A couple of days back, Samsung launched its new high-end smartphone- the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite in India. Priced at Rs.39,999, the Galaxy S10 Lite flaunts a 6.7-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-O display with the resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels. Under the hood, the device is powered by last year’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset which is further coupled with 8GB RAM. Is the Samsung Galaxy Lite worth your money? Read our review to find out.
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite Specifications
- Display: 6.7-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-O display with 2400 x 1080 pixels screen resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio
- CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Chipset
- RAM: 8 GB
- Storage: 128 GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 1 TB
- OS: Android 10 with Samsung One UI
- Rear Camera: 48 MP rear camera with LED Flash, f/2.0 aperture, Super Steady OIS + 12 MP Ultra Wide sensor with f/2.2 aperture + 5 MP macro camera with f/2.0 aperture
- Front Camera: 32 MP with f/2.2 aperture
- Others: In-display fingerprint sensor, Samsung Pay
- Connectivity: Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz), Bluetooth v5.0, GPS with GLONASS, USB 3.1, NFC
- Colors: Prism White, Prism Black, and Prism Blue
- Battery: 4500 mAh with 25W fast charging
Design, Display, & Ergonomics
Talking about the design, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite comes with a Glasstic body (Glass + Plastic) and due to that, it doesn’t feel like a premium device when you hold it in your hands. The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite is available in three colors and we got the Prism Blue variant to play around with. The device is really slim and it weighs just 186 grams. It comes with a square-shaped camera module on the left that bulges out which makes the phone wobble when it is lying on a flat surface. The back panel attracts a lot of fingerprints and hence we’d recommend you to use a case if you get the device.
Just like the other Samsung smartphones, the volume button and the power button are placed on the right and along with that, you get the SIM Tray on the left. Samsung has removed the headphone jack from the S10 lite and all you get is a USB Type-C port in the bottom. The audio output from the speakers is improved and if you are someone who listens to a lot of music and streams a lot of videos online then you’ll surely enjoy the experience with the Galaxy S10 Lite.
Moving on to the display, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite flaunts a 6.7-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-O display with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels. As soon as you switch your color profile from Standard to Vivid the viewing experience with the display gets better. As it’s an AMOLED Panel you get deep blacks with punchy and bright colors. You won’t have any issues while using the device outdoors as the text and images are clearly visible in the daylight. It’s great for media streaming and in addition to this, it comes with support for HDR which means that you can play games and enjoy videos in HDR. We would have loved to see if S10 lite came with a 90Hz refresh rate as it would have made the overall experience much better. However, in terms of display quality, the Samsung Galaxy S10 lite doesn’t disappoint.
User Interface and Software
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite runs on Android 10 based on the latest Samsung One UI 2.0. You get the usual bloatware that includes few Microsoft Apps and Samsung Apps that come pre-installed on the device. But you don’t have to worry as most of them can be uninstalled and you can disable the rest. Theme Store is present on the device and it offers a lot of paid and free themes that can be used to customize the look and feel of your UI.
As it’s based on Android 10 you can have full control over your App Permissions. Always on Display is supported on the device and it shows you the Date, Time, Battery Percentage and some other stuff. You can also show the music info on the Always-on display by tweaking the settings. Most of the things on the Always-on display can be customized including the clock style and colors. Our experience with the One UI 2.0 on the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite was really good and we hardly faced any problems. You can have a look at the screenshots below to see how One UI 2.0 looks like.
Hardware Performance, Benchmarks, and Gaming
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 octa-core 7nm processor which is further coupled with 8 GB of RAM. It comes with 128 GB of Internal Storage which can be further expanded up to 1 TB via MicroSD Card. Now, Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 is last year’s flagship chipset and thanks to that the performance you get is amazing. The smartphone handles day to day tasks easily and the Adreno 640 GPU takes care of your gaming needs.
When it comes to the Gaming Performance, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite runs mostly every game on the highest possible settings without any shutters or frame drops. PUBG Mobile runs on HDR with the frame rate set to Extreme. Call of Duty Mobile, Life is Strange, Mortal Kombat also works well without any problems. However, after 1-2 hours of Gaming on the highest settings, the device does get a little warm.
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite is powered by a 4500mAh with support for 25W fast charging. The battery life is great and easily lasts up to 1.5 days with normal usage. Gamers can continuously play games for 7-8 hours without any issues.
Moving on to the Benchmarks, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite gets a score of 443913 on AnTuTu Benchmark. With this score, it easily beats Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+ on the AnTuTu benchmark. On Geekbench 5 the Galaxy S10 Lite manages to get a single-core score of 739 whereas the multicore score that it got was 2565. We also ran PCMark and Androbench on the device and you can have a look at the benchmark results in the images below.
Cameras
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite features a Triple Camera Setup at the back that consists of a 48 MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture and Super Steady OIS. A 12 MP Ultra Wide sensor with f/2.2 aperture and a 5 MP macro camera with f/2.0 aperture. The primary camera performs well and the pictures you get come with punchy and vibrant colors that look really good. The pictures have a high amount of details and the dynamic range is also good. The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite also has a dedicated night mode which means that shooting in the dark conditions won’t be an issue.
The wide-angle lens has a better field of view than most of the smartphones out there so as a result, it captures more area. In addition to this, the macro lens also does a decent job. When it comes to the selfies, the Galaxy S10 Lite comes with a 32 MP front camera with an f/2.2 aperture. You get great selfies from the S10 Lite and in addition to this, the Edge Detection is also good.
The camera app comes with modes like Panorama, Pro, Food, and Macro. There are also a few video modes that include the Super Slow Motion video. When compared with the One UI 1.0, the camera app is now changed and hides a lot of modes from the main screen but still, you can access them from the more section. We took a few shots with the Camera on S10 Lite and you can have a look at them below.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite is Samsung’s attempt to capture the high-end market. This smartphone gives a tough competition to the OnePlus 7T with the specs it offers but Is it better than the OnePlus 7T? I’d say no but this doesn’t mean that the S10 Lite is bad. The smartphone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset and thanks to that there are no performance issues. The camera does a decent job and in addition to this, it is powered by a massive 4500mAh that makes the smartphone last easily for 1.5 days which is impressive.
Samsung has a market that is built on its brand value and for those people who just want to buy a flagship like Samsung smartphone, then yes the S10 Lite is the best smartphone you can get right now. For others, I’d recommend you to wait for the future launches or simply go with the OnePlus 7T, Realme X2 Pro or the ASUS ROG Phone II.
