Samsung Galaxy M10 Review: For Brand Conscious Budget Buyers

Samsung M series has been all over the internet with new leaks popping up almost every other day. Finally, the Samsung Galaxy M-series is official and the first two offerings in this new series are the Galaxy M20 and Samsung Galaxy M10. (Samsung Galaxy M10 Review हिंदी में पढ़िए).

Here the M stands for millennials. Samsung with its M series is hoping to redefine affordable and mid-range smartphone market, especially in India. The brand surely has its work cut out as it faces fierce competition from the likes of Xiaomi, Asus and Realme who have already consolidated their position in the under Rs 15,000 segment.

Out of the two phones, the Galaxy M10, that we will be talking about, is targeted at buyers looking to buy their firsAndroidid phone. Will it succeed? Let’s find out in the Samsung Galaxy M10 full review.

Page Content:

• Samsung Galaxy M10 Review: Box Content
• Samsung Galaxy M10 Review: Specification and Price
• Samsung Galaxy M10 Review: Design and Build Quality
• Samsung Galaxy M10 Review: Display
• Samsung Galaxy M10 Review: Performance and Software
• Samsung Galaxy M10 Review: SAR Value
• Samsung Galaxy M10 Review: Camera Review
• Samsung Galaxy M10 Review: Battery Life
• Samsung Galaxy M10 Review: Verdict with Pros and Cons

Samsung Galaxy M10 Review: What’s in the box

• Handset
• Travel adapter (5W)
• microUSB cable
• SIM ejector and documentation

Following industry norms, Samsung has also stopped offering earphones within the box. The Galaxy M10 box doesn’t include a protective case either.

Samsung Galaxy M10 Specifications and India Price

Samsung Galaxy M10 Review: Design and Build Quality

With the Galaxy M series, Samsung has finally introduced its notch design in India – something it resisted through the whole of 2018. Yes, Samsung prefers to call it Infinity V display, it does make Galaxy M10 unique in its class.

The Galaxy M10 facia includes a 6.2-inch Infinity-V TFT LCD panel. On the sides and top the M10 display has extremely narrow bezels which seem slimmer than what you’d see on its direct competitors – Redmi 6A and Realme C1.

As per Samsung, the Galaxy M10 has about 90 percent screen to body ratio which is certainly great considering its affordable price. Having said that, there is a healthy lip at the bottom.

While the front is dominated by a display, the rear panel of the Galaxy M10 is made of hard glossy polycarbonate which feels a bit tacky. Besides, the rear panel registers finger imprints easily and requires constant wiping. The volume rocker and power key are ergonomically placed on the right edge and both offer good tactile feedback which is something one can’t say for many phones in this segment. The dual sim and dedicated microSD card tray find a place on the left edge. The M20’s trimmed down sibling has to make do with a regular micro USB port at the bottom.

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy M20 Review

The Galaxy M10’s Dragon Trail Asahi Glass Pro screen protector isn’t really that effective against scratches. We also tested its build quality by applying pressure in the middle using our fingers, and it manages to hold its shape well, which is to say there was no creaking and flexing. All in all, the Galaxy M10 aesthetics and build quality do justice to the price tag.

Samsung Galaxy M10 Review: Display

Like its elder sibling, the Galaxy M20, it also gets a 6.2-inch Infinity-V TFT LCD display but its resolution has been scaled down to HD+ (1480x720pixels) with 270.5 PPI (pixels-per-inch).

The mere HD+ resolution means it won’t be the sharpest display in the town, but that’s also the most you’d currently get from phones under 10,000. That said, the M10 display produces good colors and contrast showcasing Samsung prowess with display calibration. It is worth pointing out that we have noticed marginal color shift while looking at M1- screen from extreme angles. The brightness levels are comfortable for both indoors and outdoors.

The sunlight legibility isn’t a concern with the Galaxy M10 infinity display. Auto-brightness feature doesn’t really work that well, therefore, it is advised you turn it off before you head out.

Samsung Galaxy M10 Review: Performance and Software

Now let’s move on to performance and software part of our M10 review. The Galaxy M10 is driven by 14nm based Exynos 7870 chipset which is in the same league as Snapdragon 625, MediaTek Helio P23, or Kirin 659 chipsets in terms of day to day performance. Samsung is offering the M10 two configurations: 2GB RAM with 16GB ROM and 3GB RAM with 32GB ROM. There is a dedication expansion slot which can hold up to 512GB microSD cards.

To make the optimum use of this setup, Samsung has developed a leaner and well-optimized Experience 9.5 UI. It runs on dated Android 8.1 Oreo but Samsung told Smartprix that it will be bringing Android Pie update to M10 really soon.

The new UI takes a lot of inspiration from Samsung’s recently introduced One UI especially iconography. There’s a new magazine feature which brings interesting wallpapers, news stories, and associated images to your lock screen. You can customize your interests and add images from your gallery in the mix. If you don’t really like ‘lock screen stories’, you can turn them off.

Also Read: Redmi 6A Review

The new Experience UI also gives you an option to choose between a regular app drawer or an iPhone-like launcher where all apps are distributed across home screen panels. There is a handful of bloatware apps present on the phone. What’s frustrating is that, apart from the Daily hunt app, users aren’t allowed to uninstall them.

In last one week that we had with the Galaxy M10, it manages to deliver consistent performance. Considering its price point we kept our expectation realistic and it manages to live up to them. During my time with the phone, it kept my both personal and official emails logged in. Apart from that, we tried running multiple apps at a time and it manages to handle that pretty well. The new Experience UI deals with RAM allocation very well.

The M10 is meant to handle casual gaming and it does well on that front too. We also tested PUBG mobile on the Galaxy M10 but it was way too much for it. The game started at low graphics on its own and even then there were stutterings all along. The Mali 830 GPU is clearly underpowered to handle graphics-intensive games like PUBG.

Samsung Galaxy M10 SAR Value

Samsung Galaxy M10 Camera Review

Despite being an entry segment offering, Samsung has packed the Galaxy M10 with dual rear cameras. Interestingly, instead of opting for more common depth sensor, Samsung decides to include an ultra-wide sensor. It’s a sort of camera setup that the Galaxy A7 flaunts with pride. For the M10, Samsung went for a combination of 13MP and 5MP (120-degree wide) sensors. Here are some sample shots that we took using the Galaxy M10 camera.

In the above shot, the Galaxy M10 camera seems to have done a good job in metering light for the foreground objects as they are evenly exposed and saturated. Where it had trouble in understanding color variations of the foliage on the background. Details are also impressive here.

Once again, the Galaxy M10 camera had no issues in understand colors of the subject, it’s what’s in the background which appears little washout.

While the first image is shot in regular mode, the adjacent image is shot in wide-angle mode. Though the wide-angle lens managed to cover the entire rear side of the car, the photo has a fisheye effect which makes it difficult to use without a quick fix.

These two shot are taken in without HDR and with HDR respectively. You can easily make out the difference in quality. In low light, the image quality takes a sharp dip. The images turn out really grainy.

Overall, the camera on the Galaxy M10 is perfectly apt for its price. In fact, it’s better than what we’d expected.

Samsung Galaxy M10 Review: Battery Life

Unlike the Galaxy M20, which gets a lucrative 5,000mAh battery, the Galaxy M10 ships with a more customary 3,400mAh power unit. Samsung claims that they have used their patented low consumption technology to improve mileage.

Well, we did put the M10 battery to test and it managed to last for good 16 hours in a loop video playback test with brightness set at 50 percent. 

To put things in perspective, the M10 managed to last for around a day in regular use, which is not bad. Unlike its bigger sibling, the 10 doesn’t come with any sort of fast charging tech and is supplied with a basic 5W charger. It takes more than 2 hours to refill the M10 battery using the bundled charger. 

Also Read: Samsung Gear IconX 2018 Review

Samsung Galaxy M10 Review Verdict: Should You Buy It?

Samsung built quite a hype around the Galaxy M10 and M20 claiming to be targeting young Indians or millennials. With the Galaxy M10, Samsung has managed to offer a device that is at par with competition if not better. Moreover, the Samsung branding and associated advantages like established after-sales support network are added perks that could boost sales in their own right.

However, Samsung missed an opportunity here as it failed to account what really excites online buyers. More than the brand value, the Millenials give more importance to specs and feature of their phone. Had instead of aging Exynos 7870 chipset had Samsung opted for a slightly more powerful chipset, it would have made more sense.

To regain its top spot once again in India, Samsung might have to take an even bolder step and disrupt this value-driven segment with a more powerful device. Should you buy the Galaxy M10? Well yes, why not? if you are looking for a basic phone and want some brand assurance, the Galaxy M10 should fit the bill.

Samsung Galaxy M10 Pros and Cons