Pros:
- Great-looking and elegant design
- Good display
- Fast Charging
- Update support
- Solid battery life
Cons:
- Tons of ads and some irksome bloatware
- Feels underpowered for the specs
- Dragontrail glass instead of Gorilla Glass
Rating: 4/5
Price: Rs 32,999 for the top-end 12GB+256GB variant
Samsung’s Galaxy lineup of smartphones has something or the other for almost everyone, across a wide and varied range of budgets. Their latest midrange device, the Galaxy M55 positions itself as a pretty respectable offering. You get a solid battery life, a pretty great display, a dependable camera system. Plus, you get a design that looks and feels somewhat premium.
However, all is not perfect with this midrange offering. As is the case with Samsung’s more budget and midrange offerings, we get to see a lot of bloatware, both in the form of apps, as well as on-device advertisement banners. And of course, there is Glance, the curse of all mid-range phones.
So, is the Galaxy M55 worth your time and money? Is it the best Samsung smartphone under Rs 35,000? We find out.
Samsung Galaxy M55 Review: Design
At first glance, the Samsung Galaxy M55 looks like most other smartphones that Samsung has been launching for the past couple of years, albeit with a few little tweaks here and there.
You get a tall-ish design with slightly rounded corners, and a very subtle curve on the edge of the back panel. You don’t get any metal frame or glass back at this price point, which is fairly understandable.
The rear cover and the slightly curved plastic frame are all made using recycled plastic. Nonetheless, it has a great hand feel and is really comfortable to grip. Remarkably light at just 180g and slim at 7.8mm thickness, the Galaxy M55 is easy to handle.
You get two colour options to choose from, a Dark Blue and Light Green, both of which come with a glinty, iridescent finish. Both the devices also have a matte finish which keeps the fingerprints and smudges at bay.
You get two colour options to choose from, a Dark Blue and light Green, both of which come with a glinty, iridescent finish. Both the devices also have a matte finish which keeps the fingerprints and smudges at bay.
In terms of button and port layout, we get the power button is on the right, and the volume rockers on the left, both of which are easy to reach even when using the device with one hand. We get a USB Type-C port at the bottom, along with the speaker grilles, and the SIM slot is located on the left, around the top
Coming to the front, we have a 6.7-inch display with evenly sized bezels. This makes the Galaxy M55 look far more premium than it actually is. Do note, that the display is protected by Dragontrail Glass instead of Gorilla Glass.
The M55 doesn’t feel cheap or low-cost when you hold it in your hand, thanks to a smooth finish for the rear panel and the thin side profile.
Samsung Galaxy M55 Review: Display
The Samsung Galaxy M55 boasts a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED Plus display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels, set in a 20:9 ratio. The display offers some seriously good, punchy colours and is adequately bright for a number of environments. The high refresh rate in particular is something that really pops off, and gives using the device a great experience.
One thing that immediately stands out improvement is the slim bezels surrounding the display. This marks a significant upgrade from Samsung’s midrange offerings in the past, even though, they certainly are not the slimmest bezels in the world. They do enhance the device’s overall aesthetics.
Thanks to Samsung’s Vision Booster technology, we get a peak brightness of 1000 nits, which makes colours pop. You also get those extremely dark blacks, with great contrast. As for streaming, the M55 comes with a Widevine L1 certification which allows you to to stream FHD+ content from OTT platforms,
However, there are some drawbacks to the display. First, we don’t get to see any Corning Gorilla Glass protection. Instead, Samsung has opted for Dragontrail Glass. Now, we haven’t tested the Dragontrail Glass yet,
Additionally, the pixel density appears to be slightly lower, affecting sharpness.
Despite these shortcomings, the display performs well both indoors and outdoors, and delivers pleasing and vibrant colours, even when the viewing angles are slightly off.
The device features an optical in-display fingerprint sensor, which generally works well but may occasionally take an extra second or two to authenticate.
Samsung Galaxy M55 Review: Camera
The Samsung Galaxy M55 has a 50MP primary sensor featuring Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), which makes steady shots even in less-than-ideal conditions. The main camera is complemented by an 8MP ultra-wide unit and a 2MP macro unit.
In near-perfect lighting conditions, the primary camera is very impressive and gives us well-exposed shots with some great colours and great detailing. However, it only shines in near-perfect lighting conditions. In some cases, it blows up the highlight, to compensate for the dark bits. This is a bit strange, as in some of the other shots, it was able to show that it had plenty of dynamic range to not be doing that.
The 8MP sensor with its ultra-wide lens looks like a good option for most people. However, we did notice distortion around the edges. Furthermore, the colours of the wide-angle camera were somewhat subdued colours when compared to the primary sensor. The macro camera is a 2MP unit and honestly feels like it has been placed to just complete the trifecta of a triple camera set-up — it has no real-life use case on its own.
What we appreciate with the M55 is that selfie enthusiasts get a 50MP front-facing camera which does a solid job. The front-facing camera captures facial details well, and, unlike some other smartphones at this price point, handles the natural skin tone of people well. In both, the main 50MP camera as well as the front-facing camera, the Portrait mode works well most of the times, although background separation and bokeh can be a hit and a miss at times, especially when you’re shooting in not-so-ideal lighting.
Speaking of not-so-ideal lighting, the M55 struggles a bit In low-light scenarios. It automatically switches to a long-exposure mode for its Night Mode. The images in night mode can be pretty solid if you’re using a tripod. What the M55 does is expose all images at about 7-8 seconds and then let its algorithms and processing sort things out. The end result looks pretty good if you were able to keep the device steady for that long. Unfortunately, most people I know won’t be able to do that.
Coming to the Galaxy M55’s Video recording capabilities we get support for UHD recording at 30 fps for both front and rear cameras, with an option for 60 fps available for HD resolution. Additionally, a “Super Steady” mode enhances video stability, although it is limited to HD recording at 30 fps and exclusive to the rear camera.
Overall, the Samsung Galaxy M55 has the potential to be a banger camera, because it seems it has the hardware for it. What Samsung needs to do, is work on its algorithms and push a few major updates for the camera.
Samsung Galaxy M55 Review: Performance, software experience and UI
Samsung’s latest offering packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset, coupled with up to 12GB of RAM. What’s interesting about Samsung’s choice of SoC is that it is a two-year-old chipset. At this price point, we would have expected to see a newer Exynos or MediaTek SoC, but we’re glad that we get to see a slightly older, but more refined SoC such as the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1.
The M55 is available in three configurations: 8GB + 128GB, 8GB + 256GB, and the top-of-the-line. 12GB + 256GB. Users also have the option to upgrade their storage to up to 1TB using a microSD card, utilising the secondary SIM slot a true rarity in smartphones nowadays. Our review unit is equipped with 12GB RAM.
Coming to benchmarks, we get to see some mixed results here. Being a mid-ranger, it was obvious that the M55 wouldn’t set any performance records. However, it scored lower than many of its competitors. Across benchmarks, we are seeing scores that we would have seen in mid-range devices from about two years ago. That is because of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 that Samsung is using here.
However, benchmarks tell only a part of the story. The real-life performance of the Galaxy M55 tells a completely different story.
In real-world usage, the Galaxy M55 performs smoothly. While it may not be the quickest in its segment, it handles everyday tasks smoothly without freezing or encountering app crashes. However, users may notice a slight delay when switching on the camera and changing between various modes.
Gaming, exemplified by Call of Duty Warzone Mobile, delivers an acceptable experience, albeit with limitations in FPS and graphics settings compared to flagship devices. What’s surprising is that even though it may not have the raw performance similar to many devices with a newer SoC, in gaming it performs just as well as them. That is because by now, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 has been tuned to perfection.
Coming to the software aspect of the Galaxy M55, we get Samsung’s Android 14-based One UI, the same OS that we get on Samsung’s flagship. However, with the M55 we also get to see just how different OneUI is treated when it is being loaded onto a midrange device.
We get a tonne of pre-installed apps and a whole lot more bloatware than we have seen in any other Samsung device until now. You also get banner ads when using the device. What’s more egregious is that Glance, the parasitic curse that has befallen midrange and budget smartphones is enabled by default, and it is actually very tricky to turn off. You also don’t get the option of opting out of Glance, when you’re setting the device up. I have an inkling that all of this is what is hurting the M55’s performance in benchmarks.
Despite this, what we get is a user-friendly experience with some really useful features, like Knox security, the Galaxy Health app, and Smart Switch.
I particularly like Samung’s Voice Focus. This is a feature that just wipes out some of the most irritating background noise from your calls, even if you’re standing right at the centre of one of the busiest markets in your city, at peak rush hour.
We also like the fact that Samsung is committing to providing four years of OS updates and five years of security patches for the Galaxy M55, a rarity in its price segment. If only it would have the AI features of the Galaxy AI suite, this would have been arguably the software package to beat.
Samsung Galaxy M55 Review: Battery life
One of the standout features of the Samsung Galaxy M55 5G is its exceptional battery life. With light usage, the device can last nearly two days without needing a recharge. Even with heavy use, involving hours of gaming and video streaming on platforms like YouTube or Netflix, users can expect a full day of battery life.
For moderate usage, the M55 can comfortably last until early afternoon on the second day. In the PC Mark battery test, it scored just shy of 13 hours, which shows just how solid its battery life is.
What makes it even more appealing is the fact that we get 45W fast charging support. You don’t have to worry about running out of battery at all. The device can be charged from 0 to 100 per cent in about 70-80 minutes. However, it’s worth noting that despite the ample space in the box, Samsung has chosen not to include a charger.
Samsung Galaxy M55 Review: Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy M55 is a jack of all trades, master of none sort of a smartphone. It does many thing well, but does not really stand out for any one particular reason — all things considered, it is the perfect all-rounder, if you will. And that is exactly what we look for in a budget smartphone.
You get perhaps one of the best battery life in a smartphone today, a pretty good screen, and a solid set of cameras that have good potential which should be getting some solid software updates. You also get pretty stable and balanced performance, even though you won’t be topping any charts any time soon. And even though you get an all-plastic build at this price point, it still looks and feels premium.
The only real downside that I can think of is the fact that you get tons of bloatware and ads, and, an SoC that is about two years old at this point, although that is not really an issue in day-to-day performance, not yet at least.
The Galaxy M55 is the perfect phone for a lot of people who don’t want to go for a top range or premium smartphone and are instead looking for a solid, no-nonsense phone with no funky bells and whistles, that just works. More importantly, it is a great device for people who still want the ecosystem, dependability and reliable after-sales support that comes with Samsung.
