Table of Contents
amazon SAMSUNG GALAXY M20 reviews
In order to compete with Chinese brands, Samsung has put a lot of changes in Galaxy M20. This is the company’s first product with a “rabbit ears” screen, the first mid-range smartphone to have a 5,000 mAh battery and an ultra-wide-angle camera. However, there is still a detail in the Galaxy M20 that cannot surpass Chinese phones at the same price range.
Design: “water drop” screen
Galaxy M20 completely changed design compared to the previous mid-range smartphone of Korean phone company. This is Samsung’s first phone to follow the trend of “rabbit ears, drops of water”, detailing the design of the company has resolutely resisted throughout the year 2018.
The “water drop” screen called Samsung’s Infinity-V (perhaps because it looks like a V-shape) on the Galaxy M20 looks similar to Oppo’s recent phones like the Oppo F9 or Oppo R17 Pro. This “water drop” contains 8MP front camera with light sensor and proximity sensor. The voice speaker is placed on the screen border just above the “water drop”. Thanks to the “water drop” design, the screen edge of the device looks quite thin. The screen / front ratio is 83.6%, equivalent to the older Samsung Galaxy S8 high-end smartphone.
The machine has a plastic body design, glossy plastic back, and strong curving, not feeling slippery. However, the back is easy to fingerprints and in the blue version we use, the fingerprint is easy to recognize.
Galaxy M20 has a large capacity 5,000 mAh battery but the body thickness (8.8mm) and weight (186g) at a reasonable level. The power keys and fingerprint sensor on the back are placed in the easy-to-press position, especially the volume keys are slightly high right. Samsung included in this phone a USB Type C port that supports fast charging to shorten the charging time for large batteries.
Screen: large, bright and neutral colors
The Galaxy M20 uses a 6.3-inch screen with a ratio of 19.5: 9, so the width of the device is neat and compact. Full HD + resolution for 409 PPI pixel density is enough to display sharp content. PLS LCD panel on this phone is actually a kind of IPS LCD panel but manufactured by Samsung, it can be understood simply as Samsung’s IPS LCD version. The plus point in the screen of this screen is high brightness, neutral colors, not as bright as those using Super AMOLED screens and relatively wide viewing angles.
When compared to the screen of the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2, the screen of the two machines looks very similar in both brightness, color and viewing angle. The screen of the two machines has a common drawback that is reflected, so when you use the sky, you have to look directly at the screen to see it clearly, and if you look at the angle, it will be glare.
With the demand for online entertainment, the Galaxy M20’s screen also supports the Widevine L1 standard, so it can watch Full-HD content on online services like Netflix, Google Play Movies or Amazon Video. The Widevine L1 standard began to be noticed after the Pocophone F1 was discovered to be unsupported, so no HD content could be viewed from online services.
Software and performance: enough to use basic, not enough game battle
In terms of performance, the Galaxy M20 is equipped with the Exynos 7904 processor just launched earlier this year. The processor is manufactured on 14nm FinFET process, has 2 high-speed cores Cortex-A73 1.8GHz and 6 cores of the Cortex-A53 1.6GHz power-saving with Mali-G71 MP2 GPU.
In the 3GB version of RAM and genuine 32GB internal memory today, the Galaxy M20 score not high when compared to the same price range products using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 636 processor or Mediatek’s Helio P60. In particular, the graphics processing capability of Exynos 7904 chip is lower than that of the Snapdragon 636.
In actual use, this configuration is sufficient to handle gently and stably the basic tasks on the phone such as surfing the web, listening to music, watching YouTube or taking photos. It is also good enough to play popular casual games, but for games that require a lot of graphics processing power, such as survival game PUBG Mobile or Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade shooter, the player snatches up with low frame rates, hard play.
Overall, the performance of Galaxy M20 is sufficient for normal use, not suitable for users who like to play games, especially heavy games.
In terms of software, Galaxy M20 currently installs the customized Samsung Experience 9.5 based on Android 8.1. The interface and software functionality on Galaxy M20 is no different from Samsung’s recent mid-range machines like the Galaxy A7 2018.
With “V-notch”, Samsung allows users to hide if desired in the settings. In addition, users can also turn on the option to display full screen with applications installed on the phone, so that there is no black line on the top edge. When the full screen display is turned on, the “V-shaped” part is small, not annoying, like the rectangular “rabbit ears” on other phones. At the bottom, Samsung also allows to hide the Back, Home and multitasking navigation keys to switch to gesture manipulation.
It also has a full range of familiar features on Samsung phones such as changing theme; secure directory (create safe space for files and applications, only access by password or fingerprint); split the screen (run two apps in parallel with the screen); Unlock the phone with a face with a fast detection speed; Dual Messenger application (allows to use 2 applications Facebook, Messenger or Skype … at the same time) and launcher game (put the game in one place and support tools to block notifications, hide navigation keys, screen capture and screen recording when playing games).
where can you get a SAMSUNG GALAXY M20 online
Samsung Galaxy M20 (SM-M205F) 32GB, Dual Sim, 3GB RAM, 6.3″ Infinity V Display, 13MP+8MP Camera, Unlocked International Model, No Warranty (Blue): Buy it now
Samsung Galaxy M20 (Charcoal Black, 4 | 64GB) | Unlocked – Please Check specified Network Bands: Buy it now
Samsung Galaxy M20 M205M 32GB Unlocked GSM Phone w/Dual 13 MP & 5 MP Camera – Charcoal Black: Buy it now
Samsung Galaxy M20 (Ocean Blue, 4 | 64GB) | Unlocked – Please Check specified Network Bands: Buy it now
Battery time: the highlight of the product
The large capacity battery and fast charging support are the bright spots in this product. In the familiar measurements of BiaReview, the device has a very good battery life, equivalent to the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2 also has 5000 mAh battery. With this result, ordinary users can use the device for about 2 days to recharge.
The Galaxy M20 supports Samsung’s fast charging technology with a charging speed of 15W (9V / 1.67A), similar to the fast charging standard on Samsung’s high-end machines and also compatible with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 charging standard. Using the quick charging bulb comes, it takes about 2 hours and 15 minutes to fully charge the 5000 mAh battery, in which the first 1 hour can charge 50% of the battery’s capacity.
The main camera captures good enough light, wide-angle camera and lack of medium quality lighting
Samsung Galaxy M20 has dual rear camera cluster including main camera with 13MP resolution, f / 1.9 aperture that supports phase focus and a wide-angle 120MP camera of 5MP, f / 2.2 for shooting architecture and landscapes. It also supports capturing fonts on both rear and front cameras. In the front, it has an 8MP aperture camera with f / 2.0 aperture that supports HDR for better selfie shooting in backlit conditions.
In bright enough conditions, M20 has a fairly fast speed. 13MP main camera for images with bright colors, vibrant, flattering especially when taking portraits, flowers and leaves. Details, sharpness are also pushed up. If you look at it, you can see the image for good definition but when you look more closely at the details, it is possible to recognize Samsung’s algorithm of sharpening (clairity), which makes the image too much spikes, unnatural phenomena. Bright bands in pretty pictures, balancing stability between dark and bright areas, retaining many details.
With a 5MP wide-angle camera, the M20 has a more flexible shooting angle that fits both portraits when you want to capture the whole scene and subject. This camera will also work when you take architecture or small spaces. However, the quality of the wide angle camera of M20 is not high. The image has pale colors, low brightness, narrow light band, deviant white balance, poor detail. Compared to color, clarity, bright band, wide-angle camera is significantly worse than the 13MP main camera.
When shooting in low light, M20 images are often pushed brighter than reality. The strong noise reduction style continues to be used by Samsung. Photos with low noise, details and sharpness are not high, only colors are still reproduced in a fresh direction.
Wide-angle camera with a smaller aperture (f / 2.2) clearly shows its limitations when shooting in low light. The image now has low definition, detail, and the color is really good. The breakdown phenomenon can be clearly seen when ISO is pushed up but the machine still tries to suppress noise. However, in some low-light conditions, such as under room lighting and shooting at close range, wide-angle cameras can produce smaller images than the main camera.
In the ability to capture fonts, M20 gives off quite “virtual” font-deleting images with the background erased moderately, not too strong, ruddy skin, bright white and automatically made with the effect of making smooth. The camera also automatically zooms in a bit to portrait, erasing more natural looking fonts. But it can be easily recognized that the font eraser has many errors, the hair and shoulder intersection with the background is very sparse, revealing the background has not been erased.
With selfie camera, when all the beauty effects are turned off, the M20 can produce “selfie” pictures with sharp, fine details. Fresh, eye-catching color reproduction, bright strip. However, when turning on beauty, M20 still has the common “disease” of Samsung smartphones that is too strong. The skin becomes fake, the details of the photos are drastically reduced, the image is now also susceptible to bright tires due to the brightness being pushed up.
Allowing to remove fonts on the front camera is also a fun feature so you can create more selfies with your photos, especially when the background is not too special. However, like the following camera, the deletion of fonts in the selfie camera of M20 is very unnatural because the camera erases both the subject and the hair or hands.
Summary
Samsung has cleverly put in Galaxy M20 the points that popular users are now interested in buying smartphones. It’s a long battery life, large screen quality display is good, extra wide-angle camera for flexible shooting in narrow spaces as well as architectural landscape and thin-screen screen design.
The performance of this phone can be said to be sufficient for basic needs but it will be limited for users who like to play games, especially heavy graphics games. This is also the point that many Chinese phones such as Xiaomi, Huawei or Asus of Taiwan continue to outperform Samsung in the mid-range segment.