Samsung Galaxy M20

Well, all those leaks and teasers were unmissable. And I'm glad they proved to be true, as the Galaxy M20 is quite unlike any of the earlier affordable phones from Samsung phones. It was just in November that the brand showcased new screens that conform to the full-screen future, including the Infinity V display, and the same can be found on the latest offering. While Samsung is usually among the first to jump on a new trend, it seems it skipped the notch fad and chose instead to go with the waterdrop-style cut-out phenomenon. What's even more intriguing is the fact that you can now find this small (read: minimally obtrusive) notch on the phonemaker's handsets priced lowed than Rs 15k. At the back, the M20 features a polycarbonate back with a glossy finish, lending it a classy appeal.

In the imaging department, the Samsung Galaxy M20 ships with a pair of shooters on the rear. The combination is made up of a 13-megapixel f/1.9 shooter, and instead of a secondary depth-sensing unit, the device gets a wide-angle sensor with a resolution of 5MP and an aperture of f/2.2. For selfies, the smartphone comes with an 8MP snapper.

The Galaxy M20 is the brand's first handset to come powered by Samsung's Exynos 7904 chipset. The new 14nm SoC has been built from the ground up for emerging markets, and comprises two ‘big' Cortex-A73 cores running at 1.8GHz, and six ‘LITTLE' Cortex-A53 cores tuned at 1.6GHz. Considering it's a new chip, I decided to put it through a series of benchmarks to see where it stacks up in the pecking order in the sub-Rs 15k category. The segment is without a doubt, quite competitive as along with the dedicated silicon companies like MediaTek and Qualcomm, there are Huawei's Kirin processors as well. Considering benchmarks is just one part of the equation and aren't necessarily a reflection of the real-life usage, how is it like to use the Samsung Galaxy M20 as a daily driver? In sum, it's a smooth experience. In my week-long stint with the handset, there was nary an instance of lag on the phone. Multitasking is flawless too, thanks to the 4-gigs of RAM (there's a 3GB RAM variant as well). Upon boot, there's around 1.6GB RAM available, and even with multiple apps open, the phone is able to hold its own.

Perhaps the biggest USP of the Galaxy M20 is its battery prowess, even more than its Infinity V panel. That's because Samsung has packed in a capacious 5,000mAh cell inside its latest offering, which ensures that the handset can stay away from the charger for long. To put it simply, you could choose to go to a two-day trip and safely leave the power adapter at home. Charged fully at 7am in the morning, the phone was able to continue till the morning the day after, which is nothing short of impressive, especially considering the fact that I'm a power user and was on 4G / Wi-Fi the entire time, used GPS for navigation, streamed music / videos via Bluetooth and even played a few games during that time. I got an average screen-on time of more than five hours, which is yet another solid indication of the phone's battery prowess.