The Samsung Galaxy S10e is the first time that the OEM is bringing a more affordable variant to its flagship line. However, to be able to keep its price at $750, they had to make some sacrifices regarding the specs of this particular phone. And apparently, one of those sacrifices is giving up the heart rate sensor that we’ve gotten used to. Samsung, of course, did not promote the sensor for this device but still people kind of expected to have it and might be slightly disappointed to know that it doesn’t have one.
Most of the Samsung flagship devices for the past few years have the heart rate sensor and so we assumed that all variants of the Galaxy S10 would also have it. The Galaxy S10e actually has a small black hole with some chip inside right next to the rear camera flash. We also assumed that the sensor was partially hidden somewhere, unlike the Galaxy S10 and the Galaxy S10+.
But when you go to the Samsung Health app of the Galaxy S10e, it doesn’t have a heart rate tracker. Obviously, this sacrifice was made to be able to keep the price of the phone at just $750 as opposed to the more expensive Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+. This is also probably the reason why the Wireless PowerShare feature in the Galaxy S10e doesn’t have a notification light when it updated to the latest version of the software.
However, if you really want your phone to measure your heart rate, you can always download a third-party app to do so. Apps like the Heart Rate Monitor. It will use your smartphone’s camera to measure your heart rate since a dedicated sensor shines a light on your finger to measure the blood flow beneath your skin. Your camera can also do this for you, although there’s always the risk of smudged lenses and not so accurate results.
So if you haven’t bought the Galaxy S10e yet and a heart rate sensor is pretty important to you, you might consider getting a device that has a dedicated sensor for that. But if you can live without one and the affordable price of the phone is more important, then go ahead and get this “budget” flagship device.
VIA: SAM Mobile
