4 big features missing from the Samsung Galaxy S10

These are the biggest features missing from the Samsung Galaxy S10

Samsung’s latest trio of flagship phones are now available to buy. There’s the more affordable Samsung Galaxy S10e sitting at the lower end, with the regular Samsung Galaxy S10 and the larger, pricier Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus which offers a more feature-rich experience.

These are three of the best phones out right now and the S10 Plus is probably the best Android phone you can buy right now. But they don’t have everything we want and some sacrifices have been made.

• Read our Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus review

1. A dedicated night mode in the camera

One of the most glaring omissions from the S10 is a dedicated Night Mode for the camera.

Night modes have worked to great effect on other phones we’ve reviewed, including the Pixel 3 and Huawei Mate 20 Pro. They tend to make it easier to capture low-light shots by rapidly shooting multiple snaps at differing exposures and then joining them together. This leaves you with a brighter picture.

Instead, Samsung is sticking with its dual-aperture camera: this widens the lens from f/2.4 to f/1.5 when the light is low and lets more light into the sensor. It’s a shame that in our review of the S10 Plus we found it just didn’t work quite as well as some of the competition.

• Read our Pixel 3 review

Low-light photos are one of the main weak points of the S10, especially when compared to the Pixel 3.

2. Lack of improvements to the wired fast charging

We’d also like to see faster wired charging speeds. The S10 charges up exactly like the S9 and falls behind phones like the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and Xiaomi Mi 9 which, in the Mate 20’s case, can charge up fully in less than an hour. You’ll be waiting more like 110 minutes for the S10 Plus to fully go from 0-100%.

With faster charging becoming much more common – even the sub-£300 Moto G7 Plus has 27w charging – it seems strange Samsung decided against adding it.

Interestingly the S10 5G does support 25w charging and comes with a more powerful charger.

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3. Better battery optimisations on the Exynos model

Battery life (especially on the Exynos 9820 models we’ve got in the UK) isn’t the best across any of the Galaxy S10 models. In our review of the S10 Plus we found that while it lasted the day, it wouldn’t always reliably get us to bedtime with heavy-use.

Reviews we’ve seen of the Snapdragon 855 model have generally been a lot more glowing about the phone’s endurance. So it seems like it could be an issue with the Samsung-made chipset rather than the battery itself.

Hopefully we’ll have a Snapdragon 855 model in for review soon to properly test and compare the two S10 versions.

4. Sort out the Bixby button

Sitting on the side of the Galaxy S10, the Bixby button remains one of the only design annoyances you’ll find on a Samsung flagship.

The biggest issue is that even though it can now be turned off or switched to a different action, it can’t be mapped to open Google Assistant. It also can’t be switched from its original function without signing into a Samsung account.

Accidental presses of the Bixby are common and it still feels like an addition that doesn’t need to be there.

What features do you think the Galaxy S10 is missing? Let us know @TrustedReviews