The Samsung Galaxy S10E is proof that phones don’t have to come in a giant footprint to be deemed powerful. Sometimes, the smallest packages pack the largest punch and the Galaxy S10E does just that. It’s performance and the camera quality is more or less similar to the Galaxy S10 and the Galaxy S10+. While you’re unlikely to miss the larger display or the extra cameras, the disappointingly short battery life is sure to rain on the S10E’s parade. Just remember to keep a charger handy all the time. For an otherwise fantastic package, the battery life is a big let down and is the only reason why I’d recommend the Galaxy S10 over the S10E. We will be keeping a close eye on the software updates pushed out by Samsung over the next few months and will report in case the battery life improves.
Battery
The Galaxy S10E would have been almost flawless had it not been for its poor battery life. It’s understandable Samsung didn’t have much space to work with in the phone, but a 3100mAh is too little for a flagship device. The iPhone XR with its smaller 2942mAh battery manages to last much, much longer.
Geekbench Battery Test (Full Discharge)
The Galaxy S10E lasted 5 hours 31 minutes in the Geekbench battery test. 15 minutes of PUBG Mobile on the S10E drained the battery by around 10 percent which is quite a lot. Similarly 30 minutes of streaming Stranger Things Season 2 in HDR drained the battery down from 44 percent to 29 percent. Even during my daily usage for the three weeks I used the phone, the battery drained by one percent every three minutes which is alarming. I would be staring at an empty battery almost everyday around 5PM and even earlier if I’m out covering a launch event where the camera, messaging, Twitter and Instagram are all used simultaneously. In fact, we even asked for a replacement unit from Samsung and the replaced unit also reported the same.
The poor battery life of the phone is somewhat compensated by the fast 15W charging. It takes around an hour and 20 minutes to top up the phone to its max capacity. Incidentally, you can also charge the phone wirelessly in the same speed but you will need a 15W compatible Qi wireless charger for that. The phone also supports 9W reverse wireless charging which did charge my Galaxy Buds by 20 percent in around 30 minutes. It’s a gimmick of sorts and we won’t recommend using this feature to charge another smartphone as the phone does tend to get quite hot after some time of reverse charging.
Bottomline
The Samsung Galaxy S10E is proof that phones don’t have to come in a giant footprint to be deemed powerful. Sometimes, the smallest packages pack the largest punch and the Galaxy S10E does just that. It’s performance and the camera quality is more or less similar to the Galaxy S10 and the Galaxy S10+. While you’re unlikely to miss the larger display or the extra cameras, the disappointingly short battery life is sure to rain on the S10E’s parade. Just remember to keep a charger handy all the time. For an otherwise fantastic package, the battery life is a big let down and is the only reason why I’d recommend the Galaxy S10 over the S10E. We will be keeping a close eye on the software updates pushed out by Samsung over the next few months and will report in case the battery life improves.
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Subhrojit Mallick
Eats smartphones for breakfast. View Full Profile
