Introduction
Samsung’s Galaxy S-Series line of smartphones are extremely popular with flagship-level specifications packed with Samsung’s goodness. All the S-Series line of smartphones come packed with some innovative features and comes with a promise to deliver peak performance. These were the first phones to show up with an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner and a lot more. But then Samsung decided to go up and launch a cheaper version of the flagship Galaxy S10+ with all the necessary features, and the result came out to be the Galaxy S10 Lite.
In this article, we will be taking a look at this new device from Samsung, The Galaxy S10 Lite, compare it with its competitors, and let you know whether you should opt-in for this device or not with the final verdict, so let us begin without wasting any more time.
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Prices in India, Variants, Availability
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite has been launched in India at a price tag of Rs. 39,999 INR which comes with 8GB of RAM coupled with 128GB of Internal Storage, while the phone only comes in a single RAM and Storage variant. The Samsung S10 Lite comes in three colour variants, namely Prism Black, Prism Blue, and Prism White.
The Galaxy S10 Lite is up for pre-order currently and can be pre-booked on Samsung.com directly or via Flipkart.
Box Contents
- 25W Fast Wired Charger
- USB Type-C to Type – C Cable
- Earphones with Type-C Port
- TPU Case
- Sim Ejector Tool
- Quick Start Guide.
Specs at a Glance
6.7-inch FHD+ Infinity – O AMOLED Display
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Chipset
48MP + 12MP + 5MP Triple Rear Cameras
32MP Selfie Camera
4,500mah Battery + 45W Fast Charging
Under the display, Optical Fingerprint sensor
Design and Build Quality
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite features an attractive looking rear panel which just looks classy and premium. While the back panel looks to be made up of glass, it is ‘Glastic’ and a combination of Glass and Plastic which is claimed to increase durability and provide better scratch resistance.
The phone sports a triple rear camera setup on the back housed in a square camera bump which doesn’t protrude too much. The bottom of the phone has the usual Samsung branding, and the camera housing reads Super Steady OIS, which we will talk about later in the camera department. On to the ports and the buttons, the Galaxy S10 Lite has the power and volume rockers on the right, the speaker grill and the USB Type C port on the bottom for charging. The point here to be noticed is, this phone misses out on the 3.5mm headphone jack.
The phone is lightweight and weighs just about 186g and in terms of dimensions, it measures 162.5 x 75.6 x 8.1 mm. The phone feels sturdy, and premium in hand but is a little big and one-hand usage might be an issue here.
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Display
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite sports a gigantic 6.7-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED Display with HDR+ support and an Infinity – O panel to house the selfie camera as seen on the Galaxy Note 10 and the Note 10+. And this is one of the best displays available in the market currently for the price the Galaxy S10 Lite comes at.
The Colours are accurate, have excellent viewing angles, the text is sharp, the screen doesn’t bleed around the cutouts, has punchy colours and all the features of an AMOLED display including deep blacks and punchy whites. The phone uses the Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 for protection on the front which can be taken as a downside, as its competitors like the OnePlus 7T offer the latest Gorilla Glass 5.
The only main distraction with the display is with this punch hole, which is centred, while it doesn’t disturb all the time, it comes into notice quite often. The S10 Lite comes with Widevine L1 Certification allowing users to stream HD content from their favourite apps like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.
Performance
As the name suggests ‘Lite’ most of the users may be expecting a Snapdragon 700 Series chipset or an older Exynos processor, but the S10 Lite is exceptional with its Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Chipset, which tends out to be the first phone from Samsung in its flagship range of smartphones to sport a Snapdragon 800 Series of processor in India.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Chipset on the Galaxy S10 Lite is an absolute beast, it can handle all the tasks you throw at it with ease. And not allowing the user to face any lags or stutters. On the technical note, the Snapdragon 855 comes with 1x Kryo 485 (ARM Cortex A76 clocked at 2.84Ghz, 3 x Kryo 485 (ARM Cortex A76 clocked at 2.82 GHz ) and 4 x Kyro 385 (ARM Cortex A55 clocked at 1.8Ghz). On the GPU terms, the Snapdragon 855 comes with the Adreno 640 GPU which can handle any graphic intensive games and tasks without any problems.
Coming to the benchmarks, the phone performs exceptionally well, by scoring scores similar to the OnePlus 7T which has the Snapdragon 855+ Chipset. We played some games of PUBG and Call Of Duty Mobile on this smartphone, and as expected, we didn’t notice any lags or issues with gaming. We can assure you that this phone won’t have any lags or issues handling any tasks.
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Software
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite comes with OneUI 2.0 which is based on Android 10 Q, and all the usual features that a Samsung smartphone has with it. The one 2.0 on the Galaxy S10 Lite didn’t feel laggy, was responsive and we couldn’t notice any stutters or lags or frame drops. It has been optimized well by the company making sure the stability of the device. It comes with support for Native Screen recording, enhanced dark mode, better camera UI and a lot more interesting and new features.
The phone features a new gaming mode, that is claimed to improve the gaming experience, has the edge lighting effect so that the edge of the phone lights up when you receive new notifications and a lot more features as well. The phone comes with Samsung’s own implementations of gestures or one could also choose the Stock Android 10’s iOS-like Gestures and both of them are implemented very well.
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Cameras
One of the biggest highlights of the Galaxy S10 Lite comes out to be its cameras. Samsung has used the 48MP f/2.0 sensor for the primary lens which comes with support for Super Steady OIS, wherein video mode the phone can capture excellently stabilized footage even while running. To use these features, users will need to enable the super steady mode in the video options.
The phone shoots excellent photos with a high amount of detail, has excellent dynamic range, the colours come out to be on point. This primary sensor performs well in good lighting and night lighting conditions as well. The secondary sensor on the Galaxy S10 Lite is a 12MP f/2.2 Ultra Wide angle lens which is used to capture shots with a greater field of view, the camera viewfinder is decently wide and captures photos with a good amount of detail and dynamic range.
The third sensor that the S10 Lite sports is a 5MP f/2.4 Macro Lens which allows a user to get much closer to an object compared to the regular sensor, for instance with it a user can get much closer to a flower, capture minute details and more, while the sensor doesn’t have good amount of details, it can be used for casual shots.
On the front, this phone comes with a massive 32MP sensor which is one of the best under the price range, the skin tones come out to be good, have a nice amount of detail and colour sharpness. Overall this is an excellent camera package for the price.
The Galaxy S10 Lite also comes with the Zoom-in Mic technology that debuted on the Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+. There are a total of 3 Microphones on the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite, the third microphone is placed next to the rear camera module and is used to enhance audio coming from the subject in focus when you zoom in or out during video recording.
Battery Life
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite packs in a massive 4,500mah battery that is even greater than the ones seen on the Galaxy S10+. While the battery life on the Galaxy S10+ was excellent as one could easily get about 7 hours of screen-on time on a single charge, this phone is just even better, as it has an average battery life of 7.5 hours.
Even with putting up heavy tasks like running Antutu Benchmark and Geekbench along with playing out games like PUBG, the phone’s battery life fared very well, with this kind of a heavy usage we could get 6 hours of screen on time and that’s just mind-blowing. Samsung has optimized the user interface very well and that can be seen with the battery life. So if you want a smartphone with great battery life, you can opt for the Galaxy S10 Lite without any issues.
Audio and Connectivity
Samsung had opted to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack from their smartphones with the S10 Series, and the same case applies here. The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite doesn’t have the much loved 3.5mm headphone jack, but Samsung bundles USB Type-C earphones in the box which come with average sound quality and can be used as casual earphones. The sound output via the primary speakers and the earpiece is excellent with good levels of volume and bass.
The sound from the earpiece is clear and one will not face any issues while taking calls from the smartphone. The microphone quality is good as well, we tried multiple calls from the smartphone and it passed through without any issues, The phone sports Dual SIM 4G LTE and dual-band Wifi as well, the phone comes with support for NFC and Bluetooth 5.0 paving the way for the Samsung Pay Application.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
Excellent Super AMOLED Display
Great and Capable Triple Rear Camera Setup
Powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Chipset
Gigantic 4,500mah Battery
Lightweight and Powerful
Cons:
No 3.5mm Headphone Jack
Plastic Back
No Telephoto Lens on the back
No Dedicated MicroSD Slot
No water or dust resistance
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite is an amazing smartphone, it comes with a beautiful 6.7inch FHD+ Super AMOLED Display with tiny bezels around the screen. It is power-packed with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Chipset which is coupled with the powerful Adreno 640 GPU. It also sports a capable rear camera setup of 48MP Primary + 12MP Ultra-Wide + a 5MP Macro lens, on the front, it comes with a 32MP Selfie Camera for taking selfies.
The Galaxy S10 Lite is a lightweight phone that looks premium and feels good in the hand, has an in-display fingerprint scanner, excellent speakers, has the Samsung brand and its support. The Galaxy S10 Lite runs on OneUI 2.0 from Samsung which is based on Android 10 Q and will be getting the Android 11 Update pretty soon after the stable update goes live for the pixels. If you are looking for a smartphone with all these good features and have a budget of 39,999 INR, you can opt for the Galaxy S10 Lite without any second thoughts.
This was pretty much it for the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite Review, as mentioned in the title, it is not a ‘Lite’ smartphone in any of the categories. It should be termed as a ‘Budget Flagship’, and is made for users who want a flagship Samsung Experience but at a lower price.
