June 12 (AZINS) Samsung on Tuesday added one more smartphone to its existing online-only Galaxy M series in India. The Samsung Galaxy M40 is company’s fourth smartphones in the lineup after the Galaxy M10, Galaxy M20, and Galaxy M30. The handset comes in one variant with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. The highlight feature of Samsung Galaxy M40 is its punch-hole (Infinity-O) display, and triple-rear camera setup. It also comes in two gradient colours options of Midnight Blue and Seawater Blue.

The Galaxy M40 be made available through Amazon India and Samsung’s own online store starting June 18, 12:00 PM. Priced at Rs 19,990, the Galaxy M40 seems like a promising offering for the online consumers. I got a chance to use the device for a bit and here are my first impressions of the all-new Samsung Galaxy M40.

While the Galaxy M40 carries generic Samsung design from the Galaxy M30 and Galaxy M20 smartphones, what’s really different about this device is its punch-hole or Infinity-O display. Up front, you’ll find a 6.3-inch FHD+ TFT LCD Infinity-O display with a resolution of 2340×1080 pixels, which is first for any Samsung smartphone till date. When last year, DJ Koh announced that they will bring latest technology in mid-range smartphones first, we saw triple and quad-camera implementations in Galaxy A series first. Now it seems, Samsung has taken it to a more affordable segment with Galaxy M series.

Not just that, the Galaxy M40 is company’s first ever smartphone to use “On Screen Sound” technology instead of traditional earpiece. What this means is, the display only has one hole for the camera, and there is no earpiece cutout above. I really like the overall build quality of the phone, especially the Seawater Blue color variant. Also, despite the big 6.3-inch display, the Galaxy M40 fits and feels alright in hands.

At the back, the Galaxy M40 packs a primary 32-megapixel lens in the triple-camera setup, while the other two sensors are a 5-megapixel depth and 8-megapixel ultra-wide lens. The camera supports 4K video recording, Hyperlapse, and slow-motion videos. In the front punch-hole design, Samsung has stuffed in a 16-megapixel camera for selfies and videos. During my little time with Galaxy M40, both cameras looked alright at first, but the final judgment will follow in our full review very soon.

The Samsung Galaxy M40 is company’s first Galaxy M smartphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Under the hood is an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 SoC, which is a popular chipset in the budget segment, and Xiaomi uses it in its Redmi Note 7 Pro. What Samsung has done differently here is that they have launched the phone in one variant only. The Galaxy M40 is supported by 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The phone also supports microSD card expandability in a dual-hybrid slot. So you can either use two SIM cards or one SIM card with a microSD card up to 512GB additional storage.

The handset features rear physical fingerprint sensor, USB Type-C fast charging but doesn’t have the 3.5mm audio jack. But to compensate, Samsung is providing a Type-C to 3.5mm audio port converter in the retail box. The battery capacity on Galaxy M40 is 3,500mAh, and it supports 15 watts USB Type-C fast charging. It runs Android 9 Pie based OneUI out-of-the-box.

The Galaxy M40 seems more promising than any other Galaxy M smartphone Samsung has launched in India till date. I have used all other Samsung M series – Galaxy M10, Galaxy M20 and Galaxy M30 – phones, but by far the Galaxy M40 has impressed me the most, in its initial usage time. Having said that, I’ll still reserve my final judgment of Galaxy M40 for the full review. At Rs 19,990, Samsung seems to have put in everything one would need in a smartphone in this segment.

This article first appeared on bgr.in