Samsung Galaxy M31s Review
The Samsung Galaxy M31s have a somewhat redesigned design, which makes it stand out slightly differently than other Galaxy M-series phones. It gets a 6.5-inch Infinity-O display, which is set in the center at the top.
Samsung Galaxy M31s: specifications
The Samsung Galaxy M31 managed to make a good impact in the budget segment thanks to its crisp AMOLED display and a large battery. Samsung has now launched an upgrade of the now impressive phone called Galaxy M31s. The new Galaxy M31S comes equipped with an Infinity-O display and a single tech camera feature, and both of these features have been introduced for the first time in the Galaxy M-series. Samsung Galaxy M31s starting at Rs 19,499, will these features be called bad value for money? We have reviewed the Galaxy M31s to find out.
Samsung Galaxy M31s: design
The Samsung Galaxy M31S has a somewhat new design, which makes it stand out slightly differently than other phones in the Galaxy M-series. It gets a 6.5-inch Infinity-O display, which is set in the center at the top. This makes the Galaxy M31S look premium. The size of the bezels is acceptable in terms of price, but some people may find the camera hole in the center a bit distracting.
The Samsung Galaxy M31s has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, which is set to the right with the volume button. Holding the smartphone in hand is not difficult to access these buttons. We liked the placement of the volume button more to the left, where this phone only has room for the SIM tray. The USB Type-C port, 3.5mm audio jack and speaker are at the bottom while the top has a secondary microphone.
The phone has a plastic back, which Samsung calls Glastic. It comes with a glossy finish and captures fingerprints very easily. We had to wipe repeatedly to maintain its shiny look. The Samsung Galaxy M31s offers two gradient finish options – Mirage Black and Mirage Blue. For this review we had the Mirage Black variant and we liked it.
The Galaxy M31S has a quad-camera module at the rear, similar to the Galaxy M31, but the placement of the sensor changed. The module also has a single-LED flash. The Galaxy M31S gets a 6,000mAh battery, which makes it weigh 203 grams. You will feel heavy by holding this phone in your hand for a while. The back has curved edges, which make the phone easy to grip.
Samsung Galaxy M31s: specifications
Samsung has used its Exynos 9611 processor to power the Galaxy M31. We have seen this processor so far in many Galaxy smartphones including Galaxy M21, which are priced below Rs 15,000. The Exynos 9611 chipset is a capable processor, but we expected Samsung to use something new and more powerful. The Exynos 9611 is an octa-core processor, with four Cortex-A73 cores with 2.3 GHz speed and four Cortex-A53 cores with 1.7 GHz speeds. The smartphone is available in 6 GB RAM and 8 GB RAM options, but comes with 128 GB of storage. You have the option to increase the storage up to 512 GB using a microSD card.
Support is available for Bluetooth 5, dual-band Wi-Fi AC and GPS as well as dual 4G and VoLTE. Samsung has given a 25 Watt USB Type-C charger in the box, which is given for the first time in Galaxy M series phones. You also get a USB Type-C to Type-C cable, which can be used to reverse charge other Galaxy devices.
Samsung Galaxy M31s: performance and battery life
The Samsug Galaxy M31s offers OneUI 2.1 based on Android 10. Our review unit included the July Android Security Patch. The UI is similar to other Galaxy M series smartphones we’ve reviewed earlier, such as the Galaxy M31 and Galaxy M21 smartphones.
The Galaxy M31S also has the Galaxy Store app, an alternative to the Google Play Store. The phone has glanced lock screen stories, so you will see promotional photos and stories on the lockscreen. You can turn it off if necessary. I have seen some notifications of the My Galaxy app from time to time.
The Galaxy M31S also has other useful software features, such as dual apps, that let you run two clones of the same app. You get the digital wellbeing feature of Android. There is also a game toolbar, which helps you block notifications and full-screen gestures and features in-game screen recording.
Samsung Galaxy M31s: performance and battery life
The Samsung Galaxy M31S has a slightly older processor, but it handles day-to-day tasks well. We did not find any lag while scrolling in the menu. We had a 6 GB RAM variant, so the phone multitasked easily. However, heavy apps took longer than normal to load.
We found that the side-mounted fingerprint scanner was fast to unlock the device. The phone could also easily detect facial recognition, but we did not find it very fast. The display of the Galaxy M31s was crisp, it had good viewing angles and it was bright enough outside. The camera hole can be distracting while watching video, but you may get used to it at some time.
We played PUBG Mobile on the Galaxy M31S and the game ran on a high preset by default, with graphics set to HD and frame rate high. We played the entire game on the same settings without any lag. After playing for 20 minutes, the device became slightly warm to the touch, which was tolerable.
Galaxy M31s gives good battery life and in my usage it lasted for two whole days. In our HD video loop test, the smartphone lasted for 24 hours and 2 minutes, which was impressive. However, the brightness of the battery automatically decreases when it falls below 15 percent.
Samsung Galaxy M31s: cameras
The phone comes with a 25 watch charger, which is capable of charging 34 percent in 30 minutes and 65 percent in an hour. It took one and a half hours for the phone to be fully charged. Overall battery performance is excellent and reverse charging is also a good feature, which can charge your other devices with the 6,000mAh battery of the charged Galaxy M31S.
Samsung Galaxy M31s: cameras
Samsung Galaxy M31s comes with a quad-camera setup. It has a 64-megapixel primary camera, which has an aperture F / 1.8. The second is a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, which offers a 123-degree field of view. Apart from this, a 5-megapixel macro camera and a 5-megapixel depth sensor are available. The camera app is very similar to other Galaxy smartphones. It also includes a single take feature, which instead of shooting a simple video clip takes pre-applied filters, as well as hyperlaps and boomerang video effects as well as photos. Overall, you will get a picture and video taken in multiple modes in one click. It also has a pro shooting mode, which lets you control the settings completely.
The Galaxy M31S takes 16-megapixel shots by default with its 64-megapixel primary sensor. In broad daylight, the phone reads the light correctly and detects the AI scene quickly. Pictures taken in broad daylight were sharp and contained enough detail. Text in pictures is read even after cropping up to 100 percent. You also have the option of taking shots at full 64 megapixel resolution, but we preferred the default 16-megapixel resolution feature.
