In daily use, the phone is really hard to fault. Form factor this is JUST slightly bigger than I'd like, but as close as I can get with all the specs I want. The fingerprint reader took some time to get used to (coming from having one on the back), but once you retrain your muscle memory it's stupid fast. Better than in screen readers? Probably this gen, but that's not entirely fair.

The screen is really good. Anybody still fighting about 'hole punch' vs 'notch'... You get used to both. After that, unless you're looking for it, you won't be bothered. Admittedly some are better than others (not a fan of the G8 or Pixel implementation, but I'm fine with the One+ and Essential), and while none are ideal, you get used to it. All that being said, the hole punch wallpapers have been pretty fun to hide/accentuate that camera cutout. To be 100% honest, if they had used the 10e approach to the S9 (shrink the bezels as much as you can and drop the curved edges) that would have been perfectly fine.

Software-wise I think I'm still scratching the surface, but I've found more good than bad. Even with a ton being baked into the skin, OneUI is worlds better than any version of TouchWiz. It still lets you know this is a Samsung skin, make no mistake, but it's a bit more cohesive and less ugly. I do like the notification panel drops down just about to where your fingers are, so you don't have to stretch your hand up the phone to access things. There hasn't been a hiccup or stutter so far, and I highly doubt I'll get close to filling the on-board storage. But, considering people are keeping their phones longer, going with a 128GB base is a smart idea. I"ve got no problem getting through a full day on a charge. Little more if it's a light day, little less on a heavy day. But I have a charger handy at work, car and home (where I am 90% of the time) so a quick top off is never far. Wireless charging is great at night at home. Not as practical elsewhere though. I think I'll invest in a good charging pad (the one I have is from my Nexus 7 days), but if it can't charge the phone while I sleep (which it can) I was messed up from the jump, I suppose.

Dislikes? The phone is stupid slippery. I always feel like it's going to drop and shatter into a million pieces. I think that brushed aluminium sides and (possibly) a frosted glass back would have made a world of difference, but it would likely not sell as well as something super shiny. I've got it in a case for not, but will likely skin it. I have a glass screen protector on it, but I'm not entirely fond of it. In the settings window I can either choose to have the phone reject 70% of my touches or amplify everything to 125%. Neither is ideal, so the glass may go in favor of a dBrand skin and a film for the screen. There is an option to use the fingerprint reader to pull down the notification slide. It works really well in practice, but sometimes TOO well, and anything that touches it, registered finger or not, activates it. I still get the accidental activation of Bixby, which sucks, as I will never use that. I will get to using an app to remap that button, but having it there just sucks (but, Samsung).

I have yet to set up mobile payments through Google Pay/Samsung Pay, so that may be a personal pain point which I will document. Other than that, I have more positives than negatives, even coming from an anti-Samsung frame of mind. While I never had a problem recommending a S-Series phone (like they needed help), I can now add personal experience to the recommendation. If you don't want a too big phone, or don't like curved screens, but need the latest gen spec, the 10e is probably the phone you want. It kinda hurts saying that as a Xperia fan, but game recognize game. And the 10e got game.