Samsung Galaxy M20 review: Putting the 'M' in masterstroke

Only when we idea Samsung had run out of ideas on how to hold its ground in the competition confronting Chinese OEMs like Xiaomi in the upkeep smartphone segment, the visitor brought out the large guns with the Galaxy M20. Of course, Samsung has simply decided to offer more bang for buck than it has always done before, the just way itcantake the fight back to Chinese manufacturers.

The M20 may nevertheless exist dwarfed by some competing phones in terms of overall specs, but at a starting price of ₹x,990 ($112), it offers some impressive features that we yet tin can't believe are actually existence offered for such a toll. Whether all those features come together to class a cohesive package that nosotros tin recommend is what we'll observe out in this review (although the championship has probably given away our overall impressions already).

Note: We reviewed the 4GB+64GB variant, which is priced at ₹12,990, but you tin can await to have the same experience from the 3GB+32GB model if that'south the ane you lot wish to purchase.

Design: Impressively meaty despite 5,000 mAh bombardment

The Galaxy M20 is dissimilar from any previous Galaxy phone at start glance just because its front camera is placed at the center. The notch isn't noticeable when the phone is lying on a desk with the screen off, and equally yous'll run across in the display department, information technology isn't actually much of a problem, either. But it does offering the benefit of reduced bezels to a higher place the display, which is the reason why the M20 is shorter than some phones with vi-inch screens despite having a six.3-inch screen.

The bottom bezels, like other Samsung phones with Infinity displays, are bigger than the ones on the peak. The phone is noticeably thick, but that won't bother you knowing in that location's a 5,000 mAh bombardment under the hood. And similar previous budget Galaxies, this one is made entirely of plastic, so it doesn't feel besides premium. But information technology doesn't experience inexpensive, and putting metallic even on the sides of the phone would probably have raised the price tag. It does expect like some Chinese phones, though, thanks to the fact that the rear cameras are placed on the left edge and not the eye.

The fingerprint sensor's location is a tad too high, and I had issues with placing my finger properly on the sensor because it's both high upwards and doesn't protrude much from the body. It's just frustrating at this point that Samsung continues to have problems with placing the fingerprint sensor on its phones in the ideal location. I know there's a 5,000 mAh bombardment inside this thing, but it's like Samsung is non even trying to make the fingerprint sensor piece of cake to reach at this bespeak. Full marks for accuracy and speed when I do put my finger on the sensor, though.

Brandish: The notch is surprisingly not that intrusive

With the M20, Samsung has opted for an LCD display instead of an AMOLED panel, and I have to say it'due south a problematic move. Non because that means less bright colors, although is admittedly the example hither since LCDs can't friction match AMOLEDs on the contrast front, but because the left and correct side of the notch, when blacked out during video playback or gaming, don't get completely dark like they would on an AMOLED brandish.

Yes, you read that right. When y'all lookout a video, the phone blacks out the expanse next to the notch so that there's no obstruction, and the same goes for games that don't back up the notch. This as well makes for a smaller view area in videos and games compared to Galaxy phones with regular Infinity displays, but the bigger issue is that at high brightness levels, that blacked out surface area doesn't look completely black. Thankfully, if you're watching videos indoors, the phone usually keeps the brightness considerably lower than maximum as long as auto brightness is enabled.

Expect, auto effulgence? Does a budget Samsung telephone finally get an ambient low-cal sensor? Aye, the M20 has ane indeed, but for some reason, it doesn't seem to exist very quick. Samsung tells usa the phone tin have up to a maximum of five seconds to automatically adjust brightness, and while it never had me waiting that long, automated aligning should have been faster.

Okay, allow'southward get dorsum to the notch. I'1000 happy to say that when you lot're non watching videos or gaming, the notch never gets in the way because it normally just comes in between the condition bar. And I haven't had issues with status bar icons, either. There's plenty of space on the notch's left and right for showing notification icons and details like time and bombardment level. The residuum of the display remains free for apps to use without having to arrange their UI to adapt the notch.

As for overall display quality, this is a pretty good LCD panel, with broad viewing angles and loftier brightness levels. There is some colour shift when you are looking at the phone from an bending, though. And I besides noticed some night spots effectually the notch with white images (similar the notification shade) if you aren't looking at the display head-on, like when the phone was sitting on my desk-bound while I operated it, only none of that is noticeable in regular utilize.

Whatisa trouble is the poor palm rejection. The M20'south side bezels are slightly smaller than the bezels we encounter on budget and mid-range Galaxy phones with Infinity displays, and it seems Samsung didn't call back it through and forgot to add any sort of palm rejection, which results in quite a few adventitious touches. This was the instance with flagships with Edge screens in the initial year or 2 as well, so I guess Samsung will tackle palm rejection with new devices in the future.

Camera: Affordable access to an ultra-wide photographic camera

The Galaxy M20'due south dual rear camera setup includes a 13-megapixel primary sensor with F1.nine aperture and a 5-megapixel ultra-broad sensor with F2.2 aperture and 120-degree field of view. The ultra-broad camera is of detail interest hither, as there's no other phone even from two segments to a higher place the M20'due south that can accept ultra-wide pictures, other than Samsung'southward own Galaxy A serial phones. And while the 5MP sensor tin can't resolve much detail and needs to have adept natural low-cal to take respectable photos, it'due south undeniable that being able to have even basic ultra-broad shots can exist very handy.

Things fall apart indoors and with poor lighting, equally expected. Well lit indoors aren't that much of an issue, but ultra-wide shots taken outdoors without sufficient lighting accept a lot of noise, often rendering the images useless. On the flip side, if in that location are likewise many light sources in a scene, things tend to get overblown. And you can't forestall that, since there's no autofocus on the ultra-wide camera and therefore no pick to manually adjust the exposure.

Check out two scenes taken with the regular and ultra-wide camera next beneath. Note that the fish-centre event y'all can see at the edges in the second sample can be removed using the shape correction pick in the gallery.

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Since the M20 gets an ultra-wide sensor instead of the depth sensor we take seen on dual camera setups on other affordable Milky way phones, Samsung has built in a software-based Live Focus mode for the rear camera. It only works with faces, though, so if you like taking bokeh pictures of subjects other than a human existence, the M20 isn't the phone you should go. Fifty-fifty Live Focus pictures of people are hit and miss, but information technology's overnice to run into that Samsung at to the lowest degree added the pick instead of completely stripping away Live Focus capabilities.

Check out a Live Focus sample from the rear camera below.

How about the 13MP main rear camera? Well, it performs admirably in daylight, with fairly good dynamic range thank you to the Auto HDR function, but colors tend to await a bit washed out. Indoor performance is pretty adept as well, but the M20 fails to resolve enough detail and keep noise in check in poor lighting weather. Focus tin too be an result at times. Some photos that I thought I had taken after the camera had focused on the subject turned out slightly out of focus when I looked at them afterwards. In brusk, the M20's main rear photographic camera is just slightly above average, then it's a good thing we get an ultra-wide camera to make upwardly for it.

Below is a gallery with a few samples from the primary rear camera. Some shots are besides taken with the ultra-wide camera, and the regular and ultra-broad versions are placed one after the other so you can run into the difference.

The 8-megapixel selfie camera does well with color accuracy and detail in bright daylight, only move indoors or to not-and so-well-lit environments and it tends to smoothen things out a bit too much. The background can also go overexposed at times. Y'all also get Live Focus for bokeh selfies, and information technology actually works better than Live Focus for the rear camera on nearly occasions. And Samsung has added a neat little bear upon for when yous use the palm gesture or use the timer for taking selfies: The display around the notch lights up to represent a grinning face and starts blinking a moment or 2 before the timer is about to run out. The lights besides come when you switch from the rear to the front photographic camera.

Below is a picture of what that smiley thing around the notch looks like. And just afterwards that you can see some selfie samples, including a couple of Live Focus selfies.

Performance: Runs PUBG, but has a few hiccups in regular use

The Galaxy M20 is the most powerful budget phone from Samsung withal. It'southward the start to exist powered by a processor that has some cores that are focused on performance. Previous budget phones have all had only power-efficient cores underneath, which has proven to be a problem for Samsung's non-so-optimized software. With the M20, Samsung Republic of india told us it wanted PUBG to exist playable on the phone, and that's indeed possible at the default graphics settings. Information technology should be able to run Fortnite also, but that game isn't available for the M20 yet.

While performance in full general operation was quite good, it however left me a scrap disappointed. Samsung told usa it has removed some software features that it thinks millennials (immature people) don't use – such every bit Bixby Abode – in order to make the phone run faster, but information technology didn't seem to be enough to avert stutters and lag from fourth dimension to time. The animations are shine and apps launch chop-chop for the almost function, but I saw the phone having issues when switching between two apps or failing to instantly respond to my press of the dwelling button.

The screen doesn't always plow on instantly when I tap the fingerprint sensor, either, and the camera app tin can take some fourth dimension to become usable and let y'all take a photograph. That's in a week of using the phone as my daily driver, which makes me worry about the long-term performance, especially of the variant with 3GB of RAM. Possibly a Snapdragon 636 would have been a amend option instead of the Exynos 7904, as Samsung seems to do a amend job with Snapdragon chips in the mid-range and budget segment than with its in-firm processors.

The fingerprint sensor on the Milky way M20 is quite quick and accurate, although it tin be hard to reach every bit I mentioned in the design section. Every bit on the Galaxy S9, the M20'south fingerprint sensor allows you to register your finger with 1-three swipes instead of requiring you to tap it multiple times. The M20 besides comes with facial recognition for unlocking the telephone. As usual, it'southward but a bonus feature that you lot can do without, since facial recognition is neither fast nor useful in poor lighting weather.

Audio and call quality: Dolby Atmos makes a difference

The M20'due south single lesser-firing loudspeaker doesn't get loud plenty, but it doesn't distort at full book, despite being tuned towards the higher frequencies (treble). At that place's petty to no bass or thump to the sound, and so you're amend off using earphones for the best audio feel. And while the telephone doesn't come bundled with earphones, you can get some amazing sound when Dolby Atmos is enabled.

Dolby Atmos works for wired and Bluetooth audio, and turning it on noticeably enhances the sound output, increasing both volume and stereo separation. The M20 as well does well in the connectivity department. Network reception was not an issue except in areas similar underground parkings, and I had no trouble with hearing the other person on calls. The phone supports dual VoLTE, then yous tin have ii SIMs running in 4G mode at the same time.

Software: Should have come with Android Pie and One UI

With Android 8.ane Oreo out of the box, the Milky way M20, like any other budget phone released a month or two before Samsung's latest Galaxy S flagship, feels outdated. It's a tradition for Samsung despite the fact that the visitor could have put the newest version of Android on the device, but it's particularly problematic at this signal in fourth dimension. Samsung's new One UI skin makes substantial changes to the await and feel of its software, and M20 buyers will find themselves having to accommodate to the new UI in just a few months when the Android Pie update arrives subsequently this year.

That said, the Samsung Experience ix.v skin will keep things familiar for those moving from another Milky way phone. And on the M20, the company has stripped away Bixby Abode, which is great since without the dedicated physical Bixby central, Samsung's virtual assistant is rather useless. Information technology has too stripped another functionality to keep things running well, only the visitor has gone a bit likewise far with some aspects, similar offering the blue light filter feature simply not assuasive y'all to customize the filter's opacity or set up a custom schedule.

The M20 also comes with the Lock Screen Stories characteristic enabled out of the box. This feature puts a new wallpaper from the internet on the lock screen every fourth dimension y'all plow the screen on and allows you to read up on the subject of the current wallpaper. Information technology's irritating because while you lot become some stunning wildlife and nature wallpapers, you will also run into images of Bollywood actors like Shah Rukh Khan from fourth dimension to time. Some might like it, simply others volition but want to turn off the feature every bit soon as they gear up up the device.

The M20 gets some standard Samsung features, such as Multi Window, one-handed operation, Dual Messenger, themes support, and navigation bar gestures. There'south no Always On Display (AOD), which I feel is a missed opportunity since the M20'southward big battery would be very capable of lasting long with AOD enabled. AOD would too human action as an culling to a notification LED, which is missing on the M20. Samsung could add information technology with a software update, only I wouldn't bet on that since the company would desire to have some features exclusive to its higher-cease devices.

Bombardment Life: Long-lasting, simply could have been ameliorate

The Galaxy M20'south almost bonny feature is no doubt the 5,000 mAh battery, but I have to say it cruel a tad brusque of my expectations. It's great when yous expect at it in a vacuum, but because this is a budget phone with a mid-range SoC and fewer software features than the Galaxy Note 9 with its 4,000 mAh battery, I expected it to take better endurance. I could hands make it into the afternoon the next day without needing to accuse the phone, just that's about it. Basically, information technology's one-and-a-half-day bombardment life, not two-24-hour interval battery life every bit you would promise from a telephone with a five,000 mAh battery.

But, overall, battery life is very undecayed, and there's no mode to drain information technology completely in i day unless you play a game all 24-hour interval long or do things like watching too much YouTube on an LTE connection. I never had to turn on the power saving modes, nor was I e'er in a situation where I had the take chances of the phone dying out on me. It'due south as well good to see the M20 supports fast charging. Information technology takes around 2.five hours to reach 100 percent, co-ordinate to Samsung, which isn't bad for a 5,000 mAh battery. Along with fast charging, the M20 gets the distinction of being Samsung's first budget telephone with a USB Type-C port as well.

Decision: An unexpected masterstroke

You must exist wondering how the Milky way M20 is a masterstroke when nearly every aspect of the telephone has some terms and weather that stop information technology from existence truly great in any department. Well, information technology's a masterstroke considering Samsung has managed to price the phone unexpectedly well. I mean, the Galaxy J6 launched in May last year with a higher toll tag for the base of operations model despite having far lesser specs than the M20. I guess Samsung finally realized it has to forego all profits if it wants to stay competitive in the budget smartphone market place.

Information technology makes the Milky way M20 quite easy to recommend, particularly since the notch didn't turn out to exist as big of a problem as nosotros had been expecting. Features like the 5,000 mAh bombardment and the ultra-wide photographic camera arrive unique amid competition from Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi, and while all the specs and features don't make for as good a package as I had hoped, it'south a brilliant showtime to 2019 for Samsung and makes me excited for the visitor's future upkeep offerings. Samsung calls this a phone for millennials, just anyone looking for an affordable phone for less than ₹15,000 (roughly $210) can choice the Milky way M20 upward.

Pros	Cons
Large screen on a compact trunk	Notch reduces viewing expanse in video playback and games unoptimized for notches
Fairly loftier-quality LCD Infinity-V display	Surprising quirks in performance in day-to-solar day operation
Notch is not too intrusive	Ultra-wide camera has limited resolution
Ultra-broad camera on a budget, software-based Live Focus support	Primary camera suffers in low-light atmospheric condition
Long-lasting battery with fast charging	Battery life could have been better
Exynos 7904 chipset tin run high-end games, a beginning for a budget Samsung telephone	Buyers will have to readjust to One UI simply a few months later when Pie comes out
First budget Milky way with a USB Type-C portandan ambient light sensor
Peachy pricing

Source: https://www.sammobile.com/samsung/galaxy-m20/review

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