Samsung Galaxy S10e Review

The Samsung Galaxy S10e may be one of the smallest smartphones in the flagship S10 range from Samsung, but it still packs a punch. Featuring multiple cameras, a 5.8inch "Infinity-O" screen, and flagship features, we find out how this premium camera phone performs.

Samsung Galaxy S10e Features

The Samsung Galaxy S series continues to introduce new features, with a focus placed on the cameras on offer, the S10e features an ultra-wide-angle 16mp camera, and a 12mp "standard" wide-angle camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS), and an aperture that can be changed from f/1.5 to f/2.4. The bigger phones in the range, the S10 (with 6.1inch screen), S10 Plus (6.4inch screen), and S10 5G (6.7inch screen) all offer three (or more) cameras on the rear, with the same ultra-wide angle 16mp camera, the same "standard" wide-angle 12mp camera, and an additional 12mp f/2.4 telephoto (2x) camera.

The S10e features a fingerprint reader on the side, whilst the S10 and bigger feature an in-screen fingerprint reader. They all benefit from an updated design, with an "Infinity-O" display, giving a larger screen, and smaller bezel, with a small cut-out for front camera(s). 

S10e Cameras at a glance:

• 16mp Ultra-Wide, 123 degrees
• 12mp Main, with f/1.5 or f/2.4 aperture, with OIS
• Selfie: 10mp f/1.9 with Dual Pixel AF
• S10 / S10 Plus: 12mp 2x Telephoto, with OIS
• S10 Plus: Additional 8mp RGB depth camera for the front

The camera app is full of shooting modes, including a number of new features, offering a Night mode, ultra-wide Panoramic, Live Focus, and a Scene optimiser that will automatically detect the scene and adjust settings accordingly. The night mode takes a number of shots and combines them for improved light capture, as well as reduced noise.

The selfie camera features auto-focus, which is still rare on smartphones, with most having a fixed focus, which means you need to be a set distance from the camera, otherwise you'll be out of focus. The S10+ features a second RGB depth camera, for improved "Live focus" and blurred backgrounds. The single-camera S10 and S10e still offer "Live Focus", but Samsung says the results may not be as good. The S10 5G offers a 3D depth camera and offers "Live Focus" for video as well as stills. 

There are a number of creative effects, including a number of built-in effects/colour options are available, as well as the adjustable "Live Focus" which lets you adjust the background, and blur effect applied. 

4K UHD and HDR10+ recording is available and supported by YouTube, and it's also possible to record 4K UHD video with the selfie / front camera. You can also switch on Super Steady stabilisation for FullHD video recording. 

With the Samsung Galaxy S10 range, you get a smartphone with a screen that dominates the front, with a small cutout for the front camera(s). This makes a change from the S9, which has small top and bottom bezels, with the top one housing the camera(s). Ranging from the compact S10e with a 5.8inch screen, all the way up to the S10 5G with a 6.7inch screen, the number of cameras available changes depending on the model you go for. You also get a high-resolution Dynamic AMOLED HDR10+ display in all of the smartphones, with the S10e, featuring a FullHD+ resolution instead of QuadHD+ on the others.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Range, with S10e on the right

Here's a quick run-down of the main differences between the S10e, S10, S10 Plus, and S10 5G:

The S10e, features a fingerprint sensor on the side, and Gorilla Glass 5, while the others in the range feature an in-screen fingerprint reader, and Gorilla Glass 6. You'll find built-in stereo speakers and a built-in headphone socket. The smartphones are water and dust resistant, with an IP68 rating, meaning they should survive being underwater for half an hour, at a depth up to 1.5 meters. 

Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth, GPS, are all built-in, as you would expect.

Samsung Galaxy S10e - Samsung has released a number of free wallpapers that make clever use of the "hole" in the screen.

Key Features

• 12mp standard (wide), with OIS, f1.5-2.4
• 16mp ultra-wide-angle camera, f/2.2
• 10mp selfie camera, with Dual Pixel AF, f/1.9 aperture, 8mp RGB depth camera (S10+)
• 5.8inch screen, FullHD+ resolution, AMOLED, HDR10+, Gorilla Glass 5
• AutoHDR, with raw shooting in Pro mode
• 4K UHD video recording, up to 60fps, 4K UHD available with front camera
• 960fps slow-motion video recording
• ISO50 to ISO800 can be manually selected
• HDR, and new ultra-wide Panoramic shooting
• Waterproof (IP68 rating)
• 6GB RAM / 128GB Storage, MicroSD slot
• 3000mAh battery (S10e), with wireless charging
• Available in a number of colours (depending on location)
• Not available on the S10e:
• S10/S10 Plus: 12mp telephoto (2x), with OIS, f/2.4
• S10/S10 Plus: In-screen fingerprint reader

Samsung Galaxy S10e Handling

The most noticeable feature of the Samsung Galaxy S10e, is how small the phone seems, in comparison to other premium smartphones these days, with the S10 Plus, OnePlus 7 Pro, and Huawei P30 Pro seeming almost too big in comparison. However, it's all relative, what will be considered too big for some, will be just right, and the S10e may seem too small, so we'd recommend having a hands-on look at these in person if you're undecided.

The S10e looks almost "cute", particularly in "white", as the rear of the smartphone shimmers between pale blue, and pink when light reflects off the phone. 

The phone looks and feels good, with minimal bezels, with thin black edges around the screen. The metal edges that surround the phone look stylish, and there's a protective plastic covering to help prevent scratches, while you decide what case you want to put your phone in. As the smartphone range is well supported, there are a multitude of case options out there, and the flat screen will make it easier for a case to provide protection for the screen, compared to the curved screens on the rest of the S10 range. 

A nice thing to see is the inclusion of a screen protector, already fitted to the smartphone, with a hole cut out so that the camera isn't covered by plastic.

As with the S10 and S10 Plus, one thing we're not so keen on is the Bixby Button, annoyingly this button can be accidentally pressed, bringing up Bixby, and in order to change the settings on this, you have to setup Bixby (and sign in to a Samsung account). We're not alone in wanting to disable Bixby, with 178,000 Google results on how to disable the Bixby button, however, thankfully you can customise the Bixby button to do something much more useful, like open the Camera app.

The cutout for the front cameras is something you can quite quickly get used to, and is less noticeable on the S10e, with just one front camera, compared to two on the S10 Plus. If you want a smartphone that has nothing but the screen, then you'd need to look at something like the OnePlus 7 Pro, which has a pop-up selfie camera.

The smartphone is compact, fast and responsive, and the screen looks great!

The screen looks great, even on standard settings. You can alter the colour reproduction, with options for Natural or Vivid, and you can adjust the colour temperature when on the Vivid mode. 

The fingerprint reader is on the side of the phone and is actually the power button as well.

The camera app is easy to use and has a number of different shooting modes, including: 

• Food
• Night mode
• Panorama (Ultra-wide)
• Pro / Manual mode
• Live Focus
• Photo - features Scene optimiser, automatically detects the scene and adjusts settings to give you the best result.
• Video
• Super Slow-motion
• Slow motion
• Hyperlapse

The manual mode gives you a good level of control over settings, and you're even able to manually select whether you want to use an f/1.5 or f/2.4 aperture on the main camera. Being able to change a physical aperture on a smartphone camera remains unique to Samsung. You can set the ISO speed from ISO50 to ISO800, with higher speeds (ISO1250) available in auto modes. 

Ultra-wide panoramic mode - if you don't want to use the ultra-wide angle camera, then you're out of luck, as unfortunately, the camera insists that the ultra-wide-angle camera is the best (and only) option.

Focus is very rapid, and in manual mode, you can see how quick the camera focuses, with the focus area displayed on-screen.

The phone features a USB Type-C connection, a headphone socket, and stereo speakers. The phone supports dual SIMs, or you can use one SIM, and expand the memory with a MicroSD card. There's plenty of ram and storage built-in, with 6GB ram, and 128GB of storage. 

Geekbench gives a score of 4471 single-core, and 10319 multi-core, ever so slightly faster than the S10 Plus. AnTuTu gives a score of 331041, again slightly faster than the S10 Plus - most likely due to the lower resolution screen. Whilst very impressive, it is not as quick as the OnePlus 7 Pro. 

Battery life - The phone has a battery rating of 3100mAh, and battery management seems reasonably good, although some have complained about it being a little too short. If you're going to be away from a power source, we'd recommend getting yourself a portable power bank just in case.

Samsung Galaxy S10e Performance

The performance section is where we look at the image quality performance of the camera. Additional sample photos and product shots are available in the Equipment Database, where you can add your own review, photos and product ratings.

Samsung Galaxy S10e Sample Photos

Sample Photos - Colour reproduction is very good, with great results under a variety of conditions, and exposure is also very reliable. The auto HDR helps improve dynamic range captured, without looking unnatural. The night mode has produced some great looking photos, with good levels of detail, and good colour reproduction. The optical image stabilisation helps keep the shot steady, even at slower shutter speeds, when using the wide-angle and the telephoto cameras. 

The selfie "Live Focus" mode does a very good job of blurring the background, and there's good detection of the background and the main subject, with the camera correctly focusing on the face, thanks to the selfie camera featuring Auto Focus (AF). The results from the dual camera setup on the S10 Plus, are better than from the single camera setup on the S10e (and S10), with these showing more clipping issues (around hair), with some background objects being sharp instead of blurred. There are a number of bokeh effects available, and you can adjust these after shooting as well as during shooting.

Samsung Galaxy S10e Lens test images

Lens Performance - It doesn't really matter which camera/lens you decide to use, as you get really good results from both of them, and it's just a case of choosing the one that you want to use for the scene you're capturing. Lens flare was occasionally visible when a bright light source is in the frame. We struggled to see any signs of vignetting, as this is automatically corrected by the smartphone, although we did see a little in some of the shots taken with the ultra-wide-angle camera. 

Ultra-wide-angle: You have the option to correct for lens distortion, or leave it uncorrected. Switching on correction could be useful if you need straight edges and straight lines, as barrel distortion can be quite noticeable at times. This is quite normal for ultra-wide-angle cameras on smartphones. The ultra-wide-angle lens did show some purple fringing, and chromatic aberrations in areas of high contrast (such as around street signs, or tree branches). 

Standard: The standard wide-angle camera gives you a bright f/1.5 aperture for low-light conditions, and then when the lighting it good will automatically switch to the f/2.4 aperture for the sharpest possible photos. Results are great, regardless of which aperture the camera uses. Macro focus is reasonable.

Samsung Galaxy S10e ISO test images

ISO Noise Performance - In the Pro mode you can select from an ISO Range of ISO50 to ISO800. This keeps the noise levels low, as you can't select any higher, and noise is only slightly visible at ISO800. In the auto modes, the camera might use a higher ISO speed of ISO1250, and noise remains well controlled. It would be nice if this could be extended further, but even when using something like Adobe Lightroom (with manual controls) the maximum ISO speed remains ISO1250.

Samsung Galaxy S10e White-balance test images

White Balance Performance - Auto White Balance (AWB) performs very well, with excellent results under fluorescent lighting. Under mixed lighting the camera gives a slightly warmer result. Under tungsten lighting results are slightly warm, but still good. You can manually set the white balance temperature if you want, although for most people this is probably unnecessary.

Video - The Samsung Galaxy S10e offers 4K video recording at frame rates up to 60fps with the main camera. You can also record 4K UHD video with the ultra-wide-angle lens, albeit at a slower frame rate of 30fps. HDR10+ is available for both rear cameras.

4K UHD is also available with the front (selfie) camera, recording at 30fps. With an auto-focus (AF) camera lens, you can adjust the focus point while recording. Some rolling shutter is visible when moving quickly from side to side. 

Super slow-motion video can be captured at 960fps, at a resolution of 1280x720, although it can be difficult to capture exactly the right moment, as you can only record a few seconds of video. You can record slow-motion video at 240fps, with a FullHD resolution, and you can record a much longer clip. If you select FullHD as the video resolution (with HDR10+ off) then you get the option of using "SuperSteady" image stabilisation. 

You can find additional sample videos on the ePHOTOzine YouTube Channel.

Value For Money

The Samsung Galaxy S10e is available for £669, making it a more affordable flagship compared to the S10 (£799) and S10 Plus (£899), and in fact many other premium smartphones are more expensive, with the exception of the Huawei P30. Alternatives to look at include:

OnePlus 7 Pro, with 6.67inch screen, 4K video, triple camera setup, with 3x telephoto (16mp selfie), £699
Huawei P30, with 6.1inch screen, 4K video, triple camera setup, with 3x telephoto (32mp selfie), £599
Huawei P30 Pro, with 6.47inch screen, 4K video, triple camera setup, with 5x telephoto (32mp selfie), £899
Sony Xperia 1, with 6.5inch screen, 4K video, triple camera setup, with 2x telephoto (8mp selfie), £849
Apple iPhone XS, with 5.8inch screen, 4K video, wide and 2x telephoto cameras, 7mp selfie, £949 
Google Pixel 3 XL, with 6.3inch screen, 4K video, single rear camera, dual selfie cameras (ultra-wide and wide), £869

Have a look at more smartphones in our Top 10 Best Smartphones for Photography or have a look at the Best Smartphones under £300 for Photography. You may also want to buy a MicroSD memory card, and a case or bag to keep your camera safe and protected - have a look at our complete guide to camera bags.

Samsung Galaxy S10e Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy S10e may not have the telephoto camera of the S10 and S10 Plus, but it does offer an excellent main 12mp f/1.5-2.4 camera, as well as an excellent 16mp ultra-wide-angle camera, as well as offering a very compact (by today's standards) smartphone body.

The main camera offers a bright f/1.5-2.4 aperture, and you can record 4K video from all of the cameras, including the front "selfie" camera. With optical image stabilisation, low-light photography is improved, and OIS also helps improve video quality. Speaking of low-light photography, the Night mode works very well, giving impressive results.

If you much prefer an ultra-wide angle lens, then the S10e is an excellent option, and it also saves you money.

The front selfie camera benefits from auto-focus, something lacking for a lot of other smartphones, and combined with 4K video recording, this could be a real game-changer for people using their smartphone as their main video camera. You get consistently good results from all of the cameras, with no difference to be found in colour reproduction when switching from one to the other, which can't always be said about other premium smartphones. 

The Samsung Galaxy S10e sounds like it's the "entry-level" S10 from Samsung, but it's anything but entry-level, with an excellent screen, great design, high build quality, and the same processor as the S10 and S10 Plus. It's also got the same great shooting experience, just minus the telephoto lens. If you can live without a telephoto lens on a smartphone camera, and would much prefer an ultra-wide angle lens, then the S10e is an excellent option, and it also saves you money compared to the bigger S10 smartphones.

The Samsung Galaxy S10e delivers a great double camera setup, with a better than expected selfie camera as well.

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