It goes without saying that smartphone users have a ‘type’. Some fall in the power user category, a few classify as fans of new technology, and then there are folks who rely on their trusty phone for media consumption. Samsung’s latest phone -the Galaxy M51 – targets the latter. So, what exactly a smartphone aimed at this audience – one that watches a lot of videos and plays games – should offer? For starters, it needs to have a large display that can produce vivid colors, decently powerful silicon, and a large battery to last those binge-watching sessions. The Galaxy M51 offers all that, and them some more. 

I’ve been playing around with Samsung’s latest offering for a while now, and so far, my impressions have been positive. Display has been a strength of Samsung’s phones lately, and the Galaxy M51 is no exception. The 6.7-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED Plus display is sharp and produces pleasing colors. Even under daylight, I didn’t face any issues scrolling through my Twitter feed and answering a few emails. There’s a hole-punch drilled at the top in accordance with Samsung’s Infinity-O design language, and the bezels are also quite thin on all sides. 

The best part about the display? It is BIG. The large screen real estate complemented by the vibrant colors offer a pleasant experience while watching silly cat videos on YouTube or raising hell in the colorful world of Fortnite. Plus, the Dolby Atmos output with headphones just adds to the immersive experience. But being big also has its pitfalls, especially for someone like me making the switch from Google’s Pixel 3, a ‘small’ phone by today’s standards. You feel the sheer size as your thumbs struggle to reach the upper half of the screen, unless you have been blessed with large-ish hands

Moreover, the phone is heavy too! But not as heavy as its ginormous 7,000mAh battery would make you believe. You won’t pull a muscle using it, but one-handed usage for something like watching a full-length Bollywood movie surely won’t be a comfortable experience. The moment you hold the phone in your hand, you know what you’re getting into. If you’ve taught yourself on how to use a large phone, you’ll feel at home with the Galaxy M51, and that huge battery would serve as just another huge bonus.

Samsung sent us the Electric Blue shade of the device, but it also comes in a Celestial Black colorway as well. The rear panel is made of a material that Samsung calls ‘Glasstic’ – it is essentially plastic, but has a mirror-like glossy finish on top. And oh boy, it is really glossy. Fingerprints are hard to hide, and dust particles also love to settle on the rear panel.

Although it looks flashy in a good way, you’ll probably have to wipe it every now and then to make it look squeaky clean and worth flaunting. The build is sturdy, but we noticed some flex in the middle of the rear panel. The side-mounted fingerprint panel is comfortably within reach and felt quick at unlocking the device, but you’ll have to make in-hand adjustments to reach the volume up button. 

The Galaxy M51 relies on the Snapdragon 730G processor, and coupled with an ample 8GB of RAM, you likely won’t come across any stutters or lags during day to day usage. I sure didn’t, but we’ll soon put it through the paces and see how it fares during intensive gaming sessions and heavy multitasking. The camera setup appears quite capable, at least on paper. You get a 64MP main camera at the back, assisted by a 12MP ultra-wide angle shooter and a pair of 5MP snapers for taking macro and portrait shots. Selfies and video calls are handled by a 32MP camera that can also shoot 4K videos and supports fun AR emojis. 

 I haven’t had the opportunity to take the Galaxy M51 out for a camera test, but a few samples that I clicked came out well. The indoor selfie didn’t smoothen the skin and retained surface details, while colors looked accurate as well. A pixel-binned 16MP low-light shot from the rear camera also came out vibrant, but I did notice an issue with how shadows are handled.

Indoor selfie clicked using Galaxy M51’s 32MP front camera.

However, these are just preliminary impressions, and we’ll have to wait for a full fledged review to find out how good the phone’s imaging hardware truly is. The Galaxy M51 starts at Rs. 24,999 and goes against some well-received devices from its Chinese rivals such as Xiaomi and Realme. Stay tuned to Pocketnow as we comprehensively test the Galaxy M51 to find out its strengths and shortcomings, and decisively say whether it’s worth the asking price.