The Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus is the best of the S series, and it should be a serious contender for your next smartphone.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus was the almost-everything-included Samsung phone you really want – if you can afford it and handle its massive 6.4-inch display. It was the highlight of the company’s output from 2019.
While it’s still a powerful flagship phone, the S10 Plus isn’t the biggest of the company’s handsets, and that’s not just because the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and cheaper budget Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite both have larger 6.7-inch displays.
No, Samsung’s 2020 smartphones including the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus and even higher-specced Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra are both bigger than the phone, with some improved features too. But when they were announced the S10 Plus got a big discount, making it still worth considering, especially if you like its stylish looks.
We were immediately drawn to the Galaxy S10 Plus as the bigger and better version of the Galaxy S10 and cheaper Galaxy S10e. It redefines what a ‘phablet’ is in 2019, with a 6.4-inch edge-to-edge screen so large it displaces the front camera to a hole in the top corner. It’s Samsung’s marginally better answer to the iPhone XS notch, and while the S20 line has put its punch-hole in the center, we still have a soft spot for the S10 Plus tucking its selfie camera in one corner.
With a 93.1% screen-to-body ratio, the pixels now stretch from the small top speaker down to the thin bottom chin, and spill over the curved left and right edges. This remains one of the best-looking screens in a smartphone. Hidden under the glass is an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor on the front, and the new Wireless PowerShare feature on back, allowing you to Qi-charge other devices.
The back has a triple-lens camera that takes normal, telephoto, and as a first for Samsung, ultra-wide photos. With the latter lens, you can capture more of what’s in front of you – without having to take a few steps back. While it ranks below the Huawei P30 Pro on our best camera phone list, the S10 Plus offers a fun-to-use and versatile camera suite.
We’ve seen some of these ideas before from Huawei and LG. But the S10 Plus is an amalgam of hallmark features in rival handsets with a dose of first-to-launch aspects like faster Wi-Fi 6 and an HDR10+ screen. It’s the best overall package in among big pricey, smartphones.
Sold? To complicate your buying decision, the Galaxy S10 5G is an even bigger and better S10 phone, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus is even more premium as a Samsung smartphone, and if you’ve got all the money in the world, the foldable Samsung Galaxy Fold is also available to buy – to say nothing of the S20 line and its incremental imrpovements.
Despite these newer handsets, the S10 Plus is best Samsung phone, if you can handle the price and size.
It has many competitors too though, like the iPhone 11 Pro Max, Sony Xperia 1, and OnePlus 7 Pro, all of which have similar specs and identical or lower price tags, so check them out before you commit to the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus.
The S10 Plus release date was March 8 2019, and it cost more than its predecessor at launch, the S9 Plus, although you can now find both phones on sale for a bit cheaper now that its successor has debuted.
Today, the Galaxy S10 Plus price has gone down to start at $849 / £769 / AU$1,299, which is a decent discount that will likely increase during sales season..
At launch, it cost $999 / £899 / AU$1,499 for the 128GB of storage model with 8GB of RAM, matching the Note 9 launch price, and $80 / £30 more than the S9 Plus. The 512GB version with a ceramic back is $1,249 / £1,099 / AU$1,849.
Samsung’s ‘Ultimate Performance Edition’ variant, only sold on its own site, packs a mammoth 12GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, and has an equally monstrous price tag: $1,599 / £1,399 / AU$2,399.
While expensive, the S10 Plus with 128GB remains cheaper than its closest rival, the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Apple still charges $1,150 / £999 / AU$1,799 for 64GB of storage and no microSD card slot, and its smaller 5.8-inch iPhone 11 Pro, also with half the storage and no microSD slot, ties the price of this 128GB 6.4-inch Samsung phone.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, for context, cost $1,199 / £999 / AU$1,649 for 128GB storage and $1,299 / £1,099 / AU$1,899 for 512GB, and both came with 12GB RAM.
The 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display on the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus makes this the biggest S phone screen to date – bigger than 5.8-inch Galaxy S9 Plus and matching the Note 9 screen size. It’s also a lot better.
The main draw for us is the 93.1% screen-to-body ratio that fits more pixels across a tighter body. Samsung’s new Infinity-O display avoids using a notch by opting for a laser-cut hole in the top-right corner for the front camera.
The hole in this ‘punch-hole’ display is extra-large, as Samsung dropped in two front cameras to take better portrait selfies than the single-lens Galaxy S10 and S10e front cameras. Good news, we’ve not found it too distracting.
The default resolution is Full HD+, but you can crank it to QHD+ and it’s pin sharp, with HDR10+ for superior contrast and color. That’s an important perk if you’re a movie-watcher on your phone – an idea which isn’t so crazy its size.
One drawback to Samsung chipping away bezel: we found our encroaching palms making false touches on the sensitive screen (especially when typing), often flipping our on-screen keyboard between letters and numbers to output a bunch of gobbledygook in embarrassing messages. iPhone owners accustomed to more otherwise-ugly bezel and better palm rejection software, beware.
The Infinity-O display is Samsung’s new look for 2019, and it’s enough of a change if you’ve been demanding something new. It looks fantastic, with bright, colorful reproduction making the best of images, icons, apps, games and video.
The S10 Plus design is full of surprises, new and old. Its aluminum frame is thinner than that of the S9 Plus, and still sandwiched between smooth Gorilla Glass 6. Color choices are ‘Prism’ white, black and green, while the 512GB and 1TB versions are backed by ceramic in either white or black.
