Samsung Galaxy M31 Review

The Samsung Galaxy M collection has gained a number of recognition due to reasonably priced costs and up-to-date {hardware}. Samsung has managed to decrease costs by promoting these fashions on-line, lowering distribution prices. The sub-Rs. 15,000 Samsung Galaxy M30 set the tempo, and a refreshed model, the Galaxy M30s, actually helped the corporate strengthen its place on this phase. Samsung has now launched a successor to the Galaxy M30s, referred to as the Galaxy M31. You now get a quad-camera setup, an improve from the triple digital camera setup on the M30s. However, the processor and the battery capability stay unchanged. Will this be sufficient to maintain the Galaxy M collection aggressive out there? We overview the Galaxy M31 to seek out out.

Samsung Galaxy M31 design

At first look, it’s laborious to tell apart between the Samsung Galaxy M30s (Review) and the Galaxy M31 from the entrance. Both smartphones sport huge 6.4-inch shows with waterdrop notches, which Samsung calls Infinity U shows, The bezels aren’t skinny, however are acceptable for the worth. Just like with different M collection smartphones, Samsung has used plastic within the development of the Galaxy M31. The earpiece is smooth and sits proper above the show in the body of the smartphone.

Pick the Galaxy M31 up and it feels snug to carry within the hand. The sides are barely curved which helps with grip. Samsung has positioned the facility and quantity buttons on the precise of the gadget. The energy button is straightforward to succeed in however the quantity buttons might have been positioned higher. On the left is the SIM tray which didn’t sit completely flush on our overview unit. The Galaxy M31 has a 3.5mm headphone jack, main microphone, USB Type-C port, and speaker on the backside. The prime solely has the secondary microphone.

When you look in the back of the Galaxy M31, you will see some modifications. The digital camera module is much like that of the Galaxy M30s but it surely now packs a fourth digital camera. Next to that is the fingerprint scanner which was snug for us to succeed in whereas holding the smartphone.

The Galaxy M31 sports activities a 6.4-inch AMOLED show.

The Galaxy M31 packs in an enormous 6,000mAh battery and weighs 191g makes the gadget really feel a little bit heavy. Samsung has fortunately bundled a 15W charger within the field which ought to assist maintain charging occasions down. The firm affords the Galaxy M31 in two colors, Ocean Blue and Space Black. We had the Space Black variant for overview, and it picked up fingerprints and smudges very simply. There isn’t any case within the field, so chances are you’ll need to purchase one.

Samsung Galaxy M31 specs and options

The spec sheet of the Galaxy M31 seems to be much like that of the Galaxy M30s. It sports activities a 6.4-inch AMOLED show with full-HD+ decision. It additionally has Corning Gorilla Glass Three for cover which ought to maintain it from selecting up scratches too simply. The show has good viewing angles and is legible when open air. There are two color profiles to select from, and you can even change the white steadiness.

Samsung has retained the Exynos 9611 SoC from the Galaxy M30s. This is an octa-core processor with 4 efficiency ARM Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.3GHz and 4 effectivity Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.7GHz. For graphics, it has the Mali-G72 GPU. You get 6GB of RAM and a alternative between between a 64GB storage variant and a 128GB storage variant for Rs. 15,999 or Rs. 16,999 respectively. However, Samsung is providing a Rs. 1,000 low cost which brings the costs all the way down to Rs. 14,999 and Rs. 15,999 respectively. The length of this supply has not been specified.

The Galaxy M31 sports activities twin Nano-SIM slots and a microSD card slot

The Galaxy M31 has two Nano-SIM slots and has help for 4G in addition to VoLTE. It additionally helps Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. Storage is expandable by as much as 512GB.

On the software program entrance, Samsung ships the brand new Galaxy M31 with OneUI 2.zero on prime of Android 10. The software program is much like what we have now seen on the lately launched Galaxy S10 Lite (Review) and Galaxy Note 10 Lite (Review). We did discover a truthful quantity of bloatware on Galaxy M31. Apart from the Google apps, Netflix, Facebook, Candy Crush Saga, and Samsung Max have been preloaded on the smartphone. Samsung additionally has its personal apps akin to My Galaxy and Samsung Shop. We discovered My Galaxy to be a tad annoying because it saved pushing notifications by means of the day. 

You should be cautious of what you enable whereas organising the gadget, or Samsung may also ship you advertising and marketing data. The setup course of suggests that you just obtain a number of different apps which we propose you skip.

The Galaxy M31 does get Android 10 goodies akin to Dark Mode and Focus Mode, which might be enabled very simply by means of the notification shade. Dolby Atmos is accessible but it surely solely works with earphones. Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls are additionally current on the gadget. Traditional gestures like double-tap to wake, gesture screenshot are current on the Galaxy M31 as nicely. You additionally get the choice to ditch the three-button navigation structure in favour of full-screen gestures.

Samsung Galaxy M31 efficiency and battery life

Samsung has bumped up RAM on the Galaxy M31 in comparison with its predecessor which ought to give it some leverage whereas multitasking. We didn’t discover any lag or stutter whereas utilizing the smartphone. The gadget is pretty fast to load up apps nevertheless huge apps do take barely longer. Since there may be loads of RAM, multitasking is a breeze and we didn’t discover ourselves ready for an app to load yet again.

The fingerprint scanner is fast to unlock the smartphone, and the selfie digital camera does a good job with face recognition. We loved watching content material on the AMOLED show. There is Widevine L1 help which ought to allow you to stream full-HD content material.

We ran our normal benchmarks on the Galaxy M31. In AnTuTu, it managed to attain 191,981 factors which is larger than the Galaxy M30s did. The Galaxy M31 additionally scored 348 and 1,247 respectively in Geekbench’s single-core and multi-core checks. As for graphics benchmarks, the Galaxy M31 managed 41fps in GFXBench T-Rex, and eight.9fps in GFXBench Car Chase.

The Galaxy M31 packs a 6,000mAh battery

We performed PUBG Mobile on the Galaxy M31, and the sport defaulted to excessive settings by default with the graphics set to HD and the body fee to High. The recreation was playable at these settings and we didn’t discover any points. After enjoying for 20 minutes we observed a 4 p.c battery drop, and the gadget did get heat to the contact. The huge battery will will let you play for fairly lengthy without having to plug the smartphone into the charger. In our HD video loop check, it lasted for 22 hours, 31 minutes.

With our utilization, the battery lasted us for shut to 2 days with none points. If battery life is vital to you, the Galaxy M31 won’t disappoint.

Samsung Galaxy M31 cameras

The Galaxy M31 sports activities a quad-camera setup on the again and a single 32-megapixel selfie shooter. The main digital camera on the Galaxy M31 has a 64-megapixel decision and f/1.Eight aperture. This digital camera takes 16-megapixel binned pictures by default however you’ll be able to change to the complete decision. There’s additionally an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle digital camera with a 123-degree subject of view and an f/2.2 aperture. The different two are a 5-megapixel depth sensor and a 5-megapixel macro digital camera. Samsung’s digital camera app is identical as earlier than and we might discover our approach round it very simply. There’s a toggle to change between the first and the wide-angle cameras. The Scene Optimiser is fast to detect scenes and set the digital camera up accordingly.

The Galaxy M31 has a rear quad-camera setup

We discovered the Galaxy M31 to be fast to detect what it is pointed in direction of and lock focus in daylight. Photos turned out nicely and had respectable particulars. Text at a distance was legible on zooming in. The smartphone permits HDR robotically if required. Switching to the wide-angle-camera is straightforward and you may get a wider subject of view. However, whereas these pictures look nice as is, zooming in reveals that this sensor misses out on particulars. Wide-angle pictures even have barrel distortion on the edges.

Samsung Galaxy M31 daylight pattern (faucet to see full-size picture)

Samsung Galaxy M31 wide-angle pattern (faucet to see full-size picture)

The Galaxy M31 is able to separating topics and backgrounds when capturing close-ups, giving a pure depth impact. However, we felt that brilliant colors have been reproduced too aggressively, leading to a lack of element. The macro digital camera takes respectable pictures open air however the high quality dips when indoors. The output is restricted to five megapixels in decision.

Samsung Galaxy M31 close-up pattern (faucet to see full-size picture)

Portrait pictures have been good and the digital camera app does provide the choice to set the extent of blur earlier than taking a shot. Edge detection is excellent and the Galaxy M31 does a great job of separating the topic from the background.

Samsung Galaxy M31 portrait pattern (faucet to see full-size picture)

In low-light the Galaxy M31 takes longer to lock focus, so you have to to be affected person whereas taking pictures. Photos taken in low-light appeared good as in however you’ll be able to discover fantastic grain within the output on zooming in. Switching to Night mode helps scale back grain within the output.

Samsung Galaxy M31 low-light pattern (faucet to see full-size picture)

Samsung Galaxy M31 night time mode pattern (faucet to see full-size picture)

Selfies taken with the Galaxy M31 have been respectable when shot with sufficient lighting round, however in low gentle, the standard goes down a notch and outcomes are grainy.

Samsung Galaxy M31 selfie pattern (faucet to see full-size picture)

Video recording maxes out at 4K for the first rear digital camera and 1080p for the selfie shooter. The Galaxy M31 meters gentle correctly when capturing through the day, nevertheless, we discovered that the footage wasn’t nicely stabilised. There is a Super Steady mode that makes use of the wide-angle-camera and crops the body to minimise shakes. We obtained well-stabilised output utilizing this mode, however the video lacked element. There’s no stabilisation at 4K.

Verdict

Samsung has seen success with the Galaxy M30s, so it did not need to repair what is not damaged. What the corporate has accomplished is upgraded the RAM, put in a fourth rear digital camera, and preloaded Android 10. The Galaxy M31 doesn’t really feel like a very new gadget, however extra like an update to the Galaxy M30s.

The Exynos 9611 is succesful however we would not have complained if this telephone had a extra highly effective processor to fend off the competitors. The upgrades make this telephone barely higher and extra versatile, but it surely is not a big step up.

Battery life remains to be the principle spotlight, and we might simply go on for 2 days without having to be plugged in, one thing the competitors at this worth degree can’t do very simply. The Redmi Note 8 Pro (Review) and the Realme X2 (Review) will nonetheless give you extra bang in your buck total, however when you do not take care of benchmark scores and simply need a gadget that covers the fundamentals and has a fantastic battery, the Galaxy M31 will just do fantastic.

Can Samsung Galaxy M31 beat the Redmi Note 8 Pro, Poco X2? We mentioned this on Orbital, our weekly know-how podcast, which you’ll subscribe to by way of Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or simply hit the play button under.