Finding itself outgunned, outpriced and outsold in the low- and mid-tier smartphone segments, many have assumed that Samsung has all but given up on its battle against the onslaught of “cheap and cheerful” China makes. The premium and upper end market may be its domain, but it looks like the number one smartphone maker in the world isn’t about to go down without a fight.
For the longest time, Samsung’s Galaxy J and A series have been undercut by brands like Xiaomi, honor and ASUS, especially in developing markets like India and the Southeast Asia region. Considering the consumer sweet spot is between MYR800-MYR1,500, Samsung needed one or two entries to “disrupt the disruptors.”
The strategy isn’t a complex one. Give consumers what they want: A nice big display with a dewdrop notch (yes, that’s what they want, some of them anyway). Dual-cameras. Plenty of memory and storage. Good cameras. A huge battery. USB-C.
And Samsung has done exactly that with the Galaxy M20. Launched first in India late January, the Galaxy M20 is now officially in Malaysia. The device bearing model number SM-M205 was first spotted on the SIRIM database in mid-February.
Specs-wise, the Galaxy M20 is pretty tricked out. You’ll get a 6.3-inch FHD+ Infinity-V display (Samsung’s own “dewdrop” notch display) and a massive 5,000mZh battery. Two big surprises at this price point is the USB-C port and support for 15W fast-charging.
Under the hood, there’s a mid-range 14nm Exynos 7904 processor that’s mated to 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. There’s also microSD expansion, in case you need it.
In terms of cameras, the Galaxy M20 packs a 13MP f/1.9 main shooter with a secondary 5MP ultra-wide-angle shooter. The front is a more run-of-the-mill 8MP f/2.0 unit.
There’s also Dolby Atmos and support for Widevine L1 certification which enables HD video streaming.
A downside of the device is the lack of 5GHz 802.11ac Wi-Fi, like the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 and M2.
The Galaxy M20 runs Android 8.1 Oreo with Samsung Experience 9.5 UI on top.
Pricing and availability
The Galaxy M20 us officially priced at MYR799 and it goes on sale from 9AM on 20 March 2019, exclusively from Shopee. The device is available in two colours – Charcoal Black and Ocean Blue.
The first 100 buyers will receive a MYR100 voucher that you can use on the Samsung Official Store on Shopee. That’s not all, if you’re amongst the first 1,000 buyers, you stand to get a Logitech X50 speaker and a pair of JBL T450 headphones worth MYR227. The next 2,000 buyers can get a Logitech X50 worth MYR98.
Photo credit: Alexander Wong | SoyaCincau, Samsung
