134 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 67BUYING GUIDE
S10+’s sensor doesn’t help it feel any more modern,
despite its under-the-glass hiding spot.
A mid-review biometric update improved the
accuracy tenfold, but it’s still not an ideal solution
for security or privacy in 2019. I wouldn’t necessarily
call it a step backward from the S9’s physical scanner
(which had its own placement issues), but it’s not
much an improvement either (though I do like
the ripple animation even if it is a millisecond slower).
What is a downgrade is the loss of the iris scanner,
leaving the fingerprint sensor as the only secure
biometric option on the S10. That needs to change
with the S11, and I hope the S10 5G’s time-of-flight
sensor is a sign that 3D facial unlock is on the way.Battery life
With the Snapdragon 855 processor and 8GB of
RAM, the S10+ is every bit the beast it should be.
Every benchmark I ran represented a significant
jump over any 845 phone, and daily performanceThe S10+ has an ultrasonic
fingerprint sensor built into
the display, which has a cool
animation when it’s working