With Galaxy M20, Samsung's never-ending quest for the perfect budget smartphone finally ends

Samsung was India’s go-to smartphone brand once. But in 2017, it was bested by Xiaomi and rest as y say, is history. w you can sit down and analyze Xiaomi’s business model all you want, and you may even find something (a tre secret, if you’re lucky) eventually, but I am sure for most people, Xiaomi’s rise from underdog to India’s number one smartphone brand will t be very surprising. What’s surprising is how a behemoth like Samsung did t see it coming.  

re’s subtle way to put it. Samsung was slow to react. At a time when Xiaomi was going all gung-ho about ‘high-quality products at honest prices,’ Samsung was busy slapping ‘brand new’ stickers on same old rebranded products. Every w and n, Samsung would launch an interesting J-series smartphone, or an interesting new feature like S-bike mode, but n, re’s only so much that you can do when your rival keeps churning out high-end hardware at rock bottom prices. 

Samsung believes its new Galaxy M-series can turn tide in its favor. Samsung is kicking things off with two M-series phones, Galaxy M10 and Galaxy M20, and India is first market to get m, underscoring country’s growing significance among big players. t that, that’s a secret. India is second largest smartphone market in world after China, and has just surpassed 430 million smartphone users, according to data by Counterpoint.     

Galaxy M10 and Galaxy M20 are t so much about reinventing wheel, as y are about catching up with competition. While Galaxy M10 is an entry-level phone that starts at Rs 7,990, Galaxy M20 packs better specs at a slightly higher starting price of Rs 10,990. Clearly, Galaxy M20 is right up re in Xiaomi Redmi te 6 Pro alley, meaning stakes will be higher with this one. I have been using Galaxy M20 for over two weeks w, and it just makes me say, “Samsung, what took you so long?”

With Galaxy M20, Samsung has finally got budget smartphone right, and even though it isn’t perfect, it is a step in right direction. Samsung’s fresh approach to countering competition with Galaxy M20 is, if you can’t beat m, join m. Galaxy M20, to that effect, packs a modern design, modern hardware, and competitive pricing which is far cry from past budget Samsung phones.

Galaxy M20 is most exciting budget Samsung phone in a long time

Although Galaxy M20 is built entirely out of plastic, it feels solid in hands. Samsung is using glossy plastic here, which means Galaxy M20 looks like it is me of glass from afar. Also, it feels nice to touch thanks to this finish. It’s t slimmest or lightest smartphone around, but n, that’s understandable: it houses a massive 5,000mAh battery inside.  

main USP of Galaxy M20 is its Infinity-V tch display which is essentially Samsung’s take on waterdrop/teardrop-style tch found in competing products from Xiaomi (Redmi te 7) and Realme (Realme 2 Pro). Samsung is also using software tricks (fancy animations for tifications and charging) to make its Infinity-V display stand out in Galaxy M20.   

More specifically, Galaxy M20 comes with a 6.3-inch Infinity-V TFT LCD display with a 1080p+ screen resolution. quality of display is quite good here, with good colour reproduction and ample levels of brightness. Viewing angles are quite good too. Samsung does t say if Galaxy M20 has any sort of protective covering on top ( Asus ZenFone Max Pro M2 has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 as a reference), but as a consolation, device does come with an ambient light sensor, a feature that Samsung has been kwn to omit in its budget devices. phone also supports Widevine L1 standard so unlike many or budget devices, Galaxy M20 can stream HD content from Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.  

In terms of core hardware, Galaxy M20 is powered by Samsung’s new Exys 7904 processor (octa-core with two Cortex A73 cores that run at 1.8GHz and six Cortex A53 cores at 1.6 GHz) with up to 4GB RAM and up to 64GB stor which is also expandable via a dedicated micro-SD card slot. Samsung says its Exys 7904 chipset has seemingly been “customized for Indian consumer needs” and Galaxy M20 is first smartphone to get it. Which also means, re will be sometime before we have a more comprehensive opinion about it. For some perspective, benchmark scores pit it straight up against Snapdragon 632/636, but its inferior Mali-G71 GPU is unsurprisingly match for res inside Qualcomm chipsets.  

So, how does it all work for Galaxy M20? Well, pretty good, but only if you’re aware of its limitations. Basic tasks are handled well by phone and so is multi-tasking. Unless when you’re out pushing it, phone does tend to slow down from time to time. But t to extent of a bogged down experience. Galaxy M20 is t a gaming phone though, which means you will t be able to enjoy good frame rates at medium or high settings while you’re sweating it out to win your precious chicken dinner at PUBG. Basic games like Candy Crush and Subway Surfers are handled well. Speaking of which, Galaxy M20 does heat up some but it is also quick to cool down, so that’s nice.       

A lot of this seamless experience (multi-tasking or orwise), even though Galaxy M20 is t a very powerful phone, comes from software. phone runs Android 8.1 Oreo-based Samsung Experience 9.5 UI which is different from One UI found inside company’s more premium Galaxy S and Galaxy te devices. Samsung is expected to roll out Android Pie software for Galaxy M20 sometime in August and while it is disappointing that phone ships with Oreo out-of--box, at least, it’s smooth and functional. If only Samsung h cut short on bloat too, it would have been perfect.  

te: Xiaomi is facing flak for pushing out s in MIUI, but it is t only company doing it. Samsung is doing it too. While t as intrusive and abundant as y are in MIUI, Samsung’s Experience UI shows s on lock screen (through lock screen stories feature which can be disabled) as well as inside pull-down tification menu (from Galaxy apps, some of which can’t be uninstalled).    

Even though it isn’t perfect, Galaxy M20 is a step in right direction

Samsung has been able to well optimize hardware with software in Galaxy M20. This entails in good all-round performance, but it also entails in good battery life. While t as stupendous as say Asus ZenFone Max Pro M2 or even Xiaomi Redmi te 6 Pro, Galaxy M20 will easily last you more than a day (sometimes even one and a half days) with close to 10 hours of on-screen time matter how you’re pushing it. Galaxy M20 charges via USB -C and ships with a 15W fast charger in box. 

Phone calls me with Galaxy M20 are of acceptable quality and phone supports LTE on both SIMs. bottom-firing mo speaker is aver at best although phone does support Dolby Atmos for better results through wired hephones. 

Speaking of aver, cameras on-board Galaxy M20 are thing special to write about eir. Galaxy M20 has impressed me in almost all departments, but it falls short (by a long shot) in camera department. Even though, its spec sheet would suggest orwise. 

It comes with dual rear cameras consisting of one 13MP sensor with f/1.9 aperture and a secondary 5MP ultra-wide sensor with f/2.2 aperture. primary camera s mediocre at best photos and soft and mushy photos in tricky light. Low-light photos are downright unusable. ultra-wide camera, although it is a nice dition, does t produce eugh detail and often gives you a fish-eye effect in photos. re’s Live Focus for portrait shots, but it does t work on n-human subjects.

One positive of Galaxy M20’s primary rear camera though is that f/1.9 aperture results in some good-looking macro shots in good lighting conditions. 

8MP front camera on Galaxy M20 can take good-eugh selfies in ideal lighting but suffers as intensity of light goes down. Unlike rivals, Samsung isn’t using AI to sell Galaxy M20 cameras, but re’s beautification, for those who like to use it.

Let’s wrap things up w, shall we? When was last time a certain Samsung Galaxy J or Galaxy On-series phone got anybody so excited? short answer is, t in a very long time. Samsung’s Galaxy J and Galaxy On-series phones h become boring over years, and rivals were just getting better and better. It seemed Samsung was frozen in time.        

But better late than never. Galaxy M20 is most exciting budget Samsung phone in a long time. Although, I would also like to point out again that it isn’t perfect. Neir is it me of metal or glass, r does it rock stock Android. t to mention, cameras on it are just disappointing. But, here’s thing,  Galaxy M20 is first budget Samsung phone to t skimp down on basics. And it does m well eugh, to bring Samsung back in game again.

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