Samsung’s Galaxy M series deserves a lot of credit for re-establishing the South Korean giant in the top spot after a brief dip in market share in 2018. The strategy of populating retail shelves with one after another M series phones targeting millennials has worked well so far. Continuing with the same plan, the Samsung Galaxy M12 was recently introduced in the Indian market.
Samsung Galaxy M12 was officially announced on February 05, 2021. The rest of the spec sheet isn’t too special, though. That 90Hz refresh rate is tied to an LCD display with HD resolution, and battery charging speed maxes out at 15W. The 48MP main rear camera is accompanied by low-resolution ultra-wide, macro, and depth sensors, the software is the Core version of One UI 3.1 (which means most good Samsung features have been stripped away), and it is powered by the low-end Exynos 850 chipset.
After knowing this lets jump into the full review
Design
This year Samsung is focusing a lot on the design aspect of smartphones. Like most Samsung phones, the Galaxy M12 has an appealing design. It has a smudge-resistant, dual-tone finish on the back panel. The major portion is covered in fine vertical lines followed by a plain matte finish with Samsung logo etched on it.
The M12’s rear panel looks very classy, with a multitude of diagonal lines running across most of the back and the rest having a plain untextured look, which is where the Samsung logo resides. There’s a fingerprint sensor embedded in the power button which is responsive and quickly unlocks the phone. The volume rocker offers good tactile feedback but you will need to adjust your grip to reach it. The phone could easily pass for something more high-end than it actually is thanks to that design, and the texture on the rear panel also makes for excellent grip.
Display
The M12 display has no legibility concerns. it gets bright enough but images lack that sharpness you’d get from an FHD+ panel. The 90Hz refresh rate is the only saving grace of the Galaxy M12’s display. The screen isn’t very sharp, the colors are dull, and brightness levels aren’t too hot, either. But I’m surprised how good the high refresh rate works here, despite the Exynos 850 being a very humble low-end processor focused purely on efficiency.
However, like the Galaxy A32, which also has a 90Hz screen, the notification shade and quick toggle area are permanently locked to 60Hz for some reason. 90Hz mode also gets turned off when you’re using apps like YouTube in picture-in-picture mode and navigate through the user interface and other apps at the same time. It’s likely the low resolution of the display means the GPU doesn’t have to work as hard to keep things running at maximum refresh rate, and, again, it was surprising to see the Exynos 850 handle it so well. the display is not up the level as compared to the price Rs10,999.
Camera
The Galaxy M12 follow the same trend as his siblings quad-camera at the back. It has a 48MP primary sensor led module with a 8MP secondary Ultra-wide lens (123-degree FOI), and two 2MP camera’s for micro and depth.
For a cheap phone, the M12 takes fairly Good pictures with its 48MP primary camera outdoors during the day and even in the nighttime when there’s a good amount of lighting around. The shutter isn’t the snappiest of them all. Samsung engineers have tuned the cameras to deliver slightly warmer tones. The 8MP ultra-wide camera barely gets the job done. There’s a watercolor effect in photos taken in even bright daylight, and color reproduction isn’t very accurate, and for other 2MP depth and macro Camera’s there’s nothing to say about it as you all are well aware of those 2MP sensors.
Coming to selfies, they are very often at this price point, all though skin tones are very accurate sometimes. Video recording, meanwhile, video’s are very basic. it maximize out at full HD 30 frames per sec, and videos are very shaky with just a little movement due to the lack to IOS (Thanks Samsung).
Performance
The latest M series phone comes with Exynos 850 SoC – a new 8nm chipset from Samsung. It is paired with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB of internal storage along with a microSD card slot that extends it to 1TB but still Gaming performance is a little less exciting: You can only have a smooth experience in graphics-heavy titles like Call of Duty and Asphalt 9 at their lowest settings. That’s quite good for a chipset like the Exynos 850, though, and at this price point you can’t really expect much more from a Galaxy device. This isn’t a gamer’s phone, in short.
Software
The latest Galaxy M12 runs One UI Core 3.1 adopted from Android 11 out of the box, and the feature set is extremely limited. Samsung has optimized its software according to M12’s hardware. That’s the reason some of the key elements of OneUI will be missing here like No Always On Display, no built-in screen recorder, no Samsung Pay, no Bixby, no Secure Folder… the list goes on. Having said that, you can still change themes, use gestures, and Quick Share for file sharing.
Battery Life
The combination of a massive 6,000 mAh battery, Exynos 850 chipset, and HD+ screen ensures that don’t have to worry about battery throughout the day. If battery life is one of your biggest concerns, the Galaxy M12 will make you very happy. Unlike some Samsung flagships, the Galaxy M12 comes with a 15W wall charger which fully refills the monstrous battery in a little over two hours and 45 minutes to fill up the battery from 0 to 100.
Audio
The Galaxy M12, like all of Samsung’s recent mid-range and budget phones, has very quiet speakers that can be inaudible with even a bit of ambient noise around. Plus, there are no earphones in the box so you will have to get your own, though having Dolby Atmos means you can have a good wired and Bluetooth audio experience.
Should you buy it?
The Exynos chipset is developed for low-end devices and it delivers decent performance compared to other options in the same price segment. The Galaxy M12 offer four major highlights – a 90Hz refresh screen, stable Android 11 software, a massive 6,000mAh battery and a Samsung branding. If these features are your priority then this is a Go-To Budget option, the Galaxy M12 is an excellent option that provides a user experience that punches above its weight. Buy it now through this link.
| Pros | Cons |
| 90Hz refresh rate works surprisingly well | Display quality is mediocre |
| Splendid battery life | Basic camera app, poor low-light photos |
| Main camera takes good pictures in daylight | 2MP macro camera is useless |
| Performance is good despite weak processor | Speaker too quiet |
| Classy design | Software stripped of most Samsung features |
| Android 11 and One UI Core 3.1 out of the box |
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