Samsung Galaxy M62 Exynos 9825 (6/128GB)

Samsung Galaxy M62 Review:

With the M62, Samsung has been clever enough to distinguish it against other midrange phones by offering a flagship chipset—albeit one that’s a year and a half old. More specifically, it’s the Exynos 9825. So, with this, is the M62 better than other mid-range phones like the Realme X7 (Dimensity 800U 5G) and the Xiaomi Mi 10i (Snapdragon 750G 5G) that come at a similar price?

Performance

• Octa-core Samsung Exynos 9825 SoC (7nm)
• 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, 128GB internal storage (expandable)

Let’s get started with the talk of the town – the Exynos 9825. While other brands are rushing in on using a 5G chipset, Samsung has decided to take a step back with the Exynos 9825 which was used on the Galaxy Note 10 series from about one and a half years back.But the bigger question here is whether this older flagship chipset will be able to hold its ground against today’s popular mid-range SoCs.

Gaming experience

Gaming is also quite good on the Galaxy M62. In fact, better than Xiaomi’s Mi 10i. In PUBG Mobile, you can go as high as HDR graphics and Ultra frame rates and get a stable 40fps gameplay with 99% FPS stability. On the other hand, the Mi 10i with its highest setting, which is HD graphics and high frame rates, can only hit 30fps.

Similarly, you can crank it up to Extreme frame rate at Smooth graphics on the M62 and get stable 52fps. Lesser demanding games such as COD also run better on the M62 with the phone being able to provide better frame rates and stability. I tested other games like Genshin Impact too and found that both phones gave a similar fps mark.

But, the M62 can deliver better fps stability meaning that the phone will give you more consistent gameplay than the Mi 10i. And something that I have noticed during my usage is that after a prolonged gaming session of the aforementioned titles on both phones, they heat up to almost the same amount. Yet, the M62 cools down relatively faster than Mi 10i.

So yeah, Samsung’s decision to include an older flagship chipset seems to have paid off well. Yes, the M62 does not support 5G as its competitors do, but if you ask me, it isn’t much of a dealbreaker for someone living in South Asia.

Better software support

And not to forget, just like the Galaxy M51, Samsung’s One UI is well optimized on the M62 as well. Plus, unlike most other phones in its price range, the M62 comes with Android 11 out-of-the-box and promises 4 years of security update, which you don’t see on Chinese brands.

Design & Build

• Glass front, plastic back/frame

Another aspect where Samsung has improved is the design. It definitely looks better than the M51, if you ask me. But since it comes with a big 7000mAh battery and a big 6.7-inch display, it’s a huge phone weighing well over 200gms. As a result, it isn’t very comfortable to use for long hours.

Likewise, the entire body of the phone is plastic just like the M51. Putting it against the Mi 10i, well, M62 doesn’t get a vote from me in the design aspect. I think the Mi 10i with its dual Gorilla Glass 5 design takes the cake right away.

I also think Samsung should introduce minimalistic color options on the M62 as they did with S20 Fan Edition last year. Although Samsung has tried to hype up the new laser gradient design language, M62’s color options look quite dull, to be honest.

Display

• 6.7-inches FHD+ Super AMOLED Plus screen
• 420 nits peak brightness, 60Hz refresh rate

As for the display, it is similar to the Galaxy M51 i.e. you get a 6.7-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED Plus screen. It is still stuck on a 60Hz refresh rate, which is a little frustrating considering how the Galaxy A32 4G features a 90Hz AMOLED display. And that phone’s a lot cheaper than the M62.

Still, the actual quality of the panel is quite good. As usual, it’s vibrant and can get plenty bright too. The black levels are on point and you will not notice any kind of backlight bleeding or touch issues with this display.

Battery

• 7000mAh battery with 25W fast charging

Plus, with the energy-efficient AMOLED display and the 7nm chipset at work, the 7000mAh cell doesn’t run out that easily. The phone easily gave me around 2 days of juice with normal usage.

During weekends when I’d be continuously watching videos and play games for hours, it would last throughout the day with around 20% juice left, which by today’s smartphone standard is an easy A+.

Filling up the battery isn’t a joyful ride though, as the phone makes you wait for almost 2 hours and some time to get fully juice up with its proprietary 25-watt fast charger. This makes the Galaxy M62 one of those devices that you’d want to put to charge before going to bed.

Samsung Galaxy M62 Specifications:

• Body: 6.45 x 3.00 x 0.37 inches, 218 gm
• Display: 6.7-inches “Infinity-O” Super AMOLED Plus, 16 million colors, 420 nits brightness, 393PPI, 60Hz refresh rate
• Resolution: FHD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels), 20:9 aspect ratio
• Chipset: Exynos 9825 (7nm Mobile Platform)
• CPU: Octa-core (2×2.73 GHz Exynos M4 & 2×2.40 GHz Cortex-A75 & 4×1.95 GHz Cortex-A55)
• GPU: Arm Mali-G76 MP12
• Memory: 6/8GB LPDDR4X RAM, 128GB storage (expandable)
• Software & UI: One UI 3.1 on top of Android 11
• Rear Camera: Quad-camera;
  – 64MP f/1.8 primary lens, PDAF
  – 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle lens, 123° FOV
  – 5MP f/2.4 portrait lens
  – 5MP f/2.4 macro lens
  – LED flash
• Front Camera: 32MP f/2.2 sensor (punch-hole)
• Audio: 3.5mm headphone jack, Loudspeaker
• Security: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor
• Connectivity: Dual-SIM (Nano), WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (dual-band), Bluetooth 5.0, GPS / Glonass / Galileo / Beidou, USB Type-C, 4G
• Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyro, Geomagnetic, Light, Proximity
• Battery: 7000mAh with 25W fast charging
• Color options: Laser Green, Laser Gray, Laser Blue