Samsung Galaxy S10e
The Galaxy S10e remains one of the best affordable flagships.
One of the Galaxy S10e’s more attractive features might, ironically, be its smaller size. As main flagships get ever-larger, a contingent of consumers have steadily gone for smaller phones – just look at the popularity of the iPhone SE (RIP) – and the S10e is as manageable as top-tier phones get with a width of 2.75 inches (curiously, the iPhone XS is the smallest of its generation, and the S10e is smaller 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.
While the S10e doesn’t have its pricier siblings’ fancy in-screen fingerprint scanner, Samsung didn’t leave a biometric fingerprint pad on the back, opting instead to put a small capacitive sensor within an enlarged power button on the top-right side. It’s surprisingly responsive, though it works far better with thumbs. Why? Because you have to cover the whole sensor with your digit, and mashing your fingertip flat enough to envelop the button is tough from any angle.
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.
Even packing two cameras makes the S10e an upgrade over last year’s Samsung Galaxy S9, which had a single dualaperture shooter. Taking wider shots is great for sheer functionality: the main camera has a 77-degree field-of-view, but the ultrawide has 123-degree FOV, which captures a surprising amount of extra context.
The S10e managed a blistering 10,523 average score on Geekbench 4, if you wanted its performance put to numbers.
The ‘e’ in Samsung Galaxy S10e stands for ‘essential’, which means it packs almost everything the S10 and S10 Plus have, at a lower price. You get a 5.8-inch screen, the same two primary cameras, and all-day battery life, but you’ll miss out on a third lens, the curved display edges, and the in-screen fingerprint sensor. That’s the tempting compromise offered by Samsung’s ‘budget flagship’ and answer to Apple’s iPhone XR. David Lumb, John McCann