Galaxy S10 Plus makes for an absolute killer combination
In its tenth generation of Galaxy smartphones, Samsung may have come out with its best offering yet with the Galaxy S10 Plus, which is a combination of looks, display and performance coupled with a gigantic battery that not only feeds itself but can also charge others.
To start with, the S10 Plus has an impressive 6.4-inch AMOLED display on a 19:9 aspect ratio screen with a massive 3040 x 1440 QHD+ resolution. The display is edge to edge, a typical Samsung feature now with a 93.1 per cent screen to body ratio giving maximum viewable area. It also has HDR10+ support, which makes it stand above the rest.
The only difference is perhaps the notch display, which is becoming a standard mode in most phones. However, S10 Plus does not have a pop up selfie-shooter. Instead, it has a dual punch hole design front camera at the top right hand corner of the front screen.
Camera is where the S10 Plus offers a lot. The phone has three rear and two front cameras. The rear cameras cover a complete array of photography for the candid shooter and has a standard, a wide angle lens as well as a telephoto which is handy for close ups. The standard or normal lens and telephoto lens are of 12 Megapixels while the ultra wide lens is of 16 megs. The optical zoom in the telephoto also comes out with distortion free images. The cameras returned excellent daylight pictures in all three modes. The phone also had a complete list of settings that made photography a pleasant experience and can wean away even the professional shooter towards it. Night shots and low light pictures, though very good, left one wanting for more and the settings were not a breeze either.
Unlike many other phones, the S10 Plus sports a dual camera in the front with the main camera having a 10 MP sensor while the secondary camera has a 8 MP sensor and comes out with pretty neat pieces of work.
The phone body is all glass with an aluminum casing, which gives it a classy and contemporary look.
Under the shell, it has a 2.7 GHz Octa-core Exynos 9820 chipset with RAM starting at 8 GB going up to 12 GB , providing enough speed and power even at the lowest level. It also redefines internal storage and ups the ante by offering options of 128GB, 256GB and 1TB.
A pretty user-friendly feature is the 4100 mAh battery. It comes in handy in times of power hungry video and music streaming. The new feature in the phone is Wireless PowerShare which provides charging support to other phones that support wireless charging. There is also a smart power mode allowing users to switch between different power modes.
The S10 Plus gets an in display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor which is pretty fast and efficient.
Game play was pretty smooth. With two Sims, lot of Facebook and WhatsApp, music streaming and full episodes of serials and an average of 20 calls a day, there was still over 20 per cent battery left at the end of the day.
Samsung packs the box with the charger, USB and OTG adaptors and a headset, fast disappearing from standard features of other phones.
It is a compelling buy for people hungry for power and features and undoubtedly the most power packed phone yet from the Samsung stables.
arindam@outlookindia.com