Samsung Galaxy M34 5G

Introduction

The Galaxy M34, like its predecessors, is a repackaged version of a Galaxy A series smartphone that is sold at a lower price by cutting down on some of the more premium features while retaining the important bits. As with other Galaxy M series phones, one of the highlights of the Galaxy M34 is a massive battery that allows up to two days of battery life.

Design

The Galaxy M34 5G features a pretty standard design that's seen in Samsung's affordable mid-range phones, as evident by the plastic back and the sizable bezels around the display. Its dimensions measure 161.7 x 77.2 x 8.8 mm and it weighs 208g, which is relatively low when considering the 6,000 mAh battery that sits inside the device. The 8.8mm thickness also enables the M34 to have a 3.5mm headphone port. Color options for the phone include Midnight Blue, Prism Silver, Waterfall Blue.

Specifications

The Galaxy M34 falls somewhere on the lower end of the spectrum as far as its internals are concerned. Instead of the Exynos 1380, the processor that powers the Galaxy A54, the Galaxy M34 boasts the Exynos 1280, a chip with two performance cores clocked at 2.4GHz, six cores designed for efficiency and clocked at 2.0GHz, and a Mali-G68 GPU.

The Exynos 1280 is paired with 6GB or 8GB of RAM, with both variants featuring 128GB of storage and a microSD slot for expansion. The M34 has a 6,000 mAh battery that should easily last up to two days with light to moderate use and a full day with heavy use involving everything from browsing to gaming. The battery charges at 25W with a compatible charger, which is a separate purchase.

Connectivity features on the Galaxy M34 include Wi-Fi 5 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth 5.3, GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou location positioning, NFC, and 5G. There is no LTE variant of the phone.

Display

The Galaxy M34, like most Samsung phones, sports a Super AMOLED display for vivid colors, wide viewing angles, and excellent brightness levels (up to 1000 nits). It has a 120Hz refresh rate for smooth navigation though the user interface and high frame rate gaming. The display measures 6.5 inches and boasts a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels. For protection against scratches and damage caused by drops, the M34 comes with Gorilla Glass 5 on top of the screen.

Camera

The Galaxy M34's camera setup is a mix of high and low-resolution sensors. The primary camera is a 50-megapixel F1.8 sensor with optical image stabilization and phase detection autofocus, which are pretty standard on mid-range phone cameras. The 50MP camera is accompanied by a 5MP F2.2 ultra-wide camera for wide-angle (120˚) shots and a 2MP F2.4 macro camera for close-ups.

For selfies and video calls, the M34 is equipped with a 13MP F2.2 camera. Video recording resolution on the front and rear cameras maxes out at 1080p@30fps and 4K@30fps respectively. Pictures and videos can be edited through a powerful editor built into Samsung's Gallery app.

Software and Features

The Galaxy M34 5G comes with Android 13 and Samsung One UI 5.1 out of the box. Despite the aggressive pricing, the Galaxy M34 will be supported with major Android and One UI OS upgrades for four years and security updates for five years. Android 14/One UI 6 will be its first major update and Android 17 will be the final one after which Samsung will provide only security updates for a year before it ends software support for the device.

Being a mid-range phone, the Galaxy M34 lacks features such as Samsung DeX but is otherwise fully equipped with the best Samsung has to offer in the software department. Some of the notable features include a built-in screen recorder, Game Launcher for accessing all games from one location, Game Booster for customizing the gaming experience and lowering power usage, Dual Messenger for using two instances of messaging apps, Quick Share, and more.

Availability and price

The Galaxy M34 made its market debut in mid-July, 2023, and its availability expanded in the following months to different parts of the world. Its retail price hovers around the $260 market but the phone can be purchased for considerably less in some regions.