So I do not think most consumers care if the iphone Face scan is better than the S10, The S10 has more features which makes it a better phone. The fingerprint unlock is definitely a welcome feature. The S10 display is much better with out the large notch. I have an iphone 6 but I do not want to upgrade to new iphone because of the thought that they will eliminate the notch soon on future versions. It will take Apple a while to figure out a notch less display. Samsung and others are already close to this evolution.
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Reviews of this phone seem to fall into two camps: 1) Effusive praise and a general recognition that the S10+ is probably the best overall phone available at this high price point; and 2) reviews written by die hard Apple loyalists (see Verge's review for example) that no one, even other Apple loyalists, seem to agree with because the reviews seem to magically find faults other reviewers do not find with the reliability of the in screen fingerprint scanner, the screen, etc. I think you can guess which category this "review" falls under.
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it is a great phone one of the first of its kind so there will be problems with is when the iphone 10 came out it ad problems with is so you should deal with it
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I think if I have $ 1000 I'd better spend it by buying the latest Mi 9, and the rest I can save it or buy a new laptop.
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@Pubiway What is an Mi9 ?mission impossible , camera? what?
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Most smartphone users today, spend most of their time on very few apps - The actual phone, and a few social and communication apps and one or two news apps and podcasts. And, finally, "The Camera".
Pretty much every phone that came out in the last 3 years does most of this stuff nicely - except the "Camera" part.
Now if you are comparing the top of the line Samsung and Apple phones, they are extremely good even at the Camera part too. Samsung phones have consistently gotten better camera reviews than iPhones.
FaceID is not a de-facto standard or a universally liked feature. Some users like it, some don't.
The S10 uses sophisticated ultrasonic waves to detect finger print unlock, right on the screen. Many reviewers found that it worked even when the finger is wet. It is convenient. It is secure.
I see little value in this review. There's amazing technology packed into the S10, that, for power users, will enable them to use it like a very versatile portable computer (primarily due to the Android OS). For 99% of smartphone users, The S10 and Apple X work exactly the same, with no noticeable performance difference (except that more people may like the S10 camera quality and the S10's stunning display).
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At this stage unless your phone is damaged, it doesn't make sense to replace it until 5G becomes widespread, and Qualcomm's X55 chip is widely available in smartphones.
If you buy a new phone now in about 12 to 18 month it will be obsolete.
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This article is useless for pretty much anyone. Android users couldn't care less about how this compares to iPhones, and if they did, the "comparisons" here are so weak as to be totally useless (the author presents opinion as fact, rather than using widely available stats and benchmarks). iPhone users don't care at all about Android.
Also, a ridiculous amount of this article is about biometrics. Maybe there's someone who would care even a little about that, but I haven't met them. (I also need to challenge the author on his source for the superiority of face recognition, which in my experience fails miserably thanks to glasses and facial hair.)
I realize that the NYTimes isn't a tech publication, but who exactly is this nearly information-free article targeted towards?
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The article should be titled Comparison of Galaxy S10 Plus to Apple, not review of Galaxy S10 Plus. But what's really troubling about this article is the matter of fact acceptance of facial recognition unlock on iPhones.
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Just because apple standardized facerecon doesn't mean that it has to be the industry standard. This guy's previous reviews are also in favor of apple for some reason.
I'm glad that Samsung has their own design philosophy and isn't going after a notch or FaceID and yet included a 3.5 mm jack. Innovation does exist and you have to give them credit for this.
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5G compatibility?
Will the battery last 48 hours? Like the battery on my ancient Motorola?
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@Eugene
I'm getting more than 2 days use per charge on my new S10+.
Prior was a 3+ year old Samsung S6 that had aged to where it went 15-16 hours on a charge.
Much better batteries than those in the Apple devices my
colleagues use. Besides, 75% of them have cracked screens inside of 18 months. I've never had a cracked screen and dropped my S6 a bunch of times.
The author seems to be at odds with most of thrle tech review community in his experience with the in screen fingerprint sensor. I have seen the device being used by Youtubers, for example, without much of a hiccup. It is a remarkable technology using sound waves - the first manufacturer to ship the kind. Apple doesn't even offer any fingerprint sensor, let alone an in screen one. Face ID is wonderful and all but one doesn't get such a simple feature with 1000 to 1200 £ device either and the author hails them as some sort of biometric standard for a phone? Dubious.
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"The device was an upgrade from Samsung’s Galaxy S9 phones, which WERE also excellent Android devices."
They ARE excellent Android devices.
Hmmm... am I now expected to replace my device every year?
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I have owned an iPhone X for about a year, and my least favorite feature by far is the facial recognition--which I actually hate. I was thrilled to see that there may be a good alternative. Facial recognition may be safer, but as my phone is always with me, I don't worry about that. Much more important is that it is a pain to use. I am often in meetings or other places, such as my car, where the last thing I want to do is wave a phone in front of my face. Other times I am doing things where I don't want to pick up the phone when it rings, but can still free a finger to push a button even if my hands are dirty or busy. And..I often have on hats or other things that fool the facial sensor in make the phone inoperable. (It also does not always work even otherwise.) In summary, if the phone is good, but it lacks a feature that for the life of me I fail to see as a benefit, namely facial recognition, it sounds like a winner to me.
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@Jeff
I am sorry and surprised to hear about your dislike of the
facial recognition feature, I wear glasses and the facial recognition feature works flawlessly even in a dimly lit
bedroom, without my glasses .
@Jeff agree with you 100%, I put off getting a new phone as long as possible because of the lack of fingerprint. My XS is just as much of a pain to use as your X. It noticeably fails more often to recognize my face as opposed to using the my index finger or thumb on the 6S+ . There are many situations where it is not an advantage, where having to lift the phone to view my face is not optimal. One is Apple Pay. before you could be holding the phone with you thumb and in one tap, pay. Now you have to tap, double-click, lift the phone for it to catch your face, then tap it again. and if you don't do this fast enough, it fails and you have to repeat the process. Lying down often makes the face recognition fail because fluid shifts in the body. As you said there are other situations where having to wave it front of your face is not good. I miss my 6S+ in this one regard. The idea that the face is somehow so much more secure than the fingerprint to be seen as an improvement and putting a notch in the phone screen, is just stupid.
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@Jeff
Thanks for telling us the iphone Facial recg is not that great. I didn't think so.
I've got a Samsung Galaxy S7 with 4GB RAM/32GB ROM. How long before it becomes obsolete? Does anybody utilize 75% of the capacity of their Apple iPhone 10 smartphones? Any iPhone 10 users complaining, "Oh, my God, I don't have enough juice?"
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It feels like the reviewer went into this determined to give Samsung failing grades over his personal preference of facial scanning over fingerprints. Here's a rhetorical question: If Samsung's next phone somehow managed to achieve a 1 in a billion false positive rate (as opposed to Apple's reported 1 in a million) does anybody think that Mr. Chen would turn around and put the iPhone in the "compromises" category? Or would the new Samsung standard be considered overkill and Apple's 1 in a million deemed more than good enough for all practical use?
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You MUST be an Apple addict. Every innovation in smartphones since the iPhone 7 has been done by Samsung, with Apple following suit. Steven Jobs has died a thousand times witnessing this. As for face recognition, I completely disagree with you, and completely agree with the Samsung rep. Im in the gym, with my glasses OFF, trying to unlock the phone but it doesnt recognize the me without my glasses. Cant do it. Have to use a password. but fingerprints dont have glasses, beards or makeup. I have been told I have a twin many times. They could unlock my phone, except that they dont have my fingerprint. And why isnt your review about the phone's many features. To me the S10 is the iPhone 14, way ahead of Apple, again.
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Just imagine what government entity could do with such accurate facial recognition and the collected database of users that you suggest Samsung, Apple, et.al.,should be implementing in their devices. And, that government entity (China already comes to mind) doesn't have to expend much administrative effort at all, it's being collected for them for free by our spending now nearing $2,000 on a smartphone. (Pretty good gig for President Xi, I'd say.)
Passwords may be less secure (though when used effectively and properly they are pretty solid, I would argue) and may seem quaint as we sprint towards having to prick our finger and deliver a drop of blood onto our screens to unlock them. However, I'll take passwords any day over any government, even in theory, being able to commandeer a highly accurate scan of faces in a shopping mall or a protest march and, as social media companies have already shown us, likely abuse it, subverting our privacy and, potentially, our freedom.
4
Did anyone else noticed that about 40% of this review of a smartphone is about the quality of the camera, 20% is about the screen, and another 40% is about the biometrics. There's no mention of the quality of it's functionality as a PHONE (which we probably all take for granted). I understand why that's the case, but can't help but wonder if it's not time to relabel these gadgets as smartcameras?
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@Derek Martin, proof once again that the tech industry has been innovation-stalled since Jobs died.
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Brian, Did you know all fingerprints are different? Maybe the small sample size of your fingerprints is the real problem.
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@Especially Meaty Snapper Just because it works for you does not mean it works for everyone else. Brian's job is reporting on technology. Do you think that you seriously think you are informing him of something he is unaware of? Fingerprint readers haven't worked for me for years on lap tops and don't work for me on phones. They don't work for my wife either and she is finishing a doctorate in computer science. We are not ignorant of how these things work and how they don't work.
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I have an iPhone Xs and love it.
But Samsung is the one innovating here and deserve some credit.
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Unhelpful review. Like saying you don't like the mazda miata because it doesn't carry as much as a Ford F150. If I'm a sports car (or android) guy I don't care about pickups ( or iPhones).
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@Eric Johnson Absolutely. This should instead be titled "A Comparison of the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus to Apple Products", the latter of which do not concern me.
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It's 2019 and your Android reviews are still a feature-by-feature comparison with iPhone? Nobody cares anymore.
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I want an inexpensive phablet with a decent screen, large battery, NFC, notification light and headphone jack. None of the devices from Samsung or Apple meet that spec, starting with the price.
5
Honestly, what is the point of upgrading for Galaxy 8 or 9 to this device? It's the same story with Apple phones. Price hikes of hundreds of dollars for relatively useless features. I eagerly await the next big thing, and I'm not talking about the Fold, that will really motivate me to upgrade.
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@David S what is the point of upgrading? because if it hasn't happened yet it will- the battery on your Galaxy 8 or 9 (or your S8) will start tanking before the day is done, replacing the battery will violate the warranty, be prohibitively expensive and may ruin your phone or your pants. The batteries are designed to last only until the price of the latest model doubles in price to what you paid for your current model.
5
@David S There's probably not a good reason to upgrade from an S9, unless you really care about the camera upgrades. I'm upgrading to this from the S7 Edge, though, and I'm finding that these (Samsung flagship) phones are often good enough to last 2-3 years between upgrades. Before the S7 Edge, I used a Note 3.
4
@AbeT- I'm thinking about upgrading every 2 years to a pre-owned cellphone, staying a couple of iterations behind the latest models. I think the important thing is disconnecting the old phone and upgrading to a new phone without losing any data and for that I thank Google.
What we really need in these phones is the ability to go to Europe and have the phone work without being ripped-off for roaming charges and work-a-rounds and all the rest of that jazz. Why don't our political representatives fix those problems? Forget Brexit and North Korea and fix those problems.
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