Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite review: This phone exists, and it's pretty good

The Galaxy S10 Lite comes at a time when Samsung is getting prepare to unveil the Galaxy S11, or the Galaxy S20 as the company has decided to call it. The Milky way S10 Lite's spec sheet combines a lot of tech from various mid-range and flagship Milky way phones from concluding year. Y'all take the Milky way S10's Snapdragon 855 processor, the Galaxy A70'south 4,500 mAh battery with 25W super fast charging, and a rear photographic camera setup that's pretty similar to what y'all find on the Milky way A51.

The only unique thing almost the S10 Lite is what Samsung calls Super Steady OIS for the camera, which improves stability by allowing the camera sensor to motion in all directions to showtime hand movements. Equally such, the Galaxy S10 Low-cal doesn't actually fit in any category. 1 can say it'south a mid-range phone with flagship elements, a combination we have previously seen with the Galaxy A90 5G.

The Galaxy S10 Low-cal is much more widely available than the A90 5G, only does it offer the right corporeality of features for the request price for us to requite it a recommendation? Permit's find out in this review.

Galaxy S10 Lite design

The Galaxy S10 Calorie-free may exist named afterward the Galaxy S10 series, but it looks nothing similar any of the other Galaxy S10 smartphones. At the back, the triple camera setup is placed in the meridian-left corner in a protruding rectangular window, which looks quite like to the camera setup on the Galaxy M30s, which falls in the budget segment equally far equally pricing is concerned. But oh male child, it sure does expect hitting.

The Milky way S10 Light has no gradient upshot. After a twelvemonth of seeing rear panels with insane gradients and rainbow-like patterns on Milky way phones, the dark blue shade on our review unit looks much classier in comparison. It also feels quite premium to concord, despite having plastic on the dorsum and sides. It'due south not too heavy, and it's not very big despite having a half dozen.7-inch display, all thanks to the slimmer bezels at the forepart.

The phone's pretty thin equally well, but that probably isn't the reason why Samsung didn't equip it with a headphone jack. It's a surprising omission considering the Galaxy Note ten Lite has it even though the two phones take the same bombardment capacity, and it may be Samsung'due south way of preparing us for a future that doesn't include a headphone jack on non-flagship phones and also the flagship Galaxy S lineup.

You may also be wondering if the Milky way S10 Lite has whatsoever sort of water or grit protection. Information technology doesn't, and frankly, it's easy to see why. Adding any sort of ingress protection would take raised the cost of the device by a sizable corporeality, and information technology would also leave much less distinction between the S10 Lite and the flagship Milky way S10 smartphones.

The S10 Lite's box comes with the standard package: A charger, USB-C cable, SIM ejector pin, USB-C earphones, a user transmission, and in markets like Republic of india, a plastic case. The telephone has a screen protector pre-installed, which is the case for every smartphone Samsung launches these days.

Galaxy S10 Low-cal display

Samsung isn't advertising it too much, simply the S10 Lite's vi.7-inch Super AMOLED brandish seems to be only every bit proficient equally the one on the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10. The colors and viewing angles are all spot on, and the S10 Lite brandish is also HDR+ certified. And then, yeah, the brandish is flagship-grade, just like the S10 Light'southward processor. I compared the same HDR video on YouTube on the S10 Lite and the S10+ and institute no discernible difference, except for slightly college definition in very bright objects, such as clouds, on the latter.

The effulgence levels of the Galaxy S10 Lite are as well as high as the Note x+ brandish, though the former does seem to have a warmer color tone past default. You can change that to your liking from the brandish setting, though. And, as some folks adopt, the Galaxy S10 Light display isn't curved, and then you can slap on whatsoever kind of screen protector on top. You still go the Edge screen functionality, so the apartment screen is purely a cosmetic difference compared to Samsung'due south flagship phones.

I am also glad to written report that Samsung has substantially improved the quality of the optical in-display fingerprint sensor. I didn't completely believe my colleague Adnan when he said the Milky way A51's optical in-display sensor works well, but it'south adept to see I was wrong. In fact, I've had a higher success charge per unit with the fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy S10 Lite than I've had with the technically superior ultrasonic in-display sensors on the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10.

That may be partly because the optical sensors are not affected by things such as pare dryness. My fingers are usually visibly dry, which can be an issue with the ultrasonic sensors. The S10 Calorie-free's fingerprint sensor is excellent, in short. It'due south quick and has pretty good accuracy, and it is miles better than the frankly horrible optical fingerprint sensors we saw on mid-range Galaxy phones in 2019. Facial recognition also works bully.

Milky way S10 Lite camera

The Galaxy S10 Lite has a 48MP F2.0 main shooter at the back, flanked by a 12MP F2.ii 123-degree ultra-wide camera and a 5MP F2.4 macro photographic camera. The main shooter has what Samsung calls Super Steady OIS technology. Basically, the main photographic camera lens can move around similar a gimbal to stabilize your videos. The lens tin motion upwards, downwards, and to the left and right to beginning device movements acquired past the user, and while it sounds very fancy, it's more or less like the optical image stabilization y'all get on flagship smartphone cameras.

And since Samsung hasn't equipped one of its non-flagship phones with hardware-based optical prototype stabilization, the S10 Calorie-free's OIS tech is a big bargain, fancy or non. Samsung says the Super Steady OIS tech (non to be confused with the software-based super steady video recording) lets you "add gimbal-similar stability and UHD quality to your live videos and photos in low-low-cal conditions." How does it piece of work in practice, though?

Well, with videos, I didn't really see any difference between videos captured with the Milky way S10 Lite and a Milky way S10+. Both capture polish video unless there'due south also much motion of the device, especially at the 60fps Full HD resolution (the S10 Lite has 4K recording, only non [electronic mail protected]). Again, but the presence of optical image stabilization on the phone means there'south none of the milk shake that you find in videos shot on Samsung'southward mid-range and budget phones. And that's neat.

Below are two videos shot past the Galaxy S10 Lite, one in daylight and the other at night.

It'southward with photos that Super Steady OIS seems to make a difference, especially in photos taken with Nighttime mode. Where the Galaxy S10+ tends to mistiness things out if the telephone isn't held with a very steady hand in poor lighting conditions, the Galaxy S10 Lite manages to provide a photograph with next to no blur in the same weather condition. This doesn't happen often, merely when it does, it shows why the gimbal-like camera lens is a pretty good addition.

What about image quality in regular photography? The Milky way S10 Lite uses pixel binning to combine four pixels into one and take photos with a final resolution of 12 megapixels. And in daylight, the pixel binning arroyo produces plenty lot of detail in photos, along with expert dynamic range and lifelike colors. Even in low-light conditions and indoors, you become good detail, though noise creeps in because the camera has an discontinuity of F2.0, which is pretty narrow in comparing to cameras on Samsung's flagship phones – those have a much wider aperture of F1.5.

Similar I said earlier, the OIS tech helps go along mistiness out of pictures. Information technology's only in the darkest of scenes where the OIS fails to be of much aid, but that's true of photos taken past the Galaxy S10+ likewise. The telephone likewise tends to burnish things upwardly in photos taken in standard nighttime lighting conditions by jacking upward the ISO value to recoup for the narrow F2.0 aperture, though this tin be solved past borer on the screen and controlling the exposure before capturing a shot or by using Dark mode.

The Galaxy S10 Lite also comes with the Zoom-in Mic technology that debuted on the Galaxy Note 10 and Note ten+. There's a third microphone next to the rear camera module that is used to enhance audio coming from the subject in focus when you zoom in or out during video recording. Sadly, in day to day life, you won't find enough moments where this feature is useful. Features like super deadening-mo video recording and Hyperlapse are more than useful, and you lot get those on the Milky way S10 Lite. Just don't expect a proper Pro fashion.

At present, virtually those ultra-wide and macro cameras. I won't get into besides much detail well-nigh either, simply suffice it to say that the ultra-wide camera is very useful (meet a couple of samples in the gallery above) while the macro camera is very limited in application. Yous can't ever physically motility closer to a subject, and the macro camera too suffers in low-light conditions, offering no item cheers to the meager 5MP resolution. A telephoto/zoom camera would make more sense – the macro camera seems fitting only for the more affordable mid-rangers, similar the Milky way A51.

You lot can likewise shoot Live Focus video and Alive Focus pictures with the Galaxy S10 Lite, and the output is pretty impressive, with sufficient separation of the foreground and groundwork. Live Focus videos don't tend to take alotof background blur, though, and they simply work with faces in the frame. And Live Focus photos can also take issues with things similar a bunch of flowers and leaves – the telephone fails to properly distinguish between the foreground and groundwork in such cases.

You tin find a couple of Alive Focus photo samples below, followed past a short Alive Focus video.

Finally, selfies. The 32MP front-facing photographic camera on the Galaxy S10 Lite does a peachy job in daylight, capturing plenty of detail with okay-ish dynamic range. Detail goes down indoors and in low-light conditions, and photos go completely soft in very night environments. It's what y'all expect from Samsung's mid-range phones – the selfie camera does the task done in depression light, does great in daylight. Like the rear photographic camera, the front camera tin can take bokeh pictures and videos, and except for some artifacts around hair, these come up out pretty well.

Here are a few regular and Live Focus selfie samples:

Galaxy S10 Lite performance

With a Snapdragon 855 and 8GB of RAM under the hood, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Galaxy S10 Lite performs like a flagship phone. It doesn't have UFS 3.0 storage, but neither did the Galaxy S10 lineup (except the 5G model). Nevertheless the Galaxy S10 performed great, and the same is true for the S10 Light as well.

That's considering UFS iii.0 doesn't really make whatever difference in day-to-mean solar day use. Your apps and games will still load quickly (games like PUBG run without a hitch), and there's no stutter or lag to be found unless you've got some apps installing in the background. Even then, the stutter isn't as bad as information technology tin can exist on mid-range phones, which is always an reward on phones with flagship-course processors.

And the Galaxy S10 Light would run pretty well in DeX way on a PC, but Samsung hasn't equipped it with DeX for PC support. Information technology doesn't work with the company'south DeX dock, either. Information technology's a shame, to be honest, as the Galaxy A90 5G does back up at least the former, and I hope the S10 Low-cal will as well gain support with a software update after on.

Milky way S10 Lite software

The Milky way S10 Lite runs Android 10 with Ane UI 2.0 out of the box. It's got all of the features you see on the flagships. A congenital-in screen recorder, Edge screen, Edge lighting, Link to Windows shortcut for Microsoft's Your Phone Companion app, Bixby Vox, Bixby Routines, and power primal customization are all included. The usual Samsung features, like one-handed manner, navigation gestures, Lift to wake gesture, Always On Display, theme support, Dual Messenger, and Secure Folder are present every bit well.

All the pocket-size One UI two.0 features are too available on the handset. So are the Google-specific Android x features, such as the iPhone-like navigation gestures, Digital Wellbeing with parental controls and Focus mode, and avant-garde app permissions. Out of the box, the S10 Light comes with the Jan 2020 security patch, but at this time, it's unclear if the telephone will get monthly or quarterly security updates.

Whatisarticulate is that you can expect two major Android updates for the Milky way S10 Lite. Since it comes with the latest version of Android out of the box, information technology will go along to go Android 11 and Android 12, which tin't be said for the Galaxy S10 or Milky way Note 10. Samsung is finally making certain its smartphones aren't outdated on mean solar day one, and that'due south dandy news for anyone who will choice up a Galaxy smartphone this yr.

Galaxy S10 Lite audio and call quality

The Galaxy S10 Lite may have an fantabulous brandish, simply like all other not-flagship Galaxy phones, information technology comes with a single loudspeaker that is strictly mediocre. Information technology can become loud and doesn't notably distort at full volume, but the audio output has no depth at all. I empathize limiting the speaker quality might brand for easy savings in a phone's production costs. But information technology'south loftier time we started seeing stereo speakers on mid-range Galaxy phones as well, particularly now that at that place is no guarantee you will get a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

Perhaps that'due south a deliberate move: Instead of opting for third-political party USB-C headphones, some of u.s. might just shift to wireless earbuds directly, and Samsung can sell some Galaxy Buds in the process. It remains a point of contention, though, more and then on the Milky way S10 Lite, which has top-notch performance and a elevation-notch display, making it the perfect device for media consumption, gaming, and listening to music.

Thankfully, Samsung is providing USB-C earphones in the box, the aforementioned that information technology provides with cheaper phones like the Galaxy A50s. And they are fairly good, though bass levels (low frequencies) are dwarfed by the treble (high frequencies) and the mid-range sounds rather apartment. Yous tin can enable Dolby Atmos from the notification shade to enhance the bass a little, merely I too felt discomfort at the highest volume thanks to a chip of baloney. In short, you'll want to get some 3rd-party headphones to fully enjoy audio with this device.

Call quality was pretty good on the S10 Lite. I saw no issues with network reception on either of the ii SIM cards I had in it at all times. You can conspicuously hear calls over the earpiece in all only the loudest of environments (like inside a picture palace, where you shouldn't exist picking up calls anyway). In fact, if there's ane thing I can say for the S10 Lite, it's that both the earpiece and the speaker tin get pretty loud, which is non something we can say about many proper mid-range phones from Samsung.

Galaxy S10 Lite battery life

With a 4,500 mAh battery, it's no surprise that the Galaxy S10 Lite tin can last really long on a single charge. Unless you game and lookout YouTube all day, the S10 Low-cal volition comfortably final you until the stop of the day and into the next morning time. With medium to lite usage, especially on just Wi-Fi, it'due south piece of cake to become to the evening on the second day before needing to plug it in.

And those who do play games and watch YouTube all solar day long tin charge the phone speedily cheers to the back up for 25W super fast charging. I plugged the phone in when battery level was down to 1%, and it went upwardly to 23% in 10 minutes, 53% in 30 minutes, and 87% in threescore minutes. Full charge is reached in around lxxx minutes, which is pretty fast considering the total bombardment capacity.

The Galaxy S10 Lite doesn't support wireless charging. Samsung hasn't equipped its non-flagship phones with wireless charging back up for a long time now, and it doesn't seem similar the company is going to start doing it anytime soon.

Galaxy S10 Lite verdict

The Galaxy S10 Lite is a confusing phone. In many ways, it's just as good as the Galaxy S10 flagships. The brandish is fantastic, performance is meridian-notch, the cameras are surprisingly good, and you get the latest software out of the box. Its bombardment life is amazing and beats what you get with the Galaxy S10+ and Galaxy Note 10+.

But as is typical of a mid-range Galaxy telephone, in that location's no wireless charging, no dust or h2o protection, no stereo speakers, and the rear cameras can't match the cameras on the Milky way S10 and Note x in some aspects, as good as they might be. There's no headphone jack, either. And while you will get 2 major software updates, those updates probably won't bring all the new features that the same updates volition bring to the flagship Galaxies.

Overall, however, the Galaxy S10 Lite is an first-class telephone, but merely how fantabulous it is depends on where you live. In most European countries, the S10 Lite costs 649 euros. For fifty-100 euros more, you tin get the Galaxy S10+ from third-party retailers, and then at a cost tag of effectually 600 euros the S10 Lite would brand a lot more sense. It yet has plenty to offering at 649 euros, but only if yous are on a strict upkeep and/or want the larger screen and bombardment capacity over the Galaxy S10+.

In India, it'south a completely different story. At Rs 39,990, the Milky way S10 Lite is the most well priced smartphone Samsung has launched in the sub-Rs 50,000 category. If y'all're looking for a new phone and have Rs xl,000 to spend, you tin can buy the Galaxy S10 Lite with your optics closed. Samsung India doesn't usually offer huge discounts on its flagship phones, which makes the S10 Lite a very attractive suggestion in its cost segment.

Many had wondered why the Galaxy S10 Lite exists when Samsung first appear information technology, including yours truly, and I tin can at present see why. The mix of flagship and mid-range specs can be a bit off-putting at outset glance, but when it comes to actually using the device, the Milky way S10 Lite is a pretty good smartphone that deserves your attention. Merely be certain you tin can alive with the limitations that are mentioned in the pros and cons table below, and you lot're golden.

Pros	Cons
Flagship quality 6.7-inch AMOLED display	No headphone jack, unimpressive unmarried speaker
First-class performance thanks to Snapdragon 855 processor, 8GB of RAM	Primary rear photographic camera introduces noise in low-calorie-free conditions
Stabilization tech helps main camera take impressive photos and videos	Macro camera has express use, telephoto (zoom) photographic camera would have been much better
Design looks and feels premium	No Samsung DeX back up
Fantastic battery life, super quick charging with supplied 25W charger	No h2o or grit resistance
Selfies have plenty of item in daylight	No wireless charging
Ultra-wide camera as useful equally ever, macro camera comes handy for close-up shots	Pricing in Europe could be improve

Source: https://www.sammobile.com/samsung/galaxy-s10-lite/review

Posted by: richardsonhisled.blogspot.com

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