100 days with Samsung Galaxy S10+: no unpleasant surprises

When Samsung is mentioned in this period, all we can do is think about the delay of the Galaxy Fold, but in reality the folding smartphone project is an only marginal aspect of the smartphone sector of the South Korean company. In fact, even today the company's business is based on sales of its flagship devices and the new Galaxy S10 line is no exception.

• Samsung Galaxy S10+ review: the flagship with (few) compromises

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More and more positive than negative sides

After three months with the Galaxy S10+, the positive column is still considerably longer than the negative column. What makes me a happy owner of this smartphone are Samsung's greatest strengths, namely the design, hardware and, finally, great software. How can we forget one of the best features of this device: a display so bright, clear and defined that it certainly deserves a round of applause.

The hardware experience still works without any problem today and confirms once again the fact that Samsung has fully managed to avoid any kind of slowdown due to a poorly optimized software. In the past, I've never missed an opportunity to criticize the company's devices because of their slowdowns over time, but that's absolutely not the case when it comes to the Galaxy S10+. One of the merits is certainly to be attributed to the efficiency of the new SoC Exynos 9820 and 8GB of RAM to support.

Remaining on the hardware theme, you will surely be wondering how the battery will behave after all this time: well, I can say that the performance from this point of view has not changed at all and I still manage to complete my day with an abundant 30% residual charge after spending at least 4 hours and 30 minutes in front of the screen between WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Facebook, web browsing, e-mail and streaming music.

The camera continues to amaze

Despite the fact that a few days after the launch of Galaxy S10+, Huawei has shown a clear evolution of the photographic sector dedicated to smartphones with its P30 Pro, Samsung's camera is absolutely not to be criticized and satisfies the majority of users, especially since there has been a marked improvement over previous generations. The main sensor tends to be the same, but it's obvious that the manufacturer has worked a lot from a software point of view.

In fact, although the potential of the Galaxy S10+ camera was already good from the beginning, the software updates received in recent months have confirmed the intention to improve from this point of view. The night mode dedicated and activated manually is an example: its absence, strongly criticized by users (and in the front line by me), had no justification, but it seems that in the end Samsung has realized the error and has returned to its steps, integrating this feature in the April update and improving it later in May.

Of course, it is still legitimate to recognize the defeat of the Galaxy S10+ in the face of the potential of Pixel 3 XL and Huawei P30 Pro, which is why it is necessary for Samsung to go a little 'more' in the development of the next generation Galaxy S.

Apart from that, the shots are always sharp, bright and rich in color, although I have to say that the Samsung software sometimes acts a little too aggressively and tends to overlight the images. However, the overall look of each photo is extremely pleasant and you hardly ever need to make any changes before sharing them on social media.

Anyone who knows me will know that lately, I was able to try the zoom experience offered by OPPO and its Reno 10x Zoom, which is why the 2x telephoto lens from Samsung did not seem at all appropriate to the rest of the hardware. In short, after seeing the potential of the periscope from Huawei and OPPO, I immediately thought that the telephoto lens of Galaxy S10+ does nothing but take up useless space.

Constant updates and new features

As for the software, the One UI on Android 9 Pie basis on board the Galaxy S10+ is undoubtedly the best Samsung software to date and proves to be a significant step forward compared to the proposals of other brands. It's also true that even today there are some features and options that require some "training" to make them work properly, but if we were to talk about real problems, then I can safely say that I have never encountered them.

One of the aspects of the Galaxy S10+ that remains consistently weak in terms of experience is the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. Despite various updates (via OTA and not), this sensor is not absolutely as fast as the optical ones we are used to. The biggest problem is the time it takes to recognize the impression, which is uncertain in most cases and has forced me to use 2D facial recognition.

• Make the most of the One UI by activating these features

First impressions strengthened

In conclusion, after three months, my opinion on the Galaxy S10+ has not changed since the first impressions of March, on the contrary, it has simply strengthened my approval. The few and relatively small defects of this smartphone are nothing compared to the excellent features and functionality that it can offer. Moreover, thanks to its traditional price drop months after its official launch, the Galaxy S10+ is definitely the ideal candidate to buy if you are looking for a top of the range.