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The Samsung Galaxy M series has just been launched in India with featuring the latest budget focussed chipset from Samsung, the Exynos 7904. Xiaomi has been quickly gaining the market share in India and are now the most popular brand for smartphones, while the Samsung market share has remained stagnant. So, the new Galaxy M series appears to be an attempt to bolster their sales.
The new Exynos 7904 is comparable to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 so I thought it would be useful to compare two popular phones featuring the SD636 against the new Samsung Galaxy M20.
I have included the available UK price for Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro and the Nokia 6.1 Plus, but the RRP in pounds for the M20 since it is not possible to import yet. I have also included the Amazon.In price for any Indian buyers and a better comparison for price.
CPU/GPU/Memory
My Exynos 7904 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 comparison highlighted the fact that the SD636 looks like the superior processor due to its four A73 cores.
The Mali-G71 MP2 compared to the Adreno 509 is a little harder to judge, in benchmarks the Adreno 509 is better but in real world usage many sat the Mali is better.
All three phones have a similar configuration option for memory and storage and all three are upgradable via microSD.
Display
The Samsung has a display with 1080 x 2340 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio (~409 ppi density) thanks to its tiny notch and this gives it an advantage over the other two models. For me, the most significant advantage is aesthetics, with the Samsung looking far more attractive.
Camera
With the rear camera, you have a 13 MP f/1.9 lens on the Samsung compared to 12 MP, f/1.9 on the Xiaomi and 16 MP, f/2 on the Nokia with almost identical secondary camera specs. Which is best is probably too early to tell, often the software behind the camera plays a big roles and the specs are too close to make assumptions.
The Samsung arguably has the weakest selfie camera with 8 MP, f/2.0.
Battery
Samsung is the clear winner here with an absolutely huge 5000 mAh battery. Combining this with the Exynos 7904 means you should comfortably get two days’ worth of use out of it. Light users may be able to squeeze a little longer.
Price
Looking at Amazon.in the Redmi 6 Pro is the cheapest with prices from 9,999.00 INR or 11,999 for the 4GB/64GB. Samsung is the second cheapest at 10,999 INR and the Nokia by far the most expensive at 15,499 INR.
In terms of UK pricing that is accurate too with the Redmi Note 6 Pro being cheaper than the Nokia. The Samsung isn’t available yet, but I would expect it to be about £150 after GearBest etc charges their mark-up.
Overall, they are all great budget phones, and if I was buying one myself I would probably go for the new Samsung Galaxy M20 due to its superior looks.
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Specification Comparison:
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