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Samsung Galaxy M32 Review: A Sweet Starter

Just in time for the onset of the holiday season in the Philippines, Samsung introduced the Galaxy M32 as a new midrange smartphone offering for budget-conscious consumers. The Galaxy M32 was exclusively launched through the Samsung Flagship Store for P13,490.

Positioned as a device designed for young professionals who are at the beginning of their careers, as well as students who are preparing to enter the workforce, the Samsung Galaxy M32 has a youthful design sporting a glossy back with fine, laser-pattern vertical lines. Color options include black and light blue.

On the front, the Galaxy M32 carries a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display with 1080 x 2400p screen resolution, covered with a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for enhanced protection. With a Super AMOLED display, photos, videos and webpages appearing on the screen are sharp and vibrant.

Above the display, the Galaxy M32 has a notch-type front camera equipped with a 20-megapixel sensor. The camera is matched with a rear quad-camera system, consisting of a 64-megapixel main image sensor, a two-megapixel macro lens, a two-megapixel depth camera and an eight-megapixel ultra-wide lens. The combination of different lenses in the Galaxy M32's quad-camera system, along with the software's artificial intelligence, makes it flexible, capable of using the right optical settings according to the subject.

Looking at the photos and videos that I took using the Galaxy M32, I can say that I am very satisfied. Outputs are generally clean, especially the ones showing the night sky juxtaposed with the bright lights of a shopping mall below it. The phone also managed to capture the image of the same mall with a nice purplish twilight sky above it. Indoor shots look brilliant, perfectly capturing the holiday atmosphere, while food still looks appetizing even if it was shot a few weeks ago.

Equipped with a Mediatek Helio G80 octa-core chipset with 6GB RAM and 128GB onboard storage, the Galaxy M32 can handle a variety of applications with no any issue. During usage, it performed as good as the Samsung smartphone that I actually use, a two-year-old Galaxy A50s. According to UL's website (benchmarks.ul.com), the Galaxy M32 scored 6615 on PCMark for Android Work 3.0's performance test, which is higher than the score of the Galaxy A50s at 5609. 

PCMark for Android Work 3.0 benchmark is used to determine the capability of a device when handling common productivity tasks such as web browsing, photo and video editing, and data and document handling. UL is a global safety certification company that currently owns PCMark for Android benchmarking tool.

The Galaxy M32 comes with a 5000mAh lithium-ion battery, which has more capacity than the 4000mAh lithium-polymer battery of the Galaxy A50s. The latter can last up to 11 hours and 20 minutes, according to PCMark for Android Work 2.0 battery life test.

With what I actually experienced with the Samsung Galaxy M32, I can say that it is an appropriate smartphone for its target market. It boasts a chic design, good performance, long battery life and a superior camera, which content- and image-loving young consumers would love to have for a price that does not break the bank.