Samsung knows what consumers need and want. They offered various midrange devices this year but before 2020 ends here’s our take on their latest midrange, the Samsung Galaxy M51. They know what consumer wants–user experience and satisfaction and for the fact that even some midrange in the price segment can surpass the power of this phone, still it is a value-wise smartphone but is the price really fair? Read along.
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Table of Contents
Design
The Galaxy M51 is not the kind of smartphone I want to flex, the back is just plain black, but I can say it is premium looking because of the glasstic technology– a glossy finish on its polycarbonate plastic back. However, the plastic back is easy to scratch, this makes the phone looks overused due to scratches after a week of using the device. Also, the phone is a bit heavy at 213 grams due to its huge battery and it has a 9.5mm thickness. My hand was stressed after holding and using it for about 2hrs. The camera bump, however, is almost flat that it doesn’t even wobble when placed on the table.
Around the frame, The power button and volume rocker placed on the right side. There’s an integrated fingerprint scanner on the power button and the volume is all the way to the top side which is a bit hard to press when tuning the volume, especially with one hand. On the left is the sim tray with two nano sim slots and a MicroSD slot that can expand up to 512GB. On its top is the secondary noise-canceling microphone and lastly on the bottom are the speaker grille, main microphone, USB Type-C port, and 3.5mm headphone jack.
Overall the build isn’t made for 1 handed use and since it’s a little hefty, having a huge battery that gives you a longer screen time may stress your hand.
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Display
The Samsung Galaxy M51 boasts a large 6.7-inch Super AMOLED plus display with FHD+ (1080×2400) resolution. Having a hefty build with such a huge display is not the phone for me since I have small hands. However, the display’s technology is quiet impressive, Galaxy M51 has a premium looking display with a punch in color since it has Super AMOLED Plus. The screen’s color temperature is already on the warmer side making it more premium looking. The downside is, the contrast shifts if you look on the narrow sides. The brightness outdoor however is very visible. What’s unbelievable about the screen’s quality is even though it has a huge display size, the pixel looks compact on its FHD+ resolution. This makes the display sharp and crisp.
By looking at the screen, you will notice that it feels like it has large bezels, this is due to the rounded shape of the frame. It feels that you need to pick the Electric Blue color variant instead because on our unit–the Celestial Black–the frame is black so does the bezels. On top of the screen is a hole punch cutout which is a little bit large compared to other midrange with punch-hole cutouts, also I wish they placed it on the top right side of the screen for it to be less distracting. Nonetheless, it still provides entertainment thanks to the huge display and punchier colors.
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Camera
Galaxy M51 consists of quad cameras, a 64MP Sony IMX 682 on the main cam, a wider 123Ëš field of view of its 12MP Ultrawide, there’s also a 5MP Macro, and 5MP Depth. By just looking at the spec sheet, I can say that all of the lenses are reliable and valuable.
On the Main cam what we noticed at first is the dynamic range and white balance. It output an acceptable dynamic range but not the best we have seen in the price point. The white balance however is struggling to detect the color temperature of the scene, resulting in not so accurate color reproduction. All can be fixed by turning on HDR mode but the fact that the phone was made mainly for point and shoot, the user reliability on its AI can be disappointing hope they can fix this through software updates. Nonetheless, quality is as good as its competitor if it nails the detection of the scene.
In a very low light scenario, shooting with its Night Mode, it struggles to enhance the quality in the dark parts since the images are captured with almost no lights. Although it outputs nice sharp and color accurate photos when there is enough light in the scene
Moving on to the Ultrawide, I like how wide it is with a 123° field of view compared to other competitors in the price segment. However, shadows are underexposed and the white balance sometimes in a cooler tone. If the HDR is on, the overall image will be enhanced in a great value, and it output the same color reproduction as the main cam.
On the portrait mode, it has a great subject to background separation although the bokeh feels unnatural and there’s a lot of circles which is quite distracting. Highlights are blown out but when you stare at the picture it feels like the subject is moving and that is the effect of a good bokeh. This means that it outputs a nice bokehlicious photo.
The macro lens of the Galaxy M51 is alive. It doesn’t introduce grains and it has an overall image quality thanks to the 5MP resolution. The overall picture is clean and sharp and there’s no doubt that the macro lens of the Galaxy M51 is not a gimmick.
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Video Recording
Galaxy M51 can record clips up to 4k@30fps resolution the downside is it doesn’t have an option to record at 1080p@60fps, all video resolution shoot at max 30fps only. The upside, it can shoot 4K Ultrawide and 4K on the front cam which is a pretty unique feature in the competition. It also offers a stabilization option in the viewfinder, it is called Super Steady and it works great with unnoticeable jitter.
Switching to selfie, Galaxy M51 shoots a true-to-life skin tone outdoors and it has great contrast. Background blur is also accurate and clean. However, shooting indoors it will output pinkish skin tone and deeper black. Overall Galaxy M51 outputs sharp flattering selfies because the lens is not distorted.
For the camera features, Galaxy M51 has a super-slow-motion of 960fps in 720p quality. It also has a pro mode that dials shutter and ISO but there is no option for RAW or Full resolution mode in the pro mode tab. It also has unique features that you will not see on other smartphones like the hyper-lapse, single take which captures every type of content including video, gif, picture, etc. in one simple click. , and AR Camera which is best for the 5MP Depth sensor.
Performance
Samsung Galaxy M51 is powered by Snapdragon 730G (8nm) and uses big little technology with 8GB of ram plus 128GB in the memory. If we will compare it to 720g the 730g is slightly less powerful than 730g, and according to the benchmarks Galaxy M51 is great for multitasking but just good in gaming.
Speaking of gaming we tried playing WildRift and Genshin Impact. There are no problems playing WildRift even in max settings but on Genshin Impact, Galaxy M51 only has 32fps in the recommended settings. Still, the game is pretty playable and if you want to see the gaming capability of this phone check our gaming review below.
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Software
The gaming capability of the Galaxy M51 is pretty acceptable but there’s is something that we should mention as it gives great user satisfaction and this is the OS. The Galaxy M51 is running on Android 10.0 with One Ui 2.1 on top. What I like about Samsung phones is, it makes you feel that the phone is connected to you and it feels a sense of companionship. The user interface is pretty optimized and lightweight with no lags when browsing and navigating. It has its own Samsung apps which seamlessly fits on the google services. It has its own game launcher as well with unique and informative features and also comes with a game booster which makes the UI more alive and functional. Clearly, Software reliability is flawless for us.
Battery
As mentioned above it has a power-efficient display and a power-efficient chipset and is running in an optimized OneUI skin. Having a huge 7000mAh battery will not only make the phone last for a day or so but it will definitely give satisfaction because of the power-efficient hardware. If you haven’t checked our gaming review yet on this device visit this link. We conducted a battery test in that video and after 2hrs and 40mins we still have 78% remaining on the battery and that is impressive. We also conducted an endurance test and we get a screen time of 12hrs and 32mins before it shuts down. Hands down to its battery performance it gave us a great user experience.
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Audio
As for the audio, Galaxy M51 has a single down-firing speaker. It is loud and clear it produces a bassy sound however it the higher tones aren’t balanced and distortion in max volume occurs. There’s Dolby Atmos software and Hi-Res which will enhance the sound quality but it can be enabled if you only
Verdict
With a price of P19,990 (8GB+128GB) playing viral games like Genshin Impact and Wildrift is fun and enjoyable, it has the power to perform in 1080p gaming. The power efficiency of the screen and the chipset are the perfect combo to run by a large battery. This means that it will provide extra long-term use even more.
While it provides a better user experience thanks to the massive battery and the OneUI, the handling of the phone is quite heavy. Thus, there is no perfect phone so if you still want the overall satisfaction we recommend this smartphone, but not because of the architecture but because of the pleasure it can provide and the great user experience that will make you feel the device will last long.
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Specification
| Samsung Galaxy M51 | |
| Design | 213g |
| 9.5mm | |
| Plastic Back | |
| Gorilla Glass 3+ Front | |
| Celestial Black, Electric Blue | |
| Display | 6.7″ Super AMOLED Plus |
| 1080 x 2400 pixels, 20:9 ratio | |
| 393 PPI | |
| Camera | 64MP f/1.8 Main Camera |
| 12MP 123Ëš Ultrawide | |
| 5MP Macro | |
| 5MP Depth Sensor | |
| 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS | |
| Selfie | 32MP f/2.0 |
| 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps | |
| Performance | Snapdragon 730G (8 nm) |
| Adreno 618 | |
| Android 10, One UI 2.1 | |
| 8GB RAM | |
| 128GB | |
| expandable storage (up to 512gb) | |
| Battery | 7000mAh |
| 25W Fast Charging | |
| Features | Wi-Fi 802.11 (5Ghz) |
| USB Type-C | |
| Bluetooth 5.0 | |
| Fingerprint (side mounted) | |
| Gyro | |
| Face Unlock | |
| Price | P19,990 (8GB + 128GB) |
