A convincingly ‘Lite’ S10, but its success will depend on its price
In days gone past, the suffix ‘Lite’ on a phone indicated something that felt cheap; a low-rent imitation of the real thing. That certainly isn’t what I felt on picking up the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite for the first time after it was launched at CES.
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite: In brief
- 6.7in Full HD+, Infinity-O display, 1,080 x 2,400 resolution
- 6GB/8GB RAM, 128GB internal storage and MicroSD slot
- 7nm 64-bit Octa-core processor
- 5MP macro, 48MP wide and 12MP ultra-wide rear cameras
- 32MP selfie camera
- 4,500mAh battery
- Facial recognition and on-screen fingerprint reader
- Available in Prism White, Prism Black and Prism Blue
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite: First impressions
I’d go so far as to say this phone looks – and feels – just as attractive as the full-fat S10. You only have three colours to choose from, but white, blue and black covers most tastes. That said, this might be a good time to mention that the Samsung stand attendees spent most of their time wiping the phones clean of fingerprints. Nor do I think the camera’s square housing is the prettiest around.
But, let’s face it, you’ll spend most of your time staring at the screen. Here, that’s a 6.7in display, which is actually 0.3in bigger than the S10 Plus. It doesn’t offer the ludicrously high resolutions of its brother, of course, but 1,080 x 2,400 is plenty good enough.
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite: Cameras
Samsung has tweaked the cameras in an interesting fashion. There’s now a 48-megapixel camera in place with the promise of “Super Steady IOS” but my very early impressions – and bear in mind this is a first look based on the showfloor, so it hasn’t gone through our usual deep testing – is that the results are good rather than great. I zoomed in on a scene but felt the image wasn’t as strong as what the Huawei P30 Pro could achieve.
Curiously, Samsung also includes a 5-megapixel macro camera, while the front camera gets a boost to 32 megapixels. We’ll wait until we get the S10 Lite into our lab before making any kind of judgement on their quality.
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite: Speed and battery
If there’s one thing you don’t need to worry about with the Galaxy S10 Lite, it’s speed. Samsung includes a Snapdragon 855 processor, which remains a brilliant chip. You’ll either get 6GB or 8GB of RAM to back it up, depending on whether you buy the Lite with 128GB of storage or 256GB. Note there’s a microSD slot to expand storage.
We actually expect battery life to be better than the S10 and the S10 Plus, because Samsung includes a 4,500mAh unit. In combination with a lower-res screen, that may well mean two days of life on a single charge, with the usual caveats about usage.
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite: Early verdict
As we’ve hopefully made clear, this is a first-look review and all our conclusions are early. In terms of fit and finish, we can give it a decisive thumbs up. Likewise for speed and, we’re feeling confident here, battery life.
What will ultimately dictate its success is price, and there’s even a chance that you’ll be able to buy the S10 for less than the S10 Lite at launch – that’s due to the Samsung Galaxy’s happy habit of falling in price a few months after release.
We’ll update this review as soon as we receive a final unit to test, and with the launch likely to occur before or during the big mobile trade show, Mobile World Congress in the final week of February, we hopefully won’t have long to wait.