Review of the flagship smartphone Samsung Galaxy S10+
The Samsung Galaxy S10+ smartphone is not revolutionary: all the technologies implemented in it are already familiar to us and tested "on people." The Korean giant simply gathered top technical solutions in its latest flagship, seasoned it with its signature style, and created a practically benchmark smartphone for the market, very expensive but almost flawless.
Main characteristics of Samsung Galaxy S10+ (model SM-G975F)
SoC Exynos 9820, 8 cores (2 × Samsung Exynos M4 @ 2.7 GHz + 2 × ARM Cortex-A75 @ 2.3 GHz + 4 × ARM Cortex-A55 @ 1.9 GHz)
GPU Mali-G76 MP12
Operating system Android 9.0
Touchscreen Dynamic AMOLED 6.4", 3040×1440, 19:9, 522 ppi
RAM 8/12 GB, internal memory 128/256 GB/1 TB
Support for microSD up to 512 GB
Support for Nano-SIM (2 pcs.)
Networks GSM/WCDMA/WCDMA/TD-SCDMA
LTE Cat.20 networks
GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Galileo
Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax (2.4/5 GHz), VHT80, MU-MIMO, 1024QAM
Bluetooth 5.0, ANT+
NFC, MST (magnetic stripe emulation)
USB Type-C, USB OTG
3.5 mm audio output
Main camera 12 MP (f/2.4) + 12 MP (f/1.5 or f/2.4) + 16 MP (f/2.2), autofocus, video 4K @ 60 fps
Front camera 10 MP, f/1.9
Proximity and light sensors, magnetic field, accelerometer, gyroscope
Fingerprint scanner (under-display, ultrasonic)
Battery 4100 mAh, fast charging
Water and dust protection IP68
Dimensions 158×74×7.8 mm
Weight 175 g
Appearance and usability
The Samsung Galaxy S10+ has become, perhaps, a bit closer to Galaxy Note smartphones with their more rectangular shapes than to its last year's relatives from the S9 lineup. Overall, it is still the same attractive glass smartphone with a metal frame of complex shape, narrowing at the sides and widening at the top and bottom edges.
The frame, although polished to a shine, does not slip in the hand at all, and Samsung deserves praise for that. The recently released Xiaomi Mi 9 flagship, for example, is very similar in body design but slips from the hands like a bar of soap.
The combination of dimensions, weight, and materials is so well thought out that the smartphone is securely held in hand, is not too heavy for pockets, and looks stylish. The quality oleophobic coating on both glass panels allows the smartphone to maintain a presentable appearance for a long time. In short, there are no complaints about the design.
There is no "notch" on the front panel, but there is also no sufficiently thick bezel around the screen to accommodate the front cameras. As a result, the camera block is installed directly in the display, with an elongated cutout made for it. This design is called Infinity-O, where "O" is the cutout for the front camera. The thing is that the younger models of the new family (S10 and S10e) have only one camera on the front, so for them, a hole is indeed cut in the screen that resembles the letter "O."
By the way, Huawei also already has one "holey" screen, so this is a new trendy trend replacing the "notch." Well, one can only be glad because that was terrible. The hole in the screen, of course, also "eats" space, especially in the most important status bar for the interface, but it looks much more elegant. Designers have already begun to compete in creating wallpapers that play with this hole and the eyes of the cameras peeking through it. Moreover, according to various sources in the industry, manufacturers may soon switch to installing cameras under the screen surface, so holey screens may not linger in our phones.
Despite all these tricks, the screen is not, strictly speaking, bezel-less; there is a frame here, and it is asymmetrical: the upper segment is even narrower than the lower one. In fact, this is not very annoying, and lowering the virtual keyboard too low is inconvenient. The corners of the screen are heavily rounded, so the diagonal numbers of the display given in the specifications exceed the actual distance between the edges of the screen by a few millimeters (0.1"-0.2").
They overdid it with the side hardware buttons here. The buttons themselves are large, with a decent travel, and there are no complaints about that.
But to install the third button for calling the Bixby assistant, the opposite power button had to be raised so high that the finger cannot reach it.
Now, every time to press it, one has to shift their hand along the body, which is quite inconvenient. No one holds such a long smartphone in either the right or left hand in such a way that the finger can reach this power button—it is about two centimeters higher than necessary. Well, unless NBA stars will be timely.
The tray for two Nano-SIM cards is hybrid; to install a memory card, one will have to sacrifice one of them. Hot swapping of cards is supported. In the new season, manufacturers suddenly picked up a new trend: to cut the slot not on the side but on the top edge. This seems to be unmotivated, but that's how it is.
On the bottom edge, there is a grille covering the speaker, as well as a USB Type-C port in the middle and a 3.5 mm headphone output. Is it worth mentioning that all the ports are again not centered with respect to the longitudinal axis? Why does only Apple always care about such "feng shui," while others just ignore such obvious things? Well, it's just ugly!
The smartphone is protected from water and dust according to the highest IP68 protection standard, meaning it is not afraid of immersion in fresh water at a depth of 1.5 m for 30 minutes. However, Samsung still warns that "Loss from water or dust is not covered by warranty."
The Samsung Galaxy S10+ is offered in several color options: white ("Pearl"), black ("Onyx"), and green ("Aquamarine"). There are also premium and much more expensive modifications in a ceramic body in white and black colors. By the way, they are heavier: 195 g. According to the latest data, the pearlescent S10+ is the most purchased. It's hard to speak for everyone, but Huawei's "shiny" with gradient pink-blue transitions clearly does not suit everyone, while here everything is really stylish, strict, expensive—overall more serious, and that's good.
Screen
The Samsung Galaxy S10+ is equipped with an AMOLED display (Dynamic AMOLED) with a diagonal of 6.4 inches and a resolution of 3040×1440. The display is covered with 3D Gorilla Glass 6, curved on both sides. The physical dimensions of the screen are 70x148 mm, the aspect ratio is 19:9, and the pixel density is 522 ppi. The frame around the screen is less than 2 mm wide on the sides, 5 mm at the bottom, and 4 mm at the top.
