Modern cellphones are amazing, aren’t they? With their powerful internals, large high-resolution screens, and high-end cameras, they are already much superior to anything we could have ever imagined. However, battery life is one area where recent advancements have lagged behind.
Review of the Samsung Galaxy M31’s design and main features
Although the Galaxy M31 faces some very tough competition, its appearance isn’t exactly off to a great start. The design is bland to look at with its greasy, fingerprint-friendly plastic back and substantial, black bezels around the screen; at most, it may be classified as “functional”. It is slightly thicker than flagship models like the Galaxy S20 at 8.9mm, however this may be partially excused given the extra-large battery.
However, there are a few design advantages to be found. The display itself is somewhat protected from drops and scrapes by a layer of Gorilla Glass, and the selfie camera is neatly tucked away in a semi-circular drop-notch at the top of the screen. The phone’s sensible placement of the oval fingerprint reader and the inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone port both won my approval.
The Galaxy M31’s large battery should charge quickly because it is powered by a USB-C connector on the bottom. Additionally, the phone supports NFC contactless payments and has a facial recognition unlock feature. Sadly, there is no official IP-rating for water or dust resistance.
Review of the Samsung Galaxy M31: Display
Fortunately, the Galaxy M31 sports a gorgeous Super AMOLED screen. It boasts a diagonal measurement of 6.4 inches, a 2,340 x 1,080 pixel resolution, and a 403 ppi razor-sharp pixel density.
In technical testing, I discovered that automated screen brightness peaked at 568cd/m2, indicating that it would be possible to read in the majority of UK weather situations. There are two display settings available on the Galaxy M31, with the “Natural” profile being the most color accurate. It covers 99.7% of the sRGB color space, according to my color calibrator, with a total volume of 104% and an average Delta E (color accuracy) of 1.94.
Review of the Samsung Galaxy M31’s functionality and battery life
A Samsung Exynos 9611 chipset, a sizable 6GB of RAM, and 64GB of internal storage—which can be increased to 1TB through microSD—are all included inside the Samsung Galaxy M31. This processor has already been seen in the Galaxy A51 and the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, and Android seems just as quick on this device as it did on those earlier models.
However, it’s evident by running the Geekbench 4 CPU test that the Galaxy M31 is lagging behind; even the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9, which costs less than £200, is quicker than it. While actual performance is far from appalling, you could occasionally experience a stall when opening an application or turning on the phone.
In the GFX Bench Manhattan 3 test, the Galaxy M31 only managed to exceed the far less expensive Galaxy A21s, which is a similar tale when it comes to graphic power. By no means is an average frame rate of 24 fps the worst I’ve experienced, but unless you’re ready to lower the graphic settings, don’t count on Call of Duty Mobile to run smoothly during competitive matches.
That’s far superior to any phone we’ve ever tested, lasting 90 minutes longer than the Lenovo P2, who won the same contest with a runtime of 28 hours and 50 minutes.
What does this entail for the battery life in actual use? You should be able to use your device for at least two days on a single charge, with possibly a little extra room for day three. On a personal note, I unintentionally left it on in my desk drawer for the duration of the weekend (without a SIM card inside), and it lost just 2% of its overall charge.
Review of the Samsung Galaxy M31: Cameras
We could easily stop there, but we must obviously discuss the Galaxy M31’s cameras. The quadruple-camera Galaxy M31 boasts a 64MP (f/1.8) main camera, an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide lens, a 5MP (f/2.4) macro camera, and a 5MP (f/2.2) depth sensor for better-looking photos with blurred backgrounds.
For the price, the Galaxy M31’s cameras are incredibly good. The Galaxy M31 takes photographs that are loaded to the brim with fine details, with well-judged exposure, and with pleasingly realistic color rendering regardless of the lighting conditions. Even inside, where the light isn’t quite as strong, there isn’t much visual noise.
Simple left/right swipes may be used to access shooting modes like hyper-lapse, 960fps slow-motion recording, night, and macro settings on the camera’s user-friendly software. The “live-focus” portrait mode on the Galaxy M31 is still fantastic and lets you control the amount of background blur either before or after taking the picture.
Both audio and video recording are amazing. Both 4K and 1080p footage appears clear and detailed, and the image stabilization is extremely reliable even though you can only shoot at 30 frames per second.
Conclusion
But does any of this actually matter? One could argue that even if the Galaxy M31 had other flaws, its industry-leading battery life would be reason enough to recommend it.
