Samsung Galaxy S10 vs Apple iPhone XS/XR: Where the contenders make it and miss it

There are countless remarkable and first-of-its-kind features in the Galaxy 10S series. From the Infinity-O screens to the camera, the phone doubling as a charging pad, there’s a lot to admire and love about the phone.

– Display: The iPhone XS comes with a 5.8 inch Super Retina Display. The Samsung S10 comes with a much bigger display – 6.1-inch QHD edge to edge AMOLED with a 19:9 aspect ratio, and Corning Gorilla Glass v6 (front) for protection.

With the Galaxy range of smartphones, Samsung is also ushering in an era of world-class cinematic viewing experience from the comfort of one’s palm. With Dynamic AMOLED Infinity-O display screens and Full HD+ resolution, the S10 series provides clear displays in bright daylight and even at night (by reducing blue-lights by almost 42%). The display runs to the very edge and with a punch-hole display, leaving little room for bezels.

Pair this experience with Dolby Atmos sound and AKG stereo speakers, for top-notch volume and clarity and we know we have a winner.

– Storage: Yes there’s the Apple Cloud to store all those memories. But do you really need one when your phone comes with an expandable memory of 1.5 TB (Galaxy S10+)? S10 comes with 128 GB of storage plus an expandable memory of 512 GB. The iPhone XS has no option of expandable memory but comes with three options of 64, 128 and 256GB.

– Battery: The Samsung Galaxy series is built for an exclusive cinematic viewing experience and promises the best whether for gaming or viewing. And to uphold that promise the phone comes with a powerful battery that can provide power up to 24 hours. Of course, to sustain this, the phone comes with an upgraded battery compared to iPhone XS’s 2658 mAh, and also has a unique system in place to manage apps and the phone’s power usage. (S10 comes with 3400 mAh whereas S10+ with 4100 mAh).

The phones are designed for optimizing power usage. Considering its awe-inspiring display screen and battery life, it won’t be surprising to find a lot of mobile apps for games and streaming to being used. This also means that mobile app development companies will now have to design apps that are high on resolution and display with minimal power consumption.

– Charging: A single device for all devices – that’s the concept Samsung is promising to bring into practice with the S10. The device almost acts like a common charging hub and supports wireless power share, for any other Samsung device compatible with Qi wireless charging. By simply resting other devices/accessories (namely the Galaxy Buds) and/or other phones on the back of the S10, the phone can charge the device. Impressive.

When it comes to the concept of a common charging pad, the iPhone XS offers no such stellar feature (the closest we have seen is in Huawei Mate 20 Pro). Now, all we got to do is wait for users to actually start using the phone and we’ll know exactly how well this feature performs.

P.S. Might we just add that we can expect all other next-gen mobile phones to come with a similar feature.

– Camera: The S10 camera addresses the user’s diverse photography needs. Based on the model, the multi-camera is designed for keeping amateur and pro photography requirements in mind.

With 3 cameras on the back (S10 and S10+) against 2 for the iPhone XS, the Galaxy phone is a camera powerhouse. There’s a Telephoto camera (12 megapixels for zooming and shooting), a wide angle camera (12 megapixels for capturing daily moments) and an ultra-wide camera (16 megapixels for panoramas). Looks like the series is all geared up to put the camera crazy folks in a frenzy.

– Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor: The S10 and S10+ are redefining privacy and security with its one-of-a-kind ultrasonic fingerprint sensor embedded in the front screen. We did get a sneak peek into a lesser advanced in-screen fingerprint sensor technology with Huawei Mate 20 Pro and the mighty OnePlus 6T, but Galaxy S10 raises the bar with “vault-like” security.

To unlock phones, iPhones, on the other hand, uses its own facial recognition tool – Apple’s Face ID. (We can glimpse similar features in OnePlus handsets as well).

– Intelligent Performance Enhancer: This phone is designed to make life a lot easier for users. The intelligent performance enhancer recognizes how users use their mobile phones, adapts to and even preloads frequently used mobile apps for instant launch.

Samsung’s Galaxy S10 and S10+ are models designed to brag about. The features are envious and we can go on all day raving about it. But when something is of such premium quality, it comes with a striking price-tag attached to it as well. And that’s where consumers might take a step back.

– Price: Wallets are bound to go lighter with such alluring features being added to the smartphones. Samsung like its rival, Apple, is ready with 3 variations of its Galaxy phones, targeting a different audience and target groups.

The Samsung Galaxy S10, the flagship product is priced at $899 almost a hundred dollar lesser than its rival, the iPhone XS priced at $999. The Galaxy S10+ is priced at $999 while its competitor iPhone XS Max is priced at $1099. And, like the iPhone XR, Samsung too offers a more affordable model (with lesser features), the Galaxy S10e, priced at around $749.

While the Galaxy S10 series is still priced lower than iPhone XS it’s still a lot more compared to its previous models. But the TG based models and price range might benefit and help sales. As a brand, Samsung is aware of a price sensitive market, and offers some temptation:

– Add-ons: Pre-ordering the Galaxy S10 series has its own benefits. The new Samsung Galaxy Buds (wireless headphones) is being offered without additional charges on pre-orders. This is quite unlike Apple where the AirPods needs to be purchased separately if one intends to.

We can also expect trade-in for an old handset to boost sales.

Galaxy S10 series vs iPhone XS: Which side should you be bending

This is where all loyalty and fandom will come into play. At the outset, the Galaxy S10 looks like a phone to be invested in. While the S10+ comes with its own greatness, the 6.4-inch screen might not work for many. The S10e is quite a superior grade model but is not in line with some of the unique features of its big brothers.

If you have to choose between the iPhone XS and Galaxy S10, we would say, go for the latter, but after April/May. With the amount of money, you would be spending on the phone, better wait for reviews on the actual performance of Galaxy S10 than just invest in it based on features!

If you like our review of Samsung Galaxy S10 or have more thoughts to share on it, don’t forget to leave us a comment below.

Galaxy S10 feature notes, Source: Galaxy Unpacked 2019