A decade old, Samsung aims to bring innovation to its Galaxy brand

• Launches 10th anniversary phone bringing some first-in-market features to the fore
• HDR10+, ultrasonic fingerprint, pinhole, high-quality camera amongst the features

IT’S finally here. The 10th edition of Samsung’s flagship device was unveiled globally at a video-streamed event from San Francisco on Feb 21. Some six hours hours after the global event, the Malaysian media was treated to a same-day live device demonstration, and given as pricing and release date information.

The hype has already been building for a number of months. Speculation was rife as to what its 10th anniversary would bring to the table for Samsung, given the bar set by Apple Inc when it celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Apple iPhone, with the launch of its 10th edition iPhone X in 2017.

So what’s on offer? In a nutshell, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has introduced three variants for the market; The Galaxy S10e, which is priced at RM2,699; the Galaxy S10 (RM3,299); and Galaxy S10+ (RM3,699 for 128GB storage; RM4,599 for 512GB storage).

It’s no surprise that the South Korean smartphone maker has segmented the market according to different price ranges and corresponding features and specifications. Apple did it with the launch of its iPhone (XR, XS, XS Max) in 2018 and given the price range of today’s smartphones, there isn’t a one-size fits all approach to the market.

The cheapest of the three is the Galaxy 10e. This 5.8-inch, FHD, dynamic AMOLED screen at 19:9 aspect ratio based device comes with dual cameras, a 3,100mAH battery, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, expandable to 512GB via an SD-card.

Though the lowest of the range, industry observers say this phone is expected to sell well as it’s targeted at those who want a powerful smartphone, without all the bells and whistles but at an affordable price range. One interesting feature to the Galaxy S10e is that its fingerprint sensor is fused to the power button. Some might think this is novel but others think it’s going to be a dud.

The mid-range of the three Galaxy S10 range is the S10. This is a 6.1-inch QHD, dynamic AMOLED, 19:9 aspect ratio screen mated with three cameras at the back. It also sports a 3,400mAH battery, 8GB of RAM paired with 128GB of storage, expandable to 512GB via an SD-card.

The flagship device is the Galaxy S10+, which comes equipped with 6.4-inch QHD dynamic AMOLED screen at 19:9 aspect ratio, triple cameras at the back, dual cameras at the front, and a 4,100mAH battery. Memory is courtesy of 8GB of RAM, expandable up to 512GB via SD-card.

All three smartphones have addressed the highly-controversial ‘notch’ issue, by designing the array of sensors into a hole-in display technology, a Samsung term that means there are no notches at the front of the display to house the camera. The technology certainly isn’t new as the Samsung Galaxy A8 had featured this as well as the Huawei Nova 4.

And yes, all three smartphones retain the 3.5-inch headphone jack.

More detailed specifications can be found here.

Differentiated offerings

The best things about all three phones is that there is no discrimination as far as processing power is concerned as all three devices come equipped with a 64-bit octa-core processor from Samsung and Samsung’s new display technology called dynamic AMOLED.

Samsung said they’re also the first smartphones that claimed to be the first HDR10+-certified smartphone, boasting displays that deliver vivid digital content, and with dynamic tone mapping, Samsung also claims that the Galaxy S10’s Dynamic AMOLED display is also VDE Institute’s certification for vibrant bright colors and extraordinary contrast ratio for even deeper blacks and brighter whites.

That said, there are some differences to offset the pricing of the S10e versus the S10 and S10+. Besides having larger and higher resolution screens, the S10 and S10+ sport the much-vaunted ‘ultrasonic’ fingerprint sensor, which was first rumoured to be introduced in last year’s launch of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, both of which didn’t turn out to be the case.

How does it perform? You’ll have to await the full review in the coming weeks.

Other notable features are:

• Ultra Wide Lens: Equipped with a 123-degree field of view, Samsung says what you see is what’s in frame, something that is meant for landscape shots, big panoramas and shooting full screen capture;
• Steady and high-quality video recording: The S10 offers recording with digital stabilisation technology. Both front and rear cameras can also shoot in up to UHD quality, while the rear camera gives you the flexibility to record in HDR10+;
• AI Camera: The Galaxy S10 has a neural processing unit (NPU) to enable a user to take good shots without having to manually select any advanced camera settings. It also features shot suggestion, which offers automatic composition recommendations so you can frame your photo better; and
• Wireless PowerShare : This makes it possible to easily charge Qi-certified smartphones and even compatible wearable devices. The Galaxy S10 is also capable of charging itself and a second device simultaneously via Wireless PowerShare, while connected to a regular charger.

Availability

The Galaxy S10 series of phones will be opened for pre-orders from Feb 22 at 10am on the Samsung Malaysia online store till Feb 28 (or while stocks last). Customers who pre-order a Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ will receive attractive awards as below:

The official launch of the Galaxy S10 will take place in Genting Sky Avenue on March 1. The

Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10+ and Galaxy S10e will be available in Prism White, Prism Black, and Prism Green.  Galaxy S10+ will also be available in two, all-new, premium Ceramic models: Ceramic Black and Ceramic White.