You already know that there is tremendous competition in the cheap phone market. In such a situation, it is very important to know how powerful the Galaxy M30 is. Let’s find out…
Samsung Galaxy M30 design
The design of the Samsung Galaxy M30 is similar to the Galaxy M10 and Galaxy M20. The phone has a 6.4-inch AMOLED screen. The display has a teardrop notch, in Samsung’s language it is an Infinity U display. There are very thin bezels on the top and the border is wide at the bottom. Samsung has used a plastic unibody in the Galaxy M30 and the edges are curved for better grip. The Galaxy M30 is available in Gradation Blue and Gradation Black colors. We were given the Gradation Blue variant for review.
The power and volume buttons are on the right side. They offer good response. We found the power button easy to reach but the volume buttons are not as well placed. The SIM tray is on the left side of the device. It has space for two nano-SIM cards and a microSD card.
Samsung Galaxy M30 has a microphone hole at the top. The 3.5mm headphone jack, USB Type-C port and loudspeaker are placed at the bottom. There is an oval-shaped fingerprint sensor at the back. Its position is slightly higher. Due to this, it is not easy to reach the fingerprint scanner. The phone also has a triple rear camera setup. The selfie flash is just below the camera module.
Samsung has provided a large 5000 mAh battery in this phone. Despite this, the company has succeeded in keeping the weight of the phone at 172 grams. You will get a 15 watt charger in the retail box.
Samsung Galaxy M30 Specifications and Features
The Galaxy M30 has a 6.4-inch AMOLED display with full-HD+ resolution. The screen is crisp. Viewing angles are good and there is no problem in reading the screen outdoors. There is a small notch here which houses the selfie camera. If you don’t like it, there is an option to hide it by going to the display settings. This brings black bars on both sides of the notch.
The display settings on the Samsung Galaxy M30 can be changed. You have the option to choose from Adaptive Display, AMOLED Cinema, AMOLED Photo and Basic. We used the Adaptive Display mode all the time. It allows you to change the white balance and color levels.
The phone uses an octa-core Exynos 7904 processor. The phone has two variants based on RAM and storage – 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage, 6 GB and 128 GB storage. If needed, you will be able to use a microSD card of up to 512 GB in both variants.
Connectivity features of the Galaxy M30 include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS. It has an accelerometer, proximity sensor, gyroscope and compass. The Galaxy M30 has two nano SIM slots. Both SIM slots support VoLTE.
It runs on Samsung Experience 9.5 based on Android 8.1 Oreo. Our review unit came with the February security patch. In our opinion, Samsung should have given OneUI based on Android Pie in this phone, like the Galaxy A30. Which is slightly more expensive than the Galaxy M30.
You will find many Samsung apps pre-installed. We found the My Galaxy app to be spam as it was sending push notifications repeatedly.
Samsung Galaxy M30 performance, battery life and camera
The Galaxy M30 uses the same processor as the Galaxy M20. We expected similar performance. The phone never slowed down during normal use. We were able to multitask easily even with many apps open in the background.
The fingerprint scanner unlocks the phone quickly. You will also be able to unlock the phone using face recognition with the help of the selfie camera. Dolby Atmos is also part of the phone, but it can only be enabled when using headphones. We did not find the loudspeaker sound too loud while watching videos and playing games.
To check the gaming performance, we played PUBG Mobile on the phone. It ran on medium settings. During this time the graphics were balanced and the frame rate was on medium settings. We found that there was a complaint of lag in these settings. After this, the graphics settings were made smooth. Now the lag problem was gone and the game became playable. After playing PUBG Mobile for 37 minutes, we found that the phone felt hot to touch and the battery was reduced by 9 percent.
In the benchmark test, the Galaxy M30 achieved very average scores. Even though the performance does not go in the phone’s favor, the Galaxy M30 will be known for its strong battery life.
Its battery is of 5000 mAh. It lasts for a long time once fully charged. In normal use, the phone did not need to be charged for about one and a half days. In the HD video loop test, the battery died in 17 hours and 4 minutes which is more than Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1. But
Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro is even ahead of Galaxy M30. Its battery lasted for 19 hours and 23 minutes. With the help of the 15 watt charger provided in the retail box, you will be able to charge the phone’s battery 23 percent in 30 minutes. 46 percent in one hour and full charge in a little more than two hours.
The Galaxy M30 has a triple camera setup on the back. It is equipped with a 13-megapixel primary camera with f/1.9 aperture, a 5-megapixel depth sensor with f/2.2 aperture and a 5-megapixel ultra wide angle lens with 123-degree field of view. For selfies, a 16-megapixel sensor with f/2.0 aperture has been provided.
Samsung’s camera app is very easy to use. The toggles are at the bottom and the different modes are at the top. The camera is equipped with Panorama, Pro, Beauty, Live Focus, Stickers and Continuous Shot.
The Beauty mode lets you add beautification filters before taking a shot. You have the option to choose from a variety of settings yourself, or leave it to the phone by selecting Smart Beauty.
The quality of photos taken with the Galaxy M30’s camera was at par with other handsets in this price range. Photos taken during the day were sharp and had a lot of detail. The phone was able to focus and get the right exposure before clicking the picture. Distant objects were visible. We noticed chromatic aberration when clicking photos at night. In macro shots, we found that the phone was able to get a good separation between the subject and the background. However, the phone struggled to shoot reds as it aggressively boosted the reds, making them look artificial.
Tap to see full-size Samsung Galaxy M30 camera samples
The ultra wide angle sensor is used to capture wider frames. Since it does not have autofocus, it is best for landscape shots. Some of the photos we took had barrel distortion. But to overcome this shortcoming, Samsung has provided the option of shape correction in the gallery. But this sensor does not capture as much detail as the primary sensor.
We captured portraits in Live Focus mode. We were satisfied with the output. You can adjust the level of blur. The phone manages to separate the subject from the background. Its edge detection is good.
In low light, the Galaxy M30’s performance was average. The photos had low noise but there were grains. This is probably due to the aggressive noise reduction algorithm. Distant objects were not recognizable. This is common at this price point.
Selfies taken with the 16-megapixel camera had no shortage of detail. We also used the Live Focus mode for bokeh effect. Despite having a single selfie sensor, the Galaxy M30 achieved good edge detection. You will be able to record videos with 1080p resolution with the primary camera. But the output is shaky due to the lack of stabilization.
Our verdict
Galaxy M30 is the third phone in Samsung’s Galaxy M series. Its 4GB RAM variant is priced at Rs 14,990 and the 6GB RAM variant is priced at Rs 17,990. It is one of the few handsets in this price range that comes with an AMOLED panel. We found that the big battery was helpful. The cameras work well in daylight. But there is scope for improvement in macro and low light photography.
We were expecting the Galaxy M30 to get OneUI based on Android Pie. But we were disappointed to see the Samsung Experience UI based on Android Oreo. Considering the price, the Galaxy M30 is not a bad phone. If you judge any phone only on the basis of performance, then the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro is a better option. However, you can also consider the Realme U1 (Review) and Asus ZenFone Max Pro M2 (Review).
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