Samsung this week launched the Galaxy Note 20, a smartphone with a four-figure price tag. The beefier Galaxy Note Ultra was even more expensive – $1,300 compared to the Note 20’s $1,000. Both models have been savagely undercut by a brilliant smartphone from an up-and-coming smartphone manufacturer: Samsung.
This week I bought the Samsung Galaxy M31, a sensational smartphone that is around a quarter of the price of Samsung’s new Notes. Yes, it’s not quite as powerful, not quite as slick, but it has a stunning screen, four cameras and battery life that is bordering on the unbelievable. I’m not sure I’d swap it for either Galaxy Note if someone offered one to me for free.
Most people would suspect that a sub-$300 phone would have distinctly humdrum specs. However, the Samsung Galaxy M31 punches well above its price range.
Let’s start with the screen, a 6.4in 1,080 x 2,340 Super AMOLED display that is beautifully crisp. So sharp, in fact, that it’s actually sharper than the 6.7in screen on the new Note 20, which has a resolution of 1,080 x 2,400 – giving it a pixel density of 393 ppi compared to the M31’s 403 ppi.
They both display 16 million colors, both are covered in the protective Gorilla Glass (the Note 20’s being a more recent version), although the Note 20 has support for HDR, which might be important to those who watch Netflix on their phones. Trust me, however, the Galaxy M31’s screen is gorgeous: finely detailed, impactful colors, punchy contrast.
As I mentioned, there are four cameras on board the M31. There’s a 64-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide, a 5-megapixel macro camera and a depth sensor. Then there’s the 32-megapixel on the front, which is carved into a tiny circular notch in the edge-to-edge display. It doesn’t have the optical zoom that you’ll find on the Notes, but you won’t be disappointed by the photos the M31 takes. It’s a more than decent smartphone camera set-up.
Video wise, it’s capable of taking 4K footage, but only at 30 frames per second. The Notes will give you a smoother 60 frames per second at 4K, right up to an indisputably impressive 240 frames per second at Full HD. Still, for everyday video shots, the M31 is fine, if not spectacular.
Compromises ultimately have to be made on a phone that’s this cheap. There’s no water or dustproof rating, no wireless charging, no 5G. The speaker is distinctly weedy compared to even the one on my old Samsung Galaxy S9, let alone the new Notes.
Perhaps the biggest compromise comes in terms of performance. The Galaxy M31 is based on the mid-range Exynos 9611 chipset and Mali G72 GPU, neither of which are going to get close to the Notes in the benchmarks.
That said, day-to-day performance is fine. Apps take a half beat longer to open than they would on a flagship device and there’s the occasional stutter, but nothing super-frustrating.
Performance in games such as Minecraft is solid, but if you want a phone that’s going to be untouchable in graphically demanding titles such as Fortnite, then the M31 is not for you. It’s not a blistering performer.
However, those slightly underpowered internals do give the Galaxy M31 one huge benefit. Combined with the massive 6,000 mAh battery (the Note 20 has a 4,300 mAh battery by comparison), battery life is outstanding. The best I’ve ever seen in a modern smartphone.
I took the M31 off the charger at 6:30am on Thursday morning, used it reasonably heavily over the next two days – including for several hours streaming music with Bluetooth headphones and for a short stint as a satnav in my car – and by 11pm on Friday night the battery still had 42% remaining.
In other words, it’s a phone that will comfortably give you two days’ battery life, three at a stretch, if you turn it off overnight (as I did). I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for a phone where I’m not constantly fretting about the battery life when I’m out. It is game changing and it’s a low-budget handset.
The Samsung Galaxy M31 is a ridiculously good phone for the price, currently an Amazon exclusive in the U.K., but likely to reach other territories soon, just like its predecessor, the M30.
Even if the Galaxy M31 doesn’t quite tick all your boxes, there are so many other good sub-$500 phones out there. The Moto G 5G Plus offers better performance and the 5G radio, if that’s important to you; the OnePlus Nord is equally punchy on performance and price; even the iPhone SE is offering serious value for Apple fans.
Yes, high-end phones such as the Notes are beautifully designed and do offer unique features such as the stylus. But are they seriously worth two or three times the price? It’s very hard to see how.
I have been a technology writer and editor for more than 20 years. I was assistant editor of The Sunday Times’ technology section, editor of PC Pro magazine and have
I have been a technology writer and editor for more than 20 years. I was assistant editor of The Sunday Times’ technology section, editor of PC Pro magazine and have written for more than a dozen different publications and websites over the years. I’ve also appeared as a tech pundit on television and radio, including BBC Newsnight, the Chris Evans Show and ITN News at Ten.
Hit me up if you’ve got a tech story that needs breaking at [email protected].