When we first reviewed the Galaxy S10+ in early March of 2019, it was a very different phone compared to its predecessor. It’s bigger, has the newly introduced (at that time) triple camera setup a few quality of life updates, and a much bigger battery. And comes in my personal favorite color, Prism Green.
So, it’s been around a year and a half since I’ve started using the Galaxy S10+ and here is my long-term review of it.
How is the performance?
I think this is the first thing that everyone wants to know. And with that, we’ll have a quick recap of the specs first.
- 6.4-inch Dynamic AMOLED display with 3040×1440 pixels in resolution
- Exynos 9820 Octa
- 8GB LPDDR4X RAM
- 128GB UFS 2.1 storage
- Triple rear-facing cameras
- Main: 12MP f/1.5-2.4, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS
- Telephoto with 2x optical zoom: 12MP f/2.4, AF, OIS
- Ultrawide with 0.5x magnification: 16MP f/2.2, fixed focus
- 4,100mAh battery
- Android 9.0 with One UI
I’m glad to report that the performance still holds up today. It’s still very powerful in today’s standard. And yes, I’m using the Exynos variant of the Galaxy S10+.
I honestly don’t see why people are complaining about Exynos chipset. It’s still performing very well in today’s standards. Granted, I don’t play games on my phone and I also don’t stare at synthetic benchmark scores every day to see who has slightly higher scores. Look, we’re not going to run benchmarks 24/7 and this whole benchmark score comparison situation is just like chasing clout.
Trend-setting selfie camera cutout
Looking back, Samsung got a lot of flak for making their selfie cameras like this. A punch hole on a perfectly functioning display for the selfie camera? That was insane. It’s a norm now, and every other smartphone manufacturer is following this trend – except for Apple. They’re still with that humongous notch.
Battery longevity
I think this is the one thing that everyone wants to know. So let me tell you how’s my usage. I leave my phone plugged to the charger for the entire night from the moment I go to bed. I only unplug it when I wake up. But, I am only using a 5V 2A charger. I don’t need fast charging because it is a well-known fact that fast charging degrades your battery in the long run.
On a usual day, I always start the day kind of late – I unplug my phone at 10am, then go about my usual day and plugged in again at about 2am with around 53% battery left. It’s always that number, which is why I remember.
On some heavier days where I need my phone for GPS and many more messages, calls, pictures, videos, and whatnot – it usually still has around 20% battery left before I go to bed. I never had it go down to 0% before.
And the best thing is – I don’t even need a power bank.
Build durability
I think I’m very careful when it comes to handling electronics. Maybe too careful, actually. I got a screen protector with a case on the very second I got the phone, and I never go by a day without a protective case on the Galaxy S10+.
With that said, I do hammer down the buttons on the phone a lot – particularly the power button. I always double-press the power button to launch the camera app instead of going to the app drawer, because it’s faster and more convenient.
Despite the totally unergonomic location of the power button on the Galaxy S10+, I still press it many times a day. I got used to it very quickly and it became second nature to me. Yes, I still would like it to be at a lower position – but it’s not the end of the world.
However, I do know for a fact that the most “mint condition” button on the Galaxy S10+ is going to be the Bixby button. I’m just glad that the Galaxy S10 series of smartphones are the last one to have a dedicated Bixby button.
3 years of updates in total
Ever since the launch of the Galaxy S10 series of smartphones, Samsung has committed to releasing an update every single month. They’ve been consistent so far and they didn’t miss or skip any month of update.
Better yet, Samsung has also announced that they’re now committing to a total of 3 “generations” worth of updates – which backdates to the Galaxy S10 series of smartphones. That’s a huge announcement as it was unexpected and this literally breathes another year’s worth of life into a 1.5-year old phone.
Samsung promises “3 generations” of updates for flagship devices
Samsung is listening, actually
I think that the Galaxy S10 series is a turning point for Samsung on how they want to continuously support their smartphones. They’re actively listening to feedback via the Samsung Members app, so you can file bug reports or ideas on how to improve the software experience via the Samsung Members app.
It’s cool to see that Samsung is really paying attention to its community as the Galaxy Note20’s Unpacked event literally puts an array of fans from the Samsung Members users in the background.
The cameras are still good
After reviewing way too many smartphones, I come to realize that there are differences in how the camera smartphones are designed with respect to the use case scenario. Let’s go on by saying this – the Samsung camera experience is to point and shoot and get the best possible picture.
This is in contrast to the many other smartphones that take their sweet time by telling the user to hold the phone for like 4 seconds or more, just to get a better, cleaner shot. That’s a perfectly fine way to take pictures but definitely not for me. I just want to point and shoot quickly.
And yet, the Galaxy S10+ still takes fantastic pictures.
My only complaint
One of my biggest complaints is finding screen protectors for this phone. The curved edges really do pose a challenge as tempered glass can’t stick properly, difficult to align and install, and generally just a bad experience.
After many trials and errors, I found out that PET screen protectors are what I’m looking for. It’s relatively easy to install, has great durability against fingernails, and it also looks great. Most importantly, it does not impose any problems with the fingerprint scanner.
It’s also great to see what Samsung is shrinking down the curvature of the screen edges so that screen protectors are now easier to get. That’s just some of the quality of life changes that people don’t talk about.
Is this still a good time to get the Galaxy S10+?
Honestly, yes – if the price is right. It’s Samsung’s last flagship smartphone to still have an audio jack, and it also has a big battery – at least at that time when it was announced.
And since the S10+ has been in the market for more than a year, the price has considerably dropped, too. With Samsung’s announcement of 3 “generations” worth of software support for the S10 series of smartphones, I think you can buy this phone and be content with it for a long time. From my personal experience, the Samsung One UI is still the best I’ve used thus far.
While I still wish there are more phones from Samsung with the Prism Green color, Samsung also released the new Galaxy S20 FE with a total of 6 different colors. That new mint color is looking beautiful 👌.
Question now becomes – if you’re shopping for a brand new budget-friendly flagship smartphone that has all of the nice features – should you buy the Galaxy S10+ or the newly-announced Galaxy S20 FE? My choice is simple – get the Galaxy S20 FE instead.
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