Samsung Galaxy M20 was first launched at the end of January 2019 in the Indian market, in which Samsung is fiercely competing for the No. 1 spot against Chinese brands Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo, and Realme. The handset is currently up for sales in two memory variants: 3GB RAM + 32GB storage (Rs. 10,990) and 4GB RAM + 64GB storage (Rs. 11,990).

To compete with Chinese brands, Samsung introduced quite a few changes in the Galaxy M20. This is the company's first product with a water-drop notch screen as well as the first mid-range smartphone with a 5,000 mAh battery and an ultra-wide-angle camera. Is this phone a good pick or it is better to go for Xiaomi and Realme offerings? Let's go into more details about this phone, including display, performance, battery, and camera. 

Samsung Galaxy M20: Display

The Galaxy M20 features a very different design compared to the previous mid-range smartphones of the Korean phonemaker. This is the first phone from Samsung to follow the water-drop notch trend the design details this company had firmly refused throughout 2018.

The water-drop screen is what Samsung calls Infinity-V (probably because it looks like a V-shape). The one on the Galaxy M20 looks similar to that of the recently-released Oppo F9 or Oppo R17 Pro. This notch contains an 8MP front camera with an ambient light sensor and a proximity sensor. Speakerphone is located on the top bezel, just above the notch. Thanks to the design, the bezels of the device are quite slim. The screen / front ratio is 83.6%, which is the same as the 2017’s Galaxy S8.

The handset gets a 6.3-inch display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, so the width of the phone is neat and fits your hands comfortably. The Full-HD + resolution gives a 409 PPI pixel density, which is enough to display sharp content. The PLS LCD panel on this device is just Samsung's version of the IPS LCD panel. Being one of biggest display makers, Samsung’s smartphones are always known for having a high-quality display, and the one on the Galaxy M20 is no exception. It has a high maximum brightness, neutral colors, not as bright as the Super AMOLED screen, but has a relatively wide viewing angle.

When compared to the screen of the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2, the display of the two phones look very similar in both brightness, color and viewing angle. 

With the needs of online entertainment, the Galaxy M20 supports the Widevine L1 standard, so that users can view content in Full-HD resolution on online services such as Netflix, Google Play Movies or Amazon Video. 

Samsung Galaxy M20: Performance

In terms of performance, Galaxy M20 is equipped with Exynos 7904 processor that launched earlier this year. The processor is manufactured on 14nm FinFET process, has 2 Cortex-A73 high-speed cores clocked at 1.8GHz and 6 Cortex-A53 power-saving cores clocked at 1.6GHz and Mali-G71 MP2 GPU.

With 3GB RAM and 32GB internal memory, the Galaxy M20 doesn’t perform that well when compared to products of the same price range using Qualcomm's Snapdragon 636 processor or Mediatek's Helio P60. In particular, the graphics processing capacity of the Exynos 7904 chip is clearly lower than that of the Snapdragon 636.

In practical use, this hardware configuration is enough to stably handle basic tasks on the phone such as surfing the web, listening to music, watching YouTube or taking pictures. The device is also good enough to play popular light games, but for games that require a lot of graphics processing power like PUBG Mobile or Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade shooter, the game handset struggles with low fps.

Overall, the performance of the Galaxy M20 is enough for regular use, not suitable for users who like to play games, especially heavy games.

Samsung Galaxy M20: Camera

Samsung Galaxy M20 has a dual rear camera cluster consisting of a main camera with 13MP resolution, f / 1.9 aperture, and PDAF as well as a wide-angle 5MP camera with 120-degree viewing angle and f / 2.2 aperture. The device also supports portrait mode on both the rear and front cameras. At the front, the device has an 8MP f / 2.0 camera with HDR support for picturing selfies and video calls.

In good lighting conditions, the M20 brings photos with bright, vibrant colors, especially when shooting portraits or flowers. Details and sharpness are boosted. At first glance, it can be seen that the image has good clarity, but when looking closely at the details, it can be seen that Samsung's algorithm has boosted the sharpness and clarity of the image a bit too much, making the photo look unnatural. The light band in the image is quite good, well-balanced between the bright and dark areas, retaining a lot of details.

When taken in low light, photos of the M20 often appear to be brighter than they really are. They also have low noise, but low level of details and sharpness.

Samsung Galaxy M20: Battery life

Large capacity battery and fast charging support are what make the Galaxy M20 shine in the segment. In our regular battery drain test, the device has a very good battery life, at the same level as the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2, which also has a 5000 mAh battery. With this result, regular users can use the device for about 2 days before having to charge the phone.

Galaxy M20 supports Samsung's fast charging technology with a charging speed of 15W (9V / 1.67A), similar to the fast charging standard on high-end Samsung devices and is also compatible with Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0 standard. Using the included fast charger, it takes about 2 hours and 15 minutes to fully charge the 5000 mAh battery, of which the first 1 hour charges 50% of the battery's capacity.

Samsung Galaxy M20: Verdict

The handset is certainly a viable choice, if performance is your top priority. If it is, Xiaomi or Realme smartphones are better options as the Exynos 7904 SoC on the M30 isn't the most powerful chipset and you should pick phones with a Qualcomm chipset instead.