Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite finally lands in the US starting at $650; but why does it even exist?

A while ago, before the Galaxy S20 series was released, Samsung launched two new phones, the Galaxy S10 Lite and Note 10 Lite. The two phones were intended to be sub-premium options in the company's lineup, and the former, the Galaxy S10 Lite, has now finally made its way to the US.

The company announced that the S10 Lite will go on sale in the US today with a price tag of US$650. The device will be available on Samsung's store, and other retail chains like Best Buy and Amazon.

The Galaxy S10 Lite features a 6.7-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED Plus display. There's a Note 10-esque centered hole punch which houses a 32 MP selfie camera, and a baked-in optical fingerprint reader. At the back of the phone is a square camera module at the top left corner, housing a 48 MP main shooter, a 12 MP ultra-wide-angle lens, and a macro lens. Under the hood is a Snapdragon 855, 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and 128 GB of UFS 2.1 storage.

The S10 Lite is, as evidenced by our review, a solid phone. But it's a tad hard to understand why exactly it exists, especially in the US market. Samsung still sells the Galaxy S10 series brand new, and has shaved US$150 off the phones' price tags. The S10e is, for example, US$50 cheaper than the S10 Lite. The S10 is US$100 more expensive at US$750.

The S10 Lite seems to be designed to fill a particular niche. Compared to the S10, it lacks water resistance, offers worse cameras, and for some reason, lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the flip side, it sports a big display, a big 4500 mAh battery, and supports Samsung's top of the line 45 W charging, while the S10 phones are limited to a paltry 15 W. Samsung believes there are enough people who prioritize those features, and there's probably plenty of truth to that.