4848 SEPTEMBER 2019 |COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE 379
ITMIGHTNOTbend and flex like the
now-delayed Galaxy Fold, but the Galaxy S10
has had quitethe revamp; unlike with the
Galaxy S9 (Shopper 364), there’s no danger of
confusingthis flagshipforthe previous model.
Besidesbeing surroundby asilver,iPhone
XS-styletrim, the Galaxy S10 sidesteps any
kind of notch design in favour of an in-screen
‘pinhole’camera. Rather than the resulting
black dot being adistraction,it actuallyblends
in rather nicely,and allows foraneven greater
screen-to-body ratio of 93.1%.BRIGHTEYED
The power button, volumerocker and USB
Type-C port are all in the places you’d expect,
while the dedicated Bixbybutton –which
Samsungis stubbornlystickingwith –also
returnsto the phone’s leftedge,althoughthis
can be disabledif you want. Conversely,the
Galaxy S9’s rear fingerprintsensor is no more,
replacedby an in-displaysensor,and it’s good
to see a3.5mm headphonejack is included.
This time around,the Galaxy S10 is fitted
with a6.1in DynamicAMOLED,Quad HD+
display. This is abrand-newpanel for
Samsung,with supportforHDR 10+ content
and 10-bit colour.Samsunghas also reduced
the phone’s blue light emissionwith the
default displayprofiles, withouthaving
to enable the rather heavy-handed‘eye
comfort’ displaymode.
It’s best enjoyed in normalmode anyway,
where it reachessRGB coverage of 99% and a
superb average delta-Eof 1.2. Peak luminance
also reachesasearing 1,024cd/m2,makingthis
one of the brightest smartphonescreensever.
UK modelsare poweredby Samsung’sown
Exynos9820 processor,along with 8GB of
RAM. Youhaveachoice of either 128GB or
512GB forstorage,although
the latter adds £200 to an
alreadyhigh price.Itmight
be wiser to simply use the
microSDslot instead.
Either way, the CPU is
more than amatch for
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon
855: the Galaxy S10 scored
3,456 in the Geekbench 4
single-coretest and 10,933
in the multicoretest,
puttingit ahead of the
OnePlus7Pro in the former
and only slightlybehind in
the latter.This is also amore
powerfulhandset,on bothSAMSUNGGalaxyS10
★★★★★
£799•From http://www.samsung.comVERDICT
Samsung’stop-endsmartphoneseriesfinally
makessomeboldchanges,allforthebetterANDROID9.0 SMARTPHONE
counts,than anything
we’ve seen runningthe
Kirin 980 favouredby
Huaweiand Honor.
Gamingperformanceis
equallyimpressive.Inthe
GFXBenchManhattan
onscreentest, which uses
the phone’s native
resolution,it fills out the
refresh ratewith 60fps;
in the offscreen test,
which assumesa1080p
resolution,it managed
96fps, which also edges
out the OnePlus7Pro.
The cheaper
OnePlusphone did last
alittle longer in our
video rundowntest, as the Galaxy S10 ran
dry after 17h 44m. That’s still avery strong
result, though,showingthat the Galaxy S10
can outdo the iPhone XR (Shopper 373) by
more than four hours.SNAP JUDGEMENT
On the back is atriple-sensorcamera
arrangement.The dual-aperture12-megapixel
sensor returnsfrom the Galaxy S9,and is
now flankedby anew 16-megapixelwide-
angle,123° lens (the only lens that isn’t
opticallystabilised),as well as a12-megapixel,
2x telephotozoom lens.
Samsunghas also introducedan extra 30
scenes to the phone’s ‘IntelligentCamera’
neural processingunit (NPU). Essentially,this
feature enablesthe camerato identifythe
object in the frame,beitadog, cat or plant,
and adjuststhe camerasettingsaccordingly
forthe best image possible.
It largely works, too.
Photos seem to capturean
even greater amountof detail
than the HuaweiP30
(Shopper377), particularly
with notoriouslytricky
objectssuch as tree foliage
and intricatebrickwork.The
Galaxy S10 also does abetter
job at levelling out exposure,
with the P30’s automatic
shootingmode overexposing
imagesabit toomuch.
The HDR mode also does a
fantastic job of lifting up the
shadowsand softening
brighter areas of the image.Batterylife
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
Seepage108forperformancedetailsPROCESSOROcta-core2.8GHzSamsungExynos9820•
SCREENSIZE6.1in•SCREENRESOLUTION3,040x1,440•
REARCAMERAS12megapixels,16megapixels,12megapixels•
STORAGE128GB•WIRELESSDATA4G•NFCYes•
DIMENSIONS150x70x7.8mm•WEIGHT156g•OPERATING
SYSTEMAndroid9.0•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILS
http://www.samsung.com•PARTCODESM-G973FZKDBTUSPECIFICATIONS17h44mColour rendition could
be better: generally,colours
aren’t as neutralas we’d
have liked, and certain
colour tones look quite
oversaturated. The green
leaves in some of our test
shots, forexample,looked
almost luminous.
Otherwise,however,
this is afine exampleof a
high-endsmartphone
camera.While it doesn’t
zoom in quiteasfar as
the P30, the 2x optical
zoom sensor does a
great job at gettingright
intothe background,and
the wide-anglelens’
distortion correction–which straightens out
lines in images–works wonders.
Video footage is also superb,with crisp,
clean and detailed4K resolutionvideos,
althoughthe phone’s optical stabilisation
is only available if you drop the frame rate
down to 30fps. HDR 10+ recordings–which
you have to enable in the phone’s settings
–look great too, althoughyou might run
intoissues when replaying clips on another
device,asmost video players don’t support
this format just yet.PEACEFUL EVOLUTION
As is so often the case with Samsung’s
premiumfare,it’s necessaryto stop and
think about whetherthe Galaxy S10’s
improvementsare worth its huge asking
price.Unlike the Galaxy S9,however,the
Galaxy S10 really does move things along,
bringingaslick new design,better-than-ever
performance,longer battery lifeand a
future-proofeddisplay. Until the Galaxy Fold
arrives –and actuallyworks reliably–this is
Samsung’sbiggeststep forward in years.
NathanSpendelow