“The Galaxy M10 feels incredibly light in the hand as the phone’s body is primarily made out of plastic” It has been some time since…
“The Galaxy M10 feels incredibly light in the hand as the phone’s body is primarily made out of plastic”
It has been some time since Samsung last introduced a new smartphone series, but to start off 2019 with a defining statement, the South Korean brand has now unveiled not one, but two handsets from its brand new ‘ Galaxy M ‘ range. In this review, we’ll be going over the more affordable variant out of the two – the Galaxy M10, and let you know whether the company is ready to take on the likes of Xiaomi and Realme in this price range or not.
Just two years ago, we would have been extremely liberal with our evaluation of a smartphone’s design in the budget price bracket. However, handsets launched in the affordable price range last year raised the bar for this category. Coming to the Galaxy M10, one of the key design highlights is the fact that it utilises an Infiniti V display, which is Samsung’s term for a waterdrop notch. The brand seems to have skipped the notch display bandwagon entirely, and directly jumped onto this latest fad. The phone’s body is primarily made out of plastic, which looks good but does attract a few scuffs after regular use. We liked the build quality of the phone and can vouch for the fact that it does not look cheap.
The most notable difference as compared to the M20 is that the back of the Galaxy M10 does not feature a fingerprint sensor. Now, admittedly, the lack of a fingerprint sensor might prove to be a dealbreaker for some users but to compensate for this, the brand is offering a face unlock feature. We will discuss the performance of this security feature in detail later on.
Going with a look reminiscent of ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2 ( review), the Galaxy M10 sports a dual camera module at the back that is located on the top left in a vertical orientation, with an LED light right below to assist in low-light conditions. The phone’s frame is fairly thin and houses the volume rocker and the power button on the right side.
At the bottom of the phone, you will find the audio jack and the micro-USB charging port. The SIM card slot is located on the left. The Galaxy M10 comes with a triple slot tray that has a dedicated slot for the microSD card.
Without wasting any more time, let’s discuss the display on Galaxy M10. The Galaxy M10, just like its sibling, comes with an Infinity-V notch design that is not much different than the waterdrop notch found on several other Android handsets. The bottom bezel, however, is reasonably thick. In between the top and the bottom bezel, you will find a 6.22-inch HD+ display that looks vibrant from the word go. Regarding the notch design, we have come to a point where most phones feature some kind of notch. If you have an issue with this design choice, you can choose the ‘ Hide camera ‘ option from Full Screen Apps section in the settings.
If we talk about the display quality specifically, despite being low on resolution, the panel didn’t disappoint us at all. The text appeared crisp and colours popped out in most use cases. Even the maximum screen brightness was decent enough for outdoor use. The slim bezels provided for an all-around immersive viewing experience. Here’s a closer look at the phone.
The Samsung Galaxy M10 comes with a dual camera setup at the back, consisting of a primary 13MP snapper with f/1.9 aperture and a wide-angle 5MP sensor with f/2.2 aperture. At the front, the phone packs an 8MP unit for clicking selfies and video-calling.
