Today, we will discuss about the new Samsung Galaxy A31 which on paper, Galaxy A30s should be an upgrade. Compared to the previous model, the new model comes with a fourth rear camera, a bigger battery, a high-resolution display, full support for Samsung Pay and of course a higher price tag. The phone is available in only one configuration with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. It is priced at Rs 21,999. Will the Galaxy A31 be able to make it to our list of top smartphones under Rs 25,000? Let’s see.
Samsung Galaxy A31 Design
Even though the design of the Galaxy A31 is not exactly fresh compared to other models of Samsung devices, I like that it is thin and light. The phone feels quite sturdy in an all-polycarbonate body but its back catches fingerprints easily. The phone has a thick chin at the bottom of the screen. There is a cutout at the top of the display for the selfie camera.
There’s a large SIM tray on the left for two SIM cards and a microSD card. The headphone jack, USB Type-C port, and a speaker are at the bottom. The back has Samsung’s Prism Crush pattern, of which we have the Blue colour variant for review. The phone is also available in Black or White colours. There’s a quad-camera setup at the back, which is set in a rectangular module and doesn’t protrude too much, which is a good thing.
Overall, the Galaxy A31 was comfortable to use on a daily basis during this review. It is a bit wide and reaching the top of the display is not easy, but One UI has some gestures to make it easier. After seeing several phones in this series with a similar back pattern, we are now starting to find the design a bit boring. The box contents include a silicone case, a charger, a USB cable, and a headset.
Samsung Galaxy A31 Display
The Galaxy A31 has a sharp 6.4-inch full-HD+ (1080×2400 pixels) Super AMOLED display. I found it to be more than adequate in terms of brightness, even in daylight. The display is flat, but there are no sharp edges, so gestures aren’t a problem. There’s an in-display fingerprint sensor, which isn’t very fast, but works well as long as you don’t press it too hard.
Samsung Galaxy A31 Performance
Performance is a big issue. Samsung has used the MediaTek Helio P65 octa-core chipset and I would have no problem with this processor if it was in a Rs 10,000 smartphone, but I cannot be happy with the inclusion of this processor in a Rs 21,999 smartphone. Even Galaxy M21 The company has also used Exynos 9611 chipset in it, which is also quite low in price.
Samsung’s One UI 2.1 based on Android 10 also feels a bit sluggish overall. There was a constant lag in animations when I was switching between apps. One UI comes with a lot of shortcuts, themes and gestures for customisation. There is also Dolby Atmos, but only for wired and wireless headphones.
The Galaxy A31 supports Google’s Widevine L1 certification, which means video streaming apps can play content at the display’s native resolution. The single speaker gets quite loud but the audio quality is average. Simple games run well, but heavy games like Asphalt 9: Legends or PUBG Mobile run on light graphics. I found the phone started to heat up when I played games for long periods of time.
Samsung Galaxy A31 Cameras
The smartphone has four cameras on the back including a 48-megapixel primary sensor, an 8-megapixel wide-angle lens, a 5-megapixel depth camera, and a 5-megapixel macro camera. The apertures of all the cameras are not very impressive, even the main camera comes with just f/2.0 aperture. The front camera comes with a 20-megapixel sensor.
You get Samsung’s ‘Scene Optimizer’ AI engine and the option to save photos and videos in HEIF and HEVC formats. In good light, the main sensor captures decent-looking photos. Photos are captured as 12-megapixel shots by default, but you can shoot at the full 48-megapixel resolution if required. In low light, noise is reduced, but this leads to a loss of detail. Close-up shots in good light were also good, with good details and colours, but shutter lag causes even slight movement to blur the photo.
The wide-angle camera offers comparatively poor detail and the HDR isn’t as effective as the main camera. Details are very poor in low light and there’s no night mode to improve them.
Live focus works average. The amount of background blur can be set manually before taking a photo. The macro camera also works well with close-ups.
The selfie camera captures 12-megapixel photos by default. However, you can also shoot at full resolution. Selfies are generally usable when shooting outdoors in daylight. Skin tones tend to be a bit too warm. The camera struggles to produce good detail in low light and often results in soft textures and poor details.
Overall, the Galaxy A31’s cameras are pretty weak and lack several features you’ll find in many phones priced lower than this.
Samsung Galaxy A31 Battery
The best feature of the Galaxy A31 would be its battery life. In our HD video loop test, the 5,000mAh battery lasted for 18 hours and 11 minutes, which is very good. Even with regular use, I was easily able to get more than a day out of a full charge. It has 15W fast charging, allowing you to charge the battery up to 50 percent in an hour, but it takes more than two hours to fully charge.
Verdict: Who is the Samsung Galaxy A31 for?
I Galaxy A31 I was struggling to find a good reason to call this the best phone in the world, and I’ll be honest, I don’t find any. It feels like Samsung has overdone it. Galaxy A50s And Galaxy A51 It has been launched to fill the price gap between Rs 19, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20 and 21. Battery life can be called the only good feature of this phone, along with it there is good build quality and display.
However, a below-average chipset and weak cameras are flaws you can’t ignore after paying over Rs 20,000. Even if the price drops, there are much more powerful and feature-packed options in the market like Samsung’s own Galaxy A50s and Galaxy M31 or phones from Realme and Xiaomi.