Samsung once ruled the budget segment of the Indian smartphone market, before it lost its position to the Chinese smartphone brand Xiaomi. And now, the South Korean smartphone giant is trying to take its crown back. For this, Samsung yesterday launched its Galaxy M20 and Galaxy M10 smartphones. We spent some time with the Samsung Galaxy M10 smartphone and here are our first impressions of the newly launched device:
Design
There’s a lot about Samsung Galaxy M10’s design that we like. Simply put, the device is visually extremely pleasing to look at. The front panel is dominated by the Infinity-V display with a water drop shaped notch on its top and a slightly broad chin, while the back panel is made of polycarbonate. With the glossy finish, the device does manage to look premium for the price range, but we must mention that because there is no fingerprint sensor, the design looks like that of a rather old model.
But then, Samsung has compensated with a face unlock feature instead, so we can’t really complain. The back panel of the Samsung Galaxy M10 also has the dual rear camera setup, the LED flash, the Samsung branding, and the speaker of the device. The right edge of the handset has the power and volume rocker buttons and the left one has the SIM tray. While the bottom edge of the device has the microUSB port, the 3.5mm headphone jack and the microphone, the top edge of Galaxy M10 has the secondary microphone. Samsung has kept the look and feel of the Galaxy M10 smartphone very minimalistic. And we really liked it.
Display
One among the highlights of Samsung Galaxy M10 is its display, particularly because of the Infinity-V notch on the top. Probably no other smartphone in this price range comes with such a small notch on its display to house the selfie camera. The handset sports a 6.22-inch PLS TFT panel that has an HD+ resolution and comes with an aspect ratio of 19:9 and a pixel density of 271 ppi. During our time with the device, it showcased bright and vibrant colours, in spite of the fact that it is not an IPS panel. Furthermore, the colours projected on the display are accurate and they remain consistent at different viewing angles.
You may occasionally feel that the colour tone of the display is slightly cooler than what it is on other devices, but we didn’t really mind it. We actually feel that for the price range, the display is extremely good. In fact, we haven’t used any other recently launched smartphone in the below-Rs 10,000 category that boasts of a screen as good as Samsung Galaxy M10’s. However, there are other aspects of the display, like its sunlight readability, which we will only be able to talk about in our detailed review.
Cameras
Samsung Galaxy M10 has a dual camera setup on its back panel with a 13MP primary sensor and a 5MP ultra-wide angle sensor. In addition to this, it houses a 5MP selfie camera in its notch. There is a lot that you can do with the device’s cameras. To begin with, it is extremely simple to switch between the primary and the ultra-wide angle lens, which is something that we have seen in other Samsung smartphones but we still like it.
The camera app of the smartphone comes with support for Bokeh or the Live Focus mode, Beauty, Panorama and Pro modes. It also comes with AR stickers and can take continuous shots. Stickers and Live Focus mode can also be used while clicking selfies. With adequate lights, the images taken by the dual rear camera of the smartphone turned out to be quite clear and sharp. They had accurate colours and did not pixelate when we zoomed in. However, we will have to use the smartphone for a few more days before we can talk about other aspects of the camera.
What we think
For a smartphone that is priced under Rs 10,000, Samsung Galaxy M10 seems to be a promising device. It doesn’t come with a flashy design like a number of Chinese counterparts but instead maintains a simple and minimalistic look. The display is surely a key highlight and the cameras also seem to be good so far. It’s after a long time that we are using a device launched in the said price segment which seems to be that good. We look forward to using it more and then we’ll let you know about its day to day performance, battery, and more.
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