Samsung Galaxy M12 Review

Budget phones are the new trend. Everyone in the market wants a slice of the budget smartphone segment. And why shouldn’t they? Almost every major smartphone manufacturer grew last year because of budget smartphones within their lineup. It does not take a genius to put 2 and 2 together and therefore Samsung made the Galaxy M12 Power, a budget smartphone that ticks almost all the right boxes. Here’s all you need to know. 

What’s In The Box

Inside the box of the Samsung Galaxy M12 smartphone, you’ll get a 15-watt charger, a USB Type-C cable and some documentation. 

Samsung does not include a clear case inside the box anymore. Which is a sad thing. I recently tested the Samsung Galaxy A52 smartphone. It was a great device but it too came without a back cover and a front tempered glass.

The phone does feature a dual sim and a dedicated micro-sd card slot. This means you can opt for the lower variant and use an SD card to expand your storage.

Construction And Design

The Samsung Galaxy M12 is neatly built. The phone is a little heavy, 220g to be precise but it comes with a dual-tone textured back which makes it easy to grip this phone. The device has a quad-camera setup but a negligible amount of camera bump. As a result, the phone doesn’t wobble when you keep it on a flat surface without a cover. 

The phone also features a fingerprint sensor with a built-in power button and it works quite reliably and very fast. I didn’t notice any lag while unlocking the phone. Apart from this, a headphone jack, a USB Type-C port, a downward-firing speaker and volume rockers are also present on the Samsung M12.

Performance Tested

One look at its spec-sheet and you’ll know that the Samsung Galaxy M12 is a device focused on efficiency and longevity. Out of the box, the Samsung M12 comes with One UI 3.1 which is based on Android 11. Furthermore, Samsung is promising four years of software support for the “M” series of devices. The Samsung M12 comes with a 90Hz screen but only features an HD+ resolution but it does allow you to view OTT content on Netflix in Full HD+ resolution. 

The screen features a  6.5 inch IPS LCD panel and an 81.9% screen-to-body ratio. The screen trades off a few pixels in favour of smoothness and it works, at least for me. If you’re someone who cannot compromise with screen resolution in this budget then you can go for Full HD+ screens from other manufactures as well. 

Nonetheless, I found myself quite enjoying the 90hz display, especially considering the price I paid for it. And the 720p resolution only helps the phone lasts longer. Mark my words, you cannot deplete the 6,000 mAh battery of this phone with normal usage. At the end of the day, I was always left with 50-55% of charge with multiple hours of binge-watching shows on YouTube. 

You can easily expect an on-screen time of 10-11 hours from Samsung Galaxy M12 with heavy usage. As mentioned the device also comes with a 15-watt charger in the box, and it takes around 2 to 2.5 hours to fully charge the M12. 

Such a high battery life is courtesy of the Exynos 850 SoC which is a very power-efficient chip. It breezes through everyday tasks easily. However, when it comes to heavy gaming this chip struggles a bit. You can play small games like Angry Birds, Two Dots, and Candy Crush with ease. But playing big games like PUBG Mobile and COD Mobile is a big challenge. You can play these games in low settings and get decent FPS. 

The Exynos 750 SoC is based on the 8nm architecture and therefore runs quite cool. I only time I noticed this phone getting warm was when using it under direct sunlight. 

Speaking of sunlight, the Samsung Galaxy M12 clicks great photos, provided you’ve ample light around you. Photos clicked outside have a good detail in them you can easily see the built-in HDR support as well. The portrait mode in the Samsung M12 is again very good for its price range. Selfies from this camera are a little bit on the softer side but it works most of the time. The camera does not brighten my skin tone, which is a huge plus. 

Verdict

Samsung Galaxy M12 is the device to get if you just want a smartphone because it offers so much more. At a price tag of Rs. 10,999, this purchase of yours will go a long way, thanks to a superb battery and long-term software support.