Samsung Galaxy M10 First Impressions: Finally a budget Galaxy to take on Chinese smartphones

Design: Basic entry-level design

Samsung Galaxy M10 looks and feels good in hands but offers nothing special in terms of overall design. The device is made out of plastic which appears to be slightly low in quality but it can take a beating and can survive some falls from low height.

Samsung has used a glossy rear panel on the Samsung Galaxy M10 smartphone and it is good to see that even with the shiny back it picks up very fewer fingerprints as the other glossy devices do.

No Fingerprint scanner

Coming to the placement of the keys, the Samsung Galaxy M10's left panel has the SIM card tray and the right panel has the volume rockers and the power key. The lock key has an ideal thumb placement which makes it easy for us to unlock the device after picking it up. The 3.5mm headphone jack for headphones connectivity and a microUSB port for charging and data transfers are placed at the bottom panel of the smartphone.

If you look at the rear panel, you will be able to see a dual-lens camera setup which is stacked vertically on the top left corner. Just below the camera is the LED flash which will help you to capture low-light images. Sadly, there is no fingerprint scanner on this device.

Taken as a whole, the device offers a basic design factor which is not really eye-grabbing; however, it makes up for the looks by offering an attractive display panel.

Display: 6.22-inch Infinity-V display panel

Samsung Galaxy M10 boasts a tall 6.22-inch Infinity-V display panel that offers HD+ resolution. Just to recall, Samsung has released its new display panels including the Infinity-O, Infinity-V and Infinity U display back in 2018. You get a waterdrop notch on the top of the display that accommodates the front camera of the device to captures selfies and for video calls.

The display offers an optimum screen brightness which does not tend to stress the eyes even with maximum brightness levels. While streaming videos on YouTube, the display will max out at 720 pixels and not 1080 pixels but it still offers a good picture quality. The colors produced by the display are neutral and the content doesn't get oversaturated. It is a beautiful display that is suitable for media consumption and you will enjoy watching movies and videos on the device.

Hardware and software: Exynos 7870 chipset

Samsung Galaxy M10 runs on an octa-core Exynos 7870 chipset which is a mid-range processor by the South Korean tech giant. The processor onboard is based on 14nm architecture and it clocks at 1.6GHz. There is a 3GB of RAM that takes care of all the multitasking. In terms of storage, the device offers a total internal space of 32GB which you can expand later to up to 512GB via an external microSD card slot.

We used the smartphone to carry out some general tasks such as internet surfing, streaming videos and even for some light graphics games and didn't experience any hiccup in its performance. We still need to push the smartphone to its limits to find out how it performs with extensive tasks at hand. We will share a comprehensive review of the device soon with you.

Android Oreo with Samsung’s clean Experience UI

In the software department, the Galaxy M10 ships with Android 8.1.0 Oreo out-of-the-box based on Samsung Experience 9.5 skin on top. The device offers a neat UI which is easy to operate and gives a smooth user experience. The Galaxy M10 might also receive the Android Pie update in August this year. This was reported earlier by the Samsung Members app and the update could be announced in the coming months. The new Experience UI is smooth and works just fine for most of the part.

Camera: Ultra-wide Angle rear camera

The Galaxy M10 sports a dual-lens rear camera panel that comprises a 13MP primary sensor that has an f/1.9 aperture paired with a 5MP secondary Ultra-wide sensor that has an f/2.2 aperture. To capture selfies and for video calls, the device uses a 5MP selfie camera that has an aperture of f/2.0.

The camera is not the best part of the Galaxy M10. It captures average image quality in ample lighting situations. The images captured show minimal details. You will be able to notice some noise in the images shot in dark, low dynamic range and washed out results in bright lights. And while the wide-angle lens also captures sub-par pictures, it's a good addition and will come quite handy to capture landscape shots.

We will put the Galaxy M10's camera to test for detailed testing in our comprehensive review of the smartphone.

Battery: 3,400mAh battery unit

Backing up the Galaxy M10 is a decent 3,400mAh non-removable Li-Ion battery unit. With a single charge and moderate usage, the device lasts more than half a day. You get a standard 5V charger in the box which takes around 2 hours to charge the smartphone completely. We will test the battery of the device with extensive tasks and will check how long it lasts. Stay tuned with us to read a detailed review of the latest affordable smartphone by Samsung.

Verdict

Samsung has up the game in the affordable segment with the release of Galaxy M lineup. Both the Galaxy M10 and the Galaxy M20 offers some impressive set of specifications and features which makes them a good rival against the other affordable smartphones such as the Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro, Redmi Note 6 Pro, ZenFone Max Pro M2, and others. Both the devices are a sweet deal for the price range they are selling for. Like we mentioned earlier, we will use the smartphone thoroughly so that we can share our comprehensive review with you.