After losing a considerable market share to Chinese smartphone makers, Samsung has decided to extend its portfolio across the segments. Getting dethroned as the number one smartphone vendor in 2018, the company has ramped up its efforts to push its most beloved M series devices through its paces.
The new Samsung M51 doubles down on the recipe loved by Indian consumers like a bigger performance, bigger display, and an even beefier battery. Besides such great specs, the smartphone also packs in some segment-first features like a 7000mAh battery, which is a first mainstream device to receive such a battery pack. The Samsung Galaxy M51 represents the best that the series can offer, so is it enough? Let’s find out!
Design
Usually, smartphones with batteries bigger than 5000mAh tend to be thick and unwieldy, but on the contrary, the design is quite sleek and agile. The company has worked to keep a manageable form factor that directly competes with the competition despite packing in a larger capacity battery. Don’t get us wrong, at 9.5mm the device is thick but with a weight of 213 grams, the change is barely visible. The body is made out of all-plastic material to keep the weight issues in check but it’s something we can learn to live with, as it negates the necessity of frequent charging.
The design is nothing out of the box, as it follows the line and curves found on other M series smartphones. It comes with an Infinity-O display (centre hole punch) front camera on the front while the rear packs a quad array camera setup as seen on other 2020 Samsung devices. Rest all is similar to what we have seen, with the only change being the fingerprint sensor integrated into the lock button.
Display
As with any other Samsung smartphone, the 6.7 inches Super AMOLED Plus Infinity O-panel HD+ on the Galaxy M51 is best in the class. Its protected by a Gorilla Glass 3 the display is scratch resistant for added toughness. The panel is pretty huge and supports Widevine L1 for streaming content using Netflix and Amazon Prime as intended by the creator. The colors look popping and crispy with a saturation gamut that’s dynamic and vivid. The screen viewing angles are good and get adequately bright under harsh sunlight to make reading text a lot easier. Users can also dial down the colors using the display settings for a cooler and sedated look. There is also an Always-on Display feature with a ton of themes to choose from the Samsung theme store.
Performance
Gone are the in-house Exynos chipset, as Samsung embraces the new Snapdragon 730G chipset which gives the device an upper hand when it comes to performance. This Octa-core processor builds on an 8nm architecture is clocked at 2.2GHz which is the same one found on the Galaxy A80, Realme X2, and Vivo X50. The chipset handles apps effortlessly and can run intensive games with exceptional ease. Paired with the 6/8GB RAM and Adreno 618 GPU, this chipset consistently maintains great fps at max settings with modern titles like COD Mobile, Asphalt 9, or Real Racing for that matter.
No amount of heating was noticeable across our entire gaming session. Throughout testing, the performance was consistent and smooth. We never encountered any lags or jitter while opening apps or multitasking through several social media apps.
The smartphone runs on the One UI 2.1 core based on Android 10 which has its fair share of unique elements and personal touches like a system-wide dark mode. The OS is more mature as it draws inspiration from Google with dedicated features like Blue Light filter, a screen recorder, Focus mode, etc. Apart from these, you are also greeted by Samsung’s apps for app cloning, custom gestures, Digital well-being, parental controls, ultra-data saving mode, and a lot more.
Camera
The Galaxy M51`s quad-camera setup includes a 64MP Sony IMX682 primary sensor (f/1.8) + 12MP ultra-wide sensor (f/2.2) + 5MP depth sensor + 5MP macro sensor on the front while a 32MP selfie camera (f/2.2) on the back which is the similar one we saw on the M31s.
The setup on the back is surprisingly good and produces some of the best-looking shots. The colors look great with a sufficient amount of detail, sharpness, and dynamic range with a slight hint of oversaturation. The colors look punchy and good to go for social media platforms.
The dedicated night mode also works as expected, the shots were fixed to give a lot more clarity and depth perception than a normal shot. The wide-angle lens shoots a 123-degree field of view capturing a lot more content in a single shot. The dynamic range and color retention are good given the amount of info it has to capture but once you start to zoom in, you start to lose out that clarity. The macro lens has no issue as it captured fixed shots at a relative distance with a lot more detail and gain.
Talking about the selfie camera, there is nothing much to say, besides the ability that the sensor can shoot 4k video at 30fps. The camera produces good social media usable images in a heartbeat. The software also bundles all the best shots and personal events in a single album to showcase all great moments in a snapshot. The camera app offers tons of shooting modes, filters, AR zone, and Bixby vision.
Battery
Arguably the most important USP of the Galaxy M series has been the massive battery capacity. And with a new 7000mAh battery, the M51 is one humongous, mainstream smartphone we have witnessed ever. Also, Samsung has provided the 25W USB Type-C fast charger right inside the box which takes about two hours to juice up this massive unit.
Unsurprisingly enough the Galaxy M51 with its huge battery took us through days’ worth of use. Despite our heavy use, we couldn’t slash the battery level within two days, and that’s saying something. With our in-house testing of intensive gaming, social media, streaming, and phone calls we got around 15 to 17 hours of screen on time which is out of this world crazy! Moreover, carrying this power bank of a smartphone, you could easily hook it up with a Type-C to Type-C cable provided in the box to charge your accessories.
Gizmo Verdict
Despite costing way about its siblings, the Galaxy M51 impressed us in a lot of different areas. Be it the snappier Snapdragon chipset, its Super Clear AMOLED panel, or the massively massive battery. We thoroughly loved testing this smartphone and were stunned by the ability of Samsung to incorporate such a massive battery in a short profile. All in all, the Galaxy M51 is ready to take on the likes of the OnePlus Nord, Realme X3, and Redmi K20 Pro.
