Samsung Galaxy A31 launched: Best affordable phone yet!

The Samsung Galaxy A31 has arrived to add a bit of class to the affordable smartphone market. Compared to its M31 cousin, it’s more slender thanks to the taller aspect ratio of its 6.4″ Super AMOLED screen. Also, the phone has an in-display fingerprint reader instead of a rear-mounted one.

The screen has 1080p+ resolution and a U-shaped notch on its top edge to house the 20MP selfie camera. The 20:9 aspect ratio makes the A-series phone 2mm narrower than the M31, it’s also a fraction thinner and lighter.

The quad camera on the rear looks and functions similarly to the M-phone. It’s made up of a 48MP main sensor (f/2.0 aperture, 0.8µm pixels), 8MP ultrawide-angle cam (123°), a 5MP dedicated macro shooter and a 5MP depth sensor.

Read more: Samsung Galaxy M21 with 6,000 mAh battery launched at Rs 28,029

Samsung didn’t give much details about the chipset, but leaked benchmarks point to a MediaTek Helio P65 chipset. It has two Cortex-A75 CPU cores, which are newer and more powerful than the four A73 cores inside the Galaxy M31. Even so, the performance battle between the two will be close.

Anyway, the phone comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage as standard with a 6/128GB option for those who want more. The microSD card slot can be used to add up to 512GB more to the storage pool.

The Samsung Galaxy A31 is powered by a 5,000mAh battery, which supports 15W fast charging through the USB-C port.

The phone will be available in Prism Crush Black, Prism Crush Blue, Prism Crush Red, Prism Crush White (the front bezel and camera hump are always black). Availability and price information will be revealed soon.

Read more: What to expect from Samsung Galaxy S11?

A quick comparison between the Galaxy A31 and M31. The M-series phone has a 64MP main camera (larger sensor with f/1.8 aperture), 32MP selfie cam, larger 6,000mAh battery, also its base memory configuration is 6/64GB. So, we really want to see that pricing info now (the M31 was INR 15,000/$205 at launch).

 Samsung Galaxy A31 Specifications

• Chipset: Mediatek Helio P65
• CPU: Octa-Core (Dual 2.0GHz + Hexa 1.7GHz)
• GPU: Mali-G52 MC2
• OS: Android 10, One UI 2.0
• Supported Networks: 2G, 3G, 4G LTE
• Display:
  • 6.4″ Super AMOLED with 1080 x 2400 pixels resolution; 411 ppi,
• Memory:
  • RAM: 4 GB/6 GB
  • Internal: 64/128 GB
  • Card slot: yes
• Camera:
  • Rear (Quad): 48 MP, f/2.0, (wide), 1/2.0″, 0.8µm, PDAF
    8 MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide), 1/4.0″, 1.12µm
    5 MP, f/2.4, (macro)
    5 MP, f/2.4, (depth)
  • Front: 20 MP, f/2.2, (wide)
• Colors: Black, Blue, Red, White
• Battery: 5,000 mAh, 15W fast charging
• Price: Rs. 34,999