The latest flagship from Samsung, the Samsung Galaxy S10+, also available as the smaller S10, is about the best phone the Korean manufacturer has ever come up with. If you're thinking of buying one, here are five good reasons to do so. And if you have one already, you can tick these points off when you're showing off about your new beauty.

Strong performance, especially on a fast network

Smartphones are complex beasts. Not only do they need a fast processor to perform well, they work better if they have plenty of operating memory, too. Samsung has made sure that the S10+ has both. If you add in a fast network like EE, you're not left waiting while data gets ready to come streaming down to your phone.

The combination of the fast chip, decent memory and strong relationship to the network means that the S10+ is a real performer, doing everything at speed, from opening apps to taking photographs, from speedy message delivery to butter-smooth video playback.

Stunning display

Samsung has long been the master of OLED screens that look great with great detail, strong contrast and vivid colours. This phone has the company's best screen yet and it's truly beautiful to behold.

It's bright without being over-saturated, brilliantly colourful while still being realistic and faithful. So it works well whether you're watching a movie or playing a video game. In fact, this is the first HDR10+ display, meaning that if you're watching compatible content, like something from Netflix, perhaps, it really gleams, with a fuller dynamic range of colours than you'd see elsewhere.

Oh, and the screen covers almost the entire front of the phone, except for a little lozenge-shaped glass where the selfie cameras peep through. It’s called the Infinity-O display and it means there’s no need for a notch, as on many phones including the iPhone XS and XR, and the whole thing looks exceptionally luxurious.

 

 

Cool in-screen fingerprint sensor

This is amazing. Instead of a fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone, which is inaccessible if the phone is on the table, for instance, or one that sits next to the display and takes up valuable real estate. Samsung has buried the fingerprint sensor in the phone screen itself. When you lift the handset, the screen shows where to press your thumb or finger, once you've registered it. Then, with a subtle water-ripple animation, the screen unlocks. A couple of other phones have this clever unlock system, but what sets this apart is a whole different way of working: it’s an ultrasonic reader that works better than rivals. It’s fast and lets you touch lightly, or only roughly in the right place, making for an intimate experience.

Wireless PowerShare Two-way charging

The battery life on the Galaxy S10+ is exemplary. So much so, you may find friends' phones are struggling mid-afternoon while yours is going strong. If their phone is wireless-chargeable, just launch the PowerShare app from the Quick Settings and press the two phones back to back. Your phone is now charging your friend's handset wirelessly. Watch their face: sure, they'll look grateful but is that a note of envy you can see, too?

It’s not just other phones that you can charge, you can plonk the Samsung Galaxy Buds in-ear headphones in their little wireless-chargeable case on the back of the S10+ and they’ll start charging.

Wireless charging is a neat enough feature - you can, of course, charge the Galaxy S10+ wirelessly, but two-way charging is tremendous. 

Triple cameras

The three rear cameras on the Samsung Galaxy S10+ offer real versatility in your photography. Since a smartphone camera can't match the optical zoom lenses of a compact camera, Samsung has put three lenses with different focal lengths to get round this. So, as well as a regular wide-angle lens suitable for most situations, there's a telephoto lens which offers an effective 2x zoom. The third lens is ultra-wide, which works out at 0.5x zoom compared to the wide-angle. This is perfect for wide vistas or tall buildings. The key thing is that it means that switching from one lens to another means you're shooting at full resolution each time. The wide-angle and telephoto cameras are 12MP, the ultra-wide is a 16MP sensor.

Oh, and the dual selfie cameras on the front (10MP and 8MP) are there to create special effects like portraits where the subject is in sharp focus and the background artfully blurred. The rear cameras can do this, too, of course.