With Apple releasing the iPhone XR, it appears Samsung is looking to challenge this "budget flagship" option head-on. They brought their usual two phone releases this year, but also threw in another three for a total of five phones, including the Samsung Galaxy S10e. And for many, this might be the option to look at.
The Samsung Galaxy S10e is very similar to the Galaxy S10. It, however, makes small downgrades in some specs to bring its price to a more affordable range. The key elements are all there, though: the processor is the same, it uses the same Dynamic AMOLED display, and even offers the same IP68 rating. And it is $150 cheaper than the Galaxy S10.
Jump to a section:Standout Features | Dates | Storage | Price | Body | Basics | Software | Skin | Display | Performance | Battery | Front Camera | Rear Camera | Audio | Media Formats | Sensors | Connectivity | Security | Box Includes
Standout Features
The Galaxy S10e is the "budget" option for the S10 lineup. It makes a few sacrifices such as a smaller screen and one less rear camera for $150 savings when compared to the Samsung Galaxy S10's price (or $250 compared to the S10+).
Important Dates
The Galaxy S10 line of flagship devices was formally announced on February 20, 2019, during the Samsung UNPACKED event held in San Francisco. Pre-orders for the device are scheduled to go live on February 21, 2019, at midnight Eastern, with its general release set for March 8th.
- Release date: March 8, 2019
- Preorder date: February 21, 2019
- Announced: February 20, 2019
Storage Capacity
The S10e will come in either 128 GB or 256 GB storage options.
- Storage available: 128 GB and 256 GB
- Expandable storage: yes, up to 512 GB microSD card
Price for Everything
The biggest selling point of the S10e is the price, which starts at a reasonable $749. At this price, it is $150 cheaper than the Galaxy S10 while offering very similar specs.
- Price: $749
Body
The Galaxy S10e will come in six colors: Prism White, Prism Black, Prism Green, Prism Blue, Canary Yellow, and Flamingo Pink.
- Frame: aluminum and glass
- Finish: Prism White, Prism Black, Prism Green, Prism Blue, Canary Yellow, or Flamingo Pink
Basics
Like the rest of the lineup, the Galaxy S10e comes with IP68 water and dust resistance, the highest rating for smartphones to date. It is also the lightest phone in the line-up at 5.29 oz.
- Height: 5.6 inches
- Width: 2.75 inches
- Depth: 0.31 inches
- Weight: 5.29 ounces
- Dust/water resistance: IP68
- Supported carriers: T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint
- Infrared blaster: no
Software
Just like the rest of the lineup, the Galaxy S10e will run the latest version of Android, 9.0 Pie. Samsung has recently updated last year's flagships with the new OS, which brings over 44 changes. One of the biggest improvement is in the area of security, where Google has addressed many lingering problems with Android.
- Version: Android 9.0 Pie
Skin
The Galaxy S10e is running One UI 1.0 on top of Android 9.0 Pie. This skin is the successor to Samsung Experience and introduces several changes to the polarizing skin. One of the biggest changes is the new design that closely resembles the design layout of stock Android.
- Version: One UI 1.0
Display
Because Samsung believes notches are "uncool," the new S10 lineup uses what Samsung is calling the "Infinity O" display. This is a punch hole in the upper-right corner which houses the front-facing camera.
This hole is in a 5.8-inch 19:9 display, the same size as last year's Galaxy S9. It has a 2280 x 1080 display and uses Dynamic AMOLED tech. However, unlike its siblings, it uses the less resilient Gorilla Glass 5 instead of Gorilla Glass 6. Also unlike the S10 and S10+, its display isn't curved at the edge, giving a look that mirrors most other smartphones.
- Screen size: 5.8 inches
- Screen resolution: 2280 x 1080
- Total pixels: 2,462,400 pixels
- Pixel density: 438 ppi
- Screen type: Dynamic AMOLED
- Notch: no
- Punch-Hole: yes, upper right corner
- HDR: HDR10+
- Screen-to-body ratio: unknown
- Aspect ratio: 19:9
- Minimum brightness: unknown
- Maximum brightness: unknown
- Refresh rate: 60 Hz (60 Hz for touch-sensing)
- Color temp: unknown
- Color gamut: unknown
Performance
As with each Samsung Galaxy S series flagship, the S10e will launch with the latest and greatest from Qualcomm. This year, that is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, and it is impressive. It is the first 7 nm SoC from Qualcomm. Early benchmarking shows it not only faster than last year's Kirin 980 but only a few points behind Apple's A12 Bionic, an SoC that normally crushes Qualcomm's 800 series in performance. As for RAM, the Galaxy S10e will come in two options, 6 GB or 8 GB.
- Memory: 6 GB, or 8 GB of RAM
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
- Die size: 7 nm
- CPU frequency: 2.84 GHz (Gold) + 2.41 GHz (Gold) + 1.78 GHz (Silver)
- CPU cores: 8 (4 Gold + 4 Silver)
- GPU: Adreno 640
Battery
The S10e comes with a respectable 3,100 mAh battery. Combined with the power efficiency of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 and 1080p display, this device should have fantastic real-world battery life. Samsung is also introducing a new feature, Wireless PowerShare, which turns your S10e into a wireless charging pad which other Qi devices can charge from.
- Battery: rechargeable lithium-ion
- Removable: no
- Capacity: 3,100 mAh
- Wired charging: yes, Samsung Adaptive Charging
- Wireless charging: yes, Fast Wireless Charging 2.0
- Reverse wireless charging: yes
Front Camera
Housed in the Infinity-O display is a 10 MP camera. It has an aperture of f/1.9 and a field of view of 80°.
- Resolution: 10 MP
- Pixel Size: 1.22 µm
- Aperture: ƒ/1.9
- Field of View: 80°
- Autofocus: Dual Pixel
- Zoom: no
- Flash: Unknown
- Image stabilization:Unknown
- RAW support: no
- Object detection: Unknown
Rear Camera
The other big difference between the S10e and the rest of the lineup is that it lacks a third or fourth camera. The Galaxy S10e has only a dual camera array on the rear, with a 12 MP wide-angle (77°) and 16MP ultrawide angle (123°).
Only the wide-angle has OIS. The main camera also brings back the variable aperture feature, with an aperture of either f/1.5 or f/2.4. The ultrawide has an aperture of f/2.2. Optical zoom is limited to 1.5x, but digital zoom is available up to 8x.
- Resolution: 12 + 16 MP
- Sensor size: unknown
- Aperture: ƒ/1.5 and f/2.4 (variable aperture) + ƒ/2.2
- Field of View: 77° + 123°
- AutoFocus: Dual Pixel
- Zoom: 1.5x optical, 10x digital
- Flash: yes
- Image stabilization: yes, optical (on 12 MP lens)
- RAW support: yes
- Lens cover: unknown
- Object detection: yes, face, baby, person, dog, cat, food, people, beaches, sky, mountain, sunset, sunrise, city, snow, waterfall, watersides, scenery, stage, vehicles, drinks, flowers, trees, greenery, animal, shoes, backlit, indoor, text, clothes, night view
- Formats: JPEG, PNG, RAW
The S10e is capable is the usual video features such as 4K recording at 60fps and super-slow motion. However, what's unique this year is the ability to shoot in HDR10+. With this mode, videos shot on your S10e can now take full advantage of the new Dynamic AMOLED display on the S10e and enjoy the improved contrast which come with HDR on other HDR10+ displays.
- Resolution: 720p, 1080p, and 4K
- Max frame rate: 720p at 30fps, 1080p at 60 fps, 4K at 60 fps
- Slow motion: 720p at 960 fps, 1080p at 240 fps
- Time-lapse: yes, 1080p
- Photos: yes, 9.1 MP still photos during 4K recording
- Zoom: yes
- Flash access: yes, High CRI LED
- Image stabilization: yes, VDIS (video digital image stabilization)
- Object detection: unknown
- Autofocus: Tracking
- Audio: unknown
- Formats: unknown
Audio
The S10e bring backs the headphone jack for another year. It also uses the same stereo speaker setup as the S10, using the earpiece and a bottom-firing speaker. AKG Acoustics tuned these speakers, which also support Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital Plus. Making a return is Ultra High Quality Audio Playback with UHQ 32-bit and DSD64/128 support.
- 3.5 mm headphone jack: yes
- Stereo speakers: no
- Mics: one, High AOP mic
- Max speaker volume: unknown
Media Formats
The Galaxy S10e supports the same list of file types supported by the Android OS.
- Audio: MP3, M4A, 3GA, AAC, OGG, OGA, WAV, WMA, AMR, AWB, FLAC, MID, MIDI, XMF, MXMF, IMY, RTTTL, RTX, OTA, APE, DSF, DFF
- Video: MP4, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, WMV, ASF, AVI, FLV, MKV, WEBM
Sensors
The S10e has the usual array of sensors. However, it does lose the heart rate sensor which is present in the higher-end S10 models.
- Accelerometer: yes
- Ambient light: yes, RGB
- Barometer: yes
- Color temperature: no
- Compass: yes
- Gravity: no
- Gyroscope: yes
- Hall: yes
- Heart Rate: no
- Infrared: no
- Laser: no
- Pressure: yes
- Pedometer: yes
- Proximity: yes
The S10e has the usual sensors to provide GPS tracking.
- GPS: yes
- aGPS: no
- Glonass: yes
- BeiDou: yes
- Galileo: yes
- QZSS: no
Connectivity
The Galaxy S10e supports the latest Wi-Fi standards, including Wi-Fi 6. The included cellular modem supports speeds up to 2 Gbps download and 150 Mbps upload. The Galaxy S10e will also support T-Mobile LTE Band 71, which is a lower frequency band that can better reach rural areas. It even includes LTE 13, a band used exclusively by Verizon that provides faster speeds and even better coverage than phones that don't support that band.
- Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, VHT80 MU-MIMO, 1024QAM
- Bluetooth: 5
- NFC: yes
- Cellular: nano-SIM
- Port: USB Type-C
FDD LTE: Band 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/18/ 19/20/25/26/28/29/30/32/66/71
TDD LTE: Band 34/38/39/40/41/46
TD-SCDMA: Band 34/39
UMTS(WCDMA): Band 1/2/4/5/8/9/19
CDMA: BC0/BC1
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Security
The Galaxy S10e will use a side-mounted fingerprint reader. This isn't as impressive as the ultrasonic in-display sensor in the S10 and S10+ but does allow for a clean back and the ability to unlock your phone when resting on a table. The S10e will also come with Samsung Knox protection, which provides real-time protection against tampering and other unauthorized modification to the software. McAfee is included for malware protection. Secure Folder is also present, allowing to hide and secure apps, photos, movies, and much more.
- Fingerprint scanner: side mounted, capacitive
- Face scanner: no, but Face Unlock via front facing camera
- Iris scanner: no
- Manual authentication: Password, PIN, pattern
Box Includes
The S10e will come with the usual goodies
- Samsung Galaxy S10e
- Samsung USB Type-C Cable
- Travel Adapter
- USB Connector (OTG)
- AKG Headset
- SIM Tray Ejector
- Pattern Cover
- Quick Start Guide
- Protective Film
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Cover image via MKBHD/YouTube
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