Well, well, well! What do we have here? If it isn’t the battle of the two biggest tech brands, each presenting their favorite champion – Samsung with the Galaxy S10 and Apple sending forth the iPhone XS – begging us to let them go to war. Well, their wish is our command! Blow the battle horn, lads, because these two warriors are ready to fight it out!
The war between Samsung and Apple has been going on for many years and the comparisons were inevitable each time a new phone was launched by either party. And now, this grudge match has been renewed with the introduction of Samsung’s newest big gun, Galaxy S10.
The last year’s Galaxy S9 felt a little tired and clichéd compared to the fresh and shiny new iPhone X, but oh, how the tables have turned. Now, Samsung’s the one coming out swinging a bold new look with a dazzling display that has a sleek punch-hole cutout for the camera, rather than a big notch at the top. The end result looks nothing less than… shall we say, stunning? But that’s not all. Samsung has packed in a few neat upgrades within the big #S10. Meanwhile, Apple went the refinement route with it’s latest flagship – iPhone Xs.
Here’s the big question: Is the new Galaxy S10 good enough to reclaim Samsung’s place at or near the top of the charts, or will this slick new look fall short against Apple’s ultra-premium offering? There’s only one way to decide! A showdown!
Here’s how these two contenders stack up against each other.
Design – Notch Or No Notch, That’s The Question
Don’t take me wrong. I am still a loyal Apple-ite, and a huge admirer of Apple’s awe-inspiring notched design inlaid with hardware controls and Apple’s signature lightning connector at the base. Isn’t it mesmerizing how the incredibly slim strip of bezel all around the display makes for a really immersive screen-viewing experience? And with the stainless steel frame and Apple’s trademark minimalism at play, the result is subdued but substantial, opulent yet elegant.
Coming to our latest contender, it’s clear that Samsung has a fighting chance with the new Galaxy S10. Thanks to the punch-hole approach, Samsung has surprisingly kept the 3.5 mm jack, it’s predecessor’s USB-C port, ditched the top and bottom bezel from last year’s phone and delivered a more powerful face in the process. It boasts the same metal casing as Apple. But sandwiched between glass, Samsung’s S10 might pack more of a punch.
Display: Samsung Against Samsung
At 2436×1125, many will say that the iPhone XS’ screen is more (just a smidge, to be honest) high-res than 1080p, but then again, the end product looks brilliant, yet all the same. As usual, the latest flagship sports a bold 5.8-inch OLED panel that’s crisp and
Coming to Samsung, this year’s S10 comes decked with a 6.1-inch AMOLED Infinity-O display. Now, if that’s not enough for Apple homeboys to turn green with envy, there’s more. Samsung’s OLED display comes with an HDR10+ certification, which means an even higher res display that is now stretched to 3040×1440.
Sounds like Samsung saved the best stuff for itself with this new Dynamic AMOLED Infinity-O display. And unlike Apple that ditched Touch ID with the introduction of the iPhone X, S10 comes with a screen embedded fingerprint sensor.
Camera – Sharpshooters
The Galaxy S10’s predecessor skipped the multi-camera trend by sticking with a single lens rear camera and instead, gave it unique dual-aperture abilities. But the newest variant decided to go all in by keeping the dual-aperture feature and adding a triple-camera setup on the back. That sure is a lot of camera lenses to shoot with!
Here’s a breakdown. The main camera comes with a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens that can swap between f/1.5 and f/2.4 settings, a 16MP ultra-wide lens at f/2.2 and lastly, a 12MP telephoto lens at f/2.4.
Meanwhile, Apple opted for a pair of 12MP rear camera shooters, with a wide-angle at f/1.8 and telephoto at f/2.4 for its iPhone XS. It’s an excellent setup, capable of capturing impressive detail and accurate colors. And with the new Smart HDR feature that combines multiple successive shots to draw out highlights and shadows, the images look even more beautiful.
On the selfie front, the Galaxy S10 comes with a rather basic 10MP (f/1.9) selfie-cam, whereas the iPhone XS has Apple’s TrueDepth system (including a 7MP camera), which packs in face-scanning 3D sensors for features like Face ID security and Animoji.
Even though Apple’s camera works like a charm most of the time, except when the ‘memory full’ notification pops out, and takes swell selfies, Samsung’s flagships have had reliably great cameras over the years but haven’t been at the absolute top of the pile of late. But this triple camera setup changes things!
Performance: Bionic Power and Security
There’s no processor more powerful than Apple’s A12 Bionic. And we have Geekbench’s benchmarking to back up that statement. The results show a significant advantage in both single-core and multi-core testing, and there isn’t an Android chip born yet that can match up.
Yup, that includes the Samsung’s Exynos 9820 chip that powers the Galaxy S10 in Europe, as well as the slightly weaker Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 swapped in for the States. Though they both seem to be fast as a flash when it comes to actual usage, the raw numbers still point to more power within the iPhone XS.
But what Samsung lost on the processor, it made up on the RAM front. The Galaxy S10 comes with a lot more RAM (8GB) to play with as opposed to just 4GB in the iPhone XS.
As for security, unlike Apple, Samsung is focusing on fingerprint authentication, thanks to its new under-display ultrasonic fingerprint scanner. Even though OnePlus 6 was the first one to jump the bandwagon, unlike OnePlus, S10 doesn’t require the screen to be turned on to detect a fingerprint. But to be fair, Apple mastered the art of facial recognition software, and it cannot be fooled (It has been tested!), so why toy with another security feature when the one you’ve developed is flawless! Plus Face Id is much more convenient to use than a fingerprint sensor, especially for a lazy bug like me.
Battery and Much More
As the Galaxy S10 comes with a 3400mAh battery pack, we’re expecting a little bit more longevity from the flagship here. Since Apple’s iPhone XS with 2,656 mAh battery power can last a full day with average usage but isn’t built to take much more of a beating from gaming and streaming, maybe the S10 will be a little more resilient.
Both the smartphones offer wireless charging, but only the Galaxy S10 boasts a PowerShare reverse wireless charging feature that lets you lend juice to other wirelessly chargeable phones or accessories.
In terms of storage, Samsung has the advantage here too. The base model of S10 comes with 128GB storage, and you can upgrade to 512GB, or if you are smart, you’ll just pop in a microSD card to boost the storage. Whereas for the iPhone XS, you have to pay extra $100 bucks to get the 128GB variant. Typical Apple! And of course, there’s no expandable storage in sight.
And once more for the people in the back – the Galaxy S10 has a 3.5mm headphone port. The iPhone XS doesn’t.
The Final Verdict
Samsung’s last year’s flagship, the Galaxy S9 was a bit underwhelming as compared to the fresh, innovative and unique iPhone X. But this year Samsung has a shown a lot more momentum with the significantly refreshed Galaxy S10 and its myriad of improvements.
And while the Galaxy S10 is pricier than its predecessor (of course it is!), the 65,000 INR price tag is still a strong 17,000 INR less than Apple’s premium iPhone XS. Assuming this year’s masterpiece will be sans glaring flaws or blowing batteries, in this Galaxy S10 vs iPhone Xs fight, the Korean conglomerate could end up being the best pick for most buyers.
