Samsung Galaxy M02s review
Here is a complete review of Samsung's latest entry-level phone, the Galaxy M02s
Review Summary
Expert Rating 3.5 / 5
Opposition
Night photography needs improvement
The brand's response is to Samsung's rivalry in the segment of affordable brands such as the Galaxy M series, Xiaomi and Realme. And thanks to the compelling, VFM options, it also seems to have managed to match. While the M series mainly budgets audiences, in recent times we have also seen devices such as the Galaxy M51, which are placed in the mid-range. However, Samsung has not forgotten the idea of carrying, as its latest announcement in the M Series show. The newly launched Galaxy M02s has been launched at a price of Rs 7,499 and has been placed squarely in the budget segment. It will face a lot of competition from existing products such as Redmi 9 Prime, and Realme Narzo 20A. How do M02s stand for heat? Let us know in this review.
Table of contents
- Lowliness
- final call
- Editor's rating: 3.5 / 5
- Pros:
- Opposition:
The lowliness
From a glance standpoint, the Galaxy M02s are not going to turn any heads. It has a rigid, plain, and plastic unibody construction, with a slight twist on the back. There is a matte finish that is not clear until you actually hold the phone, but at least it does not collect fingerprints. I've got the black variant that I like but you also have blue and red options. At 196g, the phone weighs a bit and the chassis is quite thick at 9.1mm, though both aspects are quite standard for budget devices. A triple-camera setup enclosed in a normal rectangular housing is present at the top left of the phone. It slides slightly out of the frame, but not enough to waver on the flat surface. There is no fingerprint sensor on the device, so you have to rely on facial authentication for a faster unlock process. On the right, a touch volume rocker and a set of power buttons greet my thumb, while at the bottom is a 3.5mm headphone jack, a Type-C port, and a speaker grille.
The Galaxy M02s have made some improvements over their predecessor performance. This time around you are getting a 6.5-inch HD + TFT LCD panel. The display is housed in a waterdrop-style notch with an all-around selfie shooter, called a Samsung Infinity V display, with a fair amount of bezels on top. The colors are porous and the brightness level is optimal for viewing under reasonably harsh sunlight. Due to the LCD panel, there will be some color changes during tilt but it is quite low. There is also no WideWin L1 certification for watching HD on Amazon Prime and Netflix. Customization options are common adaptive brightness control, dark mode toggle, and blue light filter. As a budget device under 9,000 rupees, the M02s adequately matched my expectations.
The phone has a triple camera layout with a 13MP primary sensor, 2MP depth sensor, and 2MP macro sensor. I was satisfied to see the M02s decently in well-lit conditions. There is some amount of oversharing that is currently in place, but in general, shots are vivid with exposures that are mostly well controlled. The dynamic range is not great, but at least the color sensor is actually much closer than in real life, I usually privy to a budget Samsung device.
Default crops in the frame for a shot by the camera and you have the option to take the default wide shot with one tap. Portrait shots are accomplished through a dedicated depth sensor, although edge detection is not always on point. Then you also have the option to click close up shots through the dedicated macro sensor. The photos are not very detailed, as might be expected from a 2MP sensor, although the colors do not appear washed out until the light falls. Among the multitude of macro shooters in the segment, the M02s have done a respectable job.
For low-light photography, the Galaxy M02s does not have a dedicated night mode to bring more detail in dark conditions. Sometimes the sensor takes about 5–10 seconds before focusing on the subject in low light. When this was done, the mass shots were a little grainy but under the street lamps, the details and highlights were more prominently highlighted than what I expected. Still, I wouldn't put too much weight behind the night time shoots on the M02s. It also has a 5MP selfie shooter that employs the oversimplifying facial features of the usual Samsung brand but surprisingly keeps skin tone accurate. Its portrait mode is not really the best but it will complete the job if the lighting is good.
Performance-wise, the Snapdragon 450 SoC, launched back in 2017, is powering the Galaxy M02s. As you might have guessed, the phone is no performance beast since long ago being run on an entry-level SoC. If you want to complete basic tasks like lightweight multi-tasking, browsing, streaming, or app switching with your phone, the M02s will not disappoint. In addition, there is visible stutter, such as when you move from YouTube to the camera app or there are many heavy apps running in the background. Graphically intense titles such as Call of Duty: Mobile, Asphalt 9, Shadow Gun Legends can run, but at bare minimum settings that will be all fun. I have a 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant, though I should mention that the starting price of Rs 8,999 is for 3GB RAM + 32GB storage. Long story short, the M02s only works well for light to medium tasks and not for anything processor-heavy. As previously mentioned, there is no fingerprint authentication, but facial unlock works surprisingly well even in dim-lit environments. The single bottom-firing speaker is louder and does not crackle at maximum volume but lacks depth in sound. During testing on Noida's Jio network, I had no problem with the microphone, earpiece, or call quality.
Running the Samsung-owned OneUI 2.5, which is based on Android 10, the Galaxy M22 has good UI and theme experiences between different Android skin. Samsung implements a very friendly UI which is explained in more detail by my colleague in his Galaxy M31 review. In short: some amount of bloatware, ease of use, lots of customization, and more.
The Galaxy M02s is packed in a 5,000mAh battery which is sufficient to last a full day without any stress. There is also the fact that the Snapdragon 450 is not a power-hogging SoC which makes battery consumption more efficient. I got about 6 hours of screen-on time on the device, which was more or less the battery capacity of the phone. You could push it about half a day very easily and use light with no GPU-intensive tasks. For charging, the M02s have a slow 7.5W charger, although the phone can support 15W charging via a Type-C port. As such, charging speed is about 2.5 hours juicing the phone with nothing to write home about.
Final Verdict
The main point that does not work in favor of the Galaxy M02s is its chipset. At a starting price of Rs 8,999, the device will have to compete with the likes of the Narzo 20A which is powered by the superior Snapdragon 660, or the Redmi 9 Prime that houses the Helio G80. Furthermore, there is no dedicated night mode on the M02s which is present in most of the competition. The M02s, however, is a more robust and well-built device. Battery capacity is the same in most devices but the lack of fast charging on the Galaxy M02s puts it at a disadvantage. The Galaxy M02s have a good panel in terms of color reproduction. In addition, advertisements for M02s are baked into the UI like the MIUI of Redmi 9 Prime. For a slightly lower budget, POCO C3 (review) is also a good option. It comes at Rs 7,999, has RAM and storage, an additional Panda Glass security for the display and slightly better performance. However, you have to contend with the micro-USB port instead of the more universal Type-C. Overall, if you're looking for a robust device with a good performance and relatively clean software experience, the M02s should be worth a look. Arrow of previous arrows. Performance-wise, a Snapdragon 450 SoC, I launched back
Editor’s rating: 3.5 / 5
Pros:
- Robust design
- Good battery life
- Daylight photography is decent
Cons:
- Night photography needs improvement
- Underpowered chipset
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