Galaxy S10 Lite vs. Galaxy S10: What should you buy?

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If you want one of Samsung's top-of-the-line flagships these days, you've got to be prepared to spend big bucks. The Milky way S20 that arrived this jump starts at $999, and that's before we even get to the iv-effigy prices of the rest of the S20 serial. More than recently, Samsung took the wraps off the Galaxy Note 20, another telephone with a $999 starting price.

What's a smartphone shopper on a budget to do? Turn to last year's models for lower priced models that all the same deliver top features, like the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10 Plus.

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Only Samsung has expanded your choices. The yr began with Samsung showing off the Milky way S10 Lite, a new spin on last year's flagship phones. This S10 model has a lot in common with its older siblings, only it drops some features in order to offer a lower cost.

The Galaxy S10 Lite arrived in the U.S. in April, joining the Galaxy S10 and Milky way S10 Plus in Samsung's lineup of more affordable phones. Hither's a closer look at the Milky way S10 Lite vs. the Galaxy S10 and what separates these dissimilar phones from one another.

Galaxy S10 Low-cal vs. Galaxy S10: Specs compared

Phone	Milky way S10 Lite	Milky way S10e	Galaxy S10	Galaxy S10 Plus
Price	$650	$599	$749	$849
Screen (Resolution)	6.7-inch Super AMOLED (2400 x 1080)	v.8-inch AMOLED (2160 x 1080)	six.1-inch AMOLED (3040 ten 1440)	half-dozen.4-inch AMOLED (3040 ten 1440)
CPU	Snapdragon 855	Snapdragon 855	Snapdragon 855	Snapdragon 855
RAM	8GB	6GB, 8GB	8GB	8GB, 12GB
Storage	128GB	128GB, 256GB	128GB, 512GB	128GB, 512GB, 1TB
Rear Cameras	48MP wide bending (f/2.0), 12MP ultra-wide (f/2.2), 5MP macro	16-MP ultrawide (f/2.2); 12-MP dual-pixel wide (f/1.five, f/two.4)	16-MP ultrawide (f/ii.2); 12-MP dual-pixel broad (f/ane.5, f/ii.iv); 12-MP telephoto (f/2.4)	16-MP ultrawide (f/2.2); 12-MP dual-pixel wide (f/1.v, f/two.4); 12-MP telephoto (f/2.iv)
Front Camera	32MP (f/2.2)	10MP (f/1.9)	10MP (f/1.9)	10-MP dual pixel (f/1.9), 8-MP depth-sensing (f/2.ii)
Battery Size	4,500 mAh	3,100 mAh	3,400 mAh	4,100 mAh
Battery Life (Hrs:Mins)	Not withal tested	9:41	x:nineteen	12:35
Size	6.4 ten 3 10 0.32 inches	v.6 x 2.75 x 0.three inches	5.9 x two.77 x 0.3 inches	6.2 x two.91 x 0.iii inches
Weight	6.six ounces	v.29 ounces	5.5 ounces	6.17 ounces
Colors	Prism Black	Prism Black, Prism White, Prism Blue, Prism Greenish (except U.South.), Canary Yellow (except U.S.), Flamingo Pink (except U.K.)	Prism Black, Prism White, Prism Blueish, Prism Green (except U.S.), Flamingo Pink (except U.K.)	Flamingo Pink, Prism Blackness, Prism White, Prism Blue, Prism Light-green, Ceramic White, Ceramic Black

Galaxy S10 Lite vs. Galaxy S10: Toll and availability

As the Lite proper name might propose, the Milky way S10 Lite costs less than the Galaxy S10 — merely not quite as much as nosotros would have imagined dorsum in January 2020 when Samsung first introduced the telephone.

That's because the Galaxy S20 later on came forth, and Samsung opted to go on the S10 models around, cut prices by $150 to appeal to users who found its new phones too expensive. Equally a result, the Galaxy S10 went from costing $899 to $749.

The Galaxy S10 Light, which has been on sale since April, costs $650 at Amazon, All-time Purchase and Mint. Best Buy knocks $100 off the toll if you lot actuate the phone when yous purchase it.

It'southward a wider price gap with the Galaxy S10 Plus, which at present costs $849 later its Galaxy S20-inspired price cut. Only the Galaxy S10e remains the cheapest Galaxy South model, with a sub-$600 cost tag.

Galaxy S10 Lite vs. Milky way S10: Design and brandish

At six.4 ten 3 x 0.32 inches, the Galaxy S10 Calorie-free is noticeably taller and wider than the Galaxy S10 (5.nine x two.77 x 0.3 inches). The newer telephone weighs more, also — half-dozen.six ounces compared with v.five ounces for the S10. Some of that is to accommodate a larger screen, every bit you get a 6.7-inch display with the S10 Lite, versus half dozen.1 inches for the S10. (The Calorie-free'due south screen is even larger than the Milky way S10 Plus' six.4-inch panel.) The S10 Lite also incorporates plastic in its casing to help proceed costs downward.

The Galaxy S10 introduced the world to the Infinity O display, which features a pigsty punch for the front camera. That'southward on the right side of the screen for the S10 and S10e, only the S10 Lite moves it to the center, much like the Milky way Note x and the Galaxy S20 lineup.

The display on the S10 Lite may be larger, but it'southward non as sharp. Samsung went with a Total HD+ resolution (2400 x 1080) for the S10 Lite, while the S10 sports a 3040 x 1440 resolution. (The S10 Lite's resolution is a piffling sharper than the Milky way S10e'south 2160 x 1080 display.) The S10 Lite turns to a Super AMOLED panel instead of the Dynamic AMOLED screen found in other S10 models. Nosotros'd look that means the colors on the S10 Calorie-free may not exist as authentic as they are on the S10, merely we'll still need to exam the telephone's display to be sure.

Galaxy S10 Lite v Galaxy S10 — Galaxy S10 (Paradigm credit: Samsung Galaxy S10)

You get a wider choice of colors with the Galaxy S10, which is bachelor in Prism Blackness, Prism White, Prism Bluish and Flamingo Pink. (Outside of the U.S., there'south besides a Prism Green option.) The S10 Light just features Prism Black for U.S. customers.

Galaxy S10 Low-cal vs. Galaxy S10: Cameras

You'll go quite a different camera setup on the Galaxy S10 Light, even though it has three rear lenses, but like the Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus. (The Galaxy S10e makes do with just ii rear cameras.) The difference lies in which cameras Samsung has selected for the S10 Light.

Like the S10 and S10e, the S10 Lite has a broad-angle lens as its primary shooter, augmented past an ultrawide-angle lens. The main camera on the S10 Lite packs in more than megapixels — 48MP with an f/2.0 aperture, compared with the 12MP main lens with variable aperture on the S10. The ultrawide-angle lens on the S10 Lite is 12 MP with an aperture of f/two.ii, compared with the 16MP (f/2.2) ultrawide shooter on the other S10 models.

It's the third lens that marks the biggest difference from the regular S10, which features a telephoto lens to support an optical zoom. The S10 Lite goes a different road with a 5MP macro lens that figures to aid with shooting objects shut up, but it sounds similar you'll have to rely on a digital zoom when you want to zoom in on a subject area. (Nosotros haven't tested the S10 Light's cameras, but nosotros're not a fan of macro lenses in general.)

Up forepart, the S10 Lite features a 32MP selfie cam, which sports more megapixels than the ten-MP front camera on the S10 and S10e. The S10 Plus has two front lenses to help with portrait effects — something you won't get with the S10 Lite.

The Galaxy S10 takes solid pictures, though information technology can't quite keep upwardly with top camera phones like the Pixel 4 and iPhone 11 Pro. We're interested in seeing if the S10 Lite's photos can measure up, peculiarly after a software update available to the S10 models introduced some of the camera features that debuted with the Galaxy S20 this spring. The S10 Light will be able to take advantage of Unmarried Take in which the telephone captures different pictures all at once from its many lenses, Pro Video for greater control over settings and Night Hyperlapse for fourth dimension-lapse videos shot in depression light.

Galaxy S10 Low-cal vs. Milky way S10: Performance

In that location'southward niggling deviation in the mobile processor powering these dissimilar S10 models. Like the balance of the S10 family, the S10 Lite runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor. That was Qualcomm's latest and greatest chipset when the S10 debuted last year, but the fleck maker has since introduced the Snapdragon 865, which at present powers the Galaxy S20 lineup, and the Snapdragon 865 Plus, which is inside the Galaxy Annotation 20 and Galaxy Annotation 20 Ultra. That could explain why Samsung went to the Snapdragon 855 for its so-chosen Lite phone.

We'd expect the Galaxy S10 Lite to come up pretty close to the S10 on benchmarking tests, though the extra memory on some models of the S10 may give it a slight border. We'll need to test Samsung's new phone to ostend.

The S10 Lite does sacrifice in the areas of retentiveness and storage. The U.S. version of the Galaxy S10 Low-cal features 8GB of RAM. (In that location's a 6GB version in other parts of the earth.) That matches what you get with the Milky way S10, merely you tin up the memory to 12GB in the Galaxy S10 Plus.

With Samsung's older S10 models, you have a choice in storage options — 128GB for the base model and either 256GB for the S10e or 512GB for the S10. As for the S10 Lite, you lot're stuck with 128GB of on-device storage.

Galaxy S10 Lite vs. Galaxy S10: Battery life

Battery power is i area where yous're not sacrificing at all with the Galaxy S10 Lite. In fact, we wouldn't exist surprised if Samsung's Low-cal phone outlasts the regular S10.

That'southward considering the Galaxy S10 Lite comes with a four,500-mAh bombardment, a massive upgrade over the three,400-mAh power pack inside the Galaxy S10. The latter telephone lasted 10 hours and 19 minutes on our battery test, in which nosotros take the phone surf the web continuously over LTE until it runs out of power.

The S10's result is slightly above average for smartphones, and so y'all'd call up the S10 Lite and its bigger battery should acme that, fifty-fifty with the S10 Lite's bigger screen. (The S10 Plus has a six.four-inch screen, after all, but its 4,100-mAh bombardment helped it last 12 hours and 35 minutes on our examination, placing information technology amidst the devices with the best phone bombardment life.)

You won't exist able to wirelessly charge your Galaxy S10 Lite, which also ways that the Wireless PowerShare characteristic that lets other S10 models charge upwards other devices isn't available here. The S10 Lite does support 25-watt fast charging, though.

Milky way S10 Lite vs. Milky way S10: Software

You won't find much difference between these Milky way S10 models when information technology comes to software. The S10 Lite ships with Android 10 and Samsung's new OneUI 2.0 interface out of the box, while older S10 models had to be upgraded to the new OS, having shipped with Android 9 Pie last year.

Milky way S10 Lite vs. Galaxy S10: Outlook

Nosotros'll admit that some of our enthusiasm for the Galaxy S10 Lite has dimmed since nosotros've learned about the $650 price. While that's still less than what the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10 Plus cost, even afterward their cost cuts, other Android phones have come up along that deliver more than features for a similar price. The OnePlus 8, for example, costs $699, and you get a Snapdragon 865 chipset with 5G connectivity and a 90Hz display with that telephone.

Still, if you're committed to getting a Samsung phone merely recoil at the Milky way S20's $999 starting price, the merchandise-offs between the Galaxy S10 Calorie-free and the regular S10 are notable, if not deal breakers for most people. Colors may not be as authentic on the S10 Calorie-free's brandish, simply y'all're getting a bigger screen. You lot can also expect performance that'southward comparable to Samsung's more expensive S10 models, and bombardment life could be better. The biggest sacrifice appears to be in the cameras, peculiarly if you use zoom for a lot of shots and demand a practiced telephoto lens.

We can offer a more than definitive verdict on how the S10 Lite compares with other S10 models once we have a adventure to thoroughly test this new phone.

Philip Michaels is a senior editor at Tom'due south Guide. He has strong opinions about Apple, the Oakland Athletics and erstwhile movies. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.