By early 2020, the Galaxy S10 series was preparing to retire. A year ago, he introduced the world’s first 5G phone and, in addition to his regular S10 vanilla and plus phones, the surprisingly popular S10e model. But there was plenty of time to make one last big fuss before the S20 series launched in his February.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite was announced in early February 2020 and launched a month later, just days before the official launch of the S20 model. In a way it was a prototype of the Galaxy S20 FE. It used older but still premium hardware and was cheaper than the main series models.
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite
The Lite did better than most other S10 members. It was literally 162.5mm high, 75.6mm wide and 8.1mm thick with a 6.7-inch display (portrait 20:9 aspect ratio). It weighs 186g. Only the Galaxy S10 5G, the aforementioned first-ever 5G smartphone of his, is slightly larger.
That big display had the “only” FHD+ resolution of 1,080 x 2,400 pixels. Little did we know what would happen in 2021. Anyway, it had HDR10+ support and an always-on display mode.
Other than the resolution, the only clue that this isn’t a true flagship was the old Gorilla Glass 3+ protection (others have moved to GG6). Well, the lack of an IP rating also stood out.This phone had an aluminum frame like its siblings, but using a plastic back saved us a few bucks.
Things have changed in the previous years, but in 2019 and 2020, the market for Snapdragon chipsets was very small. Samsung used his Exynos elsewhere. However, the Galaxy S10 Lite launched with his Snapdragon 855 only.
A year old at that point, this was a very capable chipset that was used in 2020, including Samsung’s first Galaxy Z Flip. bottom.
On the S10 Lite, the chipset was plugged with up to 6 or 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage (512 GB depending on configuration, but no 256 GB option). The internal UFS 2.1 storage can be expanded using a microSD card instead of SIM2. The phone launched with Android 10 with One UI 2 and received Android 13 with One UI 5 a few months ago.
Since this was a “lite” model, Samsung seems to have cut corners by skipping the 12MP 2x telephoto camera found in other S10 models. However, the Lite could have had a nicer feature: a 48MP sensor that supports lossless 2x zoom.
We say “better” because the 1/2.0” sensor with 0.8µm pixels (1.6µm with binning) is larger compared to the 12MP 1/2.55” 1.4µm sensor used in other S10 phones. increase. I also had OIS, but it didn’t work particularly well when I tested it. It also left out some of the more sophisticated tech like Dual Pixel AF and Dual Aperture. This phone was able to record his 4K video at just 30fps, while its brother was able to record his 4K video at 60fps.
The Lite also sports a 12MP ultra-wide camera (instead of 16MP) and a 5MP macro camera, bringing the count to three. Like the main camera, the selfie cam had a larger, higher resolution sensor than his main S10 phone. 32MP 1/2.8″ (0.8µm) for Lite, 10MP 1/3″ (1.22µm) for others.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite also has some of the first parts of its name. This is his first Samsung smartphone with 45W fast charging. Sure, the Galaxy S20 Ultra matched him a month later, but the Lite was first. Also, the Galaxy S10 and S10+ can only charge 15W, and even the larger S10 5G reached 25W (similar to the S20 and S20+).
However, the light lacked wireless charging. Still, with a massive 4,500 mAh battery, the phone scored an impressive 110 hours of endurance rating.
Another is less positive. Lite was the first Galaxy S phone he didn’t have a 3.5 mm headphone jack. Neither the S20 model nor the models that followed did, but the S10 Lite was the first.
The Galaxy S10 Lite was positioned as a flagship killer of sorts. However, the features and price have been carefully engineered, so instead of targeting Samsung’s own flagship, it was targeting other premium phones from more affordable brands.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite was launched in early February 2020 for €650. For comparison, the regular S10 was $900/900 euros a year ago, and even the petite S10e was $750/750 euros. A year is a long time in technology, and by the time the S10 Lite came along, premium S10 phones had been slashed in price. For example, a $150 price drop brings the S10 to $750 in the US and the S10e to $600. This was a few months before the S10 Lite launched in the same market for $650.
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite launched alongside Galaxy Note10 Lite
Of course, this is not the only Lite launched in early 2020. Samsung also announced the Galaxy Note10 Lite. But that’s for another time.
