[First Cut] Samsung Galaxy F62: Bringing a flagship chip to the mid-segment

Its naming methodology – if one exists – remains a mystery, but Samsung’s F series has been making waves in the mid-segment of the Indian smartphone market. The Galaxy F41 raised a few eyebrows late last year by offering surprisingly good specifications at a very affordable price and now comes the Galaxy F62 (you get what we said about naming methodology, right?), which repeats the formula, only at a slight price tag.

For Rs 23,999, the Galaxy F62 brings a whole lot to the smartphone table. In terms of both design and hardware. We got a unit with a rather unique lined pattern on the back, what Samsung terms a “laser gradient” design. The back itself is smooth and slightly glossy, but the lines on it give it a very different appearance. Samsung has also gone with a slightly square-ish camera unit on the back with a 64-megapixel Sony IMX682 main sensor (and a less impressive supporting cast of 12, 5, and 5-megapixel snappers), a change from the rectangles we have been seeing of late in their mid-segment offerings. Yes, there will be some who will be disappointed at the absence of glass on the back (we are ok with it), but this is a rather striking device and feels solid enough – it is a big enough phone, although not very heavy. We would have liked IP ratings for water and dust resistance, though.

The reason for the large size is revealed in front – a big 6.7-inch Super AMOLED+ Infinity O display with Full HD+ resolution, with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. In best Samsung tradition, it is rather bright and the colors seem well, poppy and punchy. Pleasantly unreal at times, but pleasantly so. There is a tiny punch hole in the center housing the 32-megapixel selfie camera. The base has a USB Type C port and a 3.5 mm audio jack (hooray), the right side the volume keys, and also the power/display button which also doubles up as a fingerprint scanner (yay for that).

And then there is perhaps the real star of the Galaxy F62 show – the chip. Samsung has been talking up the Exynos 9825 processor on the device, which it claims makes it the fastest in its price segment. It is a 7-nm processor and indeed is a flagship chip, although it is worth noting that it is about a year and a half old – this was the same processor that powered the Galaxy Note 10. That suddenly yanks this device closer to a budget flagship than to a mid-segmenter, for, notwithstanding all the hue and cry generated by the Exynos-Snapdragon debate, the Note 10 remains a very good performer.

There are two RAM variants, 6 GB and 8 GB, and storage stands at 128 GB, which can be expanded via a microSD card. There is 4G and NFC connectivity, but no 5G, but then even the networks do not have that at the moment. Powering this is a massive 7000 mAh battery with a 25W charger for fast charging in the box. And well, for us, a big plus is the fact that the phone runs on Android 11, with Samsung’s OneUI Core on top.

Of course, that combination of camera, display, and the battery has had some folks saying that the F62 is really a beefed up Galaxy M51, Samsung’s M series bestseller from last year. But while the two devices do share some similarities, the chip and design change the equation significantly. We would say that the F62 is actually closer to the Note 10 Lite and the S10 Lite that were released at around this time last year. And, on paper, it certainly will give all those in the Rs 20,000 – Rs 26,000 ample cause for concern. That includes the likes of the OnePlus Nord, the Mi 10i, the Realme X7, and some would even say Samsung’s very own M51. Just how well it performs will be revealed in our review.