With all the qualities that make the best Android phone, the flagship Samsung Galaxy 10 Plus comes with a whole bunch of new features rivalling, if not surpassing, Apple’s Iphone 11. If you’d rather win your smartphone, check out our page covering how to win an unlocked Yezz smartphone from gadgetreview. You get an amazing triple lens rear camera along with a large OLED panel providing you with almost perfect colours and viewing angles. And thus, paired with the performance worthy of a flagship phone, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus stands out with it’s comparatively low price as of now. Compare this with the LG G2 review for an even lower-priced option. If you’d rather stick with your iPhone, take a look at our desk pets CarBot R/C review too.
Why We Like It – Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
A flagship phone cheaper than the Iphone 11 Pro but probably up to par in performance may seem like a jackpot right? Well, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus makes that seemingly possible with the powerful specs and the triple back camera packed into a design with a 93% screen to body ratio. And as a plus point you get both wireless charging as well as reverse wireless charging thanks to its PowerShare feature. If you’re not sure about the S10, read our T-Mobile myTouch review to compare.
- Amazing performance and software
- Supports reverse wireless charging
- Camera is great thanks to both software and lens
- Fingerprint scanner is not very responsive
- Low light photos are not as good as the Google Pixel 4
Performance
Powered by the Qualcomm SM8150 Snapdragon 855 processor, Mali-G76 MP12 GPU, 8GB or 12GB of RAM and options of 128GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus doesn’t fall short anywhere in terms of it’s specs. All of these join in to power the Android 9.0 Pie paired with the One UI software giving you a pretty smooth system to operate on like the Galaxy S9,Galaxy S20 and many of Samsung’s phones. And viewing this on the 6.4 Inch OLED panel of the Galaxy S10 Plus makes it all the much better and enjoyable thanks to the vibrant colours as well the pretty amazing viewing angles offered by the screen. The UI even offers you a gesture interface giving you a greater display area with no navigation buttons, but an issue still remains as per the Galaxy S10 review from many users. The hole punch design for the front-facing cameras takes up a certain part of the screen, which is agitating and although you can include a black bar on the top, pushing the actual display down, that only makes the screen smaller with a seemingly large bezel on top. And do keep in mind that, some apps will automatically do that, without any manual control.
However, being the next one in the S10 lineup, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus comes with a toned down saturation in it’s natural mode from the previous Samsung phone, and as like the S10 Samsung, the S10 Plus has also included the HDR10+ feature in the S10 Plus. Supported by both Amazon Prime and Youtube, watching shows are made slightly better but aren’t up to the HDR on TV’s. And if you need a wireless charger for all your devices, we introduce to you the WOCH Charger, a handcrafted wooden wireless charging station that will look great in your home.
Moving onto the camera’s the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus comes with three cameras at the back starting with a standard wide 12 MP main camera, a secondary 12MP telephoto camera and a third 16 MP ultra wide camera each having apertures of f/1.5, f/2.4 and f/2.2 respectively. They are designed horizontally at the back of the phone and paired with the amazing software interface giving you a camera system that far surpasses that of the Iphone and the Pixel. The wide-angle lens makes taking photos of the land or city scapes much more easier and with the new feature of AI powered scene detection, the Samsung S10 Plus will identify and optimize the settings for 30 unique different scenarios. You even get a feature allowing you to compose your shots better by placing the camera in the right place. However, while the camera is great overall, there are some drawbacks that need to be noted. Firstly, Samsungs phones tend to overexpose images for bright photos making the skin tones in portrait shots slightly weird and secondly, the automatically activated night mode is not as great as the Night Sight offered in Pixel phones. On the other hand, the rear camera does allow you to shoot 4K videos at 60fps with the main camera and at 30fps with the telephoto and ultrawide lens. You also get better audio quality in those videos than most other android phones making it a great phone for vloggers and influencers or just anyone who wants to shoot video
Coming back to the front camera in the hole punch, you get two cameras, the 10MP being the one used for portrait shots while the 8MP secondary camera is used for improving the depth effects. Paired together they take some pretty clear and vibrant shots with the added autofocus feature, and ,if you want to, you can use a button in the interface to get a wider photo to take some amazing group selfies. You also get a Colour point which is pretty fun to use, but do keep in mind that the Live Focus Portrait feature is exclusive to the Galaxy S10 Plus Samsung variant and not the Galaxy Note or Galaxy S10E.
Speaking of the front camera, you also get a Faceunlock feature to access your phone without the in-display fingerprint sensor. But it isn’t the same as that of the Iphone XS Max or the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, as you don’t get any form of 3D face mapping and rather it only compares your face to a previous photo, making it much less secure and easy to get past using previously taken photos. On the other hand, the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor on the display is harder to break past, but as a compromise it isn’t as fast as the capacitive scanners on other One Plus or Samsung phones. So all in all, it isn’t the best in terms of security measures, but you do get an astounding battery life in this already great phone.
Being the new phone in the S10 series, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus comes with a 4100 mAh battery which although is placed to the side because of the hole punch up top, provides you with at least a days worth of charge which can even move up to two days of battery life. This is an excellent feature for the power users out there, and added with the capability of fast charging which according to the review Samsung Galaxy S10 has received, beats Apples, you rarely have to be on the go. Moreover, being among the galaxy phones, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus even comes with a wireless charging capacity which can also be used in reverse thanks to the PowerShare feature. This means you can use your phone to charge your other devices or even a friend’s phone and as an added benefit the feature turns off when your phone reaches 30% battery life, making sure you don’t run out of battery. And while the battery life is pretty great, do keep in mind that turning on the QHD+ feature for the display will reduce your battery life a lot faster than usual. In case you want an alternative phone with almost similar battery life, read the Unlocked Smartphone Cubot Fingerprint Id Twilight review.
Furthermore, being a phone Samsung has manufactured, the S10 Plus comes with a dedicated button for Bixby, which was rather known as the Bixby button every time a phone had it. But this time Samsung has made it possible to change the function of the button to open other apps, which however doesn’t support google assistant for a reason which is both comical and understandable. While this may be fixed with a software update, you can always just use a third party app to program the button to open any other virtual assistants, including google assistant. Finally, the Samsung Galaxy S10 also comes with a quite good stereo speakers which delivers a loud and clear sound when you’re not using headphones.
Design
While the S10 Plus does provide you with the usual power button, volume and ‘bixby’ buttons, you also get the much desired headphone jack which has been disappearing from the new Iphones and Pixels that are coming out. This makes it easier to use wired earphones or headphones you may have, without the complications of an added dongle.
Additionally, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus also comes with a microSD card to expand the already large storage while the added IP68 water resistance makes the phone much easier and safer to use in or near water. The Galaxy S10 Plus also isn’t an easy phone to hold, with its large screen and amazing features it measures up to have dimensions of 6.20 x 2.92 x 0.31 in and weighs upto 6.17oz. It won’t be bulgy in your pocket, but with the dimensions as it is, it may be hard to hold with one hand for many people, so try to use a case or a popsocket for better safety. You can still opt for smaller phones like the Google Pixel 3A, Samsung Galaxy A70 or even the Samsung Galaxy S10E.
Moreover, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus has a curved screen, glass back and a metal frame, and put together they give the phone a really nice touch and aesthetic. Thus with that and colour choices ranging from Prism Black, Prism White, Prism Green the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus is both a good looking and performing phone. You can also get a ceramic back with the white or black options if you buy the 512GB and the 1TB models. Overally, if you still doubt this phone, take a look at our comprehensive Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ Smartphone review for more great options.
Value
Costing you about $500 now, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus has had a huge decrease in price whilst retaining the ever so great performance. While it was priced at $1000 previously, you can now get the amazing Plus camera for better image quality, a great design and display along with durability and functionality, all at about half the price now. And so, with all that, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus is among one of the best value android phones you can get right now. However, if you’re on a serious budget and you don’t really need a flagship phone, check out the Moto E5 which is one of the best budget android phones you can get.
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus Wrap Up
While the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus may not have that great a night photography capability or be that easy to hold with one hand, being a flagship phone it offers you almost everything you can ask of an android phone. It delivers an astounding performance with a reverse wireless charging capability on top of the amazing battery life, and paired with a good sound quality as well a vibrant and responsive display at a very affordable price, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus is a must get for flagship seekers out there. However, you might need to get used to not having a not so good fingerprint sensor and face unlock.
