Samsung Galaxy A51 Vs M30s: Which Galaxy Phone You Should Buy?

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Samsung A51	Samsung M30s
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Solid build, great finish. Android 10. Can handle high-end games like PUBG well.	Excellent battery life. Super AMOLED display. Gaming performance.
CONS	CONS
Some One UI 2.0 features missing. Speaker could have been better. Limited usability for the macro camera.	Choppy UI and animations. Slow charging. Camera falls short.

SPECIFICATIONS

DESIGN

Samsung A51:

We have a very lightweight plastic backed device with colors bouncing all over the place when put in the certain light.

Now looking at the bottom side, there is the USB-C port and also the headphone jack towards the left. And then there’s also the single mono-firing speaker as expected for a mid-range phone.

Then looking on the right, you’ll find the volume rocker and also the power button over there.

Then on the left, there is the dual SIM card slot and also the microSD card slot, which supports up to 512GB of storage.

Samsung M30s:

The overall design and display are the same as M30. But here you get a new chipset, a higher resolution camera, and a larger battery.

Like on many other mid-range phones, you also get a catchy paint job. It is a plastic panel, not a glass which was probably done for budget reasons. Well, there is a bit of glass over the camera module and it’s pretty much flush with a back panel. So the phone won’t wobble on a table.

With this rounded end seamless edges, the build feels comfortable. The M30s is surprisingly elegant.

CAMERA

Samsung A51:

The impressive area of this phone considering its price point is its camera offerings.

• 48 Megapixel (f/2.0, Main Camera)
• 12 Megapixel (f/2.2 Ultra-Wide)
• 5 Megapixel (f/2.4 Macro)
• Depth Sensor
• 32 Megapixel Selfie Camera (f/2.2)

In video footage, I found I could easily get really close to subjects without any issues at all and the cameras will automatically adjust as needed relatively quickly. We also have some video stabilization features here, in addition to filming 4k on the rear and front facing cameras.

Front facing camera takes good selfies in my testing and it also features a wider angle option itself to fit someone else in the frame with you.

Samsung M30s:

The M30s brings a triple camera setup.

• 48 Megapixel (f/2.0, Main Camera)
• 8 Megapixel (f/2.2 Ultra-Wide)
• 5 Megapixel Depth sensor
• 16 Megapixel Selfie Camera

In daylight, the 12 megapixel photos produced by the quad bear sensor are excellent with great sharpness, impressive dynamic range, and punchy colors. The photos are not much better than A51.

Portrait shots with the main camera are quite nice. If there’s enough lighting, you can get a good level of detail, and a natural-looking skin tone. Background separation is decent. Dynamic range just leave a bit more to be desired though.

Selfies come out in 16 megapixels and they’re just okay you get a decent amount of detail and dynamic range is good but sharpness is not stellar.

DISPLAY

Samsung A51:

Now looking at the phone screen, it comes with a 6.7 inch Full HD Plus Super AMOLED Display with the resolution of 1080 by 2440 pixels.

And I have to say that viewing videos looks way better than the previous variant, where I did find that the picture quality was way more natural and had better colour accuracy when watching YouTube and also Netflix as well where the videos while watching Netflix was just before the Infinity-O area.

Samsung M30s:

The screen is 6.4 inch AMOLED display with a 1080p resolution and a small notch at the top.

The quality is excellent, with that great contrast you’d expect from an AMOLED, good sharpness, and competitive brightness. We measured 440 nits at maximum with a brightness slider and a boost up to 640 nits in auto mode when out in the Sun.

Colors can also be quite accurate depending on your color settings. While the phone is sleeping, you get an always-on display, with the time and icons for notifications.

One thing we didn’t like is the rear mounted fingerprint scanner. It’s one of the slower ones around. It feels like it reads you pretty fast but the screen takes some time to actually light up.

AUDIO

Samsung A51:

There’s no stereo speaker setup here but the edge mounted mono blaster is reasonably loud and clarity remains strong on top levels. As usual, you get a headphone jack and full Bluetooth 5.0 support. So for your music, you’re basically covered.

Samsung M30s:

The single bottom firing loudspeaker is alright. Loudness is good but the lows sound muddy and the highs come out a bit harsh.

The M30s has a 3.5 millimeter jack for headphones and quality here is decent. Loudness is above average and though there’s some distortion it’s not too bad.

PERFORMANCE

Samsung A51:

When it comes to the performance, A51 is coming with the Exynos 9611 chipset which is similar to the galaxy A50 in performance. I wish Samsung went with Exynos 9630 or like a better Qualcomm chip but this chip does the job well for the most part. I have played some games like asphalt 9 and it was able to run it on high quality and you can also run other games like PUBG.

Samsung M30s:

This phone also comes with Exynos 9611 chipset. It’s built on a 10 nm process and offers better power efficiency.

In benchmarks, the M30s does a decent job but it’s not good than A51. However, there are more powerful alternatives in this price range and this isn’t a chip for heavy gaming. In some titles, I got some stutters and hiccups.

SOFTWARE

Samsung A51:

When it comes to software, it comes with OneUI 2.0 on the top of Android 10.

There were only two instances of minor lag on the home page, when loading up the Bixby home cards, with this disabled you can actually get even smoother performance.

RAM management proved to be solid not that you wouldn’t expect that with a phone with this much RAM.

Overall, in this aspect the phone has got a lot going for it, not only on paper but in day-to-day use.

Samsung M30s:

The M30s user interface is Samsung’s OneUI over Android 9 pie. Samsung’s gesture based navigation setup uses vertical not horizontal swipes which is easy to use once you get the habbit of it. Although you can use on-screen navigation keys as well. One-handed use is quite comfortable as most of the interface is designed to be in reach of your thumb.

OneUI has a system-wide dark mode which should actually help a little bit with power saving because of the AMOLED screen.

BATTERY

Samsung A51:

The A51 scored an endurance rating of 86 hours in our battery tests, not bad but less than last year’s model and nothing special for a mid-ranger. Charging speed using the bundled 15 watt adapters is not that bad, we were able to charge from 0% – 35% in half an hour.

Samsung M30s:

The battery life is amazing. The 6000 mAh battery should easily be enough to last you through a couple of days.

In our proprietary battery tests, the M30s received a score of a 130 hours. This is among the best we’ve ever seen.

Unfortunately, we can’t say the same for the charging speed. The provided 15 watt charger was only able to bring the battery from zero to 21 percent in half an hour.

WHICH ONE YOU SHOULD BUY?

M30s is way cheaper phone when compared to A51. And A51 wins in all scenario expect battery. At the end of the day, if you budget is low then you should go with M30s but if you want a good mid-range phone then the A51 is recommended choice.

Jaskaran Singh

Jaskaran, a tech enthusiast from childhood, inspired by his father, began his tech journey by rooting Android phones. He now writes on various tech topics, aiming to simplify complex ideas for a broad audience. His writing is direct, concise, and flows effortlessly, making tech topics accessible and engaging.