Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite Review: A Competent Handset With A Very Attractive Price Point

The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite is the more basic version of the vanilla S10 series. So what Samsung did here is to cover a wider range of price points by offering affordable versions of its flagship phones, cutting a few corners in terms of design, features, and specs.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite Price

The phone is available at $649.99. Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite price in India starts from Rs. 36,600.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite Design

With years of experience making premium phones, the South Korean tech giant has made the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite be as refined and polished as anyone would expect.

The screen, despite being flattened off, still looks impressive. The size of the display makes the phone a big handset, but not a usual size for 2021.

Although compromises have been made, like the choice of plastic instead of glass for the rear, the price-cutting doesn’t seem to affect the look of the handset. The rainbow and shimmering effect of the back is a real looker and overall, the handset feels we---built and high-end.

The power button is to the right, so is the volume rocker. At the bottom of the phone, you will find the single speaker and the USB-C port. The in-display fingerprint scanner contributes to the overall elegance of the handset.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite Display

While the 6.7-inch AMOLED screen, with a resolution of 1080x2400 and aspect ratio of 20:9, is bigger than those of Galaxy S10 Plus and Galaxy S10, it isn’t as sharp, not that you can tell the difference though.

You will be hard-pressed to find anything to complain about the display of the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite. Every kind of content looks sharp and clean, from Netflix to photos to Google Maps.

Viewing angles and outdoor are fine as well, proving that while on paper, the display specs of the S10 Lite can’t match its flagship siblings but in reality, it’s still very good.

Samsung said nothing about the refresh rate so we assume it’s a 60Hz panel. Unless you just downgrade from a handset with 90Hz or 120Hz, you can hardly tell the difference.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite features a triple camera setup with a 48MP primary snapper, a 12MP ultra-wide, and a 5MP macro camera. On the other side, you have a 32MP lens for selfies.

The most obvious miss here is the optical zoom but that omission isn’t uncommon at this price point.

The ultra-wide camera manages to squeeze more details into the shot without distorting the colors or the edges. The phone’s camera app does tweak the shots a bit to enhance the background.

In short, you have yourself a very competent camera setup with the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite. Shots taken by it have bright colors, sharp edges, and a decent HDR effect. Some might say the colors are oversaturated but that is only noticeable if you put a shot taken by the S10 Lite to one captured by a more premium phone side by side.

The phone’s low-light performance is good, but not impressive. It does have a night mode that brightens up shots but photos will get noisy.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite Specs

Under the hood, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite runs on a Snapdragon 855 processor paired with 8GB of RAM and 12GB of inbuilt storage. Not the best combination on the market but enough for most people.

The phone’s specs are premium according to 2019’s standards so you have great performance for your money. Throwing in a handful of demanding apps and multiple tabs and the phone shows no sign of slowing down. Even games are smooth to play and load quickly.

During our time with the phone, we notice no lag or stuttering, even with switching between apps, camera modes, and scrolling through webpages or social media.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite is powered by OneUI on top of Android 10. Some people might be annoyed with the number of pre-installed Samsung apps but the good news is, you can hide them away.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite Battery Life

The phone has a healthy battery life, leaving users with around 40% to 50% of juice left at the end of the day. The 4,500 mAh battery only lost 16% of power after two-hour video playback at full brightness.

Given the fact that most of us won’t glue to our phone all the time, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite will have no problem last for a whole day.

>>> OPPO A12 Review: A 2019 Smartphone That Launches In 2020