Some Samsung Galaxy S10+ users are complaining of poor cell reception

Some Redditors and Samsung Community account-holders have been posting to assert that the call quality and mobile-data speeds on their new Galaxy S10+ devices are sub-par. Some of these users complain that the phones are deficient in these respects compared to older Samsung flagships. More specific problems linked to the apparently emerging issue included SMS sending failures, the inability to receive or place a call and reduced 4G/LTE performance.

The carriers most often mentioned in relation to the complaints are Sprint and T-Mobile in the United States. The blog Android Police has tested them out to some degree, and has reported that a Galaxy S10+ in one region of this country served by one T-Mobile band had less "trouble" compared to one located in a second region associated with a different band used by the same network (as well as AT&T).

Furthermore, the blog claimed that removing the case from one particular S10+ and holding it in a certain way resulted in a decreased mobile data signal of 13 decibel-milliwatts compared to the same value displayed by the same phone while in its case and held in the same way. This finding is eerily reminiscent of the 'death-grip' issue that plagued the iPhone 4 following its release. In the S10+'s case, this 'test' was conducted while connected to T-Mobile, although the blog could have tested it in the context of additional carriers to improve its validity. 

Sprint, for one, has already responded to this issue by promising that a software update will rectify it. In addition, similar reports in the other variants of the S10 (the base S10 and S10e) have yet to be heard of. Therefore, we cannot yet say for sure that there is a persistent reception issue in the S10 line as a whole.