Samsung Galaxy M51: design
At first we were concerned about the size and weight of the Galaxy M51, but after using the smartphone for a few days, we can say that it is not difficult to use. One might think that a 7000 mAh battery would make a phone a bit heavy, but that’s not the case here. Samsung has spread the weight well and the phone doesn’t feel heavy in the hand. However, it weighs 213 grams and you will feel it after using it for a while.
Samsung went with an Infinity-O display on this phone, which means there’s a hole at the top of the screen for the front-facing camera. The borders around the screen are thin. The screen measures 6.7 inches and has an aspect ratio of 20:9. This makes it difficult to reach the top of the screen while holding the smartphone with one hand. There is Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the screen.
Samsung has placed the fingerprint scanner on the power button. It works fine and is easily accessible to unlock the phone. The volume buttons are also on the same side, but they’re set a little higher, which would have made it a bit more difficult to access. You still get the 3.5mm headphone jack on the Galaxy M51 and it’s set up at the bottom along with the USB Type-C port and speaker.
The Galaxy M51 has a Glasstic back. We had the Celestial Black color option, which is extremely bright and detects fingerprints very easily. No case/cover comes in the box, so we had to keep cleaning the phone to keep the back panel shiny. The quad camera module is located at the rear corner of the phone.
Samsung includes a 25W charger in the box, something we also saw with the Galaxy M31. The huge battery of the phone is charged relatively quickly with this charger.
Samsung Galaxy M51 Specifications
Samsung has used the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G for the Galaxy M51. There are two variants available on this phone, the first with 6 GB of RAM and the second with 8 GB of RAM. The price of these two is Rs 24,999 and Rs 26,999 respectively. Both variants get the same 128GB storage and if you want more storage you can use the dedicated microSD card slot.
Samsung has given it a 6.7-inch Infinity-O display, which comes with Full HD+ resolution, but the refresh rate is 60Hz. We tell you here that its other competitors like OnePlus Nord and Realme X3 bring panels with a rate of refreshment superior to this. Although the Galaxy M51’s Super AMOLED screen is beautiful. You can tweak the color output via the Settings app and it gets bright enough outdoors.
Galaxy M51 comes with OneUI 2.1 based on Android 10. Our unit was running the August security patch which is new. Having used a lot of Samsung phones recently, the user interface was easy to navigate. Samsung has made great use of useful customization in Android 10. The Samsung Galaxy M51 also has a new nearby sharing feature, which makes it very easy to transfer files between compatible devices.
The smartphone also comes with dual messaging, gesture navigation, game launcher, and more. Because the tall top of the screen is hard to reach, Samsung also added a gesture that lets you swipe down on the fingerprint sensor to pull down the notification shade and quick toggles, which comes in handy.
Samsung has pre-installed Microsoft and Google apps as well as Dailyhunt, Chingari, MX TakaTak, Moj, Snapchat, Candy Crush Saga and Amazon apps on this phone. After booting up, I kept getting a lot of notifications from the Dailyhunt and Chingari apps. If you do not use these applications, we recommend that you uninstall them. Samsung’s My Galaxy app also leaves no stone unturned in providing notifications for Covid updates, as well as promotional content.
Samsung Galaxy M51: performance
The Samsung Galaxy M51 offers decent performance and we never found it to slow down. We found that the fingerprint scanner is quick to unlock the phone. Even his accuracy was good. The phone was also accurate and fast in unlocking the phone by recognizing the face. It was also a pleasure to watch videos on the Galaxy M51 due to the good output of the screen. Since the front camera is in the hole-punch cutout, it may seem distracting to some. However, it gets used to at some point.
Asphalt 9 ran fine at default quality settings and gameplay remained smooth even when the graphics were set to high. Playing for 15 minutes resulted in a two percent drop in battery level. Even after this, the screen touch didn’t get hot.
We know you would be curious about the battery life of this phone. In our basic usage, which included running benchmarks, taking photos, and making a few calls, the phone managed to last us two days on a single charge. In our HD video loop test, the phone managed to last 32 hours, which is a long time for any phone at its price point. To charge this huge battery, the company provided a 25W charger, which was really fast, taking just two hours to fully charge the phone.
Samsung Galaxy M51: cameras
Quad camera setup is available on the Samsung Galaxy M51 and this setup is very similar to what we have seen on the Galaxy M31s (Review). 64-megapixel main camera with f/1.8 aperture, 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with 123-degree field of view, 5-megapixel macro camera, and 5-megapixel depth sensor. There are also no significant changes to the camera app. Scene Optimizer is enabled by default in the default photo mode, but you can also disable it.
The Galaxy M51 was quick to lock focus, and the scene optimizer was also quick to recognize the surroundings. Photos taken in daylight came out with good detail and good dynamic range. The camera was also able to recognize subjects at a distance, and text was clearly visible on images. The Galaxy M51 automatically activates HDR in bright scenes, resulting in decent shots. We found the wide-angle camera captures a fairly decent field of view, but there was noticeable distortion at the edges of the images. The low-resolution wide-angle camera doesn’t capture the same amount of detail as the main sensor.
You get 16-megapixel shots by default with the Galaxy M51, but you also have the option of taking photos at the full 64-megapixel resolution. Photos taken at full resolution had better detail, but lacked sharpness and dynamic range. The Single Take function works exactly the same as on the Galaxy M31s and offers multiple output options after recording a 15-second clip.
Close-up shots taken with the Galaxy M51 were sharp and got decent blur in the background. Samsung’s Live Focus mode allows you to take portraits and adjust the blur level in the viewfinder before taking a photo. The 5-megapixel macro camera allows you to capture a subject very closely and the details in the images are also good.
Camera performance was decent in low light and photos turned out decent, but you’ll notice a lot of graininess when you zoom in. There is also a night mode, which helps improve the output of the main sensor. Night mode is also available for the wide-angle camera and offers similar results.
Selfies taken with the Galaxy M51 were great, and the phone softens them by default. Photos are taken at 8 megapixels by default, but you can switch to 12 megapixel resolution. You also have the option of taking selfies with a resolution of 32 megapixels. The selfie camera performed well in low light and captured decent detail. You can also take selfie portraits using Live Focus mode. With the mask on, the AI didn’t recognize faces and blur the background, but without the mask either. This is something Samsung can fix with a minor update.
Verdict
With the Samsung Galaxy M51, the Galaxy-M series now comes with a wider range in terms of price. We are sure that the Galaxy M51 has drawn a lot of attention due to its 7000 mAh battery and it also offers really great battery life. The Snapdragon 730G chipset also offers decent performance and will keep people happy at this price.
The cameras are good, but the video stabilization could have been a bit better. No competitor comes close to the Galaxy M51 in terms of battery life, and if battery life is your priority, the Galaxy M51 is a good option for you. If you are more focused on overall performance, OnePlus Nord (Review) would be a suitable choice.