Samsung launched the Galaxy M31 in late February, but unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in March, forced the government to impose nation-wide lockdown and the economic activities came to a standstill.
Now, as the country is opening up markets in India, buyers can purchase phones and consumer electronics online and nearby brick-and-mortar stores in green and orange zones with low coronavirus cases.
Coming back to the topic at hand, the Galaxy M31 is the successor of the M30s, which was launched in September 2019. The new phone comes with a moderate upgrade over the predecessor.
I have been using the M31 for more than a week and here're my thoughts.
Design, Build Quality and Display
Despite the massive 6,000mAh battery, the phone is light when held in the hand. It weighs just 190g and that's probably due to the polycarbonate shell. However, it feels sturdy and capable of taking accidental falls. Probably why Samsung has not included any silicone-based case for the phone in the retail package.
It has a single-grille speaker at the base and I have to say, audio output comes off decent in terms of loud and sound clarity.
As far as the display is concerned, it features a 6.4-inch full HD+ (2340 x 1080p) Infinity-U Super AMOLED display. Like the premium phones, Samsung again excels in offering good quality display in the Galaxy M31. With Widevine L1 certifications, you can play full HD content on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and other multimedia streaming services. With such a big battery, you can watch for hours with less worry of any strain on the eyes. Under direct sunlight, I did not face pressing issues while viewing videos or browsing webpages as such. It is one of the best screens for a phone in this segment.
Performance:
The Galaxy M31 ships with a 10nm class 2.3Ghz Exynos 9611 octa-core processor backed by 6GB RAM, and 64GB/128GB storage.
For day-to-day tasks, the phone worked without any fuss. Even while playing games or during the streaming videos Over-The-Top (OTT) apps, the phone did get warm but never overheated.
On the Geekbench performance testing app, it scored respectable 347 and 1,298 points on single-core and multi-core tests.
The fingerprint sensor on the back works flawlessly and more reliable than the face recognition feature to unlock the phone.
The phone runs Android 10-based One UI 2 OS. It is clean and easy to navigate through the phone. But, have to say, the device comes with unwanted pre-loaded apps, which I doubt anybody will ever use it. But, thankfully, the apps don't overburden the storage nor cost speed of response in terms of loading the app or playing games.
Battery:
It features a massive 6,000mAh cell and the company claimed the device can deliver up to 26 hours of video playback and yes, it did live up to the expectations.
During the review period, the Galaxy M31 consistently offered two days of the battery under normal usage, which included internet surfing, a short session of gaming, videos streamed on multimedia apps (via Wi-Fi), and other day-to-day chores.
Even with extreme usages such as long hours of gaming and video play, it was able to last a full day and still had more than 20-percent before I could retire to the bed in the night (11:30 pm). It also comes with a 15W Type-C charger, which does its job good in charging up the phone to the full in close to two and a half hours. It is fast enough, considering it has such a massive battery capacity.
Camera:
The biggest improvement one can expect with the M31 over the predecessor Galaxy M30s is its photography hardware.
The Galaxy M31 houses quad-camera module on the back-- a 64MP main sensor (with Samsung GW1 sensor, LED flash, f/1.8 aperture), 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens (with 123-degree field of view, f/2.2 aperture), dedicated 5MP lens (f/2.4 aperture) for macro shots and a 5MP depth sensor (f/2.2 aperture).
Samsung's mid-range phone takes pretty nice pictures in the natural sunlight and camera software also does its job of enhancing the colour of the subject particularly flowers and human face (in terms of skin smoothening). But, never overwhelming like others in the sub-Rs 20,000. The subjects look decent worthy to be posted on social media platforms.
I am pretty impressed with portrait images; the phone was able to finely separate foreground and background of the subject. Even the edge-detection, especially around petals and human hair are praiseworthy.
It offers pictures in HDR, Panorama, and a host of filters and editing options to enhance the photography experience. Another notable aspect of the Galaxy M31 is that it can record really fine 4K videos, which is very rare in this segment.
But, the images and videos do get grainy in the indoor and night with poor lighting conditions. In the Night mode, the picture does retain the original colour of the subject (see the green cycle below), the details of the surrounding have noise, which only gets amplified when viewed on the computer screen. But, we will notice noise when seen on a phone with compact screen.
On the front, it houses a 32MP (with Sony IMX616 sensor and f/2.2 aperture) shooter. It is also capable of recording 4K video and slo-mo videos, which comes handy to exchange fun moments on social messenger apps.
Final thoughts: Ratings (3.5/5)
Samsung's Galaxy M31 delivers the promise of long-lasting battery life and one of the best in its class in the market. In the camera department too has improved a lot over the predecessor.
The Galaxy M31 is available in two variants--6GB RAM+64GB storage and 6GB RAM+128GB storage--for Rs 15,999 and Rs 16,999, respectively. It comes in two colours-- Ocean Blue and Space Black.
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