Samsung introduced the Galaxy M series as an online-online lineup to compete with Chinese companies such as Xiaomi and Realme. The smartphone included in this series gained a lot of popularity due to its aggressive price and good features compared to other Samsung’s other products. Due to this popularity, these smartphones are now available on offline channels. Samsung has recently added another new model called Samsung Galaxy M21 in this series. This new smartphone is equipped with the same specifications included in some of its previous models, but will it be able to create a different identity than them? We have reviewed the Galaxy M21 to find out.
Samsung Galaxy M21 Design
Samsung has used plastic in the new Galaxy M21 to keep the cost low. The back panel of the Galaxy M12 is made of plastic and has a bright finish. This very easily holds fingers. There is no case or cover in the Samsung box, so you will have to wipe it until you buy a case from yourself.
Samsung Galaxy M21 is an upgrade of Galaxy M20, but it looks like Galaxy M30s, which was launched in mid -2019. However, it does not come in many attractive colors. Instead, the company has launched it only in blue and black colors.
The Galaxy M22 has a large display, which has a size of 6.4-inch, and there are thin bezels on its upper part and edges. However, its chin is quite thick. The top center has a waterdrop notch and a small earpiece just above it. If you have big hands, you can deliver your thumb to the top to Aram, otherwise you have to adjust the phone a little. However, this phone is not as big as Redmi Note 9 Pro Max, which we recently reviewed.
There is also some problem in reaching the volume button, as they are set quite above the opposite of our choice. However, the power button and rear-mounted fingerprint scanner is set to a good place. The thickness of the Galaxy M21 is 8.9 MIMM. Surprisingly, the device does not look too heavy in hand, as curves are given on both sides. It comes with 188 grams weight, which is much lighter than the Redmi Note 9 Pro.
Samsung has given USB Type-C port in this phone, which is set under the smartphone. The company gives a 15 watt charger in the box. The 3.5mm headphone jack in the smartphone is also set below with a microphone and speaker.
Samsung Galaxy M21 Specifications and Software
The Galaxy M12 consists of a 6.4-inch AMOLED display, which has a full-HD+ resolution. It is not very common to find an amoled panel at this price, but Samsung is constantly changing this perception with its Galaxy M series. This panel is vivid and the viewing angle is also very good. It also performs well in sunlight.
Samsung has chosen Exynos 9611 chipset for smartphones. It is an octa-core processor consisting of four ARM Cortex-A73 core and four Cortex-A 53 core. It consists of Mali-G72 graphics unit. The Galaxy M21 is introduced in two variants, one 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage and the other 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage. We had a base variant for this review, priced at Rs 12,699 on Amazon and Rs 13,199 on offline and Samsung’s website. Similarly, the top-end model costs Rs 14,999 on Amazon and Rs 15,499 in the rest.
Galaxy M21 is a dual-sim device and has two Nano-SIM slots. It also has a dedicated microSD card slot to increase storage. It has support for dual 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5, dual-band Wi-Fi and four satellite navigation systems. It is equipped with a 6,000mAh battery.
The Galaxy M12 runs One UI 2.0 based on Android 10. It was still going on a February security patch, which has become a little old as today. The UI is similar to the Galaxy M31 that we reviewed earlier this year. We found some pre-installed blotware on the device, including Amazon Shopping, Netflix, Prime Video, Hello and DailyHhant. We found that Hello and DailyHhant send spam notifications, so if you do not use them, we will advise you to uninstall them. We also saw the notification of Stock My Galaxy app throughout the day.
This phone provides allways-on display mode, and Dolby Atmos is available for earphones and Bluetooth headset. You also have the option to switch to gesture-based navigation instead of traditional three-button layouts. Other Android 10 features include a dark mode, which takes full advantage of the Super AMOLED panel involved on the Galaxy M22. Samsung has also added a game booster feature that can block notifications and give quick shortcuts for apps of your choice.
Samsung Galaxy M21 Performance
Samsung’s own Exynos 9611 processor is a competent processor and can comfortably handle the basic apps without any indication of slowing down. However, we note that heavy apps take some time to load. Multitasking was smooth and we were able to switch between several apps without any hassle.
The fingerprint scanner behind the device works fast to unlock the device and is also accurate. Similarly, face detection also performs its work well. Amoled display is the best part of Galaxy M21 and we enjoyed watching videos on this smartphone. We found the speaker a little smaller, which reduced the content experience slightly.
We also saw PUBG Mobile on Galaxy M21. The game ran on high settings with graphics set on HD and frames were set on high rates. We saw some lags in the gameplay, which forced us to reduce the quality of graphics. After playing the game 15 minutes, we saw that the device was a bit hot, and the battery fell 3 percent.
The battery life of Galaxy M21 is excellent. The phone gave two days backup with regular use in the phone thanks to a large 6,000mAh battery. In our HD video loop test, the device managed to run for 21 hours and 48 minutes, but the phone’s brightness decreases when the battery falls below a certain level. Apart from this, it takes two hours to charge a large battery. On using the 15W charger included in the box, the device charged 21 percent in 30 minutes and increased to 42 percent in an hour.
Samsung galaxy m21 cameras
The Samsung Galaxy M22 has a triple rear camera setup. The primary camera has a 48 -megapixel sensor with F/2.0 aperture. Its second camera is an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens with F/2.2 aperture and the third camera is an 8-megapixel depth sensor. Camera UI is easy to use. It has a scene optimizer, which can find out where the camera is pointing and sets the camera settings accordingly. Apart from regular photos and video modes, it includes live focus, pro, night, food, super slow-mo and many other features.
Samsung Galaxy M21 is fast in locking focus and meter lights, but the scene optimizer is not as fast as it is. In photo mode, the Galaxy M12 takes 12-megapixel shots by default. In the daylight, we found the camera performance good and managed to bring good details in the Galaxy M21 photo. However, if there was a little more sharpness in the output, it would have been better.
The wide-angle camera has a low resolution, which is clearly felt in photos. It does not catch details equal to primary sensor in the photo. It captures a quite large area, but like a maximum smartphone, disturbances appear in photographs taken from it.
The performance of the camera in low light is not as good as we have seen in some other phones of this price range. The Galaxy M21 managed to keep the noise (donations) under control, but the output had a water color effect. If you use a wide-angle camera in low light, the quality declines further. The night mode on the Galaxy M12 helps to give a slightly better output, but cuts the frame slightly to reduce the phone shake.
Self -covered in daylight came with details. The camera UI gives you a cropped view by default, but you also have the option to convert it into wide frames. The selfie camera makes a 12-megapixel photo by default, but if you change the aspect ratio, you can also take photos at a full 20-megapixel resolution. In low light, there was no noise in selfie, but the grains (donations) were visible when zoom-in.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy M22 looks like the Galaxy M30S. It shares several important specifications with the old device. Here is the big difference Android 10 and a high resolution selfie camera, but because
Galaxy M30s ,
Review)) Recently received One UI 2.0 update, so its selfie camera has improved before. Surprisingly, Samsung has kept the price of Galaxy M12 lower than the Galaxy M30. The low price of Galaxy M22 and a better chance of getting it android 11 updates, takes it one step further from the Galaxy M30S.
However, Galaxy M21 itself is only an average device at this price.
Realme 6 ,
Review) And
Redmi Note 9 Pro ,
Review) As contestants offer very effective performance and better cameras and are sold at almost the same price.
