Introduction
After several leaks, the Samsung Galaxy A31 smartphone has finally gone official. It is the third 2020 Galaxy A-series smartphone after the Galaxy A51 and Galaxy A71 that were made official in December 2019. The Galaxy A31 has arrived as a successor to the Galaxy A30 smartphone from last year. While it isn't a massive upgrade over last year's Galaxy A30, the A31 does come with a few significant upgrades. The Galaxy A31 is the newest mid-range smartphone that touts an Infinity-U display and a 5,000mAh battery. Other key specifications also include a 48MP quad-camera setup and a 20MP selfie camera. The device has been officially announced for the global audience, and it comes in four colors, such as Prism Crush Black, Prism Crush Blue, Prism Crush White, and Prism Crush White. Samsung Galaxy A31 is said to cost a $210 price for the base model (4GB RAM + 64GB onboard storage).
Design and Display
In terms of design, the Galaxy A31 features a glasstic (glass + plastic) design approach with a dual-tone finish on the rear. There is a rectangular shaped quad-camera setup on the back panel for photography experience. On the right side, it has a power button and volume rockers. Samsung Galaxy A31 comes with an under-display fingerprint sensor for authentication. Towards the front, it has a 6.4-inch Infinity-U Super AMOLED display with a notch at the top for the front-facing camera. The phone provides 84.9 percent screen-to-body ratio and Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels. The 20:9 aspect ratio makes the A-series phone 2mm narrower than the M31; it's also a fraction thinner and lighter. The Samsung Galaxy A31 measures 73.1 x 159.3 x 8.6 mm and weighs in at 185 grams.
Front and rear cameras
For optics, the Galaxy A31 sports a quad-camera setup on the rear, with an LED flash, which includes a 48MP primary sensor with f/2.0 aperture. The primary sensor is accompanied by an 8MP ultra-wide angle sensor with f/2.2 aperture and 123-degree FoV, a 5MP depth sensor with f/2.4 aperture, and a 5MP macro sensor with f/2.4 aperture. The 48MP primary sensor has 1/2.0, 0.8µm pixels, and PDAF technology. A 5MP macro shooter can capture shots as close as 4cm.
The handset has many camera features such as Digital Zoom, Auto Flash, Face detection, Touch to focus, Continuos Shooting, High Dynamic Range mode (HDR), Exposure compensation, and ISO control. As for the video recording, the device can record 4k videos and Full HD videos at 30fps. The entrance digital camera is a 20-megapixel sensor with f/2.2 aperture, which is housed inside a notch. The 20MP selfie snapper only can record Full HD videos at 30fps.
Processor, Battery, and Software
Under the hood, the Samsung Galaxy A31 has a MediaTek Helio P65 running at its core, which is an octa-core processor built on the 12nm manufacturing process (where two cores are clocked at 2.0GHz, and six at a 1.7GHz frequency). It is coupled with 4GB / 6GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 64GB / 128GB of onboard storage. The phone is available in two configurations – 4GB RAM + 64GB and 6GB RAM + 128GB. A microSD card slot will allow users to add up to an additional 512GB of storage. Moving on to the software, Samsung's Galaxy A31 runs Android 10 with the company's One UI 2.0 skin on top. The Samsung Galaxy A31 comes packed with a 5,000mAh battery. The battery comes along with 15W fast charging support via USB Type-C.