After seeing so many leaks, probably the most leaked smartphone in history, Samsung has finally pulled the veils off its new flagship during the wee hours of Malaysian time, the Galaxy S10 is finally official in three variants as speculated previously – the Galaxy S10+, S10 and S10e.
Starting with the S10+ and S10, they sport 6.4″ and 6.1″ Super AMOLED displays respectively and do look gorgeous on first impressions, however notch-haters might not like the fact that it comes with a hole-punch cutout on the front for their cameras, even though that is less obtrusive than a huge notch on the middle.
The S10+ houses two cameras that houses a main 10MP f/1.9 lens accompanied by a secondary 8MP camera for portraits and bokeh, while the S10 comes with a single lens, hence the shorter cutout for the latter.
Furthermore, Samsung is doing three lenses on the S10’s main camera, the first two are are technically the same optically stabilised cameras as last year’s S9 Plus, the main shooter being a 12MP sensor with a dual aperture that switches between f/1.5 and f/2.4, while the telephoto shooter being a 12MP f/2.4 sensor, the third sensor is a 16MP f/2.2 ultra-wide angle sensor.
One of the biggest change to the S10 is the use of an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, which the company claims that it is the most advanced variant that it has sourced, however The Verge reported that unlike optical in-screen fingerprint sensors on devices like the OnePlus 6T, the former’s solution may not work well with thick screen protectors (aka tempered glass screen protectors), hence you probably have to do with the usual plastic ones if you want to prevent the screen from scratches.
Despite everyone following Apple’s lead to kill off the headphone jack, Samsung does know how to keep its customers happy by retaining it on the S10.
The company is also more generous this round when it comes to the phone’s battery, though the S10 still gets the same battery size as the S9 at 3400mAh, the S10+ receives an even bigger battery than the Note 9 at 4100mAh, though we aren’t seeing any faster charging speeds here, both phones will however support reverse wireless charging, a worthy gimmick at the very least that could charge the company’s new Galaxy Buds wireless earbuds.
Wireless connectivity has been improved with WiFi 6 and 2Gbps LTE, there’s IP68 water and dust resistance as usual, and yes – Bixby is here to stay as well as the physical key for it.
Availability of the Galaxy S10 in Malaysia will be made very soon, as preorders are already starting today, our friends over at Mdroid has reported that Samsung will be bringing in the 8GB+128GB and 8GB+512GB model for the S10+, which will retail at RM3699 and RM4599 respectively, while the S10 will only be available in the 8GB+128GB storage variant and retails at RM3299.
The Galaxy S10e will be available at a very attractive price point of RM2,699, which by all means is even more accessible than Apple’s iPhone XR.
Color options are a little more interesting this round for the S10+, as it will be available in two ceramic glass options of Black and White, while having Prism Green and Prism White colors for the glass option, the S10 will only receive the two latter color options.
Unfortunately for the S10e, we will not be getting the Canary Yellow color model as shown in the launch but you still get to choose between Prism Blue, Prism Black and Prism White colors.