S10 + Review a Year later - Is it a Plus even after a Year!

Of the tech events that took place in March 2019 the launch of S10+ was interesting to the consumers as it stood out from all the phones out there and also one of the important years for Samsung, introducing a radical design change after S8, that was launched in April 2017. Even after Samsung had a fear about how the device would be received among the audience, the phone sales skyrocketed after it’s launch. Me, having used the device for over a year here are my thoughts about the phone and my review is suitable for the Exynos version of S10+ that is available in India.

Display

The past display’s of Samsung is nothing to complain about and they were phenomenal. Yet the same goes for S10+ display also. The display is big, bright and beautiful to look at and use. It has a resolution of 3040 x 1440 and has a pixel density of 522 ppi. My unit has exhibited no issues so far. Except the fact that the display is 60 Hz and not 90 Hz or 120 Hz, this display is nothing short of marvellous. The screen being HDR 10+ compliant and supporting higher resolution upto 3K, the display also coupled with the stereo speakers, is a bliss for consuming media and binge watching. The display goes upto 820 nits on Auto Brightness, so no user will have an issue using this display outdoors or in low lighting conditions. The punch-hole may seem to be a distraction while starting to use this device first, but you will get used to it. Even if it gets in your way while using the phone, Samsung also gives us an option to hide the punch-hole. Also the curved edges of the display might attract reflection and may also get prone to accidental touches but ,as you get used to the device, you wouldn't bother it much. Also providing options such as changing the display resolution, getting to mess around with colour profile, font style and screen zoom gives the user an extra layer of customization. Overall the display offered by Samsung is beautiful every time you pick the device to use it.

Design

Design is some of the greatest advantages for Samsung since S6 and this device is nothing short of it. The device contains a glass sandwich design with Gorilla Glass 6 on the front and Gorilla Glass 5 the back sandwiched in between an Aluminium frame. The rear glass not having matte finish grabs some fingerprints, but overall this is a beautifully crafted device. The placements are as follows, on the left of the device it contains the volume rocker and the bixby key(which can be remapped), on the right it contains the power button, on the top it contains the sim card slot and a microphone and towards the bottom it is loaded with headphone jack, microphone, speakers and the Type-C charging port. And the set of stereo speakers are also of good quality and they are rich in sound.

Battery Life and Charging

The S10+ is equipped with a 4100 mAh battery inside. And after using it for a year, the battery life has deteriorated for sure but it sure lasts for a day from regular to moderate usage and you might need to top up around the evening (around 8PM) for using it during intensive tasks. During this quarantine period, I use my device to snap some photos or videos, watch a movie or a few episodes of a series, listen to some music over bluetooth and play lite games rarely. For this kind of usage the phone lasted me a full day. (Display Battery Stats) And moving on to charging, this phone supports both wired and wireless charging. Samsung offers upto 15W fast wired charging, which takes about 90 mins to get the device from 0 - 100% and 15W fast wireless charging, which takes about 150 mins to get the device from 0 - 100%. Since I mostly charge my device during nighttime, I use wireless charging for the most part and the device has not exhibited any issues so far. The device also supports 9W Reverse Wireless Charging, that can be used for topping up the battery of your wireless earbuds or your friend’s phone. Recently I have particularly used this available tech on my phone to topup my Realme Buds Air (has a separate review coming). So overall the battery life after a year is good for my usage as earlier said contains mostly regular to moderate usage.

Performance

On the topic of performance, the device that sells in India contains Exynos 9820, which compared with it’s rivalries like Snapdragon 855 and Apple’s A13 Bionic, the Samsung’s inhouse chipset is less powerful on paper. But on day to day usage you wouldn’t notice the difference, but while using the phone you might feel it gets warm to touch after using the phone for about an hour but this is not true in all cases. But for the most part the phone is snappy and the day to day performance is fluid. It is due to the Exynos processor having some thermal throttling issue compared to the Snapdragon variant. Also the Exynos processor is to be blamed for the less battery efficiency compared to the Snapdragon one. But this is not an issue, despite this the device performs well in almost all conditions because Samsung improves the experience of the phone after every update. Getting on to gaming, I am not a huge gamer, but while gaming there are a few frame drops in some graphic intensive games like PUBG Mobile due to the inferior Mali-G76 MP12 GPU. This is a factor to be considered for the gamers out there if they are planning to buy this device thinking of gaming as a factor.

Biometrics

The phone comes with Ultrasonic In-Display Fingerprint Scanner and Face Recognition by providing an RGB front camera which can be coupled with a pattern / pin / password. The fingerprint scanner received mixed reviews when launched stating it as slow and unreliable, but me after using it for a year, I would say that that the fingerprint scanner has greatly improved and can be said as one of the fastest scanners available out there. The face recognition is convenient, but is not as secure as a fingerprint scanner or a 3-D depth mapping camera available on devices like the iPhone’s.

Software and Updates

The device currently runs on Android 10 with OneUI 2.1 as an overlay skin. OneUI from Samsung has evolved well from the Samsung Experience, which I used on my S8. A lot of improvisation has been made and is one of the fluid experiences that Samsung has to offer. But I do use Lawnchair 2 for better customizability and to give it a more Pixel like experience. Despite this, the one handed usability structure that runs throughout the stock apps like Dialer, Gallery and Settings gives the users a pleasure of using a 6”+ device in one hand. But Android 10 full screen gesture is locked by Samsung when a launcher is used, but this is expected to be corrected on OneUI 2.5, which is expected to be released during the launch of Note 20 somewhere around September or October.

On the update front, Samsung has greatly improved in this section. Now I receive monthly security patches every month unlike before Samsung’s updates were very slow and Android 10 update was also released quickly compared to the previous years. I guess Samsung is coping up with updates on their phones.

Cameras

The S10+ is equipped with three cameras on the back the main camera is a 12MP wide angle lens with dual aperture (f/1.5 - f/2.4) with a sensor size of 1.4 µm and supports PDAF and OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), the telephoto lens is a 12MP(f/2.4) camera that zooms upto 2X, with a sensor size of 1.0 µm and supports OIS, the third camera is a 16MP ultrawide camera (f/2.2)

With a field of view of 123⁰ and also supports Super Steady Video Mode. The S10+ can capture videos upto 4K @ 60fps and slow-mo videos at 720p @ 960fps.

The triple camera setup on this device takes some very good pictures at almost all day light scenarios. The pictures taken on the main camera were very sharp and captured a lot of details. The colours were natural and the image processing style were of typical Samsung’s style, that is the pictures were well saturated and contained good contrast, but there is nothing to complain about, as the pictures turned out very appealing each time you take a shot. The Telephoto lens is ok like all other camera lenses that I have used in the past in devices like S9+, iPhone X and the lens gets the job done but don’t expect much detail like the pictures shot from the main camera. The Ultrawide camera is a good addition because it allows the user to take pictures in a different perspective. The details showcased by this camera is good and the edge distortion is handled well. The Camera app also offers a full fledged Pro Mode for the camera enthusiasts out there and it is also capable of saving images in high efficincieny HEIF mode and also can save JPEG as well as RAW copies of the same image while using Pro Mode. The phone also contains Night mode which aids in very low lighting conditions. The photos taken were good but not as good as some of images that can be taken using the available Pro Mode

The S10+ handles videos well and offers a Pro Mode for the Video as well. And I would say that the device handles the videos well with good exposure and excellent stabilization. The focusing speed was also great. The videos taken with these cameras were also good and the audio pickup via the microphone was excellent. The device can record HDR10+ videos and also store them in HEVC format

The front camera setup contains a dual camera setup containing a primary 10MP camera that supports dual pixel auto focus and a secondary 8MP camera for depth effects. The images from the main camera were good and contained good details in good lighting conditions and the details began to deteriorate in dim lighting conditions.The videos taken with these cameras were also good and the audio pickup via the microphone was excellent. Overall the front facing camera pair is a good setup offered by Samsung.

Overall the camera setup is a well rounded setup offered by Samsung.

Here are some images that were shot with the S10+ in auto mode.

What would it be like in 2020?

If you are planning to buy a device right now and you have the budget, consider other newly released phones like Oneplus 8 Pro (starting at ₹54,999 or $900) right now. At the current selling price of the S10+ around ₹67K in India or $850 the S10+ won’t be a good buy even if it is a good device right now, considering the device support is longer for newer phones and also the spec bump that comes with it. Go for it only if you have a tight budget of 67K or $850 and you want a Samsung phone, because the phones like the S20 / S20+ (starting at ₹ 70,499 or $550 for S20 and ₹ 77,999 or $900) are selling at a higher price.

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