Hands-On: Samsung Galaxy M30s Review

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Samsung started off 2019 with its M-series meant for Millenials that includes affordable yet trendy phones tailor-made of young Indian consumers. Samsung has sold over 3 million of its M-series devices and to keep the series relevant in the second half of the year, Samsung has now upgraded Galaxy M30 and Galaxy M10 to Galaxy M30s and Galaxy M10s, respectively.

The Samsung Galaxy M30s revamps almost all important aspects of the Galaxy M30 (review), and it does so without any increase in price. The new M30s offers triple rear cameras with a 48MP sensor in the lead, houses massive 6000mAh battery, and is steered by much more powerful performance hardware.

We have been testing the Galaxy m30s for a couple of days now and you may read on to know our initial impressions of the phone.

But first, the price.

Galaxy M30s Price and Specifications

Model Samsung Galaxy M30s
Display 6.4-inch, Full HD+, AMOLED, Infinity-U (notch)
Chipset 2.3 GHz Octa-core Exynos 9611 (10nm) chipset,  Mali G72 MP3 GPU
RAM 4GB/6GB LPDDR4X 
Storage 64/128GB, UFS 2.1 storage, EXPANDABLE
Battery 6000mAh with 15W fast charger
Dimensions and weight 8.9mm thick; 188 grams
Front Camera 16MP
Rear Camera 48MP primary +8MP wide-angle +5MP Depth sensor
Software Android Pie-based One UI
Price in India
  • Rs 13,999 – 4GB + 64GB
  • Rs 16,999 – 6GB + 128GB

Samsung Galaxy M30s Design and Build

Frankly, we didn’t expect a phone with a 6000mAh battery to be anywhere as ergonomic. Surprisingly, the Galaxy M30s weighs just 188 grams and is even lighter than most 4000mAh body phones in this price segment.

Measuring 8.9mm in thickness, it isn’t exactly a svelte option, but it’s still very comfortable to wield and should be particularly appealing to consumers looking for big battery phones.

But yes, Samsung couldn’t pull off such ergonomics without compromises. The plastic body of the Galaxy M30s comes in attractive gradient finishes but feels a bit flimsy to touch. The build seems solid, but we did notice a few flexes when we squeezed the phone.

As soon as you open the Galaxy M30s box, it will remind you of its predecessor. It has a similar design and feels to it. For the M-series phone, Samsung has once again used polycarbonate as the primary material for the exterior shell.

We have the Sapphire Blue variant whereas it is also made available in Opal Black, and Pearl White color options. Although, we haven’t seen the other two colors we are quite intrigued by Pearl White idea.

The other major design change is the new boxy camera module. The number of sensors remains the same, though.

Galaxy M30s has a rear-mounted capacitive fingerprint sensor and face recognition for convenient unlocking. The charging port is USB Type-C and the buttons on the side relay decent feedback.

ALSO READ: Realme XT Review

Samsung Galaxy M30s Display

Samsung is arguably the ultimate master when it comes to displays. The Galaxy M30s screen corroborates the sentiment. The display specs remain the same as of the original M30, but that’s fine because this is a good quality AMOLED panel.

 The resolution is Full HD+ and the screen has a U-shaped notch at the top. Samsung claims that M30s display can achieve 420nits peak brightness and the phone also carries Widevine L1 certification for HD content streaming.

The Galaxy M30s display checks all the right boxes, but we will still need to test it some more before we pass on a final verdict.

Samsung Galaxy M30s Hardware and Software

Thankfully, the Galaxy M30s gets a major performance upgrade. The M30s is now backed by a more powerful new generation chip – Exynos 9611. This in-house developed SoC is based on 10nm architecture and has 8 cores with a peak clock speed of 2.3GHz. The new CPU includes a higher clocked version of Mali G72 MP3 GPU. This is the same chipset that powers the more expensive Galaxy A50s.

The M30s also gets up to 6GB of high-quality LPDDR4x RAM and up to 128GB of fast UFS 2.1 Storage which should further help with gaming performance. If that’s not good enough, there is a dedicated microSD card slot that could be used to add another 512GB of secondary storage.

Samsung has also upgraded the software from Samsung Experience UI 9.5 on M30 to the new Android Pie-based One UI on M30s. Though we are yet to complete our testing, we can clearly make out that the M30s is snappier than the last-gen device.

The One UI with a splendid black theme and convenient single-hand usage experience is a welcome change as well.

We will be elaborating more on performance and gaming in our full review very soon.

ALSO READ: Lenovo K10 Note Review

Samsung Galaxy M30s Camera hardware

The Samsung Galaxy M30s also gets a camera update and now joins the 48MP club. The M30S is the first phone under M-series banner to feature a 48-megapixel triple rear camera setup.

The rear camera system includes a 48-megapixel Samsung’s own GM2 sensor paired with an 8-megapixel 123° ultrawide sensor and a 5-megapixel Depth Sensor for portrait shots. This is the first time that we’d be testing Samsung’s upgraded GM2 sensor.

The operating principle remains the same as other quad-pixel sensors and even the GM1, but there are a few improvements like Dual conversion gain for better metering in bright scenes, and Super PD to swiftly lock focus.

For the selfies, Samsung uses the same 16MP sensor as on Galaxy M30.

In our brief usage, we can see definite camera improvements. We will continue our testing and will be back with a detailed camera review.

Samsung Galaxy M30s Battery

The Galaxy M30s houses a humongous 6000mAh battery which is a first for Samsung. Samsung claims that it can last for 29 hours of video playback time. Well, that claim remains to be tested. It comes bundled with 15W Type-C fast charger that’s is only moderately fast.

Samsung Galaxy M30s First Impressions

The Galaxy M30s is perhaps the most aggressive affordable phone that we have seen from Samsung till date. With the s-upgrade, we can see that Samsung has pulled its socks up higher to outdo the burgeoning Chinese competition.

Features like a massive battery, excellent software, powerful chipset, and a 48MP camera are bound to draw consumer attention for the right reasons. Add to that the valuable Samsung branding and you have really got something.

We will need to spend some more time with the phone to know for sure if we can recommend the Galaxy M30s to prospective buyers, but we will hopefully be back with a definite verdict before the first sale on September 29. For now, things look good.

Galaxy M30s Review: After 20 Days Usage [in Hindi]

Deepak RajawatDeepak Rajawat
Experienced technology journalist with over 7-years of experience. Before embracing online journalism, he has worked with several legacy publications including print editions at Hindustan Times and The Statesman. He also has a keen interest in Sports, which he used to cover with equal enthusiasm in his early career.

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1 Comment
User
Jignesh
Anonymous
4 years ago

Camera quality is bad . it has redish/yellowish tinch color for skin… that makes dull selfies. My old phone from Coolpad appears to click better then Samsung M30s. Even my MI Note Pro friend was surprized to see poor camera quality…. I can share photos from both camera for comparison. Friends, if you are thinking to buy this phone, then I would advice to pause yourself.

Reply
User
Jayesh Kesari
Anonymous
4 years ago

You have samsung galaxy m30 s camera photo so please send me for the camera photo

User
Amar
Anonymous
4 years ago

Send me the photos from both camera.