A quick hands on with the Galaxy S10 Lite and Galaxy Note10 Lite

Ahead of CES, Samsung announced the Galaxy S10 Lite and Galaxy Note10 Lite, lower-end versions of its two flagship smartphones. The news came just a month ahead of Galaxy Unpacked, the San Francisco event where the company is expected to announce Galaxy Fold and Galaxy S10 successors.

I got to spend some time with the new devices at CES this week, and frankly, there's not much to say. As is indicated by the names, the devices are subsets of their premium counterparts.

While they come in sexy colors like Prism Blue on the S10 Lite and Aura Red on the Note10 Lite, these devices are made of plastic, while the more expensive models are glass sandwiches. There's also no wireless charging, which obviously means no PowerShare.

They do depart from the designs of the flagship models, with both having an Infinity O cutout in the top-center of the screen. Previously, that was exclusive to the Note10, while the S10 had it in the corner. The screens are also FHD+ (2400x1080) at 6.7 inches, and they're Super AMOLED. They also have high-end specs, with a Snapdragon 855 chipset in the S10 Lite and an Exynos 9810 in the Note10 Lite, and up to 8GB RAM.

The camera module has changed from what was originally used on the S10 and the Note10. It's not a rectangle with rounded corners, as we've seen from other companies like Apple and Google. The cameras in the two devices are different though. The S10 Lite has three lenses: a 48MP main Super Steady OIS AF sensor, a 12MP ultra-wide sensor, and a 5MP macro sensor. I did get to try out the Super Steady OIS, and it was pretty cool. The Note10, on the other hand, has three 12MP sensors: one main, one ultra-wide, and one telephoto.

Samsung hasn't said when these devices will be available just yet, but don't expect to see them in the U.S.