The Upgrade

Review: Samsung’s Galaxy S10+ Is a Nearly Perfect Android

A great choice as long as you’re not super concerned about security

“Anniversary” devices are fraught with risk. A company like Samsung, now rolling out its 10th suite of Galaxy S phones, wants to celebrate an important brand without alienating customers who have grown accustomed to certain signatures. An incremental update won’t do, but radical changes could risk alienating the base—and result in a sales flop.

With the Android 9-based Samsung Galaxy S10+ ($999) Samsung has, a decade after delivering the first Galaxy handset, effectively threaded that needle, delivering a thin, light, and powerful handset that’s clearly a part of the Galaxy bloodline, while also taking the brand to places it’s never been before.

When I raced through key updates on three of Samsung’s new Galaxy S10 models during my brief hands-on a few weeks ago, I was impressed. A fingerprint reader was hidden away under the virtually edge-to-edge screen. The phones could share battery power wirelessly with other Qi-enabled devices, and there were more camera lens options than ever before. On that day, I walked away understanding the essence of the new Galaxy S10 line, if not the individual phones themselves.