Samsung has today announced the launch of its latest mid-range smartphone, the Galaxy M40. The smartphone comes with a price tag of Rs 19,990 and it will be available for purchase from Amazon and Samsung Mobile Shop starting from June 18.
With the launch of the new device, Samsung seems to get back on track and reading itself to take on the Chinese dominance in this segment. The company has introduced some segment-first feature in terms of new Infinity-O display, which is currently present in its flagship Galaxy S10 series. This coupled with the premium design language and competitive hardware, the smartphone is Samsung’s answer to the Chinese competition. However, will it be able to stand against its competitors? We spent some time with the device and here are our first impressions.
Design and Display
When it comes to the design language, the smartphone instantly gains some good points with the new gradient finish at the back panel along with a punch hole design at the front. The smartphone is quite slim with just 7.9mm thickness and it is lightweight as well weighing just 168 grams. We liked the compact form factor of the device and the gradient finish at the back is different from what we have seen in other smartphones. We got the Black colour unit for review and it has a rainbow effect at the edges, while in the middle you can see dark Blue. This adds some premium look and feels to the device.
Talking about ports placements, the back panel features a triple-camera setup and there is a fingerprint sensor, which is easily reachable. The right side is loaded with volume controls and power on/off button, while on the left side, you will find a hybrid SIM slot. The base of the device features a USB Type-C port flanked between a microphone and speaker grille. Samsung has omitted the 3.5mm Audio Jack from this device, meaning that you either need to rely on wireless headphones or USB Type-C supported headsets. The good thing here is that the company is giving you USB Type-C headphones with the retail box. That said, the Samsung Galaxy M40 is one of the best-designed smartphones we have seen in this price range.
Coming to the display, the Samsung Galaxy M40 features a 6.3-inch Full HD+ display with a screen Resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels. The company has added Infinity-O display, which is present in the flagship Galaxy S10 series. This allows the phone to provide 91 per cent screen-to-body ratio. In our initial testing, we found out that the display looks good and viewing angles are quite decent in nature. We will talk in-depth in our upcoming review.
Hardware and Software
Coming to the hardware, the Samsung Galaxy M40 is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 processor. It is backed by a 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded up to 512GB via microSD card slot. Although it is early to comment on the performance of the smartphone, looking at the sheer specs sheet, it will give a stiff competition to the likes of Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro, Realme 3 Pro, Nokia 8.1 and more.
On the software front, the phone runs on Android 9.0 Pie, which is based on the company’s latest OneUI. The user interface is now more refined as compared to the previous generations and it comes with some interesting customisation options. For example, you change the font size and style by going to Settings > Display. There is Device care, which basically protects and optimise the smartphone. We will talk about this and other features in our upcoming review.
Camera
On the camera front, the Samsung Galaxy M40 is equipped with a triple-camera setup, which comes with a combination of 32-megapixel primary lens with f/1.7 aperture, a 5-megapixel depth sensor with f/2.2 Aperture and an 8-megapixel ultra Wide-Angle lens with 123-degree field of view and f/2.2 aperture. For the front, there is a 16-megapixel camera for selfies and video calling.
Starting with the camera UI, it is quite similar to what we have seen in other Samsung devices. You get different modes to play with including Photos, Live Focus, Panorama, Pro, Video, Super Slow Motion, Slow Motion and AR Emoji. The company has also added AI Scene Optimiser, which fine-tunes the image according to the different scenarios.
In our brief testing, we found out that the phone does a good job under broad daylight conditions as the images came out to be crisp in nature. The selfie performance also seems to be decent on this device. For detailed camera review, stay tuned with us. Meanwhile, you can check some of the camera samples here.
Battery and Connectivity
The Samsung Galaxy M40 is backed by a 3500mAh battery. This is sad as the M-series smartphones carried some heavy battery backup. But battery always take a hit when it comes to make the smartphone slimmer. Good thing here is Samsung has added a 15W fast charger with the retail box, which ensures some fast charging. On the connectivity front, it supports 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth, WiFi, GLONASS, GPS, Dual-SIM and USB Type-C port.