The Samsung Galaxy S10+ Snapdragon & Exynos Review: Almost Perfect, Yet So Flawed

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• Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, April 1, 2019 - link

  We don't have any good methodology on things like signal, network (does any site test this *accurately*?).
  
  As for the UI bits, it's something I wanted to have in the piece but also didn't want to further delay the article another week. In general OneUI is Samsung's by far best user interface and has fantastic features without them feeling like gimmicks. It's currently in my opinion the best variant of Android, though I'm sure some Google users will get angry at me for saying that.

• GreenMeters - Monday, April 1, 2019 - link

  "If you’re a reader in the US or other Snapdragon markets, you can stop reading here and feel happy about your purchase or go ahead and buy the Galaxy S10+."
  
  Unfortunately, no, you can't feel happy about it, because once again the Snapdragon variant has its bootloader locked. So your expensive purchase that could easily have a 5+ year lifespan with an open source OS providing up-to-date security and features is now artificially limited to 2 years of Samsung's lousy support.

• XelaChang - Monday, April 1, 2019 - link

  Quite disappointing for Exinos, especially the audio. Going to look into Huawei P30 instead.

• Quantumz0d - Monday, April 1, 2019 - link

  Hello Andrei, huge thanks for the solid piece. I don't think there are any editors out who does this type of analysis. The most superb part was the battery analysis, just fantastic. I remember your piece on the Note 9 as well.
  
  Because smartphones with soldered/sealed batteries are a pain with 2 Yr EOL of cycles due to aggressive current/power/volts/cycles. I wish when you cover the LG. Maybe kindly have a look at their Qnovo. Replacing at end user is so bad, ruins the IP rating and hard to source. Samsung improvising this is a really good news.
  
  Next the Camera Hole points all are valid. Its worse than a notch with that absurdly thicc status bar and the stupid icons on the right side. An eye sore with dead pixels. Samsung showed in China for an under screen camera perhaps the Vertical integration you mentioned due to the Exynos applies here as well, perhaps the cost as well..
  
  One UI though perhaps feels polished but its too childish/kid friendly to me and excessively rounded like iOS instead of stock Pie/Q, that is bad IMO.
  
  Still have to read up on the Camera/Display. Also I think you should mention one great advantage that Exynos has - Bootloader Unlock. Without that QSD version is just a paperweight, zero ownership, zero tuning. IMO a brick.
  
  Also good to hear about the speaker system performance, apple mentions it always its surprising how they didn't yet offered a good quality, finally those AKG buds are very very bad. I heard them, their tiny driver is horrible in low end and mid range, its shameful. I'm not up to date with recent audio progress but at $100 we can get RHA MA 750/ Final Audio / iBasso IT01/ TFZ King II / Mee Audio P1 / FiiO F9 and Pro / Dunu Titan1 and ton of IEMs with far more superior quality.
  
  I hope they get the damn AKM chips into their phones and compete with LG ESS and take the Audio seriously, its a shame that LG doesn't advertise ESS anymore but Meridian collaboration.
  
  Finally the Audio DAC part, sometimes being 100% accurate doesnt necessarily mean best, my iPod 5.5G Wolfson DAC before CL merger many people say the iPod 6G+ Classics are better due to the ball roll off they mention on the Wolfson 5.5G DAC, I have both of them running same OS (Aftermarket stable Linux based Rockbox) and the Cirrus Logic G classic sounds fatiguing to me, metallic and lack of thump vs the 5.5G. I think maybe your impression is also similar. I heard the 835s Acoustic in my Car with my friend's Note 8 US version and it was hollow and lack of any texture and rumble. The iPod beats it by a HUGE margin both of th 6G and 5.5G and 5.5G being better, the V30s ESS sounds more balanced vs the 5.5G as in clear at the expense of soundstage (in car more significant) and sharpness being higher but retains excellent sub bass. All this is subjective. Just to let you know..
  
  Thanks.

• Quantumz0d - Monday, April 1, 2019 - link

  Correction.
  
  > Apple mentions it always its surprising how they didn't yet.
  
  Apple stands at top as one of the best speakers on an iPad/iPhone.

• Andrei Frumusanu - Tuesday, April 2, 2019 - link

  The iPhone XS improved it, but the S10 beats it handily in speaker quality.

• Quantumz0d - Tuesday, April 2, 2019 - link

  Wow, that's really surprising and great news. Thank you for the information. I'll stop by to a Best buy near to me and check it out.
  
  Perhaps they'll improve on their new S5 855 Tablet (hopefully with jack, unlike S5e) because the Tab S4 is outright beaten to pulp by iPad Pro 2017.

• s.yu - Friday, April 5, 2019 - link

  Wow beating Apple at audio is definitely something special.

• Quantumz0d - Monday, April 1, 2019 - link

  Damn another typo
  
  >Ball roll off
  
  Its Bass Roll off. And 6G missing before "classic sounds"

• watersb - Tuesday, April 2, 2019 - link

  What an incredible opportunity to compare two leading SoC architectures.