Samsung has changed its smartphone family this year as the company has unveiled for the first time ever this year – the Galaxy M series smartphones. These are smartphones made for those who are looking for a long lasting smartphone with a decent performance at an affordable price. Check out our review of the Galaxy M20 below.
Plastic but decent
Before we talk about the design and construction of the smartphone, let me remind you that the Samsung Galaxy M20 is an affordable smartphone so it’s already expected that the Samsung Galaxy M20 will sport a plastic build and quality.
One of the unique features of the smartphone is its battery life and despite having a 5000mAh battery inside the smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy M20 isn’t that really thick, however, you’ll feel that it’s a little bit heavy. Although you’ll feel the difference between a normal smartphone and the Galaxy M20
The smartphone also comes with a face unlock which is fast enough for me not to use the fingerprint scanner most of the time and yes, there’s the fingerprint scanner of the smartphone which is located at the upper back of the smartphone which is harder to reach for some people with small hands. One of the things you got to appreciate with the Galaxy M20 is the USB-C port and thankfully the Galaxy M20 comes with fast charging so you can charge that 5000mAh battery
The Galaxy M20 also comes with a headphone jack which is already expected since this is just a mid-range smartphone and then there’s the power button and the volume rocker on the upper right side of the phone. There’s a triple card tray too in where you can put in two sim cards along with the MicroSD card.
Not Super AMOLED but still good
The Samsung Galaxy M20 packs a 6.3-inch display with a 19.5:9 display aspect ratio with a Full HD+ resolution. It’s actually a surprise for Samsung to use a Full HD+ display on this one instead of HD+. Another thing, they’ve also used a TFT display instead of the usual Super AMOLED display which can be found on most Samsung smartphones.
The colors of the TFT display of the Galaxy M20 was actually finer than I expected. It was more vivid than I expected and the saturation were better than most TFT displays. But of course, it was as good as the Super AMOLED displays available on other Samsung smartphones.
Nonetheless, the Samsung Galaxy M20 does have a fine display for its price range and oh, that Infinity-V display’s notch? I didn’t worry too much about the notch doesn’t block my viewing most of the time. The smartphone is still good whether you’re using it for Netflix or just using it outside.
Long battery life
One of the reasons why I like the Samsung Galaxy M20 is the battery. It comes with a 5000mAh battery which is on par with the ASUS Zenfone Max Pro M2 and in my usage of the smartphone, it can really last up to a day or two of usage which is really fine.
In PC Mark Battery Life test, the Samsung Galaxy M20 got an impressive score of 11 hours and 47 minutes which is really good. It’s not the longest lasting smartphone that we’ve ever reviewed but for 5000mAh battery, the Samsung Galaxy M20 will do just fine.
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy M20 is equipped with Exynos 7904 chipset inside with a 3GB RAM inside. This hardware inside the Galaxy M20 will do just fine if you’re planning to do some basic app and tasks on the smartphone. If you’re planning on using the smartphone for gaming, well, the Samsung Galaxy M20 can run most games however, you might have to turn down some settings in order for the game to be playable.
In our benchmarks, the Samsung Galaxy M20’s Exynos 7904 isn’t really better compared to the Snapdragon 636 smartphones. Is it bad? Not really. Sure, it isn’t the best in its price range but it will be able to run most apps and games. Well, you are the judge of scores of the Samsung Galaxy M20.
When it comes to gaming, we played different games on the Samsung Galaxy M20 and I was able to play games like PUBG Mobile and I was able to run this game at HD settings with high framerate with no anti-aliasing however I would suggest toning it down to smooth settings. With smooth settings, the game will be playable at a median of 30fps. Noticeable frame drops on the game can be seen when driving or at heavy action or too many smokes.
Another game that I’ve tried is NBA 2k19 and I was able to run the game at ultra high settings but it was unplayable so I recommend running this game at medium settings with no depth of field and cloth simulation to make it playable. Check out the Gamebench scores that we got on the smartphone below.
You can check out the GameBench Benchmarking app at (https://www.gamebench.net)
You can also download the app at the Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gamebench.metricscollector)
Software
The Samsung Galaxy M20 doesn’t use One UI but it isn’t really bad. Actually, the software was swift and the colors and icons of the UI were really cool. The UI is smooth and I never had problems with it when I was using it.
The smartphone’s UI is very familiar to Samsung users and it was very user-friendly and everything was really accessible. If you want to customize your home screen, it’s actually possible as you can download themes and of course, the smartphone comes with Galaxy Store in where you can download wallpapers, themes, and games. The Samsung Galaxy M20 also comes with Samsung members app in where you can get some discounts and freebies.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy M20 packs a 13MP rear camera along with a 5MP camera. The secondary rear camera of the smartphone is actually a 120-degree wide angle camera and we do love taking pictures using the wide-angle camera as it has a wider frame for capturing group photos and landscape.
The cameras of the Samsung Galaxy M20 has improved over a few updates and we noticed that the low light shots of the Galaxy M20 have been better. Most of the shots that I took at decent lighting conditions were good. Most of it was not oversaturated but it was vivid enough and the wide angle lens of the smartphone does capture landscapes better than I expected. Check out some of the shots that I took using the smartphone.
It’s not a perfect camera but it will do. The camera also features modes like Panorama, Pro, Beauty, Live Focus, stickers, and Continuous shot. The selfie camera of the smartphone also features live focus and it was not the best selfie camera but it can definitely do its job well.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy M20 is one of the first smartphones in the M series and it’s focused on competitors that are online-only and Samsung did a great job on this one. You got a long battery life, the large display was good despite not using AMOLED, and the performance was just decent but not the best one.
Overall, the Samsung Galaxy M20 is a decent phone. It might not be the most powerful smartphone out there but if you’re looking for a long lasting smartphone with Samsung software inside then you might want to check this one out.
Samsung Galaxy M20 Specs
- 6.3-inch Full HD+ TFT Infinity-V display, 2340×1080
- Exynos 7904 Octa-Core Processor
- 3GB RAM
- 32GB Internal Storage expandable via MicroSD up to 512GB
- 13MP f1.9 Camera + 5MP 120-degree wide angle lens rear camera
- 8MP front camera
- LTE, Dual SIM
- WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS
- Rear Fingerprint Scanner
- Charcoal Black, Ocean Blue
- 5000mAh Battery
- Android Oreo 8.1 with Samsung Experience UX 9.5
