In early 2020 the Galaxy S10 series was preparing to retire. A year earlier it had introduced the world’s first 5G phone and brought the surprisingly popular S10e model alongside the usual vanilla S10 and plus phones. But there was barely time for one last hurray before the S20 series launched in February.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite was announced in early February 2020 and went on sale a month later, just days before the official introduction of the S20 models. In some ways it was a prototype for the Galaxy S20 FE: it used older but still premium hardware and cost less than the main series models.
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite
The Lite was a head above most of the other S10 members and we mean that quite literally – with a 6.7” display (with a tall 20:9 aspect ratio to boot), it was 162.5mm tall , 75.6 mm wide and 8.1 mm thick, weighed 186 g. Only the Galaxy S10 5G, the first 5G phone mentioned above, was slightly larger.
That sizable display “only” had an FHD+, 1,080 x 2,400 px resolution, which looked unappealing for what was labeled a flagship at the time. We didn’t know what was coming in 2021. Either way, it had HDR10+ support and an always-on display mode.
Other than the resolution, the only hint that this wasn’t a true flagship was the older Gorilla Glass 3+ protection (the others had upgraded to GG6). Well, the lack of an IP rating also stood out. The phone had an aluminum frame like its siblings, though it saved a few bucks by using a plastic back.
While things have changed in the years since, only a select few markets have gotten Snapdragon chipsets in 2019 and 2020: Samsung used Exynos throughout. However, the Galaxy S10 Lite was launched exclusively with the Snapdragon 855.
It was a year old at that point, but this was a very capable chipset that saw some use in 2020, including on Samsung’s first Galaxy Z Flip. However, it lacked the staying power of the Snapdragon 865/870.
On the S10 Lite the chipset was tied to 6 or 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (or 512GB in some configurations, no 256GB option, though). The UFS 2.1 internal memory could be expanded with microSD cards that took the place of SIM2. The phone launched with Android 10 with One UI 2 and received Android 13 with One UI 5 a few months ago.
Since this was a “lite” model, Samsung apparently cut corners by skipping the 12MP 2x telephoto lens that was featured on the other S10 models. However, the Lite may have had something better: a 48MP sensor that supported 2x lossless zoom.
We say “better” as it was larger, a 1/2.0″ sensor with 0.8µm pixels (1.6µm with binning), compared to the 1/2.55″ 12MP sensor, 4 µm used on other S10 phones. It also had OIS, though it didn’t perform particularly well when we tested it. Also, some of the fancier technologies have been left out, no Dual Pixel AF and no dual aperture. The phone could record 4K video at just 30fps, while its siblings did 4K at 60fps.
The Lite also came with a 12MP ultrawide camera (rather than 16MP) and also featured a 5MP macro camera to bring the count to three. Like the main camera, the selfie cam had a larger and higher resolution sensor than the main S10 phones: 32 MP 1/2.8″ (0.8 µm) for the Lite, 10 MP 1/3″ ( 1.22 µm) for the others.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite also has several firsts to its name. It’s Samsung’s first phone with 45W fast charging. Sure, the Galaxy S20 Ultra matched it a month later, but the Lite was first. And the Galaxy S10 and S10+ only charged 15W, even the larger S10 5G came in at 25W (as did the S20 and S20+).
They did have wireless charging, though, which the Lite lacked. However, with its large 4,500mAh battery, the phone scored an impressive 110 hours endurance score.
The other first is less positive: the Lite was the first Galaxy S phone ever to not have a 3.5mm headphone jack. None of them do these days, the S20 models don’t, nor do the later ones, but the S10 Lite was first.
The Galaxy S10 Lite has been positioned as something of a flagship killer. However, the features and prices have been carefully designed so that they do not target Samsung’s flagships, but rather trail other premium phones from more affordable brands.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite launched at €650 in early February 2020. For comparison, the vanilla S10 cost $900/€900 a year earlier, and even the tiny S10e cost $750/€750. year is a long time in technology and the S10 premium phones had taken price drops when the S10 Lite arrived. For example, a $150 cut brought the S10 to $750 in the US and the S10e to $600, this was a couple of months before the S10 Lite launched in the same market for $650.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite was launched hand in hand with the Galaxy Note10 Lite
Of course, this was not the only Lite launched in early 2020, Samsung also launched the Galaxy Note10 Lite. But we’ll save that for another time.
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