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Samsung Galaxy M31 launched: Xiaomi, realme should watch this $200 phone
Samsung’s online-exclusive mid-tier M series has a brand new member on board. The company has launched the Samsung Galaxy M31 in India as a successor to last year’s Galaxy M30 series.
The new Galaxy M31 goes head-on against the likes of the POCO X2, realme X2 and the Redmi Note 8 Pro in terms of pricing. Samsung has done well for itself by launching smartphones that can give its Chinese rivals some real competition, although the X2 phones have a refresh rate and horsepower advantage.
Nevertheless, Samsung’s Galaxy A and M series offer consumers good incentives in terms of price and specs, making them stand out in the clutter of Chinese smartphones, especially in markets like India.
So what’s so special about the Samsung Galaxy M31? Let’s take a look.
Samsung Galaxy M31 specs
Samsung touts three special selling points for the new Galaxy M31. These include: a 64MP quad camera setup, an AMOLED display, and a massive 6,000mAh battery. Let’s further break down these specs for you.
The phone features a 6.4-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-U display. The U-shaped notch rests in the middle of the screen. It is powered by the distinctly mid-range Exynos 9611 octa-core chipset coupled with 6GB RAM and 64GB/128GB storage, which can be further expanded to 512GB.
In the camera department, the Galaxy M31 combines a 64MP main sensor, a 5MP macro sensor, a 5MP depth camera, and an 8MP ultra-wide shooter. At the front is a 32MP selfie snapper. Samsung has added a dedicated Night Mode to camera. It’s also capable of 4K video recording from both the front and back cameras, as well as super slo-mo and hyper lapse videos.
Samsung claims the phone’s 6,000mAh battery can easily last you for two days of usage. The company further breaks this up into different types of usage: Up to 21 hours for internet (Wi-Fi, standard), up to 48 hours for calls, up to 26 hours for video playback, and up to 119 hours for music play back.
Of course, no one really uses their phone for only one of these things at a time and we’d have to test these claims to verify their authenticity. However, 6,000mAh is enough juice to give you at least a day’s worth of usage, if not two whole days.
There’s also a 15W charger in the pack to enable fast charging.
Price
The Galaxy M31 comes in at Rs 14,999 (~$208) for the 64GB memory variant and Rs 15,999 (~$222) for the 128GB storage configuration. At that price point, it’s a pretty attractive buy for the features it offers. As we said before, it competes with some very popular phones from Xiaomi and realme in the same price bracket.
The phone will be available from Amazon India starting March 5 in Ocean Blue and Space Black colorways.
It’s good to see Samsung stepping up its game in the under Rs 20,000 (~$278) segment in India. That category is usually ruled by Chinese smartphone makers who will likely be feeling the heat right about now.