THEGALAXYS10Eis Samsung’sflagship
phonewith 2019 specsandfeaturesat 2016
prices,providingconsumersanoptiontosnag
allofthecoolnewfeaturesintheGalaxyS10at
a notablediscount.
Inthisway,theS10e(‘e’for‘essential’)hasa
lotincommonwiththeAppleiPhoneXR,and
it’stoughnottoseeit astheSamsung‘budget
flagship’oftheiPhoneXSline:bothpackthe
bestaspectsoftheirgenerationina phonethat’s
notquiteassvelteorfeature-richastheir
priciersiblings.
Buttherealcompetitionisn’tbetweeneither
lower-costdevice– it’sbetween
themandtheircostliersiblings.
WefoundtheS10etoberobust
enoughtoforgotheextraperksin
theS10($210more)ortheS10Plus
($350more).Asa bonus,theS10e’s
smallerdimensionswillcertainly
appealtofolkswhodon’t
appreciatetheexpandingsizeof
flagshipphones.
Therearecompromisesforthat
lowercost,ofcourse.TheS10e
doesn’tgetsomeofsomeofthe
neatfeaturesinitspriciersiblings,
likeanin-screenfingerprint
sensor,curvedscreensidesora
telephotolens.
Butwedoubtyou’llbetoo
jealous.TheGalaxyS10eis a lovelyone-hand-
friendlyphone.Its5.8-inchall-screendisplayis
easytoholdanditschipsetis fastenoughthat
it’llcompetewithotherflagshipsforyearsto
come,evenif itscompromisesindisplay
resolutionandcamerafallshortofthe
SamsungGalaxyS10andGalaxyS10Plus.DESIGN
Aspreviouslystated,oneoftheGalaxyS10e’s
moreattractivefeaturesmight,ironically,beits
smallersize.Asmainflagshipsgetever-larger,a
contingentofconsumershavesteadilygonefor
smallerphones– justlookat thepopularityof
theiPhoneSE(RIP)– andtheS10eis as
manageableastop-tierphonesgetwitha width
of2.75inches.(Curiously,theiPhoneXSis thesmallest of its generation, and the S10e is
smaller than that phone by a hair.)
The S10e otherwise looks like a shrunken
version of its pricier siblings, with a few
exceptions. Samsung didn’t include the Galaxy
line’s Infinity Edge tapered display in this less
expensive model, so you’ll have to accept a flat
front screen with more noticeable bezels. As it’s
the smallest of the S10 line, the S10e is also the
lightest, coming in at 150g – which is another
feather in its cap when compared to the 208g
iPhone XR.DISPLAY
The 5.8-inch AMOLED display
lives up to the Galaxy S name, with
bright colors and crisp detail. If you
don’t quite like the color balance,
you can tinker with an easy fix
called Vivid Mode, which does
what it says on the box and lets you
further tweak it to be a warmer
(more red) or cooler (more blue)
picture. If even that isn’t enough,
you can tinker with the RGB
levels individually. Side-by-side
with an iPhone XS Max, the S10e’s
screen kept up gamely, losing out
only on the darkest scenes in a
media comparison (the
‘Blackwater’ episode of Game of
Thrones is good fodder for this, just saying),
where backgrounds of varying blacks average
out into dark gray smudges.
This is somewhat expected, as the S10e has a
single 2280 x 1080 (438 ppi) resolution setting.
Samsung sets this as the default for its flagship
phones, but both the S10 and S10 Plus max out
at 3040 x 1440 for a higher ~550 ppi. One other
minor difference between the models: the S10e
has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on front and back,
while its bigger siblings have had their front
display’s glass upgraded to Gorilla 6.CAMERA
Even packing two cameras makes the S10e an
upgrade over last year’s Samsung Galaxy S9,
which had a single dual-aperture shooter.[ 020 ]
HOTSPOTSAMSUNGGALAXYS^10E[ SAME BUT DIFFERENT ]Samsung
Galaxy S10e
SAMSUNG FLAGSHIP CAMER AS AND
SPECS AT A LOWER PRICE.
[ DAVID LUMB, JOHN MCCANN ]SAMSUNG GALAXY S10E
$999
http://www.samsung.com/au
CRITICAL SPECS
Weight: 150g
Dimensions: 142.2 x 69.9 x
7.9mm
OS: Android 9
Screen size: 5.8-inch
Resolution: 1080 x 2280
CPU: Octa-core chipset
RAM: 6/8GB
Storage: 128/256GB
Battery: 3,100mAh
Rear camera: 16MP +
12MP
Front camera: 10MP41 / 2