Samsung Galaxy M31s hands-on review

Camera

The Galaxy M31s has a quad-camera system on the back, consisting of a 64MP f1.8 primary camera, a 12MP f2.2 ultrawide, a 5MP f2.5 macro, and a depth sensor. The depth sensor isn't a real, usable camera so let's just call this what it is, which is a triple camera setup. Also, there is a 32MP f2.2 fixed-focus camera on the front.

The camera system on the Galaxy M31s is nearly identical to that on the M31. The only difference is that the 8MP ultrawide on the M31 has been replaced with a 12MP ultrawide on the M31s. This means, for most parts, we are getting the same image quality.

Camera app

The main 64MP camera produces good quality images, with good detail, dynamic range, and exposure. The color accuracy is also quite decent, although greens can tend to have a yellowish appearance at times. We tested with the scene optimizer disabled, which tends to produce more contrasty, saturated images but the degree of its effectiveness can be somewhat inconsistent.

Main camera samples

As we said in the M31 review, the 64MP sensor is often at its best when shooting in the full native resolution. Normally we advise against it, as these high-resolution sensors really aren't meant to be used in their native resolution and tend to fall apart under scrutiny but this particular sensor holds up quite well and has tons of usable detail. The details also look more natural and less processed than the 16MP image. The image as a whole is less processed overall, which means it also has less dynamic range. This makes the 64MP mode impractical for every situation but certainly worth trying experimenting with based on the scene.

We also have an ultrawide camera, which has been upgraded to 12MP on the Galaxy M31s. Unfortunately, image quality is quite disappointing. It is a soft image with fuzzy details, and that is when you're looking in the center. The corners of the image are severely distorted and also aggressively soft. This results in the ultrawide images having a zoom blur look to them where only the center of the image is somewhat sharp.

Ultrawide camera samples

The Galaxy M31s has no dedicated telephoto zoom lens, so all zooming is done digitally. The 2x mode is just a straight crop from the center of the sensor, so it is technically still a lossless zoom and quite usable. The images are usable till 4x but beyond that, the artifacts in the image are too prominent to ignore.

1x zoom • 2x zoom • 4x zoom

Finally, there is the macro lens, which works reasonably well. It is a fixed focus dedicated macro lens, so it has a very limited range where it can be used, 3-5cm to be exact. In this range, you can get some pretty decent looking images provided there is enough light on the subject.

Macro camera samples

The sensor is only 5MP, so there isn't a ton of detail here to uncover. Also, the quality really falls off a cliff in indoor lighting and so the macro camera is only really usable outdoors during the day.