Samsung Galaxy S10e

Coming from the OnePlus 6T (review), the design of the Samsung Galaxy S10e comes as a breath of fresh air. While both the devices feature all-glass bodies and therefore offer a comparable in-hand feel, the S10e's compact frame makes it a godsend for one-handed usage. And, in my humble opinion, that's the smartphone's USP too. Simply put, there's no other smartphone in the market which is as compact and as powerful as the S10e. You could make an argument for the Pixel 3, but even Google's flagship towers above the S10e in terms of size by some margin – and that's with a smaller, 5.5-inch display!Suffice it to say, I've really enjoyed coming back to a pint-sized smartphone. I didn't realise how much I missed having all the information on the display within my thumb's reach, or not letting my phone take up all the space inside the pocket of my jeans. At the expense of sounding like a broken record, I'll reiterate – if you've longed for a compact Android flagship, then the S10e is where your money's at.Although the Galaxy S10e is Samsung's most affordable superphone, the company has spared no expense in the design of the handset. In fact, barring its compact size, the S10e is identical to its pricier siblings in terms of design and has been styled using the same premium materials. The smartphone features glass on both the front as well as the back, coated with layers of Corning Gorilla Glass for protection against scuffs and scratches. The two glass panes are held together by an aluminium frame which is a tad-bit thicker on the S10e, primarily because the device doesn't ship with a dual-curved display akin to its brethren.Now, the absence of curves on the front of the device takes away from the S10e's ‘wow' factor, but I don't mind the change all that much. In fact, thanks to the handset's thicker trim, the S10e is much more comfortable to grip in the hand. Moreover, I didn't have to worry about accidental palm touches as much on the device either. So, I feel that buyers opting for the S10e will get the better part of the bargain. Other than that, the S10e ships with a stereo speaker setup which gets audaciously loud.There's even a headphone jack at the bottom, which to my knowledge, is only found on Korean flagships now. And finally, much like the S10 and the S10+ (review), the S10e comes with support for wireless charging (and reverse wireless charging) and features IP68 certification. So, you can take it to your next Goa trip and get some incredible shots by the sea – or in it.While all that's good and dandy, the best design element on the S10e is undoubtedly the smartphone's capacitive fingerprint sensor, which unlike its siblings' ultrasonic, in-display sensors, is blazingly fast and extremely accurate. The fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S10e has been positioned underneath the power button on the right-hand trim of the device and it's a joy to use. The unit unlocks the smartphone in a jiffy, lines up perfectly with my thumb, and it even brings down the notification tray when you swipe down on it.And, for when you want to unlock the smartphone without lifting it up, you can use the face unlock feature to get into your home screen seamlessly. The software recognised my face nine times out of ten and it even works well in lowlight situations.As much as I love the design of the phone, there are some issues I have with the build of the S10e. First and foremost, if you're a leftie, then you might struggle to authenticate your fingerprints on the smartphone's sensor as it's mounted on the right-hand side of the frame. In this case, you might want to register the index finger of your left hand on the scanner. Secondly, the back of the smartphone smudges really easily, so you'll have to wipe it down every now and then to keep it nice and shiny. Lastly, the S10e is quite slippery, so you might want to use the bundled case which comes with the device.In an attempt to keep the costs of the S10e down, Samsung has cut corners (no pun intended) in the display department too. Ergo, while the S10 and S10+ ship with sharper QHD+ displays, the S10e offers a modest 5.8-inch, full HD+ panel. That said, the panel on the S10e also features a punch hole to accommodate the selfie camera, akin to the displays on the bigger models which, in my opinion, is substantially less intrusive than a traditional notch. A fringe benefit of the same is that you'll have a lot of fun using quirky wallpapers to hide the notch on the S10e. If you're into that, then do check out Hidey Holes wallpaper app, which has a massive selection of creative walls designed specifically for the S10 lineup.  I have no complaints about the quality of the display either. It's on par with the panels on the bigger variants in terms of quality and brightness, and I honestly didn't notice the difference in resolution all that much. What's more, since the display also comes with support for HDR 10+, you'll be able to enjoy select content on the device with a wider range of colours. You'll also get some nifty tools like an Always-On display and Edge lighting with the device, which will alert you about incoming calls or messages even when the phone is face down.

The Samsung Galaxy S10e uses the same sensors to capture photos as its bigger siblings. However, unlike the S10 and the S10+, the device doesn't feature a telephoto shooter at the back and relies on a 12MP shooter with a variable aperture of f/1.5 or f/2.4 and an ultrawide 16MP sensor with a 123-degree field of view. For selfies, the device gets a 10MP f/1.9 aperture lens on the front.Although the S10e is a capable shooter, it's just not in the same ballpark as the latest iPhones or Google's Pixel 3 duo. In fact, on some occasions, my OnePlus 6T managed to capture a scene with more details. Over the years, Samsung has lost its mantle as the best camera phone maker to a host of other brands and I was hoping that the company's 10th anniversary flagships could turn the tables in its favour.That being said, the S10e is not a bad shooter per se. In fact, unless you are pixel-peeping for details on the device, you'll be content with the shots you take with the smartphone. I've summarised my experience with the smartphone's cameras below, so take a gander. 

Powering the smarts on the Samsung Galaxy S10e is the company's latest 8nm, Exynos 9820 octa-core processor which works alongside 6GB of RAM and 128GB of built-in, user-expandable storage. Unfortunately, the company has reserved the higher RAM and storage models for the bigger S10 models, so if you're looking for a bit more grunt under the hood, you might have to look there. That said, the performance on the S10e is quite good, and the handset only faltered when I was playing intensive titles on it.During my time with the device, I didn't run into any CPU bottlenecking. Applications opened in the blink of an eye and multitasking was rapid on the device as well. Moreover, thanks to Samsung's refined One UI software, system gestures and animations were rendered seamlessly on the device too. My only gripe with the smartphone's performance is that the Mali GPU which comes with the Exynos SoC isn't as powerful as its Adreno counterpart. Consequently, there were some frame drops when I was playing PUBG at the HDR preset on the device. The game stuttered when I was jumping in and out of windows or when I was interacting with in-game items like boosters or first aid kits.What's more, the smartphone doesn't handle thermals very well and after just one Classic game of PUBG, the handset's temperature spiked quite high, making the aluminium frame rather hot to the touch. The rise in temperature could have something to do with the handset's small chassis as the CPU has lesser space to dissipate the heat but it just made the experience of gaming on the phone that much worse. Consequently, I relied on my OnePlus 6T whenever I felt the urge to knock down some chicken dinners.