Samsung Galaxy M02s features a plastic back design.
Samsung Galaxy M02s was recently launched in India. In recent times, the companies are targeting the mid-range market, ignoring the budget segment smartphones. With the M02s, Samsung aims to satisfy the ever-growing needs of budget smartphone shoppers.
In order to satisfy the needs of the younger generation, it comes with a massive 5,000mAh battery along with a 6.5-inch display with great performance for the budget. So should you pick one up? Let’s find out in this review.
Samsung Galaxy M02s Review: Specifications
Samsung Galaxy M02s sports a 6.5-inch IPS LCD display with an aspect ratio of 20:9. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor paired with 3/4GB of RAM and 32/64GB of onboard storage. The storage is further expandable using a microSD card slot. It runs on Android 10 based OneUI 2.5 out of the box. All of this is backed by a 5,000mAh battery.
On the optics front, the Galaxy M02s features a triple rear camera setup including a 13MP primary camera, an 2MP depth sensor and a 2MP macro sensor. Upfront, there is a 5MP selfie snapper.
Samsung Galaxy M02s Review: Design and Display
Samsung Galaxy M02s brings a nifty design to the table. The smartphone carries the company's design language to make it look distinctively Samsung. The rear has the camera lens on the top left resembling the Galaxy S20 series. The rest of the body is plastic with a subtle design that resembles their A-series of smartphones.
On the front, the Galaxy M02s sports a 6.5-inch IPS LCD panel with a U-shaped notch. It has thin bezels offering a great experience apart from a really fat chin, which is a design element far too common in this price range. The notch looks a bit outdated and could have been replaced with the punch-hole display to offer a more modern look, However, in this price range, it is acceptable.
As for the placements, Galaxy M02s sports a USB Type-C port on the bottom edge. Gone are the days with micro-USB ports in cheaper phones, which is a welcome change. The charging port is surrounded by the 3.5mm headphone jack, speaker grille and the primary microphone. The right edge houses the power button and volume buttons. On the left edge, there is just a SIM tray that can accept two SIM cards and a dedicated microSD card. The top edge of the phone is mostly left clean with the exception of the secondary microphone.
Coming back to the display, it is a 6.5-inch IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 720x1600 pixels. Overall, the display get’s bright enough to read in direct sunlight and the viewing angles are good enough for day to day usage. The display offers adequate color accuracy, but considering the price, that’s not an issue.
Samsung Galaxy M02s Review: Performance, Software and UI
Samsung Galaxy M02s is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor paired with 3/4GB of RAM. Our review unit came with 4GB of RAM along with 64GB of storage. With the phone being priced under Rs. 10,000, the older Snapdragon 450 processor seems to be a fine choice here. During the review period, the combination of long animations of the OneUI 2.5 and the slow performance of the Snapdragon 450 made the app switching and opening times a bit longer. There wasn’t much lag, however, the slow animations gave a hint of lag at times.
It sports a waterdrop style notch upfront.
I also tried playing Call of Duty Mobile on low settings and the smartphone ran just fine with minute lag and slight heating of the device. You can play heavy games on the smartphone, but it's not recommended. In day to day usage, for the price you pay, the performance is adequate.
The Galaxy M02s runs on Android 10 based One UI 2.5 out of the box. The user interface feels laggy. But it does bring in a host of features including a system-wide dark mode, face recognition and much more. Just like every other Samsung phone that I have used, going over to Settings > Advanced Features and turning on “Reduced animations” helped me in achieving that extra bit of smoothness.
Samsung Galaxy M02s Review: Cameras
Samsung Galaxy M02s sports a triple-camera setup at the back. The setup comprises a 13-megapixel primary camera, a 2-megapixel depth sensor and a 2-megapixel macro-sensor. The smartphone also gets Live Focus, Pro Mode and companies AR facial features.
It features a triple rear camera setup.
The camera app is straightforward and offers a good amount of features. However, the absence of any night mode is a bit concerning.
During our tests, the Galaxy M02s managed to click some decent shots. Under good lighting conditions, the phone managed to lock focus quickly. The colours were a bit boosted and in true Samsung fashion, the images did churn out a bit more saturated than one would prefer. There was a bit of grain in some situations, but nothing unusable for the price.
The story changes a bit when we go into the low light mode. The phone struggled to gain focus and the images churned out to be grainy. The 2-megapixel macro lens is present, but its quality is so bad, you will wonder why you thought of using them. You are better off taking photos from a normal lens and zooming in most cases, and in other cases, the images are so grainy and colour inaccurate, you won’t dare show it off on social media.
The selfies are good, nothing special but nothing bad. A lot of smartphones at this price range provide the same selfie experience. The image quality was a bit grainy, and the details in places like the beard were missing. However, the beauty mode could be turned off completely which cannot be said for other phones.
Samsung Galaxy M02s Review: Battery
The battery segment is where the Galaxy M02s manages to outshine among its competition. The handset comes with a massive 5,000mAh battery. During my time with the device, light to medium usage got me two full days of usage. Even with heavy usage, the phone lasted more than a day. This makes it a great smartphone for people who travel a lot.
With the battery being so huge, the charging speeds take a hit. The smartphone does support 15W fast charging, however, it comes with a standard 5W charger in the box. You can purchase the 15W charger, or use the slower in-box charger. With the slower 5W charger, the smartphone took more than 2 hours to fully charge. A piece of advice to the users who want to keep the smartphone running for a long time without any battery issues, the 5W charger will help keep the battery healthy for a longer duration of time.
Samsung Galaxy M02s Review: Verdict
Samsung Galaxy M02s starts at Rs 8,999 for the 3GB RAM/32GB storage variant while our 4GB RAM/64FB storage variant comes in at Rs 9,999. For that price, you get a decent display, decent camera and surprisingly zippy performance.
Overall, M02s is a good phone at the price point. If you want a great phone under Rs 10,000 then the M02s won’t disappoint you.
