There have been very few REALLY compact phones over the years and Samsung Galaxy S10e is one of them. It reminds me of OnePlus X and Nexus 4 in some ways. Touching it for the first time feels like the first time you touched an iPhone 6. It’s priced at $749 and we’ve unboxed it below.
We’ve already reviewed the Galaxy S10+ and now it’s time for the shorty, the small one, but still powerful, with an Exynos 9820 or Snapdragon 855 CPU. It’s a flat screen phone, the kind of which you see so rare nowadays. It’s got a dual camera, not triple like the S10 and S10+, but it keeps the basic package, the main cam and ultra wide one.
Inside the box we find the AKG tuned headphones and their plugs, a charger, USB Type-C cable, manual and metal key. There’s also two adapters: full USB to USB Type-C and USB Type-C to microUSB. I still don’t like the way the top part of the box is stuck to the lid.
It’s made of glass and metal and it’s available in Prism White, Prism Black, Prism Green, Prism Blue, Canary Yellow and Flamingo Pink. The device measures 7.9 mm in thickness and weighs 150 grams. It’s got a 5.8 inch screen, like the Galaxy S8 and S9, but it’s waaaay more compact than them. The screen is a Dynamic AMOLED with a Full HD+ resolution and HDR10+ support. The selfie camera cutout upfront feels more prominent and bigger edged than the S10+ one.
We have the Exynos 9820 and dual SIM version of the device, also black, just so you know. There’s also 6 GB or 8 GB of RAM inside, plus 128 or 256 GB of storage and a microSD card slot. The body is IP68 certified, with water and dust resilience. The battery is a 3100 mAh unit, with wireless charging and also reverse wireless charging.
The fingerprint scanner is no longer integrated in the screen, it’s now placed on the side, into the Power button, which is a bit deeper than usual. The back camera includes a 12 MP variable aperture cam, LED flash, optical image stabilization and 16 MP ultra wide shooter. The front side hosts a 10 MP selfie cam capable of 4K video capture.
The main cam does all the goodies that the S10 does, minus the telephoto zoom, so you’re not missing out on much. There’s still AR Emoji, Super Slow Mo, Super Steady, Live Focus and 4K 60 FPS video capture. On the connectivity front we’ve got USB Type-C, WiFi 6, LTE Category 20 and an audio jack. The handset has stereo speakers and runs on Android Pie with One UI on top. It has Night Mode, a new multitasking UI, gesture control, new optimization options and a reimagined one hand usage, with tabs at the bottom, content at the top.
So far this feels like the comfiest phone I’ve ever held, incredibly light and also powerful. The flat screen is actually a breath of fresh air and I can already spoil the fact that the camera is pure quality. We’ll be back with a full review and you can get the phone from here.
