Samsung’s most ambitious range of M-series smartphone has been one of the company’s highest-grossing series. With devices under the 15k bracket selling like hot pancakes on a Sunday afternoon. This successful gambit has largely played in the favour of the company, as it lost a considerable market share to the onslaught of Chinese manufacturers coming offshores to India. The company recently launched its Galaxy M31 smartphone to further strengthen its position in the upper spectrum of the price bracket, where it slides in this device to provide the best specs possible to lure potential customers.
So, does this device objectify a sizable upgrade from the M30s launched earlier or it exemplifies Samsung’s yet another dry run? Well, let’s find out!
Display and Design
The first time we picked up the Galaxy M31 smartphone, it was hard to distinguish it from the Galaxy M30s, as both bear a striking resemblance to each other. The only change in the design comes through the added camera which in total accounts for the promising quad-camera setup on the back.
The display, on the other hand, remains the same, measuring in at 6.4-inch AMOLED HD+ panel as found on the M30s. The bezels are fairly slim on the side with rounded corners to ensure a tighter grip, following its massive dimensions. The button placement is good too, as one can easily reach the volume rocker or power button with sufficient ease. The plastic construction doesn’t inspire confidence, however, owing to the built quality established by Samsung over the years, we hope the smartphone could easily take a fair amount of beating.
Coming to the display quality, the AMOLED HD+ panel found on the Galaxy M31, puts up a great show. Viewing angles are great and outdoor visibility top notch making this panel one of our most favoured display under 15k price bracket. Watching shows or playing games is a joyous experience, as the device hold with its lifelike looking saturation and accurate colour reproduction. Overall, we liked the display and the build quality, which although bags a revised name, has largely remained similar over the years.
Processor
Similar to the display, the M31 retains the Exynos 9611 SoC which has proved to be a reliable chipset for the M family. This Octa-Core processor with four performance ARM Cortex-A73 chipset is clocked at 2.3GHz, while four efficiency Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.7GHz is one stellar chipset.
It relies on Mali-G72 GPU for its graphics which when coupled with 6GB RAM handles some intensive gaming job with ease. The user experience provided by the processor and the tuned Samsung’s One UI 2.0 build on top of Android 10, does offer a smooth overall experience. Games ran at a consistent FPS and apps loaded faster, which is more than what an average user wants at this price point. Security is taken care of by a face unlock and a fingerprint sensor on the back, which for the most part does its job accurately. The only downside to this whole experience came through the added bloatware which includes apps such as Netflix, Facebook, Candy Crush Saga, and Samsung Shop. This bloatware kept pushing useless notifications making it a lot more annoying to get useful work done.
What’s unique is that the Android 10 support has brought several handly features such as Dark Mode and Focus Mode which worked well. Samsung also provides some of its unique features which let you ditch the three-button layout for a full-screen experience, double-tap to wake up, gesture screenshot, amongst others.
Camera
Another department where the M31 shines is the quad-camera setup of 64MP main camera (f/2.0), 8MP (f/2.2) Ultra-Wide lens, 5MP macro lens, 5MP depth lens on the back and a 32MP (f/2.0) lens on the front. The rear camera setup enables users to seamlessly switch between several modes listed under the camera app. The lens focuses in on a subject quickly which helps to capture dynamic shots where time is of the essence. The daylight images were a tad bit on the warmer side but the camera automatically switches to HDR mode to fix this right away. A wide-angle lens works as expected, as it captures a whole lot of subjects with its high frame of view. The Galaxy M31 is also capable of shooting close macro shots due to its raw focus, which grants a natural depth effect that is something we cherished. However, the colours at this distance seem overblown and loose on some essential details. Portrait images, on the other hand, came out to be very good, as the device detected the subtle edges resulting in a shot that had the right amount of blur effect we were hoping to get. The Night mode does lighten the shots up and aids while taking better shots.
Same goes with the selfies, which when shot with adequate light were decent and in low light were passable at best. Additionally, the camera app includes several handy features like Super-Steady mode, 4K mode, Hyper lapse mode, and Super Slo-Mo mode that gives some exiting edge to the M31.
Battery
Lastly, the battery is upgraded from 5000mAh to 6000mAh to give you an approx. two days’ worth of use or as Samsung claims, 21 hours of internet use, 48 hours of calls over LTE network and 26 hours of video playback. We found this claim to be true as we got over 18 hours of battery life from our hardcore gaming and social media sessions.
To top this all off there is also support for fast charging via 15W power brick provided in the box which takes close to 2 hours to juice up this 6000mAh battery from 5 per cent to a complete 100 per cent.
Gizmo Verdict
Although the Galaxy M31 largely remains unchanged, we still believe this smartphone is one stellar option under the sub 15K price bracket. The upgraded RAM added camera, and a beautiful UI does spice things up. So if you are in the market looking for a smartphone to support those long gaming sessions or to endlessly watch that Netflix series, the M31 is just the right one for you.
