Hands on with Samsung’s new Galaxy S10e, S10, and S10+ Android phones

No matter how much better the camera is on the Google Pixel 3 or how fast the OnePlus 6T is, no one makes Android phones quite like Samsung.

After 10 years of iterating the Galaxy phone line, Samsung has arrived at the Galaxy S10 — easily the company’s most exciting phone in years.

There are three versions of the Galaxy S10: the 5.8-inch S10e, the 6.1-inch S10, and the 6.4-inch S10+. 

Each variant has a screen that covers even more of the front, provides better performance, and features in-display fingerprint sensors. The Galaxy S10 and S10+ even come equipped with three cameras. In short: Samsung’s latest Android phones might just be the most feature-packed smartphones ever created.

More features usually mean higher price tags, but not this time. Compared to Apple’s iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max, the three Galaxy S10 phones offer more bang for your buck, provided you don’t mind using the Android operating system.

The Galaxy S10e starts at $749.99; the Galaxy S10 starts at $899.99; and the Galaxy S10+ starts at $999.99. These prices get you 128GB of storage.

To put these prices into perspective, the iPhone XR starts at the same price as the S10e, but comes with 64GB of storage. And the iPhone XS and XS Max start at $999 and $1,099, respectively, and come with 64GB of as well.

So right off the bat, the new S10 phones cost less than a new iPhone and have double the storage.  They go on sale March 8 and will be available from all four major U.S. carriers.

A whole new level of pretty

Not that the S9, S8, and S7 weren’t pretty phones. But the new models are the most beautiful phones Samsung has ever made.

The S10 phones still feature the same signature glass and metal design, but they look even more luxurious compared to their predecessors thanks to a new coloring process that applies a metallic sheen to each color.

In just the right light, the phones glimmer with a gentle gradient reminiscent of light shining through a prism. The bottom line: The Galaxy S10 lineup is beautiful. 

My favorite colors are Flamingo Pink and yellow, but sadly the latter and Prism Green won’t be sold in the U.S. Instead, Samsung will offer Flamingo Pink, Prism Black, Prism Blue, and Prism White in the states.

I know the glass “sandwich” design is getting a little old — every phone from budget to premium has copied the aesthetic — and that’s understandable. If you’re sick of the glass back, there’s a new ceramic  option, which is more scratch-resistant than glass. But there’s a catch. 

The only model that comes in ceramic is the S10+ and only if you get the 512GB or 1TB storage models; the S10+ with 128GB of storage doesn’t come in ceramic. 

The most advanced displays

Galaxy S phones have arguably the best displays because Samsung gets first dibs on the screens coming from its subsidiary display division. And as you’d expect, the S10e, S10, and S10+ have extraordinary screens.

At first glance, all three phone screens look pretty darn similar. But put them side by side and you’ll see clear differences. 

For one, the edges of the S10e are flat and don’t curve like they do on the S10 and S10+. This means the side bezels are thicker instead of curving downwards into the metal frame, but I would hardly call it a dealbreaker.

What’s way less noticeable is the resolution. Samsung says the S10e has a Full HD+ resolution compared to the Wide Quad HD+ resolution on the S10 and S10+. Geeks will bemoan the S10e’s lower resolution, but when was the last time resolution mattered on a smartphone? The iPhone XR has a 720p resolution screen, and I’ve yet to hear anyone who owns it complain about the lack of pixels ruining their mobile experience. Besides, the S10 and S10+’s default resolution is Full HD+… just sayin’.

As for the screens themselves…they’re really a sight to behold. Samsung pushed the screens even closer toward the edges and thinned out the bezels on all sides to achieve over 90 percent screen-to-body ratios.

Instead of a notch, the new screens have a round hole in the upper right corner. Samsung calls these screens “Infinity-O” displays but let’s be real, they’re “hole punch displays.” 

The S10e and S10 have a circle hole for their 10-megapixel selfie cameras. On the S10+, there’s a longer pill-shaped hole for both the 10-megapixel selfie camera and an 8-megapixel camera used only to collect depth information for improving things like portrait selfies.

But the screens are more than millions of bright and vibrant pixels. They’re the first HDR10+ certified phone screens, and they reduce blue light by 42 percent to prevent eye fatigue. 

Blue light, as you probably already know, is believed to have harmful effects on sleep. Samsung says the screen reduces blue light without sacrificing color accuracy and viewing angles compared to the “night” modes like Night Shift on iPhone.

In-display fingerprint reader and Wireless PowerShare

The new displays have another new trick: an in-display fingerprint sensor. Other Android phones have similar fingerprint readers, but Samsung’s uses ultrasonic technology. 

Samsung told me the ultrasonic reader is superior to the optical in-display fingerprint readers in phones like the OnePlus 6T because it’s more secure and can’t be easily spoofed by photographs or videos.

An optical in-display fingerprint reader looks at a 2D image of your fingerprint, but the ultrasonic reader used in the Galaxy S10 devices scans a 3D contour of your fingerprints. On-device machine learning is then applied to continuously recognize your fingerprints, similar to how Face ID on the iPhone XS and XR can learn to recognize your face even when you grow facial hair or put on glasses.

In my limited time trying the sensor, it felt…a step slower than the physical fingerprint reader on past Galaxy S phones. But I’ll have to spend more time to see if the machine learning really does anything over time.

That said, the in-display fingerprint reader is capable of authenticating Samsung Pay transactions.

Gone from the new S10 lineup is any iris scanning. First introduced on the Galaxy S8, iris scanning was used to quickly unlock the phone and authenticate Samsung Pay transactions. However, Samsung says it’s no longer necessary with the in-display fingerprint reader.

The rear of the S10 phones have a trick as well: Wireless PowerShare. Just like Huawei’s Mate 20 Pro, the S10’s Wireless PowerShare is a form of reverse wireless charging, which lets them wirelessly charge another device like an iPhone XS or Samsung’s new wireless Galaxy Buds. It’s pretty cool and inches us closer towards a cable-free world. 

Triple cameras (on the S10 and S10+)

Everyone wants better pictures and Samsung is delivering with more cameras on the Galaxy S10. New in the S10 lineup is an ultra-wide angle lens.

The S10e has two cameras: a 12-megapixel wide angle with f/1.5 and f/2.4 variable apertures and a 123-degree 16-megapixel ultra-wide lens with f/2.2 aperture. 

The S10 and S10+ have three cameras: a 12-megapixel wide angle with f/1.5 and f/2.4 variable apertures, a 12-megapixel f/2.4 telephoto lens and a 123-degree 16-megapixel ultra-wide lens with f/2.2 aperture. 

With an ultra-wide camera, you can fit more scenery and more people into a shot and you know what? It’s awesome! Bring on the triple cameras.

On the front, all three phones have the same 10-megapixel f/1.9 aperture selfie camera. The front camera also records video at 4K resolution now.

Excellent performance

Besides great pricing, the one thing OnePlus gets right with its phones is system performance. Unlike so many Android phones, OnePlus phones maintain their responsiveness and speed even after several software updates.

While I can’t say definitively that the Galaxy S10 will remain as speedy later as it is on launch day, Samsung’s at least stuffed the phones with plenty of processing power and RAM.

All three S10s are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 chip and all come with 128GB of storage. As I said earlier, that’s double the base storage Apple’s offers with its iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max.

The S10e comes in two models: 6GB of RAM with 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM with 256GB of storage. The S10 is available with 8GB of RAM paired with 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM with 512GB of storage. 

But the S10+ takes the cake for the most spec’d out model. The base versions comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. However, if you opt for 512GB of storage with 8GB of RAM or the absolutely insane (and likely to be very expensive) 1TB storage version with 12GB of RAM, you’ll also get an upgraded ceramic glass rear that’s more scratch-resistant than the regular Gorilla Glass 6 on the other models.

 Raw processing performance and storage aren’t the only specs that’ll make you go whoa. All three S10s also have reasonably-sized batteries. The S10e has a 3,100 mAh capacity battery; the S10 has a 3,400 mAh battery; and the S10+ has a 4,100 mAh battery.

The S10 phones still support fast wired charging with the included Samsung fast power adapter, but the new “Fast Wireless Charging 2.0” is supposed to be just as quick. 

It sparks joy

Marie Kondo went viral after her Netflix show got people around the world asking themselves if certain possessions “sparked joy” when they touched them. If an object sparks joy, then keep it. If it doesn’t spark joy, get rid of it.

And honestly, touching the Galaxy S10 phones (all three of them) sparked more joy in me than the Galaxy S9 and S9+ ever did.

Don’t get me wrong, Samsung nailed the landing with the S9 and S9+ — the phones improved in all the areas where the S8 fell short — but they never felt fresh, more like updates of the S8.

With the S10 family, Samsung’s flagship phones are genuinely exciting again. There’s enough new innovation to satisfy even the most difficult to please users.

The real test will be whether the S10s can keep sparking joy on a daily basis. Once all the shiny newness wears off, can the S10’s still hold their own against the aggressive onslaught from Chinese phone makers like OnePlus, Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo?

I won’t know until I get Samsung’s new phones in for a full review, but my gut feeling is yes.