Samsung Galaxy M31 hands-on review

Software

The Samsung Galaxy M31 runs on Samsung's latest One UI 2 on top of Android 10. Our review unit came with the latest February 2020 security patch, which means at the time of writing, this is about as current as the software can get on an Android device.

Samsung released One UI 2 alongside Android 10. The latest version makes a host of changes to the UI across the OS, most of which are centered around improving the user experience and ease of use rather than just making things look different. As such, some of the changes won't even be noticeable unless you have been using the previous version for a long time or compare the old and the new version side by side.

User experience has improved considerably over the years and the latest One UI 2 is extremely easy to use with well thought out UI and feature-set. One UI 2 also incorporates all the new Android 10 features, such as the new permission options as well as some of the updated UI design paradigms.

One UI 2 Launcher

We do wish that Samsung would ease up a bit on the bloatware on these devices. While these things depend on region, our Indian review unit came with a bunch of pre-installed apps. Some of these can be uninstalled but others can only be disabled. One particularly notorious app is Facebook, which comes with three other apps that are buried under system apps. Even if you disable the main app, these other services will keep running in the background unless you dig around and disable them individually.

Samsung AppCloud

Samsung also has another app, whose whole point is to cajole you into downloading even more bloatware on your device. Called AppCloud, this app will keep nagging you after you've set up your device to install additional apps and you can't disable its notifications. You have to go through its setup, which involves giving it personal information which it then uses to recommend you groups of apps to batch download on your phone. You can choose to unmark all the apps and install nothing to finish the setup and it's only then does it stop bothering you.

We also noticed multiple Samsung apps offered to show us promotional content (read: ads). Unlike Xiaomi, these aren't enabled by default and you can deny them permission, after which you will neither see the ads nor get prompted about it. However, we wish manufacturers didn't indulge in these practices in the first place.

These annoyances aside, we really had no issue with the software on the Galaxy M31. Samsung has done a good job over the years balancing the design, features and usability of its One UI to a point where we think it's close to being the best software experience on Android and it is easily the best among the non-stock looking interfaces.

Performance

The Galaxy M31 runs on the same Exynos 9611 that we have seen on a few Samsung devices so far, including the Galaxy M30s. It's an octa-core chipset based on the newer but not quite the latest 10nm process. Our review unit also had 6GB of memory and 128GB of storage space.

GeekBench 4.4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  7008
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  6999
• Realme X2
  6926
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  6863
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  6017
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  5620
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  5566
• Samsung Galaxy M31
  5487
• Nokia 7.2
  5440

GeekBench 4.4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  2558
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  2537
• Realme X2
  2508
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  2472
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  1905
• Nokia 7.2
  1534
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  1519
• Samsung Galaxy M31
  1510
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  1489

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Realme X2
  1750
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  1703
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  1692
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  1622
• Nokia 7.2
  1398
• Samsung Galaxy M31
  1315
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  1288

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  548
• Realme X2
  545
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  542
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  493
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  349
• Samsung Galaxy M31
  349
• Nokia 7.2
  332

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  279355
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  272229
• Realme X2
  257443
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  257146
• Samsung Galaxy M31
  195284
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  180321
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  167395
• Nokia 7.2
  164484

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  30
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  29
• Realme X2
  29
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  27
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  26
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  16
• Samsung Galaxy M31
  16
• Nokia 7.2
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  13

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  27
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  24
• Realme X2
  24
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  24
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  24
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  14
• Samsung Galaxy M31
  14
• Nokia 7.2
  13
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  11

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  18
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  17
• Realme X2
  16
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  16
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  15
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  10
• Samsung Galaxy M31
  10
• Nokia 7.2
  9
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  7

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  15
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  14
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  14
• Realme X2
  13
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  13
• Samsung Galaxy M31
  9.2
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  8.7
• Nokia 7.2
  8.1
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  5.9

3DMark SSE OpenGL ES 3.1 1440p

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  2467
• Realme X2
  2402
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  2363
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  2182
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  2082
• Samsung Galaxy M31
  1599
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  1425
• Nokia 7.2
  1333

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1440p

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  2447
• Realme X2
  2263
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  2244
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  2035
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  1989
• Samsung Galaxy M31
  1559
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  1502
• Nokia 7.2
  1277

The performance on the Galaxy M31 is decent. Most of the time the phone seems fast and fluid while scrolling through or switching between applications. Occasionally, however, there is some hitching and we also noticed animations stuttering while opening and closing apps. This is usually solved by restarting the phone but we hope Samsung fixes whatever is causing this issue. The UI was also noticeably stuttery when the battery got low, as the phone switches automatically to a low performance mode. Aside from that, the phone also takes quite a while to install applications once they are downloaded and performance when using AR filters in apps such as Instagram and Snapchat isn't great, either.

Multimedia performance on the Galaxy M31 is also decent. The single loudspeaker isn't ideal but it sounds okay and gets loud enough. You also get a headphone jack for wired headphones, which is always great. You also sort of need it on this phone because it also comes with an FM radio. Of course, you can always use Bluetooth headphones and if you have the Galaxy Buds or the new Galaxy Buds+ then you can also use Samsung's optimized scalable codec with them. However, if you have aptX HD headphones you're out of luck, as the Galaxy M31, like other Samsung phones, only supports aptX and not aptX HD.

The Galaxy M31 also includes Dolby Atmos feature. However, we can't help but feel this feature is half-baked. It does upscale stereo sound into the 3D surround sound that Dolby Atmos promises, but the device itself does not support the Dolby Atmos codec, which means if you want to watch files that already include Dolby Atmos audio track on this phone, you will get a codec not supported error while playing and then you won't have any audio at all.

We tested this with multiple Dolby Atmos files and none of them were compatible with this device. The Tidal app also does not support its Dolby Atmos feature on this device. Usually, when a device claims Atmos supports, it supports both, upscaling of stereo as well as actual Atmos encoded content but the Galaxy M31 just does the former.