Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite review

GSMArena team, 08 Feb 2020.


When Samsung launched its Galaxy S10-lineup last year, the Galaxy S10e immediately positioned itself as the budget alternative to the expensive vanilla S10 and S10+. But it also filled an overlooked niche - compact flagships. Now with the release of the Galaxy S10 Lite, things start to get a bit confusing. Because we all thought the S10e was the light model. And if you look at the S10 Lite's specs sheet closely, you'd notice that there's nothing Lite about that phone.the


Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite review

The S10 Lite also comes with a 6.7-inch screen which makes it the largest S10 devices in the roster (the S10+ is 'only' 6.4 inches).

And we've all heard and seen the stories about the Snapdragon 855's ISP being better than Samsung's one on the Exynos so it's going to be interesting to see how it performs against the S10, for example. Also, the S10 Lite adopts the popular 48MP sensor with pixel-binning that everyone uses and this is the first time we see this sensor coupled with a high-end hardware.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite specs

  • Body: Glass front, plastic back, metal side frame
  • Rear camera: Primary 48MP, 1/2" sensor size, 0.8µm pixels, f/2.0 aperture; Ultra wide-angle: 12MP, f/2.2 aperture, 12mm; Macro: 5MP, 1/5.0" f/2.4; LED flash; 2160p@60fps video recording
  • Front camera: 32MP, f/2.2 aperture
  • Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855: Octa-core (1x2.84 GHz Kryo 485 & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 485 & 4x1.78 GHz Kryo 485), Adreno 640 GPU
  • OS: Android 10; Samsung One UI 2.0 on top
  • Battery: 4,500mAh, 25W/45W USB PD 3.0 charging

Despite its differences, we can see how the S10 Lite fits in the family by providing a bigger screen than the S10+ while offering most of the features the other S10s have. And we don't think the S10 Lite will cannibalize the sales of the rest of its family. Currently, the phone sells for around €650 - just as much you'd pay for the S10+ - while offering features that are more in line with 2020. Of course, there are some trade-offs that need to be considered.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite review

There's one moderately big setback with the current camera setup, though - there's no telephoto. We have a capable ultra-wide snapper and a promising 5MP dedicated macro camera in addition to the main 48MP and that's a pretty big oversight in our books. One would argue that a proper 2x telephoto camera would be more beneficial than the macro. After all, we've seen pretty decent telephoto units on much cheaper devices so we can't think of a reason why would the S10 Lite settle for less.

Now let's get familiar with Samsung's newest mainstream flagship phone.

Unboxing the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite

The handset comes with the usual user manuals and a USB-C to USB-C cable for charging and data transfer. That's because it has to support the USB Power Delivery 3.0 charging standard with the included 25W brick in the box. Keep in mind, though, that if you don't have a PC with USB-C connector or a USB-C to USB-A cable, you can't connect the phone to your computer unless you get an extra cable.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite review

Aside from that, you also get a pair of AKG-tuned wired USB-C earphones included in the retail box.

Reader comments

I can't even fathom why Samsung would bother to launch this phone in the first place. It was supposed to be the A90 5G replacement since it was called the A91 during the development process. But when comparing this phone and the A90 5G side-by-s...

  • Anonymous

S10 lite or A72?

  • Franzenius

The same happened to my speakers. And not only that, the usb-connection stopped working properly and in the end only allowing me to recharge the battery in a super-slow speed. But Samsung service shop in Göteborg Sweden did an excellent job by replac...