Samsung Galaxy A31 Price In India: Great Camera But Weak Performance

The Samsung Galaxy A31 has just launched in India early this month as a new mid-ranger from Samsung. The handset is available in a single version with 6GB RAM / 128GB internal memory. The Samsung Galaxy A31 price in India is Rs. 21,999, which is in a similar price range to the POCO X2 and slightly higher than the Galaxy M31 (Rs. 16,999). Compared to the Galaxy M31, the Galaxy A31 has the same screen and memory, smaller battery, lower-resolution main camera and selfie camera, and weaker processor. However, Galaxy A31 has an in-screen fingerprint sensor and a slimmer design. The Samsung Galaxy A31 price in other markets is not far off its Indian pricing.

Design: Still water-drop notch

The design of the Galaxy A31 looks like a mix of the Galaxy A51 and Galaxy M31. The front is a water-drop screen similar to the Galaxy M31, a rather confusing move as the recent Galaxy A smartphones like the Galaxy A11 and A21s already have punch-hole screens.

Screen: Vivid colors and work well under sunlight

Galaxy A31 uses a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED screen with Full-HD + resolution, a 20:9 aspect ratio. In default mode (vivid mode), this screen has very good display quality: vibrant colors, deep blacks, and wide viewing angle. Samsung also offers a Natural color mode if users want the screen to reproduce more standard colors, but the color saturation is more noticeable.

In particular, the brightness of the screen is very high. When taking photos in the sun, the screen of the Galaxy A31 is still bright enough to see the images clearly. This is where the Galaxy A31 is significantly rated higher than other smartphones of the same price range using IPS LCD panels.

Galaxy A31 uses an optical fingerprint sensor under the screen similar to the Galaxy A51. This year, Samsung has significantly upgraded the in-screen fingerprint sensor on mid-range smartphones compared to last year. Therefore, the reading speed of the sensor is quite fast and accurate, a plus point considering the Samsung Galaxy A31 price.

Camera: all 5 cameras do a good job

Galaxy A31 has 4 rear cameras including a 48MP main camera, 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, 5MP macro camera and 5MP depth-sensing camera for portrait shots. At the front, the device uses a 20MP camera for selfies and video calls. The camera specifications of the Galaxy A31 are identical to a recent mid-range product that we have reviewed, the Galaxy M21. The camera of the two cameras is nearly the same except for one thing: the M21 does not have a 5MP macro camera.

So, it's no surprise that the experience and quality of photos taken from the main camera, ultra-wide-angle camera, portrait camera, and selfie camera of the Galaxy A31 are not significantly different from the Galaxy M21. The photos taken by the 48MP camera were bright enough, a little less in detail, and color than the 64MP camera on the Galaxy M31. In many situations, the main camera tends to boost colors and color saturation to a higher level than the actual color.

In low-light situations, the Galaxy A31 doesn’t do a really good job. With enough artificial lighting, images have low noise, but they also have a soft look. In very low-light situations, the noise goes up significantly and the photos don’t have really good details. Not just that, the phone does not have a dedicated Night mode to help you get better photos in low-light conditions. 

Performance

Galaxy A31 is powered by an Helio P65 processor instead of an Exynos chip developed by Samsung. The chip is positioned in between Exynos 9611 on Galaxy A51 and Exynos 850 on Galaxy A21s. This is not the first time Samsung has used a Mediatek chip but it is the first time we see it on a Galaxy A smartphone.

On benchmarking platforms, the Galaxy A31 scored significantly lower than the Exynos 9611 chip that is widely used on Samsung’s mid-range phones from the end of last year until now. Specifically, phones like the Galaxy M31 reach approximately 200,000 points on Antutu, which is higher than 155,000 points of the Galaxy A31.

The graphics score of the Helio P65 on the Galaxy A31 is also lower than the Exynos 9611 of the M31. On the GPU test of the GFXBench app, the Galaxy A31 only reached 13 fps when running at the actual resolution of the screen while the Galaxy M31 reached 24 fps.

It can be said that the specifications of the Galaxy A31 is quite weak compared to the same devices in the same price range. The Helio P65 is just enough to meet the needs of normal tasks or playing basic games, but not enough to handle heavy graphics games. This is quite said as the Samsung Galaxy A31 price in India is Rs. 21,999, even higher than the POCO X2 (Snapdragon 720G).

Beefy Battery

With a large battery, energy-saving Super AMOLED screen, and not-powerful 12mn chip, it is not surprising that the battery life of the Galaxy A31 is very good. Under the same test, this phone is only inferior to the Galaxy M31 with a 6,000 mAh battery but much higher than other smartphones of the same price range.

In terms of charging time, the 15W charger comes with about 2h15 minutes to fully charge the phone battery.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy A31 2020 is a smartphone with a beautiful screen, good battery life, good cameras, high memory, and slightly-outdated design but with a good finish. However, these advantages are very common in this year's mid-range smartphones. We can see them on products like Galaxy M21 or Galaxy M31. Meanwhile, the performance of the Helio P65 chip of the Galaxy A31 is much weaker than that of its rivals by Samsung or other brands. Personally, if the Samsung Galaxy A31 price in India is Rs. 21,999, I will not buy it because there are better options out there on the market.

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