Samsung Galaxy M30 review

Competition

The most obvious of competitors that the M30 will have to deal with is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro. The Redmi's chipset is more potent, so it could be the choice of mobile gamers, but the M30 outlasts the Note in the battery endurance race and has the superior display, making it arguably the better choice for general use. The Redmi's main camera is better, and it can capture 4K videos unlike the M30, but we do like the Galaxy's selfies better, and it's got an ultra wide-angle cam, unlike the Redmi. The Note 7 Pro is also the most affordable of this bunch, without sacrificing too much.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro • Realme 3 Pro • Huawei P30 lite • Motorola Moto G7 Power

The Realme 3 Pro is one of the most well-rounded packages in the midrange. It too has a beefier chipset than the M30 with a particularly powerful GPU, so even better for gaming than the Redmi. The Realme takes nicer pictures, front and back, day and night, and it can do 4K video recording. The Galaxy does have an ultra wide-angle camera, which could be a worthy trade-off. The Realme's display is decent, and it's no slouch in battery life, but the Galaxy is just better at both. The Realme will save you some cash too when you match the RAM/storage options.

If you're willing to spend some more instead, Motorola will sell you the One Vision for about 25% on top of the M30's asking price. That'll get you slightly better camera experience all round, extra performance in all tasks thanks to a superior Exynos than what Samsung's fitted into its own phone, and vanilla Android, plus a cinematic 21:9 display (albeit with a punch hole, and the Galaxy's 19.5:9 AMOLED is still better at all other things that aren't aspect). The One Vision's battery life is nowhere near the Galaxy's, though.

The Huawei P30 lite retails around the One Vision's money, and it happens to be the only one in this bunch that has an ultra wide camera other than the Galaxy M30 - not that either is particularly great. The regular camera's images are better out of the P30 lite, but the M30 is better for video, even though neither has 4K. Once again, the Galaxy is outperformed in both CPU and GPU tasks, and once again it'll still be running when the other phone is out of juice.

Verdict

It takes an AMOLED display to make a good phone into a great one, and that's basically what's the difference between the Galaxy M20 and the M30. The M30 has a class-leading screen, which comes with the added benefit of further improved battery life - again to levels no competitor can match. The Ms all have ultra wide cameras, which set them apart from most competitors on this level, and the M30 has a depth sensor on top of that for some more refined portraits.

So far, so good, but it's not all spectacular about the Galaxy M30. For one, there's the matter of the Exynos 7904 not being entirely up to the competitors' standards - maybe you don't care, which is fine, but more performance can be had elsewhere for less. The camera image quality is nothing more than decent, and more competent cameraphones can be found in the midrange already. And while we'd maybe forgive the lack of 4K recording or stabilization at 1080p, having neither is tough to swallow.

All things considered, the Galaxy M30 is great all-rounder and makes a very compelling case for someone who doesn't find 3D gaming or camera performance particularly important. You still get to enjoy a very nice display and the outstanding battery life. There are also no deal-breakers in any other important aspect of the device and it has a reasonable price tag.

Pros

• Exceptional battery life, okay charging speed.
• One of the best displays you can have in the segment.
• An ultra wide camera is hard to find in this class.
• Good portraits, really nice selfies.
• Dedicated microSD slot.

Cons

• Plasticky build.
• Unexciting image quality from the rear cameras.
• No 4K recording even though the chipset supports it; no stabilization in 1080p either.
• You can get a more powerful chipset at this price point.