Review of Samsung Galaxy M30s - an affordable smartphone that can be left without charging for 2 days

Gradient color and AMOLED screen

The model is available in three colors: black, blue and white. All variations, except the last one, have gradient backs. We got a smartphone in black.

It's nice that the developers decided not to make the back panel just black or in “dark graphite” color. The back, giving off dark turquoise closer to the right side, looks more interesting. Minus: it is easily soiled and instantly collects dust, it can be clearly seen in the photo.

The back panel houses the company logo, a triple lens unit and a fingerprint sensor. The latter works unstably: during testing, it either coped with its task without any complaints, or refused to recognize the finger after a dozen attempts.

The smartphone does not seem too bulky and fits comfortably in the hand. The back panel smoothly goes into plastic frames - from the point of view of safety, the solution is not the best, but it looks great.

On the right are the standard volume and power keys, on the bottom - minijack ‑ input and USB Type ‑ C.

On the front, there is a front-facing camera in a U-shaped notch in the center. We saw such a "peephole" when testing, for example,.

The display makes the same impression as the screens of all Samsung, which got into the editorial office in recent months. This is a great AMOLED with enough brightness headroom for use in the sun and color tone control.

There is a nuance: during testing, the auto-adjustment of brightness failed several times, it was necessary to adjust it manually. Perhaps this is due to the fact that an engineering sample got to the editorial office, which may contain bugs.

Triple camera and night mode

Galaxy M30s received three cameras: a 48-megapixel main sensor with aperture of f / 2.0, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens with an aperture of f / 2, 2 and an auxiliary 5-megapixel depth sensor.

Samsung does not seek to emphasize the high resolution of the main camera: we did not find a corresponding mode in the standard application, and other specifications come to the fore on the product's promo page. We have already touched upon the topic of the megapixel race more than once in reviews and almost always proved that there is little sense in their number.

Such images are obtained with a pair of lenses: ultra wide angle and wide angle.

Photo taken with an ultra wide-angle camera

Photo taken with the main camera

Photo taken with an ultra wide-angle camera

Photo taken with the main camera

Photo taken with an ultra wide-angle camera

Photo taken with the main camera

Photo taken with an ultra wide-angle camera

Photo taken with the main camera

The stock application has a night mode that helps to work through both light and dark areas of the frame in low light. The algorithms do not do it perfectly - the pictures are almost always blurry.

The front camera received a resolution of 16 megapixels. Selfie examples below.

Verdict: the Galaxy M30s camera matches the price of the device at 16,990 rubles. However, the pictures taken, for example, on the Redmi Note 8 Pro and Mi 9 Lite, seemed to us a little higher quality, and in fact these smartphones cost about the same.

Acceptable performance and 6,000 mAh battery

The Galaxy M30s has an Exynos 9611 processor with core frequencies up to 2.3 GHz, a Mali-G72 MP3 graphics chip and 4 GB of RAM. This is not a top-end configuration, at times the smartphone thinks for a long time and produces barely noticeable lags. They are felt most strongly in the camera application. These micro-delays and sluggishness are perceived in comparison with flagships and unassuming users may not be annoying.

We played COD on our smartphone. It warmed up a little, but the frame rate did not noticeably sag even when switching to high graphics settings (medium is set by default).

The imperfection of the processor and cameras is more than compensated by the battery with a capacity of 6,000 mAh. This is almost twice the market average, which was established in the range of 3,300-4,000 mAh. The Galaxy M30s lasts a couple of days under above average load and barely runs out of power in standby mode. If you use your smartphone only for calls and inconsistent correspondence in instant messengers and social networks, it can work for three or four days without an outlet.

Supports 15-watt fast charging, adapter included. With it, the battery gains from 0 to 100% charge in about 2.5 hours.

Specifications

Colors: black, white, blue.
Display: 6.4 inches, 1,080 × 2,340 pixels, Super AMOLED.
CPU: Exynos 9611 (4 × 2.3 GHz Cortex ‑ A73 + 4 × 1.7 GHz Cortex ‑ A53).
GPU: Mali ‑ G72 MP3.
RAM: 4 GB.
Built-in memory: 64 GB + slot for microSD ‑ cards up to 1 TB.
Rear camera: 48MP (main) + 8MP (ultra wide-angle) + 5MP (depth sensor).
Front-camera: 16 megapixels.
SIM card: two slots for nanoSIM.
Wireless interfaces: Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, GPS, NFC.
Connectors: USB Type ‑ C, 3.5mm audio jack.
Unlocking: by fingerprint, by face, PIN-code.
Operating system: Android 9.0 + One UI.
Battery: 6000 mAh, fast charging supported.
Dimensions: 159 × 75, 1 × 8.9 mm.
The weight: 188 g

Outcomes

On the one hand, the Galaxy M30s is a smartphone built on compromises. It does not look like a flagship, and there are also claims to performance, camera and fingerprint sensor. But all the disadvantages are easily beaten by the price and autonomy - in the latter, the Samsung smartphone has almost no competitors.

The Galaxy M30s is for those looking for a long-lasting affordable gadget without flagship habits, but with all the modern chips like night mode and support for new games.

The price of the device is 16,990 rubles.