Crushing The Competition?

With Apple pushing out ultra-premium offerings and brands across the Android spectrum snapping at its heels, the 10th anniversary Galaxy S10+ is crucial for Samsung to get right. For the most part, Samsung has nailed the brief, but does the spectacular screen, triple camera setup and fancy new ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint scanner make for a worthy upgrade?

Everything starts with the HDR-certified, 3040 x 1440 pixels screen, and lord, what a gorgeous screen this is – Samsung’s just showing off its display prowess at this point. It stretches from edge-to-edge, curving at the sides with the front cameras moved into a sleek Infinity-O hole-punch. It may not be first to market with the hole-punch, but Samsung, with its vivid colours, inky blacks, class-leading brightness and downright brilliant image quality, crushes the competition when it comes to displays. Alongside the new hole-punch is the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner embedded under the screen, which is meant to be more secure than the optical scanners fitted in the OnePlus 6T and the Mate 20 Pro. It is not quite matching the speed of traditional fingerprint scanners yet, but it works well and quickly for the most part. Samsung has swapped out the iris scanning feature with a traditional 2D camera-based face unlock, which is convenient if less secure.

Despite the not-insignificant 6.4-inch display, the curved edges and a mere 175g weight (despite its 4100mAh battery) keeps the S10+ comfortable to hold and use. Yes, the rear still reminds you of the Note 9, so the overall design, while improved, is still a tad evolutionary. Still has a normal 3.5mm headphone jack – a solid pro-consumer move in a time where everyone seems to be in a hurry to lose the beloved legacy port.

Under the hood, the S10+ ships with Samsung’s latest Exynos 9820 chip, which matches and oftentimes exceeds the best from 2018 on day-to-day usage, feeling smooth and snappy throughout, even during extended gaming sessions. The 8GB of RAM is adequate, but there’s a 12GB variant with 1TB of storage if you are looking to go all out. Battery life on the 4100mAh unit is a shade better than the S9+’s, inching into day-and-a-half territory after the adaptive battery tech learns your usage patterns. Alongside fast 10W wireless charging, the S10+ also has Powershare, a trick first seen on the Mate 20 Pro, with which you can wireless charge another Qi-wireless-charging device from the back of your phone. Also new this time around is Samsung’s One UI, based on the latest Android 9 Pie, which moves a lot of the visual elements to within easy reach of your thumb, making the experience of using the large screen a lot better.

Really, it is only the camera that leaves minor room for improvement, something that is entirely possible via software updates. The triple rear camera setup adds a new 16MP ultrawide camera, allowing you to go from 0.5x to 2x simply by switching between the three shooters – the ultrawide angle in particular is a lot of fun if you are looking for a new perspective for your shots. In good light, the camera produces exceptional photos with great detail, fast autofocus and colors to match the best out there. Low-light performance is impressive, but the S10+ lacks a mode to rival Google or Huawei’s night modes. The selfie camera leaves no room for complaint at all.

With the S10+, Samsung has hit a home run and makes a compelling case for those looking for the best big-screen smartphone you can buy right now. The bar has been set for Android smartphones to come in 2019, a high one at that..