Flashback: The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite has exceeded its weight

In early 2020, the Galaxy S10 series was preparing to retire. A year earlier, it introduced the world’s first 5G phone and brought the surprisingly popular S10e model along with the vanilla and more usual S10 phones. But there was just enough 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 high-end hardware and it cost less than the main-series models.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite

The Lite stood a head above most other S10 members and we mean that literally – with a 6.7-inch screen (with an aspect ratio of 20:9 to boot) it measured 162, 5mm high, 75.6mm wide and 8.1mm thick, it weighed 186g. Only the Galaxy S10 5G, the aforementioned first-ever 5G phone, was slightly larger.

This sizable screen had “only” an FHD+, 1080 x 2400 pixel resolution, which at the time felt nasty for what was billed as a flagship. We didn’t know what would come in 2021. Anyway, it had HDR10+ support and an always-on display mode.

Besides the resolution, the only clue that this wasn’t a true flagship was the older Gorilla Glass 3+ protection (the others had moved to GG6). Well, the lack of an IP rating also stood out. The phone had an aluminum frame like its siblings, although it saved a few bucks by using a plastic back.

Although things have changed in the years since, in 2019 and 2020 only a few select markets had Snapdragon chipsets – Samsung used Exynos everywhere else. However, the Galaxy S10 Lite launched exclusively with the Snapdragon 855.

It was a year old at the time, but it was a very capable chipset that saw use in 2020, including on Samsung’s first Galaxy Z Flip. However, it lacked the durability that the Snapdragon 865/870 had.

On the S10 Lite, the chipset was hooked up to 6 or 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (or 512GB in some configurations, no 256GB option, though). UFS 2.1 internal storage could be expanded with microSD cards which replaced SIM2. The phone launched with Android 10 with One UI 2 and received Android 13 with One UI 5 a few months ago.

As it was a “lightweight” model, Samsung apparently cut corners by skipping the 12MP 2x telephoto lens that featured on other S10 models. However, the Lite might have had something better – a 48MP sensor supporting 2x lossless zoom.

We say “better” because it was larger, a 1/2.0″ sensor with 0.8µm pixels (1.6µm with binning), compared to the 12MP 1/2.55″ 1.4 sensor µm which was used on other S10 phones. It even had OIS, although it didn’t work particularly well when we tested it. Also, some of the finer tech has 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 was also equipped with a 12MP ultrawide camera (instead of 16MP) and also featured a 5MP macro camera to bring the number to three. Like the main camera, the selfie camera had a larger, higher-resolution sensor than the main S10 phones – a 32MP 1/2.8″ (0.8µm) for the Lite, 10MP 1/3″ (1.22µm ) for the others.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite also has several firsts under its belt. It’s the first Samsung phone with 45W fast charging. Sure, the Galaxy S20 Ultra matched it a month later, but the Lite was the first. And the Galaxy S10 and S10+ only charged 15W, even the larger S10 5G exceeded 25W (as did the S20 and S20+).

They did, however, have wireless charging, which the Lite lacked. Still, with its large 4,500mAh battery, the phone got an impressive 110 hours of battery life.

The other first is less positive – the Lite was the very first Galaxy S phone to lack a 3.5mm headphone jack. None of them do these days, not the S20 models, nor those that followed, but the S10 Lite was the first.

The Galaxy S10 Lite was positioned as a kind of flagship killer. However, the features and pricing have been carefully designed not to target Samsung’s own flagships, but rather other high-end phones from more affordable brands.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite launched at €650 in early February 2020. For comparison, the vanilla S10 was $900/€900 a year earlier and even the smaller S10e was $750/€750. A year is a long time in tech and the high-end S10 phones had suffered price cuts by the time the S10 Lite arrived. For example, a $150 discount brought the S10 down to $750 in the US and the S10e down to $600, that was a few months before the S10 Lite launched in the same market for $650.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite launched hand in hand with Galaxy Note10 Lite

Of course, that wasn’t the only Lite to launch in early 2020, Samsung also released the Galaxy Note10 Lite. But we’ll save that for another time.