Published in Mobiles

Samsung unveils the new Galaxy S10 lineup

by on20 February 2019


Galaxy S10+, Galaxy S10, and the Galaxy S10e 

Samsung held its big Unpacked event in San Francisco and has unveiled quite a lot in about an hour and a half, more than anyone expected. With Galaxy Fold as the star of the show, a big part of the event was about the Galaxy S10 series, Samsung's bread and butter, and the series will be larger than ever, with a total of four different smartphones.

Before we get on with the smartphones, Samsung has taken some time to announce the new Dynamic AMOLED, the successor to the Super AMOLED which brings plenty of improvements, including HDR10+ support.

The entire Galaxy S10 series uses the Infinity-O screens, which mean that you get a punch-hole front camera and no notch, but, thankfully, Samsung kept the bezels impressively thin.

Samsung Galaxy S10+ comes with triple rear and dual front camera setups

The list starts with the Samsung Galaxy S10+, a flagship smartphone with 6.4-inch Curved Dynamic AMOLED screen with Quad HD+ resolution (3040x1440) leaving it with a pixel density of 522ppi. The phone measures at 157.6x74.1x7.8mm and weighs 175g (198g for the ceramic version).

It will be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 SoC or Samsung's own Exynos 9820 SoC, both paired up with 8GB of RAM and 128GB/512GB/1TB of storage, expandable via microSD card slot. The premium version will be the one with 12GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.

The Galaxy S10+ has a triple rear camera setup with dual OIS. It has a telephoto 12-megapixel sensor with PDAF, OIS and f/2.4 lens, 12-megapixel Dual Pixel AF sensor with f1.5/f2.4 lens, and ultra-wide 16-megapixel FF sensor with f2.2 lens. The setup supports 0.5x/2x optical zoom and up to 10x digital zoom.

The front dual camera setup is placed behind a punch hole on the display and has 10-megapixel Dual Pixel AF sensor with f1.9 lens and 8-megapixel RGB Depth sensor with f2.2 lens.

The rest of the specifications include 4,100mAh battery with fast wireless and wired charging, usual sensors and connectivity options as well as the first ultrasonic fingerprint reader placed behind the screen, which should be much more secure and precise compared to a standard optical reader.

samsung galaxys10plus 1

The Galaxy S10 is smaller and with a single front camera

As expected, the Galaxy S10 shares a lot of similarities with the bigger Galaxy S10+ but comes with a smaller 6.1-inch Dynamic AMOLED screen as well as the under-display ultrasonic fingerprint reader. The screen has a 19:9 aspect ratio and same Quad HD+ resolution, leaving it with higher 550 ppi pixel density.

Since it is smaller, measuring at 149.9x70.4x7.8mm and weighing in at 157g, it also has a smaller 3,400mAh battery and comes with a single punch-hole camera at the front.

While the rear camera setup is the same as on the Galaxy S10+, it only has a single selfie camera with 10-megapixel Dual Pixel AF sensor and f1.9 lens.

It will use the same hardware as the Galaxy S10+, but you won't see the premium version with 12GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, leaving it with 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and either 128GB or 512GB of storage, expandable via microSD card slot.

samsung galaxys10 1

Samsung Galaxy S10e is for the masses

Probably buckling under pressure from affordable smartphones coming from the competition, Samsung had come up with a cheaper Galaxy S10 series smartphone and the Galaxy S10e is their answer.

It comes with the same Dynamic AMOLED panel, but this time around, it is not curved but rather flat. The 5.8-inch screen has the same 19:9 aspect ratio but cuts down the resolution to Full HD+ (2280x1080), leaving it with a pixel density of 438ppi.

The Galaxy S10e measures 142.2x69.9x7.9m and weighs 150g, and unlike the rest of the Galaxy S10 lineup and due to the fact that this is not a curved screen, has rather thicker bezels. It still has a punch-hole single camera at the front and it is 10-megapixel Dual Pixel AF sensor with f1.9 lens, but the capacitive fingerprint sensor is now located on the side, rather than under the display.

The rear camera setup is a dual one with OIS, featuring a wide-angle 12-megapixel Dual Pixel AF sensor with f1.5/f2.4 lens and ultra wide 16-megapixel sensor with f2.2 lens. It offers 0.5x optical and 8x digital zoom.

The good part of the story is that hardware is pretty much unchanged so it is still Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 or Exynos 9820 SoC, paired up with 6GB or 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage, expandable via microSD card slot.

samsung galaxys10e 1

Other features, pricing, and availability

All three Galaxy S10 smartphones will pretty much share its connectivity capabilities, support LTE, new WiFi 6 standard, NFC, MST and more. All three will have a 3.5mm headphone jack and are IP68 certified.

You might have noticed that we mentioned four Galaxy S10 series smartphones and the last one is the Galaxy S10 5G, but we will talk about that one a bit later.

The three key Galaxy S10 smartphones should be available for pre-orders as of tomorrow, at least in all key countries and the price is a bit on the steep side, at least in our book. All three should be available as of March 8th in retail/e-tail and Samsung will have limited pre-order deals bundling the Galaxy S10 and S10+ with its new Galaxy Buds.

The Galaxy S10+ starts at $999 and while it is less than the starting price of the iPhone XS Max, which is its direct competitor, we would love to see a lower price tag. The Galaxy S10, which might be the favorite of the bunch, is starting at $899 for the 8GB/128GB version. The Galaxy S10e starts at $749, which is not a big surprise as Samsung is clearly aiming at Apple's iPhone XR.

samsung galaxys10lineup 1

 

Last modified on 21 February 2019
Rate this item
(0 votes)

Read more about: