GSMArena team, 27 February 2019

Samsung Galaxy S10+ review

9. Alternatives, pros and cons, verdict

Competition

Picking just the right high-end phone among all high-end phones is never easy, but the good thing is you can't really go wrong. Take the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, for example. Like the S10+, it too comes with a triple camera and its tele has even more reach than the one on the Galaxy, plus its ultra wide angle cam has autofocus, which the S10+'s doesn't. On the flipside, the Mate takes dismal selfies, while we're really loving the ones out of the Galaxy. The S10+ packs a more powerful chip (the Exynos version, at least), while the Mate's battery lasts longer, plus it charges faster.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro • Apple iPhone XS Max • Sony Xperia 1 • LG V50 ThinQ 5G

The iPhone XS Max doesn't charge faster than anything, but that's hardly a dealbreaker. Another awesome screen, comparable battery life, great camera performance - the iPhone is a top-seller for a reason. The Galaxy, however, has an extra ultra wide camera on the back and a depth sensor on the front - can't beat those with any iOS optimizations.

Seeing how Samsung is usually first to market in the spring, the S10+ beats some key rivals. The Xperia 1 quickly comes to mind with a unique sorta-4K 21:9 display, similar triple-cam setup to the Galaxy's and vanilla Android experience. We're yet to fully test this one though, plus it's a good couple of months away from launch - you could grab an S10+, get tired of it by summer and switch to an Xperia.

Or an LG V50 ThinQ 5G, which should be out sometime in the summer too. It matches the S10+'s rear cameras nearly spec for spec, has LG's custom software running on it instead of One UI (both have their own passionate haters, but hey, get a Pixel, alright?), but it has a notch, and notches are so last year.

Seriously, though, the biggest competitor to the Galaxy S10+ is, in fact, the smaller S10 - at a meaningfully lower price, you're getting virtually identical hardware minus the secondary selfie cam. Just how important could selfie portraits be?

Verdict

The Galaxy S9+ was an S8+ with an extra camera. The Galaxy S10+ is an S9+ with an extra camera. So that would be 2 more cameras then if you're coming from the S8+, all by itself making it a worthy upgrade. If you're coming from the S9+ it's not as simple, though we would argue that with the S10+ the YoY improvements are more meaningful than what we had in 2018 - the ones we can name, but also the cumulative all-around refinement.

We'd happily recommend the Galaxy S10+ if you want the absolute best Samsung has on offer right now. But realistically, the smaller Galaxy S10 would be our pick - essentially the same phone, only more affordable.

Pros

Standout design, top-quality build, unique colors.
Spectacular display.
Battery life about on par with the best in class (still, we expected better from the numbers).
Superb photo and video quality with minor exceptions.

Cons

Frustrating fingerprint reader experience (to be improved via an update).
Update, June 18: Fixed.
Low-light selfies are meh.
We wish the ultra wide cam had autofocus.
Bright night mode isn't up there with the Pixel's or Huawei's night modes.
Update, June 18: The newly introduced Night mode is on par with the ones from competitors.