review samsung galaxy m30
review samsung galaxy m30
VERDICT
The Samsung Galaxy M30 is similar to its cousin, the Galaxy A30, in a lot of ways, including performance and camera quality. Where it feels like a step up is exterior design and battery life. Where it feels like a step down is software. It’s still a pretty good buy for Rs 14,990
SAMSUNG GALAXY M30 DETAILED REVIEW
In the last two or so months, Samsung has announced a whole bunch of smartphones in India, including refreshed models in the Galaxy S, Galaxy A, and Galaxy M series. While the Galaxy S series continues to represent the Korean electronics company’s flagship range, the Galaxy A and Galaxy M series are two very similar ranges that represent Samsung’s mid-range smartphone models. Understanding the difference between the updated Galaxy A and Galaxy M series can be tricky, considering the similarities in specs and model names, but the latter seems to be spelling “mid-range” more clearly these days, what with the Galaxy A80 now advancing towards pop-up and swiveling cameras.
The Samsung Galaxy M30 was announced in India on February 27 with the #IM3XPOWERED hashtag pasted all over social media, indicating the presence of a triple camera setup on the back. The phone was launched in two variants: 4GB RAM + 64GB storage for Rs 14,990 and 6GB RAM + 128GB storage for Rs 17,990. Colour options included were Gradation Blue and Gradation Black. We got the 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant on our testbed in Gradation BLue, and we got cracking with its tests. Read on to learn how it performed.
BUILD AND DESIGN
The build of the Galaxy M30 is quite similar to that of its A-series cousin, the Galaxy A30. It has a smooth rounded finish on all four corners and a back panel that’s made completely of plastic. To add a touch of class to it, Samsung has thrown in a two-tone gradient finish on the back panel; the blue on the back of the phone fades from light to dark gradually along the length of the phone. The result is a phone that both looks and feels good in the hand. Even without any case or cover on, the Galaxy M30 feels grippy in the hands. What’s more, the back panel remains mostly free of smudges and fingerprint marks. That said, you wouldn’t want to hold this phone right after feasting on an oily samosa.
While the top side of the Galaxy M30 houses just the secondary microphone, the left side is home to the SIM and microSD card slot. The bottom side gets a 3.5mm audio jack, a USB Type-C port for charging and data transfer, and a single-grille loudspeaker. That leaves the right side of the phone to house the power button and volume rocker, which are well placed and comfortable to press. Those who aren’t a fan of Samsung’s proprietary virtual assistant Bixby will be happy to note that there’s no dedicated Bixby key on the Galaxy M30’s body. The back panel is home to a vertically aligned triple camera setup, a single LED flash, and a fingerprint scanner, which, in my opinion, is placed way too high up for easy reach. In summary, the Galaxy M30 is built and designed quite well for its price.
As you may have guessed by now, the Galaxy M30 shares its Exynos 7904 chipset with the Galaxy A30. The Exynos chipset, built on a 14-nanometre process, has an octa-core processor. There are two high-performance Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 1.8GHz and six high-efficiency Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.6GHz. The GPU is a Mali-G71 MP2, the same as that on the Galaxy A30. All this is combined with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM, depending on the variant you pick. The storage on board can be expanded to a maximum of up to 512GB using a microSD card, which gets a dedicated slot along with the two SIM cards.
The Galaxy M30 review unit fared more or less as well as the Galaxy A30 and Galaxy M20 on our CPU and GPU benchmark tests. On AnTuTu 7.0, the Galaxy M30 trumped the Galaxy A30 by 13665 points but lost to the Galaxy M20 by 187 points. On PCMark Storage, the Galaxy M30 won over the two phones by scoring 6552, while the Galaxy A30 and Galaxy M20 scored 4266 and 5653 respectively. Surprisingly, the Galaxy M20 beat the other two in some more benchmark tests like Geekbench Single-Core. Heat, I felt, was one element not very well managed on the Galaxy M30. The front face of the phone heated up every now and then, especially when a background activity like new app installs was happening. This made placing the earpiece against the ear quite difficult.
Performance on the review unit of the Galaxy M30 can best be termed decent. It wasn’t underwhelming in that the phone was able to keep up while performing everyday tasks like calling, texting, browsing, online video playback, and some light gaming without any major struggle. That said, its performance wasn’t particularly laudable either. Though minor, there were noticeable stutters and lags in the animation while switching between apps and tabs inside Chrome. Luckily, they never felt like they were bringing the overall speed of the phone down by a great margin. For example, pulling the notification bar down while playing a game or video would often result in noticeable stutters in the animation. That aside, there was no major flaw in overall performance.
Gaming too was decent on the Galaxy M30 review unit. According to our metrics analysis tool; Gamebench, Asphalt 9 ran at a median frame rate of 28 frames per second when the measurement was taken for about thirty minutes. PUBG Mobile, on the other hand, ran on Medium graphics settings at a median frame rate of 24 frames per second. Both scores are on the lower side even for mid-range models in the Rs 14,000+ price range. I faced no major lag while gaming on the Galaxy M30 save for a few occasional jerks while loading and during action sequences in the game. In other words, the Galaxy M30 is best bought by those who don’t play games heavily or care about gaming quality too much.