Samsung Galaxy M31s: design
Contents
The Samsung Galaxy M31s has a somewhat new design, which makes it stand out a bit compared to 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. Due to this, the Galaxy M31s looks premium. The size of the bezels is acceptable for the 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 on the right side along with the volume buttons. These buttons are not difficult to reach while holding the smartphone in hand. We would have liked the placement of the volume buttons on the left side, where this phone only has space for the SIM tray. The USB Type-C port, 3.5mm audio jack and speaker are at the bottom while the secondary microphone is at the top.
The phone has a plastic back, which Samsung calls Glasstic. It comes with a glossy finish and picks up fingerprints very easily. We found ourselves having to wipe it frequently to maintain its glossy look. The Samsung Galaxy M31s comes in two gradient finish options – Mirage Black and Mirage Blue. We had the Mirage Black variant for this review and we loved it.
The Galaxy M31s has a quad-camera module at the back, which is similar to the Galaxy M31, but the placement of the sensors has 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 the weight of this phone if you hold it in your hand for a while. The edges of the back are curved, which makes the phone easy to grip.
Samsung Galaxy M31s: specifications
To power the Galaxy M31, Samsung has used its Exynos 9611 processor. We have seen this processor in many Galaxy smartphones under Rs 15,000, including the Galaxy M21. The Exynos 9611 chipset is a capable processor, but we expected Samsung to use something newer and more powerful. The Exynos 9611 is an octa-core processor that comes with four Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.3 GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.7 GHz. The smartphone is available in 6GB and 8GB RAM options, but the storage is limited to 128GB. You have the option to expand the storage up to 512GB using a microSD card.
There is support for Bluetooth 5, dual-band Wi-Fi AC and GPS as well as dual 4G and VoLTE. Samsung has provided a 25W USB Type-C charger in the box, which is a first for a Galaxy M series phone. You also get a USB Type-C to Type-C cable that can be used to reverse charge other Galaxy devices.
The Samsug Galaxy M31s runs OneUI 2.1 based on Android 10. Our review unit had the July Android security patch. The UI is similar to other Galaxy M series smartphones that we have reviewed before, such as the Galaxy M31 and Galaxy M21 smartphones.
The Galaxy M31s also has the Galaxy Store app, which is an alternative to the Google Play Store. The phone has Glance lock screen stories, so you will see promotional photos and stories on the lockscreen. You can turn it off if needed. I did see some notifications from the My Galaxy app from time to time.
The Galaxy M31s also has other useful software features, such as Dual Apps, which lets you run two clones of the same app. You get Android’s Digital Wellbeing feature. There’s also a Game Toolbar, which lets you block notifications and full-screen gestures, and an in-game screen recording feature.
Samsung Galaxy M31s: performance and battery life
The Samsung Galaxy M31s has a slightly older processor, but it handles day-to-day tasks quite well. We didn’t notice any lag while scrolling through menus. We had the 6GB RAM variant, so the phone multitasked with ease. However, heavy apps took longer than usual to load.
We found the side-mounted fingerprint scanner to be fast at unlocking the device. The phone also managed to perform facial recognition easily, but we didn’t find it to be very fast. The display on the Galaxy M31s was crisp, had good viewing angles, and was bright enough outdoors. The camera hole can be distracting while watching videos, but you can get used to it after some time.
We played PUBG Mobile on the Galaxy M31s and the game ran on the High preset by default, with the graphics set to HD and the frame rate set to High. We played the entire game on these settings without any lag. After playing for 20 minutes, the device got slightly warm to the touch, which was tolerable.
The Galaxy M31s offers good battery life and lasted a full two days in my usage. In our HD video loop test, the smartphone lasted for 24 hours and 2 minutes, which was impressive. However, the brightness automatically dims when the battery drops below 15 percent.
The phone comes with a 25W charger, which is capable of charging it up to 34 percent in 30 minutes and 65 percent in an hour. The phone took one and a half hours to fully charge. Overall battery performance is excellent and reverse charging is also a nice feature, which can charge your other devices using the 6,000mAh battery of the 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 of f / 1.8. The second is a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, which has a 123-degree field of view. Apart from this, there is a 5-megapixel macro camera and a 5-megapixel depth sensor. 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, captures photos with pre-applied filters, as well as hyperlapse and boomerang video effects. Overall, you will get photos and videos taken in various modes in one click. It also has a Pro shooting mode, which lets you fully control the settings.
The Galaxy M31s takes 16-megapixel shots by default from its 64-megapixel primary sensor. In daylight, the phone reads the light correctly and the AI detects the scene quickly. Photos taken in daylight were sharp and had ample detail. Text in images is legible even after cropping it up to 100 percent. You also have the option to take shots at the full 64-megapixel resolution, but we preferred the default 16-megapixel resolution feature.
The wide-angle camera captures a wider area, but there is a bit of distortion and the edges of the image are blurred. The resolution is high enough that you can crop these shots, but the level of detail is lower than photos taken with the primary camera. Close-ups had good detail and the background was also well-formed. The Galaxy M31s has a Live Focus mode for portraits, which lets you set the level of blur before taking a shot. The macro camera lets you get quite close to the subject, but it is not able to capture colours well.
In low light, the Galaxy M31s took good shots and kept noise under control. The wide-angle camera, however, did not perform well. Shooting photos in Night mode results in a slight crop. The output was not very bright, but it had slightly better details.
For selfies, the Galaxy M31 gets a 32-megapixel sensor and it takes 8-megapixel photos by default and jumps to 12-megapixels if you want a wider frame. In daylight, the phone captures good detail, but you will need to keep the phone steady after pressing the shutter button for a crisp shot. It also gives you the option to capture portrait shots using the Live Focus mode. Low-light selfies do not have the same detail as in daylight.
Verdict
Samsung’s Galaxy M-series is becoming increasingly popular and the company is launching new models one after the other in the market. The Galaxy M31s is an upgrade to the existing Galaxy M31 (Review) and comes with a new Infinity-O AMOLED display. Along with this, it also gets a 25 watt fast charger. However, it retains the same 6,000mAh battery and old processor, which may deter buyers from investing their money.
Its camera performance was quite similar to that of the Galaxy M31. While the new Single Take feature delivers interesting results, the low-resolution output spoils the fun.
If battery life is your priority, there are very few phones that can come close to the performance of the Galaxy M31s. However, you can save money by opting for the Galaxy M31 if you don’t mind the old-style waterdrop notch. If you want better value at this price, the Motorola One Fuson+ (Review) and Redmi Note 9 Pro Max (Review) are worthy alternatives.
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