Samsung Galaxy S10e Hands-on, Quick Review: A Galaxy Flagship That You Can Actually Afford

Samsung Galaxy S10e Hands-on, Quick Review: A Galaxy Flagship That You Can Actually Afford

I actually prefer this over the S10 and S10 Plus

Flagship smartphone pricing is pretty insane nowadays. With top tier flagships like the Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus easily passing the Php 50K range, it’s getting harder and harder for brands like Samsung to sell their top tier offerings to regular working Juans.

It’s something that even Samsung is aware of, hence the release of the Galaxy S10e. The e stands for “essential” which sums up the phone nicely. The S10e has all of the core bells and whistles of the new flagships, at a price most people can afford.

It’s like the S7, only better

To cut costs, Samsung had to nix a few top-end features on the Galaxy S10e. The curve on the display was the first to go, leaving the phone with flat sides that’s you’d typically see on other devices.

But that doesn’t mean the S10e looks dated, or bad – despite the use of a flat display, the phone still looks pretty, thanks to the premium materials used in its construction. The phone is smaller overall compared to its two brothers which isn’t that big of a deal – it just means its easier to use one-handed.

The phone is still water-resistant and still retains the 3.5mm jack that’s starting to become a rarity in flagship phones nowadays.

The phone’s overall design reminds us a lot of the Galaxy S7, updated for 2019. The small bezels on the front give the S10e a screen size of 5.8-inches, while still retaining that 19:9 aspect ratio that its brothers have.

A screen as brilliant and as bright as its brothers

Aside from the smaller screen size and lack of an in-screen ultrasonic sensor, the 5.8-inch, 19:9 aspect ratio, QHD Dynamic Super AMOLED panel is identical to the one in its more expensive brothers. That hole notch is still up there on the upper left side, but like we said earlier you just kinda get used to it being there. The screen is ultra bright, has really, really deep blacks and overall just looks awesome to look at.

Two cameras instead of three

The biggest change from the S10 and S10 Plus to the S10e are the cameras: the S10e only has two, as opposed to the three cameras on its more expensive brothers.

Specifically, Samsung took out the 2x optical zoom lens, leaving only the 12-megapixel 77-degree wide lens and a 16-megapixel 123-degree ultra-wide lens on its body.

Aside from that, the cameras that are left are exactly the same ones that’s used on its more expensive siblings. The S10e also has identical camera software, including better scene detection as its brothers.

Still has the fastest processors on the block

Internally, the Galaxy S10e is powered by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 flagship chipset and Samsung’s Exynos 9820. The only big difference here is the RAM: the S10e has 2GB less (coming in at 6GB) than the Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus.

Storage is the same at 128GB, though you can further expand that via microSD cards. No 1TB versions exist for the S10e though.

Samsung’s One UI replaces TouchWiz on the S10e, and if you want a full breakdown of the changes, you probably want to check out our hands-on of the S10 and S10 Plus. Long story short, it’s awesome, and Samsung has finally gotten it right in terms of software UI.

Smaller battery, but the phone still has wireless charging

Surprisingly enough, one feature that Samsung didn’t nix on the S10e is its wireless charging capability. The phone can still charge other wireless charge capable devices on its back, though its smaller battery size of 3100mAh make it a little impractical.

The phone to get if you just want the flagship basics

With flagship prices being what they are nowadays, we’re pretty surprised that the Galaxy S10e carries a price of Php 39,990. That’s certainly a big change from what we’ve come to expect from a flagship made by Samsung, which is probably a small admission on their part on the rising prices for flagships.

In any case, I’m personally gravitating towards the S10e over the more technically impressive S10 and S10 Plus, simply because it has all the essentials down without the unecessary frills.

Samsung Galaxy S10e Specs

  • Samsung Exynos 9820 octa-core processor
  • Mali-G76 MP12 GPU
  • 6GB RAM
  • 5.8-inch 1080 x 2280 resolution Dynamic Super AMOLED Infinity-O display, HDR10+
  • 128GB expandable storage, via microSD
  • Dual rear cameras: 12-megapixel primary camera with f/1.5 and f/2.4 aperture; 16-megapixel ultra-wide camera; with Dual Pixel, Dual OIS, 960FPS Super Slo-Mo video, 4K HDR10+ shooting at 30FPS/4K shooting at 60FPS
  • 10-megapixel f/1.9 front camera with dual-pixel autofocus, 4K video recording
  • Dual SIM
  • 3G, LTE, WiFi 6
  • GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
  • Fingerprint scanner, facial recognition, heartbeat sensor, IP68 certification, USB Type-C port, Bixby AI, 3D Emojis
  • 3100mAh battery with fast charging and wireless charging
  • Android 9.0 Pie (One UI)

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