Honestly, if Samsung challenged premium midrange heavyweights with its A-series smartphones, it would stand little chance in the segment. However, it managed to change the game by launching the Galaxy S10 Lite, with everything needed to take on peers in the premium midrange segment.
Business Standard reviewed the Galaxy S10 Lite, which is part of Samsung’s premium Galaxy S-series lineage, and tested its score on key parameters. Here is what we found:
Design
The Galaxy S10 Lite drops some of the signature Galaxy S-series design elements, including the curved front display and the back glass cover. But the phone still looks premium and has good ergonomics, a lightweight build, and a thin profile. These make it one of the handiest smartphones in the segment.
Display
The Galaxy S10 Lite has a 6.7-inch super AMOLED screen of a fullHD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels) resolution. Though the screen is flat — unlike other premium Samsung smartphones, which have a two-side curved panel — it stretches close to the frame borders on all sides. So, the bezels are negligible, and even the most prominent bottom bezel on the Galaxy S10 Lite is narrower than those in other phones in the segment.
Imaging
The Galaxy S10 Lite has a triple-rear-camera set-up — a 48-megapixel primary sensor of an f/2.0 aperture, a 12MP ultra-wide sensor of a 123-degree field-of-view (FoV) and f/2.2 aperture, and a 5MP macro sensor of an f/2.4 aperture. It might seem elementary on paper, especially since a telephoto lens is missing, the implementation of the set-up is unique and different. This puts the Galaxy S10 Lite ahead of peers with regard to imaging.
In terms of output, the rear cameras on the Galaxy S10 Lite are capable performers, and the best you get in the premium midrange segment for photography and videography. The phone’s primary rear camera takes detailed shots in all lighting conditions. Though the phone lacks a dedicated telephoto lens, required for optical zoom, the pixel-rich primary sensor allows up to 2x digital zoom on the subject without losing much detail — especially in good light. In low light, however, the digital zoom leads to loss of crucial details, and that is when the lack of the telephoto lens becomes apparent.
On the front, the phone has a 32MP selfie shooter of an f/2.2 aperture. It is also a capable unit and supports several software-based optimisations, such as portrait mode, live focus selfie videos, night mode, etc.
The Galaxy S10 Lite is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 system-on-chip, paired with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. The configuration is top-notch, and that show in the forms smooth performance. Be it regular day-to-day operations or high-intensity usage while gaming and editing multimedia, the phone handles everything with ease and delivers consistent performance even after extended use. The performance is accentuated by an intuitive user experience, thanks to the Android 10-based Samsung OneUI 2.0 user interface. It is one of the custom smartphone UIs that deliver better user experience than the stock Android UI.
The phone has a 4,500 mAh battery which keeps it going for a full day. Its 25W fast charging replenishes the battery from zero to 100 per cent in less than two hours — that is satisfactory.
Verdict
If you compare it with the premium sibling Galaxy S10, you will find several features missing in the Galaxy S10 Lite. These include the ingress protection rating for water and dust resistance, stereo speakers, wireless charging, higher screen resolution and DeX support. Yet, it is Samsung’s best bet to take on other heavyweights in the premium midrange segment. That is because it has not compromised on the features that you expect a premium midrange smartphone to cut corners on — design, imaging, performance and on-battery time. The Galaxy S10 Lite brings some freshness to the premium midrange segment, which at present is dominated by Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus.