Galaxy S10 phones review: Samsung ups its game

Like Apple did last fall with its latest iPhone, Samsung has released three models of its new Galaxy S10 phone.

All three -- the flagship 6.1-inch S10 ($899), the 6.4-inch S10+ ($999) and the 5.8-inch S10e ($749) -- look like last year’s S9 phones, but once you light up the screen, you’ll see the difference. The screen really does go edge to edge. The S10+ display takes up more than 93 percent of the front face of the phone.

Unlike the iPhone, which uses a notch to house its cameras and sensors, the S10 phones use a hole in the actual LED panel. It looks like someone used a hole punch. The sleep/wake button is on the right, while volume and a button to invoke Samsung’s artificial assistant Bixby are on the left side.

The S10 and S10+ each have 8 gigabytes of RAM and are available with 128 GB or 512 GB of internal storage. The S10+ also has a model called the Performance Edition with 12 GB of RAM and one terabyte of storage. Both have a microSD card slot for added storage.

Wireless options include a newer Bluetooth 5.0 and a newer, faster Wi-Fi called 802.11ax.

The phones are dust- and water-resistant and can be submerged in 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes.

The battery in the Galaxy S10 has 3,400 milliamp-hours of power, while the S10+ has a whopping 4,100 mAh.

Everyone has seen smartphones with dual cameras on the back, but the S10 and S10+ have three main cameras. The lenses are 26mm (wide), 52mm (telephoto) and 12mm (ultrawide). The phones have a 26mm (wide) selfie camera, but the S10+ adds a depth sensor that allows for live focus mode shots.

S10 users can also see and adjust the amount of blur in portrait mode pictures on the screen before the shot is taken. The phones can capture 4K video as well. Both phones have optical image stabilization.

The S10 phones have a fingerprint reader under the screen. You set up your fingerprint to unlock the phone, but instead of a physical button or sensor, the screen shows you where to press your finger to register the prints.

It works well, but you have to mash down on the screen with your finger to get it to read. The S10 phones can also be unlocked by facial recognition.

The S10 phones are lightning-fast. The speed of the Snapdragon CPU and the 8 GB of RAM make the phones a joy to use.

This is the 10th iteration of the Galaxy S series of phones, and Samsung has done a great job in letting the design evolve and be refined.