A lot has changed since Samsung dominated the mid-range market in India with its Galaxy Grand series in and around 2013. At the time, Micromax was its biggest upstart rival, and now Samsung is the one trying to get back into the market, as it looks to break the dominance of Xiaomi, Honor and newer brands such as Realme, and even Asus’s renewed vigor thanks to the ZenFone Max Pro series.
Samsung Galaxy M10 Specifications
Before we get started on our reviw of the Samsung Galaxy M10, here’s a look at the specs:
There are some notable omissions such as the lack of a fingerprint sensor, which is seen in cheaper phones too. It does make the M10 seem less appealing for buyers. Does the phone make up for it with a great user experience?
The M10’s retail package is rather sparse, given that this is a budget phone. This is what you get inside the box:
Unlike other budget phones, you don’t get a clear Silicone or PVC case along with the Galaxy M10, but the plastic back should help hide some finer scratches.
Like I said in our first impressions piece on the Galaxy M10, the phone seems to have been designed for utility and function, rather than a premium look and feel.
One thing to note about displays with so little bezel is that the all-glass front picks up fingerprints rather easily. Cleaning the M10’s panel is an hourly chore, one not helped by the fact that the plastic back also picks up smudges easily. The notch holds the 5MP front camera, which is also used for face unlock, and since there’s no fingerprint scanner here, you would be happy to know it works quite fast and unlocks the phone quickly.
The only thing that hints at this being a 2019 phone is the dual 13MP+5MP (ultra-wide) camera module, which have become oh-so-common even in the budget segment. The polycarbonate back is not a problem for me – I don’t really expect to see metal in this price range. And despite it being glossy, it’s quite grippy and comfortable to use in one hand.
Samsung Galaxy M10: Display
Samsung’s Infinity V notch is not intrusive in the slightest, and certainly doesn’t get in the way of the UI. It reminds us of the notch on the OnePlus 6T, which is not a bad thing. We suppose more and more manufacturers will choose to use the single front camera with dewdrop or teardrop or U-shaped notches this year for the affordable segment. In Samsung’s case, the front camera shows a cool rippling or wave effect around the notch when unlocking the phone.
The Galaxy M10 is powered by the Samsung Exynos 7872 hexa-core 14nm SoC with 4 x 1.6 GHz Cortex-A53 cores and 2 x 2.0 GHz Cortex-A73 cores. For GPU, the chipset has the Mali-G71 MP1.
The phone didn’t seem bogged down by multiple apps open and didn’t seem to have any lag that got in the way of the user experience in the first two days. The combination of the SoC as well as 3GB of RAM provided a decent, stutter-free experience in our first few days with the phone.
The M10 runs Android 8.1 Oreo, with the Samsung Experience UI bringing its share of bloatware to the out-of-the-box software experience. I really dislike the interface of this phone, and perhaps it’s just that I have become used to stock Android or that MIUI or EMUI seem more matured and polished.
Dual cameras are becoming very common in the budget segment, but not like the ones on the Galaxy M10. That’s because Samsung has added an ultra-wide sensor, instead of the typical depth sensor found in the competition. We have seen a similar sensor in action in the Galaxy A7 and Galaxy A9 and the wide-angle definitely makes certain kinds of photos look more immersive and impactful.
As you can see, this is not the best example of a good smartphone camera, as the colors are definitely less vibrant than the actual scene, and the lack of detail is woefully obvious. The only positive is that the competition also has similarly average cameras in this price range. We have not really seen a budget phone with a really good camera yet.
While these are not great pictures, I think it’s more than enough for someone who is using their first smartphone or just using the M10 as a backup phone for travels. These photos might not win you real competitions, but they are more than enough for Instagram, Facebook or your WhatsApp groups.
Samsung Galaxy M10: Battery Life
Another key focus area for Samsung with the M10 is the battery. Samsung has packed in a 3,400 mAh battery, which falls short of what some of the competition offers – Realme C1, for example, has a 4,230 mAh battery.
When it comes to day-to-day usage, the Galaxy M10 will easily last you the whole day, and you will only need to charge it at night or when you sleep. It’s a fairly long-lasting phone and given that most budget users do not tax their phone’s SoC or GPU all that much, you shouldn’t have a lot of trouble using this phone all day.
In my first impression piece, I called the M10 an underwhelming device, and much of that was due to the fact that at first glance, this is not a special phone. But Samsung has finally delivered a decent user experience in the budget segment, and without sacrificing on key specs. The biggest omission in the M10 is the fingerprint scanner, and there Samsung makes up with fast face unlock – albeit not very secure.
