Samsung Galaxy S10e Review & Rating



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The Samsung Galaxy S10e has almost everything its big brothers and sisters do, in a more user-friendly form factor at a lower price. It even surpasses the most expensive Galaxy phones with a better located fingerprint sensor and a more user-friendly form factor. At $ 749.99, it's the perfect place to wait for the 5G revolution in the next two years and our first flagship phone, Editors' Choice, in 2019.

Galaxy S10 Family and Design

Samsung's S10 model trio offers similar performance, with different physical sizes and prices. The S10e starts at $ 749. The "normal" S10 costs $ 899, with a larger curved screen and a 2x zoom camera. Finally, the big Galaxy S10 + starts at $ 999 and adds a second camera (for depth) to the front.

The S10e is not really much smaller than the S10. It measures 5.6 by 2.8 by 0.3 inches, while the S10 is 5.9 by 2.8 by 0.3 inches. The S10 +, meanwhile, measures 6.2 by 2.9 by 0.3 inches. I generally find that phones larger than 2.8 inches wide require two hands.

The S10e is available in black, blue, pink or white. There is also a yellow color available outside the United States. It comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of standard storage; you can accumulate up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $ 100 more. There is a microSD card slot with SIM card slot, so you can add storage space, but it's mainly for media, not for apps.

At the bottom of the phone you will find the main speaker, the USB-C port and a standard headphone jack. Some manufacturers have been trying for years to remove the headphone jack, but Samsung and LG keep the faith. Like the other models, the S10e is rated IP68 waterproof.

Screen sensor and fingerprint

The Galaxy S10e has a screen of 5.8 inches, 19: 9, 2280 x 1080 pixels. These are not the 3,040 by 1,440 that you see on larger models, but dense enough at 438ppi for it to be very difficult to tell the difference. In terms of pure real estate, it is slightly smaller than last year's screen because it is bigger and narrower: it offers 13.01 square inches, compared to 13.23 for the Galaxy S9. It's still pretty big.

You can really see the difference compared to older phones with the new Dynamic AMOLED panel. It's beautifully bright and colorful. DisplayMate Labs claims that it's the best mobile screen of all time, and I do not disagree with it. I've looked more closely at the display with a Klein K-80 colorimeter and SpectraCal's CalMAN software. The S10e's screen came out with the same brightness and color characteristics as the S10 +.

Its shape is different from that of screens S10 and S10 +, which curl on the sides. The screen S10e is flat. One has the impression that there is a little lip on the edge, but I realized that it was just the preinstalled screen protector (all S10 phones are slippery, and they are all covered with glass, so get a case).

Like the S10, the S10e has a single hole in the upper right corner for its front camera. It resides mainly in the status bar, and I find it less troublesome than the extra-long double punch of the S10 +. If you watch full-screen videos on YouTube, it will take away some of your video, but I think it's less noticeable than a notch, especially since it's located in the corner and not in the middle of your sight.

Rather than using a built-in fingerprint sensor, the S10e incorporates a built-in fingerprint sensor in the power button. It's less annoying than the sensor on the screen of the S10. I find the placement of the button excellent; it's where my thumb tends to rest when I hold the phone securely. It depends a lot on how you hold the phone. I put my phones all the way through my hand; if you hold yours halfway up your palm, the sensor will be too high.

The sensor only works if you touch it right, and like other sensors oddly positioned, chances are you will not hit it right away. But it recovers very quickly and you can reposition your finger and it works.

Processor and performance

Under the hood, all S10 models operate in much the same way. The S10e has 6GB of RAM, compared to 8GB in larger units, which results in an occasional reload of applications if you browse many applications, but this is not really noticeable. Like its siblings, the S10e is one of the first American phones featuring Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 chipset, which offers single-core processor performance of up to 40% and 20% graphics performance. higher than those of last year's models. He compared effectively the same as his big brother. For more details, check out our benchmarking article on the Galaxy S10.

Samsung Galaxy S10 + Benchmarked: It's fast

The S10e is also equipped with the latest Qualcomm X24 LTE modem, which is faster than any American operator. It also features Wi-Fi 6, which will enable faster speeds on congested 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks when used with Wi-Fi 6 routers (of which there are not many routers yet).

The quality and volume of calls are set exactly as on the S10 +. This means a reasonable but unmoderated volume: 78 dB at six inches from the speaker and 94 to 96 dB, measured against the earpiece. The phone supports the latest voice codecs for high quality voice calls, as well as VoLTE and Wi-Fi calls (these latest features can be stuck in the firmware if you do not buy your phone from your phone. an operator Get the model of your operator the phone if you want them).

A Galaxy S10e model is sold on all operators in the United States. Therefore, if you unlock it, it should work on all American operators with their full range of tapes. Other countries will have their own Galaxy models that will work best on their networks.

Related story See how we test phones

Like other Galaxy S10 variants, the S10e uses Android Pie 9.0 with Samsung's One UI extensions. A user interface is now pushing on me after a few weeks. Yes, the icons are too bubbly and caricatural, but it is very convenient to move the dialer menu items and the email application to the bottom of the screen. The rack of loose applications of the user interface also looks less childish on the smaller screen of the S10e than on the large, high resolution panel of the S10 +, where it looks to lose space.

Yes, the Bixby button stays on the side of this phone. The good news is that you can now remap it to another application, if you wish. The bad news is that you can not redefine it in Google Assistant. Samsung just needs to give up Bixby as a voice assistant and use Google fully, but that will not be the case.

The Galaxy S10e has a smaller battery, at 3100 mAh, than the S10 (3400 mAh) or the S10 + (4100 mAh). But Samsung has finally mastered its food management and the results are glorious. We had 11 hours and 42 minutes with the S10e during our video degradation test, a little less than the S10 +, and the phone has spent a very long time operating normally. Anecdotally, I think the S10 + will probably benefit from an extra night without charging, but the S10e will still perform as well as most other phones.

Like the other S10 models, the S10e features Wireless PowerShare, a way to wirelessly charge other devices to the back of the phone. I can not understand why you would like to do it, if it is to complete the true wireless headphones.

Camera

The Galaxy S10e is equipped with two cameras: a 12-megapixel main camera and a 16-megapixel 123-degree wide-angle camera. It lacks the "2x zoom" camera on larger models, although I personally find that the wide angle camera offers more interesting composition options.

The quality of two cameras is the same as on other S10 models, that is to say almost the same as on S9 models. For examples, see my review of the Galaxy S10 + or my comparisons of night mode and wide-angle capabilities of the phone.

The bottom line is that they are very good cameras, tied with other major camera phones, especially in good lighting. That said, no other camera phone has yet developed a solid response to the revolutionary Google Sight night mode in Pixel 3, which offers by far the best images in low light. The wide angle camera here is wider than that of LG, but also a little softer, with more distortion at the edges, which is the price of the fish-eye.

There is only one 10 megapixel front camera, identical to the other models, but not the S10 + secondary depth camera. This means that selfie bokeh pictures are calculated with software. Compared to the S10 +, the S10e bokeh selfie has a slightly higher depth of fieldwhich means it's a little less dramaticand sometimes hiccups and not properly blur an object in the background, something that Samsung can certainly fix in the software.

The Galaxy S10 family from left to right: S10e, S10 and S10 +

conclusions

I am biased. I prefer phones that hold me in hand, and if something costs more than $ 1,000, it's better to have a very good reason to do it. The Samsung Galaxy S10e presents all the key aspects of the S10 series: an incredible screen, a fast processor, an excellent modem, Wi-Fi 6, a new user interface and a wide angle camera. But unlike the S10 +, it holds in my hand, does not weigh a ton and costs even less than the Google Pixel 3.

Recovery agreements make the price even lower. Going from a Galaxy S8 or an iPhone 7 to $ 300, the S10e costs only $ 449 and gives you enough budget room to maneuver to upgrade to a 5G phone based on the upcoming Snapdragon 865 integrated chipset from Qualcomm when your operator turns to broadband 5G coverage by the end of 2020.

Even without an exchange and with a monthly payment plan, you are more likely to pay for this phone over two years than three years, which will put you in a very good position: when S10 + owners continue to use 4G In two years, you'll jump on 5G networks by the time they become very popular in 2021.

Your Android decision is now, really, between three phones. The Pixel 3 features Night Sight, the best low light camera mode available. It's a big problem. But the Galaxy S10e has everything faster, an even better screen, a wide angle camera, more camera modes, expandable memory and a $ 50 fee. Both are good choices. There is also the OnePlus 6T, a device of poor quality, but a fantastic phone for $ 580.

Samsung made different choices from Apple this year and cut less angle. The Apple iPhone XR at $ 749 is a different beast from the iPhone XS: it uses a cheaper screen technology and a cheaper modem, which partly explains why I've recommended the most expensive models. But the S10e requires less compromise from Galaxy owners and offers nearer performance to higher-end units.

I know my choice will not necessarily be the most popular: Americans tend to think that the bigger it is, the better it is, and to opt for the high-end model whenever it's possible . But I think the most sensible choice is to opt for the smaller and cheaper model. This makes the Samsung Galaxy S10e the best Android phone to buy right now, as well as our choice of publishers.

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