Despite the onslaught of affordable smartphones made by brands from China and beyond, India continues to have a love affair with Samsung. The Korean manufacturer has been selling its phones in the country for a long time, manufactures many of its devices in India itself, and has a fair amount of goodwill thanks to its excellent dealer and service networks. Therefore, any affordable option from Samsung needs to be taken seriously.
Enter the Samsung Galaxy M10, a smartphone that is incredibly fresh and different from what we've come to expect from Samsung. The company previously shunned the idea of the notch, but the Samsung Galaxy M10 and slightly more expensive Galaxy M20[1] are the company's first phones to sport this element. While the notch itself might be considered a disruptive design element, the idea of the notch is to allow a screen that occupies more of the front, and that's the look Samsung is going for here. We've put the new Samsung Galaxy M10 through its paces, and here's our review.
Samsung Galaxy M10 design
The highlight of the Samsung Galaxy M10[2] is its screen, with its waterdrop-style notch at the top for the front camera. Just above the camera on the top edge sits the earpiece, and the entire thing looks similar to what we've seen on smartphones such as the OnePlus 6T[3] and Oppo F9 Pro[4]. A thin black border can be seen all around the screen, with it stretching almost till the top edge and leaving a narrow chin area at the bottom.
The back and sides of the Samsung Galaxy M10 are plastic, with curved edges and corners. The ports and buttons are all where we expected them to...