A few days ago, in our editorial that pitted Samsung’s recent entry in the “A” series, we found it hard recommending the Galaxy A31 model against cheaper alternatives such as the Nokia 5.3 and Tecno Spark 5 owing to their low prices while still managing to offer more. Fast forward today, looks like Samsung had a direct competitor all along in their latest “M” series lineup with the Samsung Galaxy M11. The “M” series focuses solely on budget and mid-tier handsets that combines some of Samsung’s cherished technologies and a budget price to lure consumers who’ve been eyeing Chinese brands for the same reasons.
Samsung still has a decent fan base but its fortunes have been deteriorating more so in the low-end smartphone niche owing to an aggressive campaign by Chinese competitors like Tecno, Oppo and Xiaomi. The Oppo Reno3 is performing relatively well here in Kenya and Tecno just unveiled the Spark 5 bringing the now sort after quad camera combination to the cheap end of the handset market.
The Samsung Galaxy M11 doesn’t come with many killer features to woo power users, but it clearly stands head-high when it comes to the built-in 5000mAh battery that should last a day or two. Even though you’ll still have to churn-out some more bucks as compared to if you went for the Tecno alternative, Samsung clearly has a brand advantage and offers one of the most intuitive android user interfaces we’ve seen with One UI 2.0. furthermore, the M11 is equipped with 15W fast charging capability that should fire-up to 100 percent in less than two hours.
The M11 comes with modest amount of RAM at 3GB which is a bit of a bummer considering cheaper alternatives have managed to place minimum of 4GB under the hood. Otherwise, the 32GB internal storage that can be expanded further up to 512GB with an external MicroSD card seems to be reasonable.
While we don’t get the same Quad-camera setup as the slightly high rated Galaxy A31, Samsung has put a total of three sensors on the primary snapper. Samsung Galaxy M11 comes with triple camera setup that includes a 13MP Main sensor to capture those clear images, a 5MP Ultra-Wide Camera that takes in more landscape and a 2MP Depth Camera that highlights the subject of your photo by blurring the background.
The front panel consists of a 6.4inch infinity O display that only gives way to a punch-hole selfie camera and our model the Galaxy M11 SM-M115FZKDXFE supports Dual SIM cards.
Samsung Galaxy M11 Specifications
| BODY DIMENSIONS | 161.4 x 76.3 x 9 mm (6.35 x 3.00 x 0.35 in) |
| 197 g (6.95 oz) | |
| Glass front, plastic back, plastic frame | |
| Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) | |
| SCREEN | PLS TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
| 6.4 inches, 100.5 cm2 (~81.6% screen-to-body ratio) | |
| 720 x 1560 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio (~268 ppi density) | |
| PLATFORM | Android 10, One UI 2.0 |
| Qualcomm SDM450 Snapdragon 450 (14 nm) | |
| Octa-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A53 | |
| Adreno 506 | |
| MEMORY | microSDXC (dedicated slot) |
| 32GB 3GB RAM, 64GB 4GB RAM | |
| MAIN CAMERA | 13 MP, f/1.8, 27mm (wide), 1/3.1″, 1.12µm, PDAF |
| 5 MP, f/2.2, 14mm (ultrawide) | |
| 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth) | |
| LED flash, panorama, HDR | |
| 1080p@30fps | |
| SELFIE CAMERA | 8 MP, f/2.0, (wide) |
| HDR | |
| 1080p@30fps | |
| COMMUNICATIONS | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot |
| 4.2, A2DP | |
| GPS, with A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS | |
| FM radio | |
| 2.0, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector | |
| SENSORS | Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, proximity |
| BATTERY | Non-removable Li-Ion 5000 mAh battery |
| Fast charging 15W | |
| AVAILABLE COLORS | Black, Metallic Blue, Violet |
Samsung Galaxy M11’s recommended retail price in Kenya is Ksh17,499
I need Samsung Galaxy M11