Samsung Galaxy S10 Review By A Real Owner

This is an honest, unbiased review of the Samsung Galaxy S10 from an owner after 4 months of owning and using and the phone.

I wasn't too happy about how restrictive the iOS can be, especially requiring me to use the dreadful iTunes on Windows to transfer music. I wanted to go back to Android, so I looked around at some of the best Android phones on the market and compared them with my requirements for a mobile phone.

As a photographer, a high-quality camera was essential. I was particularly drawn to the Samsung Galaxy S10's three-camera arrangement. I also wanted to ensure that my device would receive regular updates and that there was a way to root the device after the updates stopped being provided. I usually keep a mobile phone well past the end of support (typically two years after release). Storage is also another key consideration for me. I need enough storage for all the apps and games to be installed, my music collection, and to copy TV and movies that I can watch on the train as I commute to work. An external microSD card is essential.

There were several phones I looked at:

• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10e/S10+
• OnePlus 7T
• Huawei P30 Pro
• Honor View 20
• Sony Xperia 1
• Google Pixel 3a

The first to be ruled out was the Huawei, which is unfortunate because it is a great phone, but with the US trade war on Huawei meaning that future Huawei phones can no longer run Android and updates are likely to be affected by the ban as well. I'm not willing to fork out £700 for a phone that may not receive any updates or support in the future, so I scrubbed it off my list.

Next off the list was the OnePlus 7T. The phone gets great reviews, but the camera is OK despite being a massive 48-megapixel. Reviews and sample photos from multiple sites report that colours are lacking, images suffer hazing effects, images have poor dynamic range, and low light performance is bad. For a photographer, these are deal-breakers.

Next off the table were the Honor View 20 and Google Pixel 3a. Although good phones, the cameras are still not as good as the S10, and I didn't like the designs or how they felt.

That left the Samsung Galaxy S10 and the Sony Xperia 1. Both phones are great, and I played with each one for several hours over a week. Sony shines with videos, both in playback and recording. The phone is geared up for vloggers and video content producers. The still camera functions are lacking behind the Samsung. The battery life was better on the Samsung; the Samsung just felt better to hold. I couldn't justify spending the extra on the Sony, so I went with the Samsung S10.

I chose the S10 over the S10e and S10+ quite easily. The S10e does not have three rear cameras, and the S10+ only differs slightly in size, with a larger battery and an extra selfie camera. I'm not interested in the selfie camera, and the price difference did not warrant the extra battery or screen size, so the S10 won me over.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Screen

The Galaxy S10 sports a 6.1-inch display running at a resolution of 3040x1440. In battery-saving modes, you can change this to 2280x1080 or 1520x720. I've not noticed much difference between the screen modes, and mine has been on 1520x720 for a while.

The screen looks gorgeous, bright and colourful, filling the entire front area. No bezels, no notch, just a "hole-punch" in the corner for the camera. This isn't very distracting; it's only noticeable when web surfing, emailing, or watching full-screen videos. It blends in the rest of the time, and you don't notice it. There are several wallpaper backgrounds below that you can use further to hide the hole punch on the home screen.

Edge lighting is a nifty feature that allows notifications to flash the screen edge, which sounds good in theory. Still, it only works when the screen is on for some reason. Once the display turns off, edge notifications do not show. This makes the whole feature worthless. Hopefully, they release a fix for this. On a related note, edge panels offer a convenient quick launch toolbar that can be swiped from the screen edge. This is a handy function as it allows you to launch apps from other apps.

The curved glass may look good, but it feels good to hold. However, it also makes it too easy to press something simply because you accidentally hold the device. You must be especially careful when handling the edges, or you can automatically tap buttons or menus.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Holepunch Wallpapers

To hide the hole punch for the camera, Samsung and several creative people have designed clever wallpapers that hide the hole punch creatively. There are a few images below that you can download, or simply Googling "S10 hole punch wallpaper"; you can find hundreds more.

These are a few of my favourite wallpapers for the Samsung Galaxy S10.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Performance

This is Samsung's flagship model for 2019, so you'd expect it to be a high performer. It does not disappoint. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset and 6GB of RAM make this one of the fastest phones on the market. Everything on the phone is slick and smooth, but I've not found any game, benchmark, demo, or tool that shows noticeable lag or dropped frames.

Battery life is really good. I can get at least 12 hours of intensive use, including gaming, before needing to charge. Fast charging mode with the included adaptor gives a full charge in around 1.5 hours. Wireless charging is slower than you'd expect but still pretty speedy. Plus, any device supporting the Qi wireless charging standard can be placed on the rear of the S10 once the feature is enabled in the notification menu.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Camera

On the phone's rear are three cameras: a standard 28mm lens, a wide-angle 11mm and a 52mm optical zoom lens. All three are 16 megapixels.

The wide-angle lens has a fixed f/2.2 aperture and fixed focus, the normal lens dual aperture of f/1.5 and f/2.4, autofocus and optical image stabilisation. The telephoto lens also has a fixed aperture of f/2.4, autofocus and optical image stabilisation.

The wide-angle lens has a field of view of around 123°. This is enough to capture great shots indoors and panoramas in one shot. There is substantial distortion around the sides, but that is to be expected with such a wide angle. There are built-in distortion reduction features, but it didn't do much when I tested it.

The default camera app lets you easily switch between cameras and configure them. Pinching to zoom automatically switches to the optimal lens, which makes zooming in much easier. However, be careful not to engage digital zoom as the quality rapidly decreases.

The camera features a scene optimiser, which helps with composition and adjusts settings according to your photograph. Flaw detection is handy as it detects and reminds you if there are smudges or fingerprints on the lens, which saved me a few times!

The live view focus system works well, allowing you to be more selective about what is in focus, and you can even separate the background and foreground with bokeh and greyscale effects.

Finally, there is HDR10+ video recording, which works well for creating detailed, high-dynamic range videos. Regarding the video camera, I love the super slow motion camera, which can shoot 1 second of 720p video at 960fps or 12 seconds at 480fps.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Sample Photos

Here are a few images (click for full size) taken in Glasgow to show the difference between the wide-angle, normal and telephoto lenses.

Here are a few sample photos I took on a recent holiday in Spain, which show off the colours and brightness of the photos.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Design and Usability

There isn't anything outstanding in the design of the phone. Nothing stands out except the bezel-less, punch-hole display.

The phone's feel is thin and light, and its glass material is slippery. I recommend getting a case to provide some grip so it does not slip out of your hands.

As I said above, the curved display can be too easy to tap something by mistake.

Downsides

There are a few downsides, or niggles, that I have with the Samsung Galaxy S10, and these are all software related.

First, as usual, a ton of bloatware is installed, which you cannot remove. Some you can disable, but others, like the Samsung Apps, cannot.

Themes and visual styles can be applied to the phone but must be purchased from the Samsung Store. Nothing is free there. Pay £800 for a high-end phone, then you have to pay £2 per theme. Hate that.

Bixby is Samsung's "AI," equivalent to Google Assistant, Alexa, etc. It cannot be disabled or uninstalled.

The Bixby hardware button can be customised to launch any application or perform functions, but only if you register for a Samsung account and accept all the privacy-invading T&Cs.

I tried to set up Bixby Routines to manage whether WiFi or mobile data is active - WiFi in the office and at home, and mobile data everywhere else. This wasn't as easy as the instructions led me to believe. In theory, I had to create a rule for leaving a disabled location. I enabled the other, which is similar to entering the zone. I did this for home and work so that when I leave home, WiFi is disabled, and the mobile network is enabled. When I reach the office, turn off mobile data and enable WiFi again. Simple task, but for some reason, this is beyond Bixby. It would often turn off WiFi at home (and not enable mobile), so I was missing notifications and emails; it would not disable mobile networks or WiFi, and I generally get confused. It would randomly enable WiFi on the train while turning off mobile data. It was far too unreliable for me, so I deleted the rules and disabled Bixby Routines.

Aside from that, there is very little else wrong with the phone. Once the phone is out of warranty, I'll root and install a custom firmware, which should solve all the above downsides.

Conclusions

Overall, this is a great phone, and if you are considering buying one, I'd recommend it.

Pros

• Great screen, bright, vibrant colours
• Great cameras
• Performance
• Battery life great

Cons

• Curved display makes accidentally pressing things too easy
• Distortion on wide-angle camera
• No notification LED and edge notifications do not work if the screen is turned off