Taking to the skies, Samsung literally held its flagship Galaxy S10 launch 1800 metres above sea level at the Genting Highlands SkyAvenue, the much heralded 10th anniversary event also gave guests and visitors on the pricing for the three models scheduled to hit the stores.
Within a week in making the announcement in San Francisco, Samsung Malaysia invited eager fans to place preorder on its official website, a quick round in Mid Valley by our sleuth reporters indicated mostly were taken up with orders running out after just a couple of days. Even though pricing was yet to be published. Looks like the anticipation for the high-end, notch-less device is not fictional, although we are not certain on the number of units kept available for preorder! The pricing were soon made public, with the 128GB storage version Galaxy S10e retailing at RM2699 was the cheapest of the lot. As we know, out of the Galaxy S10, S10e and S10+, the S10e is the least feature assembled of the three with lesser camera lens and minus the Ultrasonic fingerprint scanner. But this does not make the S10e a dud or lesser a flagship than its siblings. Its does exude luxury, sleek Dynamic Amoled screen, a side capacitive fingerprint scanner, a wide angle and ultra wide camera for the rear with a 10MP selfie camera that takes 4K videos and is capable of HDR10+, in our books that’s a worthy contender.
Varying the price range for the S10 series is a stroke of marketing smartness, Samsung is learning from Apple’s mistake which made the iPhone completely out of reach for many of its own fans. Sammy on the other hand, wants all and those it lost to return to the Galaxy experience by giving users options based on what they can afford without antagonising its S9 customers. For those with a healthy bank account can opt for the top of the line S10+ 128GB that starts at RM3699, with the 512GB heading north to RM4599 (still much lower than iPhone X series, what was Tim thinking?) features that rival Apple any day with triple rear camera and two for the front, including the much touted Ultrasonic fingerprint, reverse charging and a 6.1-inch edge display.
We think the pricing for all models is well balanced, could be Samsung is feeling generous since its 10th birthday and all, whetever the reason the consumers are those who will benefit and make the ultimate decision. Not notwithstanding the fact Huawei will be pushing to up the ante on the S10 with its P30 set to be released in mid March, we still consider the S10 will be the ones to beat in all aspects.
Be it Galaxy S10, S10e or the S10+ there will be no mistake in the choices consumers make, the appeal is stronger with Samsung this time around. And of course there is the Galaxy Fold, now that is a topic we like to delve into for another day. For now lets leave the Galaxy S10 series bask in its new found fame.
