30WWarp Charging in the OnePlus 7T or 50W SuperVOOC in Realme X2 Pro but still it provides good faster charging.

With the S series of Samsung, you get Wireless charging which is faster and is capped at 15W. The smartphone gets a new feature called the Wireless Power Share at 9W to charge two wireless charging smartphones simultaneously like another Galaxy Note 10+ or Galaxy Earbuds by placing them on their back. 

The Galaxy S10+ comes with support for stereo speakers and Dolby Atmos which enhances the sound level. In 2020, many smartphones are omitting the 3.5mm headphone jack but the Galaxy S10+ still has it which is convenient for using earphones.

The loudness of the speaker is good but still, sometimes it is muffled. The sound output through the 3.5mm headphone jack is good and has been enhanced through various software updates.

Verdict:

So far the Galaxy S10+ has been one of the most successful smartphones in the world from the day of its launch. The smartphone packs a newer design and sports that great Dynamic AMOLED display with support for HDR10 content which is great.

It is also the first smartphone to have an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner which is much more secure than the optical ones.

With the Galaxy S series you get the greatest hardware i.e. 2019’s flagship chipsets Snapdragon 855 and Exynos 9820 so you get the best performance and excellent gaming experience. The base storage is 128GB which is very good and stretches up to 1TB which is insane with 8/12GB RAM.

The cameras still are one of the best and you get excellent videos and image quality with continuous software updates. The only thing it lacks compared to smartphones of 2020 is the higher refresh rate, faster UFS 3.0 storage, and slightly faster-charging solutions.

So the question arises should you buy the Galaxy S10+ in 2020? If you look past these features, then the Galaxy S10+ is the perfect buy.

Now the prices have been reduced after the launch of the Galaxy S20 series. The 8GB RAM and 128GB storage is available at Rs.69999 which makes it a good option to consider now after the price cut.

The Galaxy S20 series has come up with many upgrades regarding the screen (newer design and 120Hz refresh rate), chipset, and the biggest one being the cameras from the Galaxy S10+. This doesn’t mean that the Galaxy S10+ is far behind as it makes itself a good option to consider now at this price point.

It is definitely worth buying in 2020.


Also check: Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Review: Does the name Ultra make it the beast of all smartphones in 2020?