New waves of Samsung’s Galaxy A and Galaxy M series smartphones have been coming in since the beginning of the year. With the better part of 2019 now behind us, Samsung feels the need to refresh the original range it brought. This usually means updating the necessary items (camera, chipset, software, etc.) and adding an appropriate suffix to the original model name. . And so it is with the new Samsung Galaxy M30s. But how much has changed since the original Galaxy M30? That’s what we need to find out. Read our review of the original Galaxy M30 here.

Surprisingly, with the new ‘S’ the price increase is negligible. The Galaxy M30s are available in two variants: 4GB RAM + 64GB storage at Rs 13,999 and 6GB RAM + 128GB storage at Rs 16,999. Next to our review unit. The Galaxy M30’s 6GB RAM + 128GB storage variant shares the price with the Galaxy M30s at Rs 16,999. The 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant is priced slightly below Rs 12,499. The newly added 3GB RAM + 32GB storage variant of the Galaxy M30 is priced at a whopping Rs 9,999. Beyond the necessary information, let’s get started with the new Galaxy M30s.

Performance and gaming

The Galaxy M30s comes with an updated chipset. The Galaxy M30 replaces the 14-nanometer Exynos 7904 with a 10-nanometer Exynos 9611. Like its predecessor, the new chipset employs eight cores (73 in four cortex, 53 in four cortex) but at high clock speeds. GPUTO is a slightly newer Mali-G72 MP3. Our review unit comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. The original Galaxy M30 we reviewed, however, only came with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage.

The review unit performed quite well on our standard CPU and GPU benchmark tests. On AnTuTu 7.0, the Galaxy M30s picked up 132160 points, compared to the Galaxy M30’s 107705. In PCMark 2.0, the gap was not too wide. The Galaxy M30s scored 5626 points, and the Galaxy M30 4969. In 3DMark’s sling shot, the gap has almost doubled. Galaxy M30s got 1548 points and Galaxy M30 got 730 points. There was also a significant constraint on storage speed.

The daily performance of the review unit was good but not great. Common apps like WhatsApp and Gmail take up to two (or sometimes three) seconds to open and get ready to use. The review unit was comfortable multitasking but the animation had occasional stuttering and shaking. With a game running, switching apps is obviously slow. With over a dozen tabs open in Chrome, the phone didn’t feel the need to refresh the pages even after several minutes of inactivity on other pages. The camera app, on the other hand, often stutters when used, which only gets worse in low light.

Gaming in the review unit was not a completely smooth experience but it was also not a bad experience. The Asphalt 9 and PUBG mobile run by default in high graphics settings and average 29 and 32 frames per second on the gamebench, respectively. There were some stutters during the action sequences of both games but they didn’t really come into the gameplay. To my surprise, our hitgun displayed an average of 44 degrees Celsius around my left thumb fifteen minutes after playing PUBG Mobile. This was also the case with Asphalt 9 and Call of Duty mobiles. All in all, the Galaxy M30’s functionality is suitable for light to medium use, including frequent browsing, calling, light gaming and messaging, but not for heavy multitasking.

The display gets hot while gaming

The camera

This section gets a significant push on paper. The Galaxy M30s outperforms the older 13MP shooter with a f / 2.0 aperture and phase-detection autofocus for a 48MP 0.8µm sensor. It also drops the 5MP ultra-wide sensor for an upgraded 8MP unit with the same f / 2.2 aperture. 5MP depth sensor with F / 2.2 aperture works on Galaxy M30s. The selfie camera is the same 16MP unit with f / 2.0 aperture. The rear three sensors come with a single LED flash.

Selfie cameras remain the same

Images taken in daylight through the primary sensor are bright but not too colorful. The primary colors, including red and blue, are noticeably blurred in many photos. Images taken with ultra-wide sensors show a little more color and more contrast. Due to the barrel distortion observed in the corners, ultra-wide mode is not always suitable for all types of scenes, especially in the dark. In low light, the photos taken through the primary sensor show some distortion and blur but not enough to make things ugly. Live focus mode works fairly well but sometimes there is a tendency to cut the subject in the foreground around the edges.

Selfie comes out subtle but can do with a little more sharpness. Even setting the level of beauty to zero, the phone is keen to soften the cheeks of the subject. Live focus mode works well for selfies but occasionally misses the edges. The default camera app is scattered during the day and slow enough in low light. Animation causes frequent stuttering, especially when taking shots, changing moods or previewing photos. All things considered, the Galaxy M30s camera is ideal for casual photographers but not for enthusiasts.

Disclaimer: The following images have been resized for the web Visit us Flickr Gallery For high-resolution images from the camera of the Samsung Galaxy M30s.

Outdoor, primary sensor, normal mode

Outdoor, ultra-wide sensor, wide mode

Outdoor, primary sensor, normal mode

Outdoor, ultra-wide sensor, wide mode

Low light, primary sensor, normal mode

Live focus mode has effects

L> R: Normal Mode (Beauty Auto), Live Focus Mode (Beauty Auto), Normal Mode (Beauty Off)

L> R: Normal mode, wide mode, live focus mode

Construction and design

On the face of it, the Galaxy M30s look almost exactly like the original Galaxy M30. The rear panel shows some changes around the camera’s rectangle, but the dimensions and overall design of the phone seem to remain the same. The rear panel tends to get a dual-tone effect but the color change now occurs horizontally, not vertically. Our review unit came in Sapphire Blue, a weird mix of blue and green. In my opinion, the device looks faded without being stylish in some corners but this is mostly because the rear panel is made of glossy plastic.

Color changes are now horizontal, not vertical

The Galaxy M30s are fairly grippy to hold when your hands are absolutely dry but slippery with oil or sweat marks. I recommend getting a suit for it anyway. The camera’s rectangle sits flush with the rest of the rear panel, so you’ll see the phone lying flat on a tablet. The fingerprint scanner on the back panel also flushes with the panel but is kept slightly elevated for comfort. The front of the Galaxy M30s has a slim bezel on either side of the display, a fairly thick chin and a U-shaped groove at the top, all glossy black. All in all the Galaxy M30s looks fairly attractive.

SIM + microSD card tray on the left

No port can be seen on the top of the Galaxy M30s but a lone secondary microphone (for sound cancellation during calls) runs home. On the left side is the SIM + MicroSD card tray. At the bottom is the crowd; Includes a 3.5mm audio jack (for headsets), a USB-C port (for charging and transferring data over USB 2.0), primary microphone and a single speaker grill. On the right side there are power buttons and volume rocker. In my opinion, these buttons are placed very close to the top edge, making it difficult to access them with one hand. All three buttons work well but with a little more click.

3.5mm audio jack + USB-C on the right

The Galaxy M30s doesn’t get a dedicated Bixby button like the expensive Galaxy S cousin. This, I understand, can frustrate loyal Bixby fans but can also thrill Google Assistant lovers. The fingerprint scanner in the review unit worked pretty fast, and the Face Unlock feature worked four times out of five, even though the phone wasn’t directly in front of my face. At a slightly increased 188g, the phone didn’t feel too heavy. All in all, the Galaxy M30s scored well in the build and design section. I only want a metal back panel for some extra classes. The plastic in a phone priced at around Rs 17,000 is a bit disappointing.

Power button on the right + volume rocker

Display and audio

The display of the Galaxy M30s does not get any upgrade, which means it is the same 6.4-inch Super AMOLED unit that we see in the original Galaxy M30. It has a aspect ratio of 19.5: 9 and a maximum resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels. Our test kit has a maximum brightness of 627 nits on the screen of the review unit, which is more than the 420 nits figure claimed by Samsung. The display is colorful for everyday activities like browsing, photo viewing and video playback.

The display is bright and colorful

Being an ‘Infinity U’ panel, the Galaxy M30s’ display plays a small U-shaped notch at the top to make room for selfie cameras. In my experience, notches are rarely interrupted when watching videos and playing games in the review unit. The thin earpiece strip, which sits just above the selfie camera, was loud enough to call inside the house. The sound from the phone’s single speaker grill was quite loud but flat across the upper, middle and lower. The weekend’s Starboy sounded blunt and small at maximum volume. This speaker is best reserved for ringtones, alarms and message alerts.

The screen of Galaxy M30s is the brightest we have seen in recent times

Software

The Galaxy M30 was launched with Android 8.1 Oreo at a time when smartphones were already pre-installed with Android 9 Pie. It was probably one of his biggest cons. With the Galaxy M30s though, this is no longer a concern as it is shipped directly out of the box with Android 9 Pie. Of course, the top tier of Android is Samsung-owned One UI, loaded with a list of Samsung’s own standard apps, such as Clock, Calendar, Gallery, Game Launcher, My Galaxy, and more. The UI supports gesture-based Samsung’s own version. On navigation it comes with themes and wallpapers from Samsung’s collection An always-on display mode for offer times and notifications.

Battery

The Galaxy M30s 15W comes with a huge 6000mAh non-removable lithium-ion polymer battery with fast charging. This is 1000mAh more than the original Galaxy M30. In our standard battery benchmark test, the review unit scored a chart-topping in 14 hours, 30 minutes. The only phone that came close to that score was the Galaxy M20 with a score of 13 hours, 54 minutes. The Galaxy M30, for reference, conducted the same test for 11 hours, 6 minutes.

Our review unit lasts more than two days with light use. After an hour of GPS navigation (70-percent screen brightness, Wi-Fi + Bluetooth enabled), the phone showed an 8-percent drop, which is a bit faster than what we saw on the Galaxy M30. 15 minutes after playing PUBG Mobile, the phone shows a 4-percent drop, which is very normal. It took about two hours to charge the phone from almost zero to back up, which is understandable due to the high capacity of the battery. After all, you can expect the Galaxy M30s to last about two days with moderate usage.

The last row

Given that there is absolutely no price difference between the top-end variant of the original Galaxy M30 and the top-end variant of the recent Galaxy M30s, it is very understandable to go for the latter. This is understandable because almost every upgrade listed on the spec sheet becomes obvious when you use the phone, especially when using advanced chipsets and large batteries. There’s not much difference in the photography category, but the low light shots are much clearer on the Galaxy M30s. Fortunately, the new model has no downsides.

Even if we don’t compare the Galaxy M30s with the Galaxy M30s, it’s a good phone, but with some less-obvious flaws. For one, the chipset is still not equipped for heavy multitasking. Frequent stuttering in the default camera app is a constant reminder of this. What’s more, the glossy plastic finish on the back panel of the phone makes it look even less sophisticated. Even if it is priced a bit higher at Rs 16,999, the Samsung Galaxy M30s is a phone you can’t go wrong with.