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With the budget smartphone market more crowded than ever, does the new Samsung Galaxy M55 have what it takes to shine brighter than the rest? I’ve been trying out the smartphone for a week, and here’s what I think.
Design
The Samsung Galaxy M55 feels sleeker in hand compared to last year’s M54, which felt slightly bulky. It measures 163.9 x 76.5 x 7.8 mm and makes for a firm, comfy grip in one hand. The rear panel is made of plastic, a departure from recent M and A series phones, which feature a glass panel. The rounded edges and tapered display add to the aesthetics.
Display
Samsung Galaxy M55 Photo : Bijoy Ghosh To go with Sidharth's report | Photo Credit: Bijoy Ghosh
The Samsung Galaxy M55 features a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a peak brightness of up to 1000 nits, which means the screen is easily visible even under Chennai’s midday sun. Considering it’s an AMOLED display, the colour and contrast reproduction was quite vivid with the lavish yet moody atmosphere in Heeramandi on Netflix. The screen’s refresh rate is up to 120 Hz, and the UI and UX animations look quite smooth. The bezels were close to non-existent making it ideal for consuming any media onscreen.
The Samsung Galaxy M55 has a stereo speaker setup. While the volume levels are high, the acoustics fall flat in terms of depth when it comes to vocal and instrument separation in Hukum from Jailer or John Newman’s Love Me Again. The phone still manages to do a decent job of spreading sound across a room.
The in-display fingerprint scanner works well without too many misses. However, it’s positioned too close to the bottom bezel, and sometimes, I felt like I had to stretch my thumb too much to reach and unlock the phone.
Camera
Samsung Galaxy M55 Photo : Bijoy Ghosh To go with Sidharth's report | Photo Credit: Bijoy Ghosh
The Samsung Galaxy M55 5G features a 50MP (OIS) main Camera which shoots detailed pictures during daytime. The only flaw I notice is that it takes on a cooler-toned white balance with the primary camera. Night-time shots retain a good amount of detail.
The camera setup also includes an 8 MP ultra-wide lens, a 2 MP macro lens, and a 50MP high-resolution front camera, which captures sharp selfies in daylight.
The device adds a few AI features, such as Image Clipper and Object Eraser, which felt like software add-ons similar to the Google One Magic Eraser feature for non-pixel phones.
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy M55 features the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset. The device scored 5,14,092 points on AnTuTu, placing it below the OPPO Reno10 5G but beating the Redmi Note 12 Pro+.
The unit I reviewed was the 12 + 256 GB version, which scored decently in most benchmarking and real life, other than the rare sluggishness while switching apps. The smartphone handled day-to-day tasks such as mailing, messaging, and clicking photos without much trouble. However, with heavy usage such as extended gaming, I felt it could have been snappier.
The plastic rear panel did get warm while gaming, while short-term use is fine; while sustained gaming, it might get too warm for comfortably sitting through 2-3 hour gaming sessions. The phone runs on Samsung One UI 6.1 and has four generations of OS upgrades and five years of security updates
Battery
The 5,000 mAh battery lasts close to a full day with 6-7 hours of screen-on time. With frugal use, one can push it for one and a half days. With my own Samsung 25 W charger, the device took a little less than 1.5 hours to charge, which might be unappealing to buyers who are used to faster charging times. The device has 45W charging support, but the charger comes at an additional cost, as no charger is supplied in the box.
Verdict
The Samsung M55 hits the right notes with a great display, decent sound, profile and processing power for this price point. It doesn’t shine on the camera front and sustained gaming usage.
It also faces stiff competition from the likes of the OnePlus Nord CE 4, the Poco X6 Pro, and the Nothing Phone 2(a), which offer a competitive value for money and features proposition against the M55.
Price: ₹32,999 (12 GB + 256 GB)
Pros: Great bright display, decent performance, ok sound.
Cons: Average camera, does get hot while gaming.
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