There is no need to spend too much if you want a good Android phone and Galaxy S10e can attest.

The phone costs a little bit more than last year’s Galaxy S9 but it’s the most affordable in the Galaxy S10 lineup.

If you want all the excellent features of the S10 Plus and S10 but don’t want to pay for them, you should consider getting the S10e instead.

Display

Samsung Galaxy S10e features a 5.8-inch screen with the new Dynamic AMOLED technology of the South Korean company. So with the S10e, you get the mesmerizing display that can be found on the S10 and S10 Plus, with the exception of the WQHD+ screen resolution.

However, the phone’s Full HD+ is more than enough as its display is HDR10+ certified and still looks sharp.

The Galaxy S10e’s screen is so bright that you will have no problem using it under harsh daylight. Black is deep and colors aren’t oversaturated.

The screen does look a bit warmer than smartphones like iPhone XS Max. If you want a more natural look, switch from Natural to Vivid.

As the effects of blue light are widely known, the Galaxy S10e’s screen reduces 42% of this light exposure to protect users’ health.

The hole-punch camera is why the notification bar looks bigger. However, apps still look good on the screen with very thin bezels, at least when you are at the portrait orientation.

When you change to the landscape and everything looks a bit odd. Instead of wrapping around the punch hole, third-party apps show a black bar. This means you will have a thicker bezel.

Processor

Galaxy S10e might be an affordable phone but this doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice its performance.

Under the hood, the phone runs on Snapdragon 855, which is used on most flagship Android phones this year.

The base model if the phone comes with only 6GB of RAM instead of 8GB like on the S10 and S10 Plus. The onboard storage is the same though, standing at 128GB. To extend the capacity, you can make use of the MicroSD card slot.

RAM

The lower amount of RAM isn’t a cause for concern as the phone can handle multitasking and games with ease. If you want more RAM, go for the 8GB option but that choice’s price can afford you the S10.

Battery

The S10e draws power from a 3,100mAh battery, which barely lasts more than a day. However, if you often get home at 6 or 7 P.M, that won’t be a problem. However, if you want a bit of night life, it’s advisable to bring along a portable battery pack.

The Samsung Galaxy S10e has Wireless PowerShare so you can use it to charge other Qi-enabled gadgets, like the Galaxy Watch Active and the Galaxy Buds.

Camera

The Galaxy S10e has a double camera setup on the back with one for selfie on the front. The primary camera is a 12MP with aperture from f/1.5 to f/2.4. The other is a 16MP ultra-wide angle lens with an aperture of f/2.2.

Overall, the Galaxy S10e offers excellent photo quality. It never overexposes or underexposes any shots. With enough daylight, your photos will be saturated and detailed. However, contrast isn’t so good so you will have to deal with photos being a bit washed.

That performance doesn’t extend to low-light situations though.

When there isn’t enough light, photos look muddy especially if they are taken from the wide-angle lens. The good news is there isn’t too much noise to be found.

The camera software now comes equipped with 30 scenes, with 10 new ones ranging from shoes to dogs. The Scene Optimizer makes use of AI to detect scenes like people or sunset and will try to adjust the shots to make them look more appealing.

In tests, the feature does make images pop but it can oversaturate them sometimes.

The most-loved function is arguably the Shot Suggestion, which can show us better compositions. The phone will do most of the work for you, what left for the users to do is to point the camera to the Best Shot area. You don’t even need to tap on the shutter button as the S10e will automatically take the picture. Most of the time, the feature makes the right decisions, but there are some poor choices popping in sometimes.

On the Galaxy S10e, the portrait mode has a new name, which is Live Focus. What it does is to add a blur effect behind the subject. Compared to what we have with the Nokia 9 PureView and Google Pixel 3, the Live Focus isn’t as good, the blur may look messy in some shots and details aren’t as strong.

One of the most interesting features of the portrait mode is the Color Point, which retains the subject’s colors while turning everything else black and white. The feature works well most of the times but it can sometimes mess things up.

Many users will love the camera’s ability to record 4K video with HDR. The results are colorful and have a cinematic look. If you need to move but still want steady videos, use the Super Steady mode, which works really well.

There are some compromises here though. The Super Steady mode cannot be used when HDR is on so you will need to turn it off first, and it’s for the main lens only. Another setback is that you cannot shoot 4K videos at 60FPS, the cap is 30FPS.

On the other side, the Galaxy S10e features a 10MP solo camera with an aperture of f/1.9. The good news is it’s capable of shooting 4K UHD videos.

Selfies look good enough but you will notice the differences between what taken with S10e and S10 Plus. The higher price does offer something better here.

The selfie camera of the S10 Plus can produce better contrast but the AR Emojis on the S10e does a good job portraying people but don’t expect much with its getting your skin colors accurately.