iPhone XS vs Galaxy S10

The smartphone as it stands now has not changed much in the last ten years or so but there seems to be a sense that it will finally change with the introduction of foldable displays such as those found in the Huawei Mate X and in the Samsung Galaxy Fold. These phones are essentially the first generation of phones with foldable displays and are, as of yet, untested in the marketplace.

All of that being said, the traditional smartphone concept might be reaching a very mature stage as can be seen by the high quality cameras found on the devices as well as the new level of authentication methods supported by newer hardware. I will be comparing the Galaxy S10 and the iPhone XS. The Galaxy S10 has been released very recently and as such has an advantage over the iPhone XS which was released over six months ago as of the time of this review.

Before talking about the hardware it is important to compare the operating systems. Apple uses iOS and it is universally understood that iOS is a better operating system over Android when it comes to stability and receiving upgrades and new features. Although Android, the operating system the Galaxy S10 supports, is very mature and featureful, because the operating system was written to support various types of hardware and not just first party devices. The stability could easily suffer depending on what applications are installed or how the operating system is configured. iOS does not allow for configuration to the point that there might be a change that might affect the system in a negative way. Another advantage is that iOS will tend to be updated with a decent amount of frequency including to a completely newer version. Samsung Android devices tend to receive updates quite slowly, if at all. This is a huge concern with regards to security.

Speaking of security, the iPhone XS uses a face recognition authentication that has very good security. It is not perfect security but it is quite good. The Galaxy S10 also has face recognition authentication but the security is quite low and can be easily hacked when compared to the iPhone XS. However, the Galaxy S10 has an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner while the iPhone XS does not have any kind of fingerprint scanning capabilities.

In terms of features, the Galaxy S10 is probably the winner. The Galaxy S10 has expandable storage. This means it allows the use of MicroSD cards. The battery is bigger. It has twice the amount of RAM. Its camera is more advanced and includes a wide-angle setting. It has an audio jack for headphones while the iPhone XS does not. It has a higher pixel density and resolution so the display looks better. The screen takes up more of the device’s body, which gives it a more modern look. The front camera is also of a higher resolution.

In my opinion both are great phones but I tend to always prefer a device that has good security. If you are an enthusiast then you can make the Galaxy S10 be secure but for most people an iPhone XS might be the safest choice in terms of security. Regardless, you would most likely be happy with either phone unless you really wanted to use wired headphones in which case then your choice would have to be Galaxy S10.

Ivan

Vocabulary

essentially (adv.) - something that is basic or fundamental
authentication (n) - to prove that something is real, true, or genuine
stability (n) - the quality or state of something that is not easily changed or likely to change
featureful (adj.) - having many features
ultrasonic (v) - used to describe sounds that are too high for humans to hear
enthusiast (n) - a person who enjoys something very much