First thoughts: iPhone 11, Pro and iPhone Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10+

It’s insane to think where we’ve arrived in the smartphone world. In their aim to cover as many tastes and a wide variety of budgets, manufacturers have long abandoned the idea of having just The One flagship phone. Instead, they have a few sibling flagships — released at the same time and covering different needs and price ranges.

Just last year, Apple made the ambiguous customer’s life a living hell by releasing a total of 3 iPhones together. Then, Samsung followed suit by dropping three different Galaxy S10 phones (not counting the 5G model and don’t even get me started on the Note 10 series). Now, Apple is bombarding us with three new models yet again and you may be sitting there, wondering “Do I want one of these new iPhones or one of the Galaxy S10 phones?”. Either that or you are here for the unavoidable controversy, which ensues when a high-class Android phone clashes with the iPhone in a piece that’s supposed to be informative, but you know deep down inside that it’s probably riddled with opinions.

In any case — let’s talk about the new iPhones vs the fairly new Galaxies!

Hardware vs hardware, iOS vs One UI

Alright, so it’s always been a bit weird to compare hardware between iPhones and competitors. Apple, obviously, uses its own chips — the Apple A13 Bionic in the case of the iPhone 11 — and they’ve always been stellar in terms of performance. The Galaxy S10 series use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, which is also great… not “as” great, but a pretty powerful system-on-chip none the less. We don’t have any benchmarks for Apple’s new phones yet, but here’s how the iPhone XS’s chip compared to the Galaxy S10:



We don’t know how much RAM the new iPhone pack just yet, but here’s some info from the past. The iPhone XR had 3 GB of RAM, while the iPhone XS and XS Max had 4 GB of RAM. Chances that they would get any big upgrade this year are slim. The Galaxy phones… well, they go big — 8 GB RAM on the starting tiers for all of them.

But here’s the crux of the situation — iOS and Android treat RAM very, very differently. So, it’s kind of hard to compare the raw specs as they are. But that segues perfectly into:

Software

Apple’s phones run on iOS. Of course — the exclusive software experience, which you only get if you have an Apple device. iOS is stable fast and fluid, yet not without its faults. It’s not big on customizability and it’s not really built for multi-tasking. Forget about picture-in-picture, split-screen, or rapidly switching between apps who happen to stay active in the background.

Still, the fact that Apple makes the software and hardware here allows it to squeeze out great performance and give app developers a pretty good platform to make great apps and games for. So, there’s pros and cons — some people love iOS, some hate it, and then there are those who are infinitely torn and always in flux — sometimes they drop it, sometimes they go back to it.

Samsung’s One UI is generously spread on top of Android 9 Pie on the Galaxy S10 series. That means Theme store, icon packs, split screen and PiP, insane customizability and a bucket-load of features. An Android phone is a poweruser’s playground and the Samsung devices just offer you all they can. Again, it’s a love-it-or-hate-it thing.

Let’s take a closer look at the different phones:
Obviously, these two will be compared fairly regularly. Not because they are incredibly similar but because they are the “cheapest option” in their respective group. However, they are very different beasts.

For example, the iPhone 11 is not the smallest iPhone you can buy — it sits between the iPhone Pro and iPhone Pro Max in terms of size, with a nice 6.1-inch screen, which is both comfortable and not way-too-huge. The Galaxy S10e, on the other hand, is Samsung’s compact flagship — it’s so small it’s cute and it’s so light you will love how easily pocketable it is (I am not implying you try to steal one, by the way).


In terms of screen quality — it’s an easy thing to call. The Galaxy S10e uses Samsung’s top-tier Super AMOLED panel, while the iPhone 11 has an LCD screen. And yes, Apple’s LCD is outstanding in terms of detail, color-reproduction, and viewing angles… but Samsung’s Super AMOLED is just amazing. The little S10e crams more pixels in its smaller display and it looks so, so sharp! The iPhone 11 will, presumably, have the very same screen like the iPhone XR. And previous experience tells us that it’s very good… but not extraordinary.

There is also the very different manner of how you unlock the devices — the Galaxy S10e has a fingerprint scanner embedded into its power button on the side while the iPhone 11 uses Apple’s Face ID, same as its more expensive brethren. Which one is more comfortable? It has to be Face ID, really — while it may have its quirks on rare occasions, it is generally very reliable and there’s nothing like having your phone unlock the instant you look at it. To top it off, Apple touted that it’s now upgraded and can detect your face at wider angles, which we are impatient to test!



The Galaxy S10e’s side-mounted fingerprint scanner is fast and accurate, but not as comfortable to use. Consider this — if the device is on a mount or lying on a table, you’d almost always need to fidget with it, pick it up, or at least move it to hit that scanning sweet spot. This is why in-display fingerprint scanners are so highly-coveted — you can simply touch the front of your device to unlock it.



In the camera department, we have direct competition. Both phones are outfitted with a regular wide-angle and an ultra-wide-angle camera. They are fairly close in specs — the iPhone 11 has 12 MP sensors under both lenses, while the S10e has a 12 MP main sensor and a 16 MP one for the ultra-wide camera. The S10e also has slightly wider apertures on both sensors to provide a shallower depth of field and let more light in.

Really, we can look at the specs on paper all we like, but we will have to wait to get our hands on an iPhone 11 for this one. Apple talked a lot about camera improvements, but we all know that Samsung’s flagships are no slouches in the camera department as well. Needless to say, both phones will have great cameras… Which one is better? To be continued…

Moving on to “actual flagship” land. These devices represent their respective lines best — they pack the full technological punch, no corners were cut, no features were omitted (*ahem* not counting the Galaxy S10 5G’s ToF camera). Interestingly enough, we see a slight role-reversal here — the Samsung phone is bigger than the Apple phone, as opposed to the previous category.

But not uncomfortably big… the Galaxy S10 is incredibly thin and light and just a joy to hold and use. Its 6.1-inch screen sits at that threshold of being large enough to enjoy media on, while not crossing into gargantuan land. It’s on the verge of being called a “big phone” but somehow manages to escape that category with its ergonomic design. Its fingerprint scanner is on the front — an ultrasonic scanner hidden under the display in that comfortable position.

The iPhone 11 Pro is almost the same size as the iPhone XS. It’s very, very slightly bigger and thicker, but we are talking halves of millimeters here. So, judging by previous experience, the iPhone 11 Pro is that super-pocketable, comfy-to-hold, one-hand-use iPhone. It’s not exactly a multimedia machine with that 5.8-inch screen, and it’s not the best for two-thumb-texting if you have bigger hands. Also, don’t worry, this one has an OLED panel now, which is gorgeous. It’s essentially the most powerful iPhone, squished into a fairly compact shell.