Samsung surely has big dreams with its Galaxy M, A and F series in India. Since the beginning of 2021, the South Korean smartphone manufacturer has been relentlessly launching one phone after another and it appears that the South Korean smartphone manufacturer is in no mood to rest any time soon. The latest addition to the Galaxy M series is the Galaxy M32, which launched earlier this month.
Samsung Galaxy M32 succeeds the Galaxy M31 from last year. The Galaxy M31 was a decent phone and so is the new Galaxy M32. The Samsung Galaxy M32 starts at a price of Rs 14,999 in India for the base 4GB RAM version. I am using the 6GB RAM + 128GB storage model of the Samsung device since the last 10 days and overall likes what it offers. This one comes for Rs 16,999.
The Samsung Galaxy M32 offers a lot to consumers at such an affordable price such as a massive 6000mAh battery, a vibrant Super AMOLED display, 15W fast charging support in the box, MediaTek Helio G80 SoC with 6GB RAM, and more. The phone misses out on a crucial feature, 5G support. Most phones at the under Rs 15,000 price segment such as the Realme 8 5G, the Realme Narzo 30 5G, the Poco M3 Pro and more offer 5G capabilities. Although 5G isn’t available in India right now, this is a feature that most consumers are looking at before purchasing a phone these days.
Samsung Galaxy M32 looks like a decent package on paper, but what about the real life performance? I am using the Samsung Galaxy M32 for the last few days and find it to be a compact phone that can be used comfortably all through the day despite the massive battery.
Design
The Samsung Galaxy M32 looks pretty good for the price. The phone is offered in two colours – blue and black. The one I am using is the blue option that includes vertical lines, which makes it stand out from the competition.
It includes a square shaped quad rear camera system that sits at the top-left corner of the back panel. At the bottom is the Samsung brand logo. On the front, the Samsung phone includes Infinity-U cut out with pretty slim bezels on all sides, except for the chin, which is slight on the thicker side. The right side sports the fingerprint sensor inside of the power button and the volume keys, while the left includes the SIM tray.
Overall, The Samsung Galaxy M32 sports a clean and compact design. Despite packing a massive 6000mAh battery, the Samsung phone doesn’t feel too heavy in the hands and is easy to use all through the day. The sides are also properly curved and that makes it comfortable to use the phone at all times.
Display
Displays have always been one of the best aspects of most budget Samsung phones. The Samsung Galaxy M32 is no different. The phone comes packed with a 6.2-inch Super AMOLED display with curved corners, 1080 x 2400 (FHD+) screen resolution, and 90hz screen refresh rate.
I have used the Samsung phone for watching movies and TV series on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, and also YouTube videos over the last few days. I also played several mobile games including Battlegrounds Mobile India, Asphalt 9, Garena Free Fire, Subway Surfers, Temple Run 2, among others and all of these looked visually very attractive. In my opinion, the Samsung Galaxy M32 is one of the best phones for binge watching.
The Samsung phone offers great viewing angles and shows pretty vibrant colours in all scenarios. In indoors, keeping the brightness level to 30-40 percent was best for me while in outdoors, brightness level around 70 – 80 percent worked pretty well.
Camera
Samsung Galaxy M32 comes packed with a 64-megapixel primary sensor paired with an 8-megapixel ultra-wide lens, a 2-megapixel macro lens and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. On the front, the phone includes a 20-megapixel selfie shooter that sits on the Infinity-U cutout.
The camera department is a mixed bag. The Samsung Galaxy M32 clicks decent pictures but I faced focus issues most of the times. Possibly Samsung could fix this issue with an OTA update in the days to come.
In day light, the Galaxy M32 manages to click decent photos but as I said, you are really going to struggle with capturing a focused shot, especially if you are as restless as I am with clicking photos. If you have the time and patience, the Samsung Galaxy M32 can deliver good shots with fair amount of details and pretty accurate colours.
The camera struggles in low-light situation. Photos clicked in limited light often miss on details and look dull. There’s night mode available but it does not seem to help much. Macro shots also miss on details sometimes, but colours look impressive in most situations.
The Samsung phone clicks pretty good-looking selfies, in normal as well as portrait mode. There are several beauty modes available within the camera app, so you need not waste time editing selfies after it is clicked to post on Instagram. I like my photos unfiltered, so I mostly clicked selfies without filter, and they looked pretty good with ample amount of details. Portrait selfies appeared with sharp edges and background properly blurred with good details.
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy M32 is powered by MediaTek Helio G80 SoC paired with up to 6GB RAM RAM and 128GB of internal storage, which can be expandable by up to 1TB via microSD card. The phone also comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage option. In for review is the top-end version of the device.
I used the Samsung Galaxy M32 for all my regular work including receiving calls, playing all sorts of games, clicking lots of pictures, sending emails and WhatsApp messages, browsing social media platform and the internet, much more. The Samsung Galaxy M32 was able to handle multitasking decently. The phone did lag sometimes, especially when too many apps were running in the background. Moving from one app to another also seemed laggy sometimes.
The Samsung Galaxy M32 could run games like Battlegrounds Mobile India and Asphalt 9 in high graphics but the experience wasn’t as smooth as I expected it to be. It wasn’t all that bad either for the price, but looking at the competition, I believe Samsung could have worked a little more on the performance. During extended gaming sessions, the Samsung phone did heat-up but it also cooled down pretty quickly.
While the performance is one of the aspects that I feel could have been better, the clean software makes up for it. Rarely will you find phones at this price segment offer such clean user experience. I personally loved One UI 3 on top of Android 11 software. It brings host of new features including the new notification shade, revamped lock screen, volume controls, fast access to widgets and much more.
Battery
The battery is one of the best aspects of the Samsung Galaxy M32. Period. The phone comes packed with a massive 6000mAh battery with 15W fast charging support in the box. I used the phone for watching a few Euro 2020 matches, shows on Netflix, movies on Amazon Prime Video, playing Battlegrounds Mobile India and much more mobile games. The Samsung phone could handle and run all of it in a single change. The 15W fast charging support in the box charges the phone in about 1 hour 10 minutes time, which is pretty decent for the price. During the charging process, the phone heats up slightly but there’s nothing to worry about that.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy M32 falls under Rs 15,000 price segment, which is an overcrowded space including a bunch of great all-rounder phones including the Redmi Note 10 Pro, the Poco M3 Pro 5G, the Realme 8 5G, among others. The Samsung phone is a decent option to consider if you are looking for a phone to watch back to back Netflix/ Amazon Prime shows and movies. In addition to the gorgeous display and decent design, Samsung Galaxy M32 offers long-lasting battery life. It lasted for more than a day for me, which is impressive.
While the Samsung phone shines in some areas, there are few aspects where the phone could have been better in my opinion, such as performance and camera. The Galaxy M32 offers decent performance and clicks fairly good photos in good light, but the competition appears to be slightly better in these aspects. For instances, phones such as the Redmi Note 10 Pro and the Realme 8 5G offer faster and smoother performance and click much detailed and sharper pictures in almost all aspects. Another feature that Samsung Galaxy M32 misses out on is 5G. Most phones at this price segment now offer 5G capability.
