I have a trick for you guys that you may have not known. Make sure you have set up Samsung Pay along with a card to use for payment. When the terminal you’ll be paying at prompts you for payment, hold your phone against the reader. You’ll have your cards pop up for you to authenticate and pay. Your screen must be on for this process to work.

This allows you to skip the process of swiping up to bring up your cards. Also useful if you’re in a certain app and don’t want to fumble around to exit the app and launch Samsung Pay. Although keep in mind that this only works with NFC enabled card payment terminals and not MST.

The first iteration of Good Lock was announced back in the Marshmallow days in 2016. I remember finding out about this app and tinkering with everything my phone had to offer in order to customize the UI greatly. Sadly, Good Lock did not see a return after that until Oreo was released in 2018. This is when Good Lock 2018 was revived and back to customizing our phones even further.

What is Good Lock?

Good Lock is an application downloadable from the Galaxy Apps store pre-loaded on your Samsung device. Unfortunately it is also region locked so not everyone is able to download from the app store. (That’s where Bad Lock comes in. Bad Lock offers region compatibility for all regions through the help of XDA developers.) Good Lock taps into your phones UI to either completely replace animations, change UI elements, enable/disable icons in your status bar, or even stop accidental edge touches. But these are just the tip of the iceberg, there’s a lot more Good Lock can offer. Luckily Good Lock doesn’t drain any battery from all my usage I’ve done for the past two years almost using the app through three phones of mine. Next, we will go in depth on what modules Good Lock offers and what they provide to the user.

LockStar

This module consists of customizing your lock screen to its fullest extent. There are plenty of options available to the user after installing this specific module. There are ways to change your unlock style such as from swiping from anywhere to swiping in a certain direction. You can also change how you interact with the bottom corner applications so instead of touching and swiping you can just press them like a button.

One of my favorite features of LockStar includes moving all the elements of your lock screen such as the music player or even the clock anywhere you’d like. It’s as simple as dragging and dropping with elements of letting you know when they’re lined up in the middle or not as well.

The only downside about LockStar is how it changes your notification style to icons only where you have to icons only. Most of you might know already but when notifications are icon only on your lock screen then you need to click the icons first to have the notifications drop down to see them and interact.

QuickStar

One of my favorite modules has to be QuickStar. This beauty helps you with customizing your notification pull down bar and status bar. Some ways you’re able to customize your notification pull down bar are by changing the color of it completely. You have presets available at your disposal along with a whole RGB wheel to change around to any color as you’d like.

The color control settings can be used for every aspect of the notification pull down. These include when tiles are on, tiles are off, font color, and the background color. The background can be made fully dark/black which is what most AMOLED users prefer. Or you can even make the color as pink as a tulip. My favorite I’d say is the ability to make the bar fully transparent to make it seamless with my wallpaper in my background on my home screen.

Not only do you have color control settings but also a background blur may be applied for an added effect. You have five levels of blurs to suit whichever taste you have. I myself like to keep this level on three just because I feel like the module can overdo it. Leaving the wonders of the notification pull down, we now move onto the status bar.

QuickStar not only allows you to customize the notification pull down but it also lets you customize your status bar which you see in almost every app at the top of your phone. One of the things your status bar can be customized to do is remove the clock from the bar or even move it from the left to the right side or vice versa. Now it’s not only the clock you can customize but also each and every icon. See that LTE icon you dont want up there? Well hey, QuickStar lets you toggle ANY icon on or off. Don’t want to know when Bluetooth is on? Toggle it off. It’s as easy and simple as that. Don’t you ever get rid of this marvelous feature, Samsung.

A bonus setting QuickStar has is a notification popup button that allows you to swipe notifications slightly and click the new icon. Clicking the popup window icon allows you to open the app for the notification in a popup window. Very useful to look at notifications and reply if you need to when you’re in another application.

Task Changer

Task Changer is one of my favorite modules in Good Lock. This module replicates new animations for your task changing feature on your phone. You have many different animations to choose from to fit your needs. You can also add background blur when your task changer is up along with a “mini mode” to make your card sizes smaller. Another neat feature is being able to center the currently running app so you don’t have to scroll through a bunch. There’s not much to explain since it’s pretty self explanatory for this module along with being one of the coolest ones.

ClockFace

Want more clock faces for your Always on Display or Lockscreen? Well, this is the module for you. ClockFace adds a bunch of new different types of clocks to customize your phone. All you have to do is go into the module and select whether you’d like to change your lockscreen or AoD clock. Some of these clocks are very clever, my favorite being the one that resembles a cars gauge.

MultiStar

Another great module to use and experiment with would be MultiStar. MultiStar allows you to change your phones multitasking habits. You can change the color of the splitscreen bar while multitasking to any color through an RGB wheel. Another feature allows you to using multi tasking without pausing another app. You can now watch Youtube videos while playing Fortnite!

MultiStar users are also now able to force any two apps into multi tasking mode even if they aren’t supported natively. This setting being ticked requires a restart of your phone to fully work.

NavStar

Don’t we all just use gestures nowadays? NavStar allows you to customize your navigation bar to the fullest. You’re able to add buttons to your navigation bar as well as change their icons to anything you’d like. Yes, you can upload your own pictures to use as your buttons. Some buttons you can add other than your regular navigation buttons can be a screenshot button or even a screen off button. Unfortunately the background color cannot be changed to black due to burn-in issues so you have your regular colors as default. Overall this is a great module to customize your navigation bar if you have still kept using it.

Nice Shot

Nice Shot now adds the ability to screen record natively which has not been seen on any of their flagship phones yet. Nice Shot not only allows you to screen record but has advanced screen shot options. One of the features are changing the save formats from JPG to PNG if you’d like to. Another great feature is where you’re able to exclude the SystemUI after you take a screenshot. Enabling this setting would not show your navigation bar or status bar in any screenshot.

Another setting that might be useful within Nice Shots module would be the “Delete file after share via”. This allows you to have the screenshot automatically deleted after you share the image without saving it.

The screen recording feature can have systems sounds enabled along with a mic, just system sounds, or mute all sounds. Quality can be set as well between high, medium, or low. You’re able to get to the screen recording option by either taking a screenshot and clicking on the corresponding icon or by adding a shortcut through Nice Shot to your home screen.

There is also an additional Tag Menu which allows you to tag pictures and screen recordings you take. This tag menu allows you to search up your tags to be able to find the specific image or recording you’re looking for.

NotiStar

NotiStar provides you with a notification management service that can be accessed only from your lock screen. This allows you to save notifications or even search for text to bring up a certain notification you’re looking for. I feel as if this module should replace the main notification bars features instead of adding a new option to your lock screen. But then again, if you’re one who gets too many important notifications you should definitely get the module to be able to keep track of everything.

Nice Catch

Do you ever feel a vibration and think it was just your imagination? Well fear not because Nice Catch is able to log every single notification or even toast in its logs to allow you to view them. Its very handy to see which application is causing ghost vibrations at times.

One Hand Operation +

Are you like me and use your device with one hand? Please, get this module within Good Lock! One Hand Operation + provides an experience that you’ve never seen with all its functionality. I can start naming all the functions it can provide but I’ll bloat this blog up. This module allows you to set a handle on either the left, right, or both sides. The handle can be customized to be thin or thick to your likeness along with where you would like it on the sides of your screen. Thankfully if you choose to not want the handle visible, you can make it completely transparent with the transparency slider provided to you within the settings.

The handles have options for a straight, diagonal up, or diagonal down swipe you can set for different actions. On top of the swipes, you can set for a long swipe where you swipe and hold for another action. Each side of your screen can be customized for up to 6 different actions per handle this way.

I myself have my handle only on the left set for a straight swipe as my back key. My diagonal down brings down my notification bar (very useful since there is no more fingerprint scanner on the back of the device). I also have my diagonal down long swipe set to pull my screen down for easy reach at the top. My last favorite one I’ve set is a diagonal up long swipe to turn off my screen.

There’s no reason you should not install this module if you love to navigate your device with one hand. Go on, give it a try!

EdgeLighting +

We all love the futuristic style of notification that Edge Lighting provides us. If you’re a fan of the feature, then EdgeLighting + is a must have due to the other styles of lighting’s it gives you. Go on, check them out. You won’t regret it!

EdgeTouch

Sometimes the curved glass of Galaxy flagships could get in the way and we accidentally click on something we did not want to. EdgeTouch allows you turn off specific areas on the edge so you don’t accidentally click them. It has different modes you can set it to with visuals. Don’t like the modes? You can set your own modes to customize to your preference. This is a very useful module for the long run if you’re annoyed by the curved glass nature of your flagship.

SoundAssistant

Good Locks SoundAssistant module has to be one of the more useful ones. This module allows users to control the volume of each application individually. On top of that, the volume can be fine tuned to 150 steps which is great to pick your specific volume you’d like. I love this! This module also supports to give you mono audio along with left/right balance.

Another setting allows you to set personalized sounds for different times in your phone. Think of it more as a Bixby Routines type of setting. The setting allows you to name it, set the time, and which days you’d like for it to repeat.

Why are you still reading? Go on! Head to the Galaxy App store and get Good Lock today!

Keep in mind that different regions, carriers, and devices receive updates and features at different times. June security updates are what started to add this feature into Samsung devices. Most devices should have them available by now if you update your phone every month.

Looking back at the Galaxy S8 as well as the Galaxy S9, they also had their fingerprint scanners located on the back. The Galaxy S8 had the fingerprint scanner placed in a uhh pretty uncomfortable spot. But then we had the Galaxy S9 refine this placement to create an ultimate combination of unlocking security for our phones. These two phones also introduced us to the feature of swiping down on the fingerprint sensor in order to bring down the notification bar. A very useful feature that I miss to this day after owning a Galaxy S10. Not all is lost though! One Handed Operation through Good Lock can replicate this feature on screen which I will go more in depth in another blog up soon.

Now with the Galaxy S10 out and the Note 10 in the horizon, we see no signs of an iris scanner returning and we can say good-bye to swiping down on the back of our phones to bring down our notifications. How do you feel about losing these biometrics in return of an in-screen fingerprint scanner along with minimal bezels?

After the announcement of the Galaxy Note 10 at Unpacked, there was no mention of the IR Blaster being brought back. In fact, there’s a new feature called “Zoom-in mic” that can amplify audio from a certain area where you zoom into while taking a video. People believed that this hole was used as a third mic for the “Zoom-in mic” feature for better audio capture quality. This wasn’t the case either.

According to a confirmation by Samsung, the hole at the top of the Galaxy Note 10 is a speaker that replaces the stereo given off by the earpiece on the Galaxy S10 and other handsets. The earpiece on the Note 10 is so thin that it’s impossible to know it exists unless you have quite an eye to look for it.

Are you disappointed about no IR Blaster being included on the Galaxy Note 10? We here honestly don’t mind but I’m sure its a welcomed feature.

The Good

One UI is smoother than ever with the new iteration of the Galaxy S Series. Now it’s easier to navigate through the UI by being able to pull down on almost every page to have your reach-ability accessible. Lets not forget about the infamous dark mode finally being system wide even before the Android Q release.

Battery life is made much better with the 4,100 mah battery. Its optimized very well in order to get me through my day. I can leave with a full charge in the morning never having to worry about charging mid day.

Cameras. Three. Cameras. These are more than enough for any avid phone photographer to get their dose of wide, super wide, and telephoto. I’ve found the super wide camera to be more useful than I thought. I see myself using the super wide camera a lot in outdoor environments to snap a photo of either a landscape or a skyscraper located in my field of view. There’s no more need of having to take a couple steps back in order to achieve what you want.

Fingerprint Scanner for this phone has been greatly updated in order to provide a pleasant experience. When I first received my Galaxy S10+ I found it to be slightly off and slow. Samsung pulled through with plenty of updates to improve upon this in display fingerprint scanner to make it way faster and accurate upon every unlock. Us phone users do tend to unlock our phones over 40 times a day so its something important to get right.

The Bad

Selfies are not my most favorite thing in this world. But I expect a phone with a front facing camera along with a depth sensor to take better photos than its rivals. I don’t like Samsungs post processing made to make my face look smoother than butter and whiter than I usually look. Yes, I do turn off all the beauty modes and I still can’t achieve a great selfie picture that I can take and say “Wow, that’s actually a good picture”.

Notification LED was probably one of my favorite features since I started using Samsung phones with the Galaxy S4. I had a quick glance at my phones LED and knew whether I got a text or a notification from a certain app. I even knew when my phone was finished charging without physically checking. Unfortunately, this feature is now gone. I understand trimming the bezels to make them as thin as possible can have some impact done to the hardware of the phone so I have switched over to the AOD in order to replicate some sort of active notification at all times.

Powershare has been pretty weak for me in terms of charging another phone. I’ve been pretty generous at times to charge my friends iPhone up when its been completely dead. The only issue here is how powershare is only outputting 4.5w therefore it takes around 10 minutes to be able to revive the phone to even turn on. Luckily, the Note 10 is upgrading this to a generous 15w. Good on Samsung for that.

Final Verdict

Overall the Galaxy S10+ is a great daily driver that I would have kept until it died with its last breath. I really love the software and hardware of the phone and all the little things are what keeps me happy. I do recommend this phone to anyone looking to buy the latest Samsung phone. I will still be switching over to the Galaxy Note 10+ due to the incremental updates they’re featuring that just makes everything about the S10+ even better.

Update: A fellow redditor from the r/GalaxyS10 subreddit named u/Bat_Chatllion replied with the following: “One thing I have to say is that for the charging part of the notification light I have found a partial solution, in Bixby routines make AOD on when charging. This allows you to see if it’s charged or not because of the new battery notification that comes up when the battery is full is fairly easy to see since it’s bright green. Mine is set to turn it on when charging if the time is not 10pm – 6am. So far it has worked well for me but it is still slightly worse than the notification light, the only thing I miss from my S8”. This is a good tip for users to try out to replicate the missing piece of knowing when your phone is fully charged. Thank you for the advice!

What do you guys like and dislike about your Galaxy S10? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Digital Bezel

We will start off with how the Galaxy Watch Active removed the rotating bezel that was the signature of all the Gear and Galaxy watches. It’s so easy to navigate through your watch by just spinning away at your bezel, there’s just something so satisfying about the action. A couple months ago, Samsung patented “Digital Touch Bezel” which was speculated upon the internet about how this feature will be coming to future generation watches. Well, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 highlights this feature by making the bezels around the watches screen touch sensitive to keep the same traditional way of navigating a Samsung watch.

Larger Screen Size

We now have two different sizes for the Galaxy Watch Active 2. There’s a 44mm with a 1.4 inch 360 x 360 Super AMOLED screen and a 40mm with a 1.2 inch 360 x 360 Super AMOLED screen. Meanwhile, the original Active only had a 40mm 1.1 inch 360 x 360 Super AMOLED screen. That extra 0.1-0.3 inch screen should help you view your Youtube videos on your wrist even easier. Or something like that.

Battery Life

The battery has been upped as well with a 247mah battery inside the 40mm while the 44m gets a whopping 340mah compared to the 230mah battery in the Galaxy Watch Active. Samsung claims you can get two days of battery life out of the Galaxy Watch Active 2.

Build Quality

Stainless steel is now back alongside aluminum. It will cost you quite a bit more for the stainless steel edition since it’s a more durable and sleek material. They both come in Bluetooth or LTE with their respective pricing.

ECG and Upgraded Sensors

For the first time, Samsung is including an Electrocardiogram Sensor which can measure electrical signals directly from your heartbeat. This is a certain feature that the Apple Watch released with last year. Unfortunately this feature won’t be available upon launch due to FDA not passing this feature yet. Sounds like the feature is still a few months away due to launch around early next year. On the other hand, we have upgraded sensors added with extra photo-diodes to ensure a faster and better response time for readings along with detecting workouts which by the way still have 39 workout-tracking modes.

My Style

This is a funny feature that’s very thoughtful in my opinion. A user can take a selfie with their smartphone in order to generate a colorful watch face that matches the outfit they’re sporting. Each time you use this feature, you’re guaranteed a new pattern from before. A neat feature of this nature is what makes the usability of these smart watches come to life.

Colors and Pricing

The pricing starts at $279 USD for the 40mm while the 44mm starts at $299. Both these prices starting are for the bluetooth edition. These base prices with aluminum come with the colors Aqua Black, Pink Gold, and Cloud Silver. The watch will come with a pricier stainless steel model as well in Black, Silver, and Gold. Pre-orders start on September 6 here in the USA. Pre-ordering on Samsung.com will also get you a Portable Wireless Charging Powerbank.

How many of you will be picking up your own watch? Will you be waiting for the next Galaxy Watch perhaps?

Now don’t get too excited because all these colors are not available here in the USA as of now. As far as we know, we don’t know if they will ever arrive. The only available options in the USA currently are the Glow, White, Black, and Blue on the 256GB options for the Note 10+. The 512GB models are only limited to Aura Black. Maybe Samsung is trying to play it safe with the colors on a high capacity phone due to not knowing which color would be in high demand.

While we were able to get our hands on every color released in the USA at the Samsung store located in the Americana here in Los Angeles, we have quite a few thoughts. The Aura White is a generic white colored phone that looks the cleanest of them all, it reminds me of a Galaxy S4 with a creamy finish. Aura Blue was more of a purplish-blue hue depending on how light was hitting and reflecting upon the back. It was able to even show anywhere from a light blue to a darker deep sea blue as well. We took a look at the Aura Black and it reminded us of any black colored phone that we encounter daily, nothing special about it but it does keep the style going for the phone for someone who wants a simple color.

The color that caught our eyes was the Aura Glow which is a light refracting color as stated in Samsung Unpacked. The original color you see upon inspection is a silver color that resembles a mirror. Once any sort of light reflects the phone, you have rainbows converging all over which results in a beautiful colorful madness that would be sure to keep everyones eyes peeled onto your phone.

Have you pre-ordered the Galaxy Note 10 yet? Which color would you get?

As we know, Samsung has held out quite some time and did not cave into removing the jack even though other companies had followed Apple’s footsteps back with the iPhone 7. Is bluetooth the future at this point? We do know that Samsung has improved the headphones included with the Galaxy Note 10 as SamMobile has pointed out. These new headphones will include active noise cancelling through the USB Type C connector with the Galaxy Note 10. A dongle will be available for purchase through Samsung for $14.99.

We also have learned through a confirmation with Samsung that the removal of the 3.5mm jack apparently had some good influence on the phones design. This included a 100mah larger battery packed into the phone along with an improved haptic system. We also have a speculation that the 3.5mm headphone jack removal allowed for a smaller bezel on the chin which even beats the iPhone XS in terms of thinness.

Only time will tell if Samsung will bring back the headphone jack if consumers choose to protest by not purchasing the Galaxy Note 10 and voicing their opinions out. But the real question is, was it time?

Day 1 of the pre-orders showed no signs of a new color for the Galaxy Buds although some buyers will be pleased or yet disappointed to know that the silver version has now been posted quietly only two days after pre-orders had went up for the Galaxy Note 10. So this means that buyers will either have to cancel their early pre-orders for the new color or bite the dust and wait for whichever color they purchased upon checkout.

All hope might not be lost if you’ve already placed your order! We here at Samsung Reviews contacted Samsung for confirmation on whether it’s possible to swap the color upon delivery and they assured me that it would be no problem! So when the day comes for delivery, buyers should be able to contact Samsung for a swap to the silver color as an exchange. How many of you are looking forward to the new silver Galaxy Buds?