Samsung Electronics has unveiled three new premium smartphones, which will go on sale in South Africa early next month.
The Galaxy S10e, S10 and S10+ were officially launched at an event in San Francisco yesterday that was live-streamed to venues across the world.
The South Korean electronics manufacturer normally unveils its flagship devices at Mobile World Congress, which is happening in Barcelona next week. However, this year, the company decided to push it earlier so it can come out ahead of its competitors that also use the trade show as a launch pad.
Justin Hume, Samsung Electronics South Africa director for integrated mobility, says the Galaxy S10 builds on the company's legacy of creating smartphones over the past decade, and delivers breakthrough display, camera and performance innovations. He says each of the three premium devices was built for a unique consumer in mind.
The devices are slightly more square-shaped than their predecessors, but other than that, from the outside they appear similar in appearance to the S9 range.
The display has received a major upgrade, as has the rear camera set-up, and there is now a fingerprint sensor embedded into the screen instead of on the back of the phone.
Samsung introduced Dynamic AMOLED screens to these devices, which it says gives the most accurate colour display on any mobile device. This claim is backed up by DisplayMate, an industry standard for optimising, calibrating, testing, evaluating and comparing all types of displays.
Last year, only the Galaxy S9+ model had a dual camera set-up, and the S9 only had one. This year, both the S10 and S10+ have three cameras (12MP wide-angle, 12MP telephoto and 16MP ultra-wide) and the S10e has two (12MP wide and 16MP ultra-wide).
The 5.8-inch Galaxy S10e, the cheapest of the new smartphones, has a recommended retail price of R15 999 with 128GB internal storage. The 6.1-inch Galaxy S10 costs R18 999 for the same amount of storage. Prices for the 6.4-inch S10+ start at R20 999 with 128GB internal storage, R25 999 with 512GB, and R35 999 with 1TB.
Samsung claims the batteries in the S10 range will last 25% longer than the S9, and the S10 and S10+ have Wireless PowerShare, which makes it possible to turn the device into a wireless charging pad. This means it can be used to charge other Qi-certified smartphones and wearables wirelessly.
Samsung also unveiled a 5G-enabled smartphone in the S10 range, but this device will not be available in South Africa at this stage.
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