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Samsung's new budget phone gets a 4,000mAh battery, Infinity-V display

A little more than a month since it unveiled the M01, Samsung is adding another model to its Galaxy M lineup.
By
July 16, 2020
TL;DR
  • The Galaxy M01s is Samsung’s latest Galaxy M-series phone.
  • It will cost RS 9,999 ($133) in India.
  • The phone features an Helio P22 processor and 3GB of RAM.

A little more than a month since it announced the Galaxy M01 and M11, Samsung is adding yet another model to its Galaxy M lineup. The company today announced the Galaxy M01s, an entry-level phone aimed at consumers in India. You might think the M01s is meant to replace the similarly named M01, but Samsung plans to sell the two phones alongside one another despite their relatively small differences.

The highlight of the device is a 6.2-inch HD+ display that features one of Samsung’s Infinity-V camera cutout. Despite some chin bezel, the phone has a decent screen to body ratio of 81.8%. Internally, the phone includes a MediaTek octa-core Helio P22 processor supported by 3GB of RAM. The 12nm chipset is less powerful than the Snapdragon 439 processor that’s inside the Galaxy M01.

For taking pictures, the M01s comes with a dual rear camera array consisting of a 13MP primary sensor and a 2MP depth sensor. Meanwhile, for selfies, the phone features an 8MP camera, making it a slight upgrade on the M01’s 5MP front-facing camera.

Rounding out the spec sheet is a 4,000mAh battery that comes without fast charging support. There’s also no USB-C port to be found on the device, but it does come with a rear-facing fingerprint sensor. For software, the phone will ship with Samsung’s One UI Core and Android 9.

The company plans to sell the Galaxy M01s in a single configuration with 32GB of internal storage. You’ll be able up to 512GB of additional space through a microSD card. The Galaxy M01s will come in two colors — Gray and Light Blue — and cost Rs 9,999 (~$133), making it Rs 1,000 more expensive than the Galaxy M01.

While phones in the Galaxy M-series aren’t exciting, they’re crucial to Samsung’s interests in India. The South Asian country is of the few places globally where smartphone sales are growing. It’s also an intensely competitive market where Samsung has had trouble fending off Chinese brands like Xiaomi, realme, vivo, and OPPO. Those companies have flooded the country with compelling devices at almost every price point, something Samsung has been slower to do. So while it might seem strange to see the Korean company release a slightly different take on the M01, it makes a lot of sense in the context of the Indian market.

Next: Why India is boycotting Chinese apps and technology