The Galaxy M32 is aimed at binge-watchers looking for good battery life

The Galaxy M32 is the latest smartphone in the Galaxy M series and is priced starting at Rs. 15,000. Given how crucial the sub-Rs. The 15,000 segment is for smartphone makers, naturally the Galaxy M32 has a lot of competition to face. Samsung has mainly focused on the display and battery with this new smartphone, as you can see from its 90Hz Super AMOLED display and its 6,000mAh battery. Is that enough to help it get to the top of your wish list, or is it not so good? I tested the Galaxy M32 and here is my review.

Samsung Galaxy M32 Price in India

The Galaxy M32 starts at Rs. 14,999 in India for the base variant with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. The highest variant offers 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for Rs 16,999. There are two color options available, Light Blue and Black. I got the base variant of the Galaxy M32 in Light Blue for this review.

Samsung Galaxy M32 Design

The Samsung Galaxy M32 sports a 6.4-inch AMOLED display with a teardrop notch at the top. It has thin bezels on the sides and top, but the lower jaw is thicker. The frame and back are made of plastic. Samsung has curved the frame on all sides which makes this phone comfortable to hold and use.

Samsung has chosen a fingerprint scanner mounted on the side located on the right side of the frame. This is now a common feature on smartphones at this price point. The fingerprint scanner on the side is slightly higher than I would have liked but it is still accessible. The result of such a setting is that the volume buttons are pushed higher and you will have to extend your thumb to reach them.

To the left of the chassis is the SIM tray of the Galaxy M32, which has two Nano-SIM slots and a dedicated memory expansion slot. You get a 3.5mm headphone jack on the Galaxy M32, at the bottom along with the USB Type-C port and the bottom speaker.

The back panel is shiny and easy to find fingerprints. I had to keep cleaning up the smartphone to avoid stains. In the top left corner is the quad-camera module that is almost flush with the back of the smartphone. The Galaxy M32 measures approximately 9.3mm thick and weighs 196g, which is evident when held in the hand. The weight and bulk can be largely attributed to the large 6,000mAh battery it packs. The Galaxy M32 is capable of charging 25W fast, but unfortunately only with a 15W charger in the box.

Specifications of the Samsung Galaxy M32

The Galaxy M32 is powered by a MediaTek Helio G80 processor and has 4GB or 6GB of RAM depending on which variant you choose. You get 64GB of internal memory with the basic variant while the top variant offers 128GB of storage. You have the option to expand the storage space using the dedicated microSD card slot. The 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display is sporty full HD + resolution and has a 90Hz refresh rate, which is even short of the more expensive Galaxy M42 (Review). The display is sharp and has good viewing angles. Samsung claims a peak brightness of 800 nits in high brightness mode.

This phone supports Bluetooth 5, dual-band Wi-Fi and 4G VoLTE but does not have NFC. It has four satellite navigation systems on board the ship and also has support for Samsung Pay Mini.

Samsung supplies its latest One UI 3.1 in addition to Android 11. My test unit had a May Android security patch. If you have used a Samsung smartphone, the user experience is quite familiar and you should have no navigation problems. However, the phone comes with a number of pre-installed apps. When installing, it also recommends installing several apps and it was not easy to skip this step. Many of these apps can be uninstalled immediately to reduce clutter on the device. I got push notifications from some of them that were annoying.

Samsung also offers its Alt Z feature which allows you to create a separate secure folder. This way, you can protect photos and apps and then access them by pressing the power button twice. The Galaxy M32 also has a Game Launcher that allows you to play games without any hassle and can also block incoming notifications and gestures. The game launcher also gives you the option of games clubs installed in the same folder.

Samsung Galaxy M32 performance and battery life

The Samsung Galaxy M32 screen has a 90Hz refresh rate which helps the interface look sleek and smooth most of the time. I still noticed some choking while using the phone and it took a little longer than expected to load apps and multitasking. The Galaxy M32 received a software update during the review period that reduced this stutter, but loading times have not changed. If you multitask often enough, the 4GB RAM variant may not be the ideal choice for you. The fingerprint scanner was quickly mounted to the side to unlock the smartphone. I found the display bright enough outdoors and the AMOLED display was crisp enough to enjoy watching content,

I could play casual games on the Galaxy M32 without any problems. The processor didn’t feel stressed and I didn’t notice any delays or stops telling. Also, I tried Call of Duty: Mobile on the Galaxy M32 and it worked on the Low preset for graphics while the frame rate was set to Medium. The game was playable in these locations without any problems. The Galaxy M32 did not heat up after playing for 20 minutes and experienced a 4% drop in battery life.

The Galaxy M32 didn’t set the benchmarks on fire, and its ratings were modest compared to other phones at this price level. At AnTuTu, the Galaxy M32 scored 160,106 points and scored 6,595 in PCMark Work 3.0. The Redmi Note 10S, on the other hand, scored 330,650 and 8,242 respectively in these tests.

The Galaxy M32 also managed to score 39 fps and 8.1 fps in the T-Rex and Car Chase GFXBench benchmarks, respectively. The relatively old Realme 7 (Review), which also competes with the Galaxy M32, achieved 44fps and 17fps respectively. The Galaxy M32 is clearly not the most powerful smartphone in its segment, and those looking for performance may have to look elsewhere.

The large 6,000mAh battery that Samsung has installed in the Galaxy M32 offers great battery life. It went on for over a day and a half with no problems, although the display refresh rate was always set to 90Hz. In our HD video loop test, the phone clocked 20 hours and 56 minutes, which is really good. However, the charging speed leaves a lot to be desired. While the Galaxy M32 supports 25W fast charging, Samsung only provided it with a 15W charger in the box. Using this supplied charger, the large battery only reaches 22 percent in 30 minutes and 44 percent in an hour. Charging the phone completely took more than two hours. You can leave it for charging overnight, but if you want to charge fast, you’ll have to spend more on a faster 25W charger.

Samsung Galaxy M32 Cameras

The Galaxy M32 comes with a four-camera setup that includes a 64-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The 64-megapixel camera uses pixel bins to deliver 16-megapixel shots by default. For selfies, it has a 20-megapixel sensor in the teardrop notch. The camera app is what we’re used to seeing on other Samsung devices. It has scene recognition enabled by default and is fast at scene detection.

Daylight shots taken with the Galaxy M32 turned out well but lacked the best dynamic range. Scene detection is quick to set up the phone and the colors increase slightly in output. You have the option to disable it before shooting. The details were perfectly average and the text at a distance was unreadable. The wide-angle camera offered a wider field of view and was able to monitor the distortion. However, the details are not the best, which is obvious when zooming in.

The Galaxy M32 does close sessions very well and manages soft depth between subject and background. The subjects were sharp and the colors fairly accurate. Portraits have good edge detection, and the Galaxy M32 lets you choose the level of blur before taking the shot. Macro shots were decent, but I had to try different angles to avoid blocking the light while holding the phone too close to the subject. The output is limited to 2 megapixels resolution.

In low light, scene detection was quick to change settings, and the Galaxy M32 used a slightly longer exposure to shoot each shot. The phone managed to keep the noise under control, but fine grain was visible in the output. You get a dedicated night mode, where it takes about 5 seconds to catch a shot. The phone also crops up slightly in the frame to reduce vibration while shooting. The resulting images have slightly better detail in the shadows, but no huge improvement.

The selfies were decent, with good detail. Self portraits with portraits were also good, and the phone dealt with good edge detection. Even after dusk with a light source nearby, the Galaxy M32 managed to take good selfies. Samsung has a forward sweep by default, which smooths the output, but you can disable it.

Video recording reaches 1080p for main cameras and selfie cameras. The shots shot in daylight had vibrations and the phone was not able to fully stabilize the shots. Shooting in low light conditions also had a visible shake when recorded while walking. Video recording is not one of the strong points of the Galaxy M32.

Verdict

Samsung claims that the Galaxy M32 is for binge-watchers, and its AMOLED grimp display and large 6,000mAh battery make this largely possible. You can watch the content on it for long periods without needing to reload. If you are not a regular user, the Galaxy M32 may give you no reason to complain other than the disappointing performance of the low light camera.

However, if you are a regular user, you will find that the Galaxy M32 does not offer the same level of performance as the competition. It is not the most powerful device under Rs 15,000 and the relatively slow charging speed for its massive battery could be problematic. Many people would be better off with the Redmi Note 10S (review) or the Realme 7 (review) instead. Many manufacturers are now also pushing 5G as a feature at this price level, so if you want a future-ready phone, this doesn’t fit the bill.