Under the Samsung Galaxy M series Samsung Galaxy M10 ,Review) and Samsung Galaxy M20 have been launched. It is worth noting that Samsung has first launched these phones of its Galaxy M-series in India. This means that the company is once again trying to establish its dominance in the market. A lot of changes have been seen in the design and specifications of the Galaxy M-series phones. There is no doubt that the company has launched these smartphones to compete with companies like Xiaomi, Honor, Realme and Asus.
Design of Samsung Galaxy M20
The Infinity-V notch has been placed on the upper part of the front panel of the Samsung Galaxy M20 smartphone. The Galaxy M20 has a 6.3-inch display with an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. Keeping in mind the current trend, Samsung has given curved edges to this handset. There is a thin border at the bottom of the phone. The interesting thing is that if you keep the Galaxy M20 and Galaxy M10 next to each other, you will find that both look the same, only the Galaxy M20 has a bigger screen and a thin border. The earpiece has been placed in the frame just above the notch.
The phone also has an ambient light sensor but you won’t see it. The proximity sensor is placed on the left side of the notch. The Galaxy M20 and Galaxy M10 will be sold in Ocean Blue and Charcoal Black colors. The color of the Galaxy M20 review unit we have is Ocean Blue. Samsung has not revealed what material has been used to make the rear panel but it feels like it is made of plastic.
Despite being glossy, the back panel of the handset does not slip at all in the hand. Due to the 5,000 mAh battery in the phone, you may feel that the weight of the phone is a bit more. Galaxy M10 is slightly lighter in weight than Galaxy M20. This is because Galaxy M10 has a 3,430 mAh battery.
On the bottom of the Galaxy M20, you will find a USB Type-C port along with a speaker grill. The main difference between the Galaxy M20 and the Galaxy M10 is that on the back of the Galaxy M20, you will find a fingerprint sensor for security. On the other hand, the fingerprint sensor is not given in the Galaxy M10. The 3.5 mm audio jack is given on the bottom of the phone, power and volume buttons are given on the right side of the phone and the SIM tray is given on the left side.
Samsung Galaxy M20 Specifications and Software
Samsung Galaxy M20 is equipped with the new Exynos 7904 processor and Mali G71 GPU. The company has been using the same processor in many of its models for the last several years. But this is our first experience with the Exynos 7904. Benchmark scores will tell how this chipset will compete with Qualcomm and MediaTek.
Samsung Galaxy M20’s 3GB RAM/32GB storage variant will be available for Rs 10,990. Its 4GB RAM/64GB storage variant is priced at Rs 12,990. The phone’s screen resolution is 1080X2340 pixels. The phone’s battery is 5,000mAh, the company says that with the handset you will get a 15 watt charger for fast charging. On charging the phone for 10 minutes, the handset provides 3 hours of video and 11 hours of music backup.
The phone has a dual rear camera setup. There is a 13-megapixel primary sensor with f/1.9 aperture on the rear. A 5-megapixel ultra wide-angle camera with f/2.2 aperture will work in tandem with it. For selfie lovers, the Samsung Galaxy M20 has an 8-megapixel front camera with f/2.0 aperture. This Samsung brand phone comes with dual 4G VoLTE support. The retail box only contains a 15-watt charger, USB Type-C cable, SIM-eject pin. Earphones, protective case and screen guard will not be provided with the phone.
You will be a little disappointed to know that this phone runs on Android 8.1. But the thing to note is that after the update received, this handset is now running on January 2019 security patch. You will get to see many ads in this Samsung brand smartphone. The company’s new One UI is still in beta phase, which is why this handset of the company has been launched with Samsung Experience UI.
Samsung Galaxy M20 performance, battery life and camera
We did not face any problem while using the phone for the whole day. There was no problem in running apps and light games. Sometimes the phone did slow down due to the UI. Face recognition sometimes took a second to unlock the phone, but the fingerprint sensor works fast.
The screen is bright and crisp and its viewing angles are also quite good. Videos also play quite well on the phone. Asphalt 9: Legends and PUBG Mobile also work fine on medium settings. During gaming, we found that the upper rear part of the phone gets a little hot. The screen of the phone is quite large, due to which you may have some difficulty in using the phone with one hand. Due to the weight of the phone, the grip may also have to be adjusted many times.
Now let’s talk about the benchmark score. The performance of the phone is quite good in this segment. The Exynos 7904 chipset has scored 107,540 in AnTuTu benchmark. The same score has been achieved by Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 or Snapdragon 636 processor. It has scored 1,315 and 4,094 in single-core and multi-core tests respectively. The graphics score may be a bit disappointing. In the GFXBench T-Rex scene, it was running at 22fps and in the Manhattan 3.1 scene only 7.1fps.
Battery life is pretty good. We started using the phone around 8 am in the morning. Even after a day of photography and gaming sessions, the phone still had 60 percent battery left by the evening. In our HD video loop test, the handset delivered 12 hours and 53 minutes of backup which was quite disappointing. This is because other phones with lesser battery capacity in this price segment deliver better results than this.
The camera app is easy to use. The camera locks focus on the subject quickly. Just above the shutter button is the selector button to select both cameras. The app remembers what you were using last and in such a situation, when you open the app again, it does not open the primary camera. You will also find many stickers in the camera app. You can also buy stickers by going to the Galaxy App Store.
There is no Pro mode in the camera app, so you can only control metering, exposure compensation, ISO and white balance. Samsung Mall integration lets you take a picture of anything and search for it on online stores. We found the results to be pretty good but not very detailed.
The point to note here is that Live Focus works only on the face. You will not be able to use it to give depth effect to the picture of an object. You will get beautification mode in it but AI enhancement feature is not given. The photo quality can definitely disappoint you a bit. The kind of sharpness and detail in the photo that is seen in the phones coming in the price segment of Rs 15,000, we did not see it in the photo taken from the Galaxy M20. The pictures taken during the day look good on the phone’s screen. One good thing is that the focus and color are vibrant in all the pictures. The photo quality was also not very good when the secondary camera was used with wide angle. Low-light camera performance is also below average. The video made from the phone was also fine.
Our verdict
We have reviewed the 4 GB RAM / 64 GB storage variant of Samsung Galaxy M20. The price of this model is Rs 12,990. At the same price, Chinese mobile manufacturer Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 6 Pro (Review) also offers similar specifications. The Redmi Note 6 Pro comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor and better battery life. Realme U1 (Review) and Asus ZenFone Max Pro M2 (Review) Both handsets come with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. In our test, we found that both these handsets come with powerful processors and good battery life. Galaxy M20 may not be able to give tough competition to its rival handsets in terms of features but it will compete equally with all the models.