The recent announcement of two ‘Lite’ models for the Samsung Galaxy 10 range, is probably the last hurrah for this iteration of its flagship prior the launch of the S20. The S10 Lite is a bit of an oddity as the original S10e was supposed to be aimed at people who wanted a flagship phone but without the large price and a few extra features. So, does this attempt by Samsung to make the S range accessible to more people by shipping a phone with 2019 specifications in 2020 work? Lets’ look at the handsets one at a time.
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite
This packs a 6.7” Super AMOLED screen with 87.8% screen to body ratio and small pixels. This is bigger than both the S10 and S10+. The triple camera array is housed in a new rectangular block in the top left of the rear. This has an improved 48MP f/2.2 wide main lens backed up by a 12MP ultrawide and 5MP dedicated macro camera. On the front is a 32MP selfie, positioned centrally behind a small round pinhole.
Most of the other specs are the same or similar to the S10 with the exception of a fast charging 4500 mAh battery and the fact it ships with Android 10.
Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Lite
This handset is aimed at bring the Note range to more than just business people, to those who want to use the S Pen in their day-to-day life. Like the S10 Lite it uses the bigger 6.7 Super AMOLED screen, but this is only Full HD+ rather than QHD. Other omissions include leaving out some of the S Pen gestures.
The triple camera array consists of 3 X 12MP lenses – wide, telephoto and ultrawide, while the selfie camera is the same 32MP unit as the S10 Lite. The battery is also the same 4500 mAh fast charging one used in that handset.
So, will these sell? It all depends on the pricing compared to both existing S10 handsets and the new S20 models due in February. If priced right, these could persuade many people to pay that little bit more to upgrade from a medium ranged smartphone to a version of the flagship. Even if it is last year’s model, most people won’t bother about that.
It looks like Samsung is hedging its bets.
