Introduction - Monster Overall
Samsung has been playing good in the budget smartphone market with its M series smartphone line-up and the new Samsung Galaxy M51 is the latest addition to the Galaxy M series. The M series has been famous for mainly two things- Bigger batteries and AMOLED displays and believe it or not, the Galaxy M51 is the Big guy in the M family. With its unparalleled battery capacity of 7,000mAh, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G chipset and the Super AMOLED Plus display it sure is has raised the bar of competition for its Chinese rivals.
The 64 MP quad rear camera setup with the magic of Single-take, 25 Watts fast charging, and the simplistic user experience with one UI makes the Galaxy M51 a feature-packed smartphone.
Check out this detailed comparison between Realme 7 Pro, Samsung Galaxy M51 and OnePlus Nord.
Prices in India, Variants, Availability
Samsung Galaxy M51 comes in two variants, 6GB RAM + 128GB storage and 8GB RAM + 128GB storage. As for the colour options, you can choose from Celestial Black and Electric Blue shades. The base variant is available for a price tag of ₹22,999. While the 8GB RAM variant comes at a slightly higher price of ₹24,999.
Here is a list of Best Smartphones under ₹25,000 in India.
You can buy it from Amazon India, Flipkart or from Samsung.com. Amazon is offering a buy with an exchange offer with exchange value up to ₹11,200 for your old device. You can also avail the No-Cost EMI option with Amazon Pay Later.
Box Contents
- Samsung Galaxy M51 device
- 25W charging adapter
- USB Type-C to Type-C charging cable
- User manual
- Warranty card
- SIM ejector tool
Specs at a glance
Let me talk about the on-paper specifications of the Samsung Galaxy M51 at first:
- Display: 16.95 cm (6.7-inch) sAMOLED Plus, Infinity-O display, FHD+
- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G octa-core processor
- RAM & ROM: 6GB/8GB, 128GB
- Software: OneUI 2.0 based on Android 10
- Rear camera: Quad camera setup – 64MP (f/1.8) main camera + 12MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera + 5MP (f/2.4) depth camera + 5MP (f/2.4) macro camera
- Selfie camera: 32MP (f/2.2)
- Battery: 7000mAh, 25W USB Type-C to C fast charger in the box
- Weight: 213g
- Dimensions: 163.9 x 76.3 x 9.5 mm
With key specs discussed, let’s jump right into the review of the Samsung Galaxy M51.
Design and Build
Samsung Galaxy M51 has a glossy monochrome finish for the back panel. The body is made from polycarbonate material, glasstic – looks like glass but is actually plastic, that also makes this device prone to scratches and fingerprints. The device is quite bulky as it has the huge 7000mAh battery under its hood, but Samsung has been able to keep the thickness of M51 around 9mm which is quite impressive. The device weighs around 213g but it still has a comfortable grip due to the curved panel and also the weight balancing is done good, thanks to the design engineering of Samsung.
Also Read: Samsung’s Best Flagship Device – Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
The side-mounted fingerprint sensor is present on the right side of the device which doubles up as the power button. The positioning of the fingerprint sensor is well suited for the thumb. For left-handers, the index finger should be able to reach the sensor easily. The volume rockers are present just above the fingerprint sensor while the sim-tray is present on the left edge. The bottom houses the speaker, Type-C port and the 3.5mm headphone jack. The secondary noise-cancellation microphone is present at the top.
The Galaxy M51 features a 6.7-inch super AMOLED Plus display. This is an Infinity-O Panel, which is Samsung’s terminology for a punch-hole display. The screen has very thin bezels around the top and the sides. The chin at the bottom is thinner than the average size. The back panel has the rectangular camera module which houses the quad-camera setup in an L shape design and the Samsung logo is present at the bottom.
Read More: Different Types of Smartphone Displays
Display
If I talk about the smartphone displays Samsung is the undoubted industry leader and the display on Samsung Galaxy M51 is another testament of Samsung’s supremacy in the display technology. The 6.7-inch Super AMOLED Plus Infinity-O display makes for an immersive viewing experience on the Galaxy M51. The FHD+ display has a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels with a pixel density of 393 PPI and an aspect ratio of 20:9. The screen-to-body ratio is 86.7%. The screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
I found the display on Samsung Galaxy M51 to be bright enough with a peak brightness of 420 nits which will enable you to read from the screen even in outdoor conditions. The phone supports Widevine L1 DRM so I enjoyed the maximum video quality across all streaming services, especially when I was watching videos in 1080p on Youtube.
The colours are punchy with deep blacks and high contrast. There is an option to choose between Vivid and Natural. The Natural mode appears to be on the warmer scale. For the best experience, it is recommended that you keep it in Vivid mode and shift the white balance to the cooler side to get more natural-looking colours. You do get the option for Always-on Display and is customisable with loads of themes from the Samsung theme store.
Also Read: Refresh Rate Explained
With such a huge display watching multimedia content will be a joy on the phone but it also makes it a little less handy. The screen refresh rate is still the standard 60Hz while it would have been great if Samsung had offered a 90Hz refresh rate with Galaxy M51 as many other devices even in the sub 20K segment have HDR displays.
Performance
One major issue with the previous M series devices has been on the performance front, which was mainly due to Samsung’s choice for low-end Snapdragon chipsets as well as in-house Exynos SoCs. Samsung was continuing to push the Exynos 9611 chipset for so many earlier M series devices like the M21, M30s, M31 and the M31s that it hardly feels like an upgrade, looking at one device over the other. This time, however, Samsung has really done well for an upgrade by adding the Snapdragon 730G chipset in the Galaxy M51.
The 8nm octa-core chip paired with the Adreno 618 GPU keeps the phone running smooth. The Snapdragon 730G is a fairly powerful processor and can easily handle moderate to heavy usage. You can enjoy most of the popular games like Call of Duty, Asphalt 9 and PUBG with the graphic settings set to high. There is only marginal heating while gaming on the Galaxy M51 with a temperature rise of around 3-4 degrees which is about 43 degrees max.
The device comes with 6GB or 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB of standard storage option with UFS 2.1 which ensures faster reads and writes. Switching across apps, navigating across UI and multitasking are all in a breeze.
Samsung Galaxy M51 is a feature-packed phone and is by far the most expensive in the M series. It promises good performance with the inclusion of the Snapdragon 730G chipset over the Exynos, a stunning sAMOLED plus display with a humongous battery which can last for even two days. The camera performance with the 64MP quad-cam is quite impressive, although there should have been the support for video recording at 60fps at least for the 1080p format. With its massive 7000mAh battery, the device is certainly bulky which makes it less handy and can be a discomfort to hold for people with small or average hands.
So if you are looking for a device with a good battery, a great Super AMOLED panel and a pretty reliable camera setup then you can surely consider the Galaxy M51.
As for the alternatives, the OnePlus Nord can be another recommendation as it has a more powerful chipset and a 90Hz AMOLED panel, all at the same price. The Realme 7 Pro can also be a good alternative with the Snapdragon 720G chipset and a good AMOLED panel, plus the 65-Watt fast charging at a slightly lower price of 19,999.
