Samsung M42
Samsung Galaxy M42 ` 24,999
Samsung’s most affordable 5G device offers good image quality
The M42 is the most affordable 5G smartphone from Samsung and it now comes with advanced Samsung features like Samsung Pay and nox security irst time in a midsegment Galaxy device.
Design & Build Quality
The Samsung Galaxy M42 has a clean and minimalistic design and is crafted in plastic. The back offers a glossy inish with a dot matrix divided into three sections, each with a different intensity of dots. The re lected light disperses into rainbow colours, providing a unique pattern. The cameras are mounted within a square bump at the corner. All other design elements remain. Apart from the 3.5 mm audio jack at the bottom, the placement of different elements appeared typical including the volume rocker, power button and a single speaker array. The device weighs 193 g.
Key Features
The phone uses a 6.5-inch HD+ (720 x 1600) Super AMOLED display. The lower-than-normal resolution of the screen appears to be the main compromise in this device, which excels in most other areas. The M42 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G 5G processor, which is one of the best mid-range processors currently available. This octa-core processor houses six cores clocked at 2.2GHz and two at 1.8GHz. The phone comes in 6GB and 8GB RAM options with 128GB internal memory. Memory can be expanded to up to 1TB with a MicroSD card c at the expense of a second SIM.
The M42 features a quad rear camera set up including a 48MP main camera, 8MP ultra-wide camera, 5MP depth sensor and 5MP macro camera. 4K videos are recorded with a maximum of 30 fps. The phone houses a 5000mAh battery, which is not really the monster that we see in other M-series phones, yet, a single charge lasted more than a day even with some heavy use during our tests, and one-and-a-half days with moderate use. However, Samsung has bundled a 15W charger with this device, which is slow compared to what the competition provides.
Ergonomics
The device features the irst in-display ingerprint sensor in an M-series phone. The ingerprint sensor was reasonably fast to unlock the phone. The phone comes with its share of bloatware. However, most of these can be uninstalled. The M42 runs on Android 11 OS wrapped in Samsung’s One I 3.1. The interface was smooth and responsive.
Performance
The phone handled everyday tasks with much lair. It handled even some games with high-end graphics well, despite the display with suboptimal refresh rate and touch response. The images appeared detailed and sharp, especially with the main camera. The Super AMOLED display reproduces images with much saturation as expected, but on a
calibrated screen, the images look close to original. Night mode improves low-light photography a lot, rendering images with good illumination and considerably low noise. The 4K video footages were reasonably good, though you cannot compare these to highend phones. It takes about two hours to fully charge the battery, which is quite disappointing. While the audio performance was good, the single speaker array can be obstructed by your ingers while playing games.
The Galaxy M42 is a powerful gaming device in the mid-price segment, with a decent camera and overall good performance. However, the slow charger and the lacklustre screen do not help to satiate your wishes, especially with some feature-rich competitors in the market to choose from.
Value for Money
The Samsung Galaxy M42 retails at Rs. 24,999. Although this is Samsung’s starting price for a 5G phone, there are devices from other manufacturers that offer many more features at this price.