Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus vs Apple iPhone 12

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Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus vs Apple iPhone 12

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.4-inch Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus (with Exynos 9 Octa 9820) that was released on February 20, 2019, against the Apple iPhone 12, which is powered by Apple A14 Bionic and came out 20 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
  • Comes with 1285 mAh larger battery capacity: 4100 vs 2815 mAh
  • The rear camera has a 2x optical zoom
  • Modern USB Type-C port
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 512GB
  • Has a 0.3 inch larger screen size
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Delivers 24% higher peak brightness (798 against 646 nits)
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • 13% higher pixel density (522 vs 460 PPI)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 12
  • Shows 38% longer battery life (32:27 vs 23:31 hours)
  • 65% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1061K versus 644K)
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • Apple releases software updates and supports their phones a few years longer than Samsung
  • The phone is 1-year and 8-months newer
  • More energy-efficient CPU – Apple A14 Bionic
  • 2.1x faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 1953 and 950 points
  • Ready for eSIM technology

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus and Apple iPhone 12 crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation

Value for money

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Super AMOLED OLED
Size 6.4 inches 6.1 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3040 pixels 1170 x 2532 pixels
Aspect ratio 19:9 19.5:9
PPI 522 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 60 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No No
Max rated brightness 1200 nits 625 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Glass 6 Ceramic Shield
Screen-to-body ratio 87.5% 86%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 96.5% 99.4%
PWM 235 Hz 226 Hz
Response time 4.8 ms 16 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
798 nits
646 nits

Design and build

Height 157.6 mm (6.2 inches) 146.7 mm (5.78 inches)
Width 74.1 mm (2.92 inches) 71.5 mm (2.81 inches)
Thickness 7.8 mm (0.31 inches) 7.4 mm (0.29 inches)
Weight 175 g (6.17 oz) 164 g (5.78 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Blue, Green, Red White, Black, Blue, Green, Red
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Tests of Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus and Apple iPhone 12 in the benchmarks
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 9 Octa 9820 Apple A14 Bionic
Max clock 2730 MHz 3100 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 2 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 1.95 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 2 cores at 2.31 GHz: Cortex-A75
- 2 cores at 2.73 GHz: Mongoose M4
- 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Icestorm
- 2 cores at 3.1 GHz: Firestorm
Lithography process 8 nanometers 5 nanometers
Graphics Mali-G76 MP12 Apple A14 GPU
GPU shading units 432 256
GPU clock 720 MHz 1278 MHz
FLOPS ~607 GFLOPS ~654.3 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
AnTuTu Benchmark 10
1061696
CPU 144798 221376
GPU 242166 336882
Memory 125475 136582
UX 129002 363783
Total score 644797 1061696
3DMark Wild Life Performance
Max surface temperature 42.5 °C 41.2 °C
Stability 82% 77%
Graphics test 19 FPS 45 FPS
Graphics score 3230 7603
PCMark 3.0
Web score 6521 -
Video editing 5799 -
Photo editing 18486 -
Data manipulation 6931 -
Writing score 9827 -

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8, 12 GB 4 GB
Memory type LPDDR4X LPDDR4X
Memory clock 2133 MHz -
Channels 2 2
Storage
Storage size 128, 1024 GB 64, 128, 256 GB
Storage type UFS 2.1 NVMe
Memory card MicroSD No
Memory card max size Up to 512 GB -

Software

Operating system Android 9.0 (Can be upgraded to Android 12) iOS 14.1 (Can be upgraded to iOS 17)
ROM One UI 4.0 -
OS size 46.5 GB 7 GB

Battery

Capacity 4100 mAh 2815 mAh
Max charge power 15 W 18 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes, Qi/PMA (15 W) Yes (7.5 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Fast charging Yes, Samsung Adaptive Fast Charge (50% in 30 min) Yes (58% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:40 hr 1:30 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 06:58 hr 11:23 hr
Watching video 12:01 hr 12:11 hr
Gaming 03:39 hr 05:05 hr
Standby 80 hr 119 hr
General battery life
32:27 hr

Camera

Specs and camera test of smartphones
Main camera
Matrix 12 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 4032 x 3024
Zoom Optical, 2x Digital
Flash Dual LED Quad LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording No No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 240FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 123° 120°
Lenses 3 (12 MP + 12 MP + 16 MP) 2 (12 MP + 12 MP)
Wide (main) lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/1.5 - 2.4
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.55", Samsung SAK2L4 (ISOCELL CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/1.6
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/3.4", Sony IMX372 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
Telephoto lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.4
- Focal length: 52 mm
- Pixel size: 1 micron
- Sensor: 1/3.6", Samsung S5K3M3 (ISOCELL CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
-
Ultra-wide lens - 16 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Focal length: 12 mm
- Pixel size: 1 micron
- Phase autofocus
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.4
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Sensor: 1/3.6" (CMOS)
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone 12 from DxOMark
Selfie camera
Megapixels 10 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4320 x 2432 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/1.9 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm 23 mm
Pixel size 1.22 microns -
Sensor type CMOS BSI CMOS
Sensor size 1/2.65" -
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS

DxOMark camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic camera score

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5 5
Bluetooth features PBAP/PAB, PAN, OPP, MAP, LE, HSP, HID, HFP, DIP, AVRCP, A2DP LE, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C No
USB version 3.1 -
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS
NFC * Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM * 2 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support * No Yes
Hybrid slot Yes No
LTE Cat * 20 18
5G support No Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack Yes No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness
87.8 dB
81.1 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced February 2019 October 2020
Release date March 2019 October 2020
SAR (head) 0.516 W/kg 0.99 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.582 W/kg 0.99 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
* Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPhone 12 is definitely a better buy.

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