The Best Smartphone Under $400 - Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite Unboxing and Discussion By esthetech

Hey, what is going on everybody? So I've got in front of me here today, a phone that has been out for several months now, but there's a reason why I just got it now. After the announcement of the Galaxy Note, 20 series and as the s10 series ages a little this guy right here with its flagship processor from 2019, the snapdragon 855 can now be had brand new for under four hundred dollars and in my opinion, the package that this offers to you makes it the best smartphone. You can get brand new for under 400 right now, currently uh august 2020. So this just came in the mail, let's unbox it, and then I'll go through why I think it's the best buy for a smartphone under 400. So let's get started. So this is the international unlocked variant.

I wanted to get this in the prism white and the US unlock models were all more expensive for some reason, and only in the prism black. So this one is the eight gigabyte of ram model. I have to cut this portion as well comes with 128 gigabytes of internal storage and there we have it the Samsung Galaxy s10 light, and it feels fantastic. It feels absolutely premium in the hands in the hand, despite the fact that the back here, it's made of a material Samsung calls plastic, which is basically just plastic. I just had a hands-on at Best Buy of the standard note 20, which also has a quote-unquote elastic back, and it did not feel quite as sturdy or premium as this device here.

So I'll put this off to the side, see what we get your standard, booklets and documentation, as you would expect USB c cord in white and, of course, your fast charger fast charging brick also in white, got plenty of these lying around so probably just use what I have, and you've got headphones that are not quite the same as the headphones you get with the regular s10, maybe not quite as premium uh. This phone does not have a headphone jack, so these are USB headphones right here, put those off to the side as well and uh. Let's see what else do we have here? We also have booklets in here hidden at the top of the box, which is usually the case, and I believe, speaking of usually the case, that there is a case in here. There certainly is, so you got your some ejections pin right there and a soft silicone case. It's a little textured on the inside.

You can probably hear that so nice to have this in the bag, but I don't I'm not sure if I'll be using it much at all, but so here we have it beautiful device. Here it comes. It comes with the uh screen protector pre-installed, and I love that there's a flat screen. It's a nice little alternative to all the curved displays and I love the way the curve displays look. However, I think many will agree that usability isn't always ideal with them.

Let's peel this off I'll shut up first, very nice. Here this is obviously, as I said, the prism white. I tell you what you tap on it. I mean I'm wondering if I know of the bat that this was plastic. If I didn't already know beforehand that it was plastic, the back is a little curved nice ergonomics, and you see the polished metal chassis and I absolutely love phones that have a polished, metal chassis and let me peel these uh, the plastic off of that metal chassis that I just talked about.

I personally dislike when um reviewers keep that on, because I want to see the full design of the phone and having these uh this plastic on. It does detract a little from the experience you don't get to see exactly how glossy or matte a metal finish is exactly, but it really is a nice touch from Samsung that they protect every corner of this phone. I think that's all. I think that's it. So here it is, like I said, screen protector, pre-installed I'll, probably remove that I'll keep it on for now.

I really don't like the screen protectors on screen protectors on phone at all really, but you see how that uh, that phone kind of changes color and shines in the light really, really nice. This is the prism white. So let me get my sim in here and turn this thing on I'll, be right back all right here we go powering this thing on: lets uh, let's rest it on this box here so like I said, I mean you get a huge beautiful display, I believe, 6.7 inches, you got your snapdragon 855 flagship processors from 2019 a flagship design. As far as I'm concerned. Let's pick our language here.

Let's look at the terms and conditions. Once you read and agree to these, we can really get going all right, so this is checking for updates now. So as all this happens, I'll continue to talk about the phone a little. As I said, you've got the flat display, which is not easy to come by on a Samsung flagship, alright got it all set up here, set up my pin, of course you can also use uh. You can use face unlock on here.

It's got the in display fingerprint reader, although it's the optical variety, not the ultrasonic, one, that's on the rest of the s10 lineup, except for the s10e. So here we go. I mean honestly the only thing for me: that's at all missing from this phone in terms of uh. I guess your experience versus other Samsung flagships or the non-light models, it's just a higher refresh rate, but at under 400 dollars for snapdragon 855 for the large display for all of Samsung's goodies. Furthermore, I mean you're talking about the ability to clone apps uh.

You know to set up a private space, a private area which you cannot do on the Google Pixel you'll, have to download a third-party app in order to do that. Lets uh dive into settings here see what we got here. It looks, looks just like you know the s10 or even the s20, for that matter. One UI 2.0 out of the box, and I'm sure, there's probably an update- maybe of course android 10. So let's go through these settings here, uh go to connections, and we've got our Wi-Fi.

We've got Wi-Fi calling on I like to actually keep that off. So I'm going to do that. Um! Let's see here, I mean you've, got all your features, your mobile hotspot and tethering, etc. Now, if we go into display, you see that we obviously can change our screen modes, that's standard, but we cannot change the screen resolution, which is just full HD 1080p, but uh on display this small. It's fine with me.

I've been using my galaxy s20 as my daily driver and in order to use that high refresh rate you got to set it to 1080p. So that's what I've been doing, and you can tell the size difference here. It's uh! It's pretty noticeable, it's pretty noticeable, but it's not uh. You know it's not enormous, but it's certainly noticeable in the hand, so put it right on the corner here, so you can tell the difference in width and height, of course, the curved display, even though it's not as curved not as pronounced on the s20, probably the biggest difference as far as the physical build. So it's been fantastic using this uh s20, but going back into settings.

Let's go up here. Let's see here. Obviously we can change our wallpapers. I believe it is the same general set of wallpapers. You got with the other s10 devices.

Of course, you have access to galaxy themes, as you would on any other Samsung flagship or value flagship, as it were. Let me go turn on dark mode, because I love dark mode. There we go and, of course you can do things like download, good luck and customize the colors and the transparency up here, and you've got access to the home up app through Samsung's galaxy, apps and theme park. You know customizations that you can't have you don't get on some other flagship devices or mid-range devices flagship killers, whatever you want to call them. Of course, the Google Pixel 4a was also announced this week, which also inspired me to pull the trigger a little when it came to the s10 lite and that one comes with a snapdragon, 730 processor uh, you, don't you don't have as many features you don't have it always on display which for me is a dealbreaker, and I know that for a lot of people, it's not, but I've been using the noise on display.

I've said it many times since 2012, and so I mean to me, it's a dealbreaker. If it doesn't have that, let's go into the always-on display, and I'm sure it's set up the same way as it is on other galaxy devices. Um, let's see what it said. I don't want to tap to show. I want it to show.

Always, let's go to the clock style. Oh, we pick here. Let's see and of course you can download even more clock styles, if you want, which is also fantastic, just going to go with this one and color, let's see some kind of summer color, let's call it like a pool watercolor for now you also get a much bigger battery. I believe it's 4 500 Williams, if I'm not mistaken and from all the reports so far, uh the reviews so forth. Battery life on this device is just absolutely outstanding.

Of course, there is a note 10 light out there as well, which is a compelling option, although uh it's with that Enos processor and maybe not quite as battery efficient but yeah between the display, the flagship processor that snapdragon 855, but I definitely would consider a flagship design. This phone feels this phone feels very good feels very tight. That plastic I mean I like the way the note 20 looks, but that standard note 20 with the classic back does not feel as sturdy as it does on some other Samsung phones that have that plastic such as this one again like I said the flat screen. They always on display access to one UI, goodies, uh, good, lock and theme park and home up. I mean it's over a hundred dollars cheaper than the OnePlus 7t uh, despite you know, having some extras like the expandable storage, for example.

Again this is 128 gigabytes of storage, and you can expand it, and this is a hybrid dual sim slot. So I can add a second sim if I want. Instead, let's talk about what it doesn't have it's its only a 60 hertz display, so you miss out on that 90, hertz or whatever, like you, have on, say the OnePlus word. But then again the OnePlus word, I believe, comes with a snapdragon, 765 processor uh. So it's you know probably inferior performance.

It has to be inferior performance but yeah. This phone does not have does not have wireless charging; it could have. Certainly a plastic back does not prevent a phone from having wireless charging, but um Samsung left that out, uh no glass back, as we said no telephoto lens, but this is another. This brings me to another area where this phone is a much better value. Uh at the in the sub 400 categories I mean you have a fantastic main shooter.

You perhaps have seen other reviews and stuff up the camera, which you know came out months ago, very good in low light, and you have a wide angle lens that you do not get on, say the Pixel 4a for around the same price. Maybe the Pixel 4a can be had maybe 15 20 bucks cheaper brand new uh, but I got this one bay, for I believe it was 380, maybe 370 something brand new. So um, you know you, you get camera extras that you don't get on other phones in this price category. So um, you don't get 5g, so you miss out on that, but I think, as a lot of people know if you're watching this, you probably are aware that 5g is really not a factor in 2020 and probably not going to be much of a factor in 2021, so you're really not missing out there. I have the s25g and I have not really noticed my experience in terms of network uh internet performance being any better from you know.

LTE experience the year before, so you're, not really missing out on that. You do not have stereo speakers, though here. So this only has a bottom firing speaker. Let me fire up a video here, so we can see the uh see how it sounds. Honestly.

The bottom firing speaker is fine. It gets plenty loud, hey, what's going on everyone, so this should be a quick one today now it doesn't sound quite as good as your default. It doesn't sound quite as good as it does on the s20, or you know a phone with stereo speakers, so you miss out on that as well uh, but again as a complete package um. I don't think, there's anything more. You can get because one of the most important things really in a phone now everybody's priorities are different, but it's got to be performance, so you know the processor and the screen, and the display on here is absolutely gorgeous, even at just full HD 1080p, and it's got a really complete array of cameras.

The camera experience is going to be a more complete one, so in fact the only other phone that I think would even be remotely worth it over this one. If you can find it for sub 400 for under 400 might be the s10e. Now from everything I've been seeing, the s10e runs a little over 400 new, but if you can find that s10e for under 400 uh the extras that you're getting are the glass back, the wireless charging uh, you don't get the micro or excuse me the macro lens on the camera. It's only two camera lenses, the wide angle on the main lens. I don't think you're, probably missing out on much with that uh.

But you do get wireless charging, and you get the uh power shear. The reverse wireless charging, so uh, but you'll also actually get the stereo speakers with the s10. So it's a really great little phone, but I think that's going to run you a little more, but if you'd uh rather the better battery life and the bigger display uh, then you know what the s10 lite is it for you, and I think this is a fantastic device and uh if you, if you can afford it, and you like to have two phones instead of let's say a phone and a tablet or something. This is a incredible second device to have very good for content, consumption, media consumption and just a backup phone in case anything happens and obviously has a main phone. It works fantastically well, so I'll put this phone through its paces and test some things out, of course, like I said it's been out for several months now, so there are plenty of reviews, so uh buying this phone now you're already really educated on what it offers you, and so, if my mind changes it at all changes at all after using this uh for a while, then I will certainly let you guys know you will be the first to know but yeah.

In summary, this is why I think the s10 lite Samsung Galaxy s10 lite, is definitely, in my opinion, the best phone you can get for under 400 brand new. That is now, of course, there are renewed, quote, unquote restored whatever language different manufacturers would like to use uh to describe that or pre-owned or whatever, but those are often quite hit or miss. I've had experiences in the past that are a little hit or miss, and personally, unless I'm buying the phone from somebody that I know well uh, and it's used, then I definitely prefer to buy brand new, like I did with this one, and so, like I said, sub 400 brand new, the s10 lite is uh is where it's at right now, especially compared to let's say the Pixel 4a, the OnePlus word or even the OnePlus 7t. Now, if you want to spend closer to 500, maybe those things could offer you some things that you don't have here, that you want, but even compared to phones that are about 500. This is very compelling, but certainly sub 400.

This is the one to get. So if you've got any questions, please let me know I plan to get a note, 20 or a note 20 ultra in here. So if you'd like to see coverage of that hit that subscribe, button, and I'll see you guys in the next one. Okay.

Source : esthetech