Samsung Galaxy M40

The midrange stable at Samsung has been roaring all year long with loads and loads of new devices, probably a little overzealous even. Many of the devices are often packed with very unique features to help differentiate them apart. At times, it just feels a little too experimental. Like the Samsung Galaxy M40. Released in June 2019, it is such a wild card, it really does stand out. Let’s take a look.

Display and design of the Samsung Galaxy M40

The Samsung Galaxy M40 comes with a 6.3-inch PLS TFT capacitive screen, which was rather odd, considering the loads and loads of LCD and AMOLED screens they could have chosen from. It was also the very first midrange to spot the Infinity O punch-out camera design, aligned to the top left corner. The 1080p screen has an aspect ratio of 19.5:9 aspect ratio, a 84.9% screen to body ratio and a PPI density of 409. It has corning gorilla glass 3 protection which blends into the plastic frame all the way to the back. We find a centrally placed rear-mounted fingerprint scanner and a triple camera set up. At the bottom, we have a speaker grill, a USB-C connector, but oddly enough, no 3.5mm headphone jack

Performance and storage

The Samsung Galaxy M40 comes with the repeatedly tested and proven capable Snapdragon 675 11nm chipset, shouldering an octa-core Kyro CPU, a duo core 2.0GHz Gold and a six-core 1.7GHz Silver, and an Adreno 612 GPU. The internal memory configuration is a 4/6GB for the RAM and 64/128GB ROM, with a hybrid microSDXC card slot, capable of expanding the internal Emory by an extra 512GB. It’s in the performance that this device shines, for there is absolutely nothing that doesn’t feel like a breeze on this SoC.

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy M40 comes with a three-camera configuration, starting with a primary 32mp 26mm wide-angle lens, an 8mp 12mm ultra-wide lens, and a 5mp depth sensor. The photos are great, clear, detailed and rich in color, especially in good lighting conditions. It, however, struggles when overexposed or in low light conditions. It loses some detail and becomes a little grainy. The bokeh and portrait modes are pretty decent but certainly, nothing award-winning. It can shoot 2k video at 30fps and Full HD at 30fps. Upfront, it has a decent 16mp 26mm wide selfie camera, with HDR support and shoots 1080p at 30fps. The photos are usable and decent, especially in optimal lighting conditions.

Battery

Samsung Galaxy M40 comes with a surprisingly smaller battery, a 3500mAh non removable Li-Po, which could be rater disappointing. It would certainly be enough for the average user but the power user will have to make do with the up to 15W fast charging if the phone struggles to keep powered on. The brick and cable comes with the box. At that price range, Samsung should have hit at least 4000mAh but hopefully this downgrade isn’t a deal breaker.

Software

Straight out of the box, the Samsung Galaxy M40 comes with Android 9Pie, upgradable to Android 10.0 with One UI 2. Bundled with the powerful SoC, reduced bloatware and a redesigned UI, the OS runs like a breeze. The multitasking is great, with faster app loading and RAM management. You might get a few pre-loaded apps with the UI but its thankfully nothing you can’t delete. The One UI is interesting and intuitive for first time users, while still delivering a couple whistles and bells for long time users. The experience isn’t that far off from stock android, so it’s worth checking out the Samsung UI ecosystem.

The Samsung Galaxy M40 is a mixed bag of tricks. A TFT screen, no headphone jack and a small battery, but offering loads of memory and a powerful midrange chipset, the verdict really lies with a user’s experience. It’s got NFC on board, Bluetooth 5 but Hybrid standby nano sim, which means the memory card shares the slot with a sim. It comes in Seawater Blue, Midnight Blue and Cocktail Orange.

Samsung Galaxy M40 Specifications