It’s not easy to keep track of Samsung’s ever expanding smartphone portfolio with sub brands like the A and M Series. Samsung now adds the Galaxy F Series to this mix, a new line of smartphones that have been developed exclusively for Flipkart. Samsung bills these as ‘Full On’ devices – hence the F prefix, that tick all the right boxes for Gen Z consumers. At least that’s how the Samsung Galaxy F41 – the first in this new series, is billed. Replacement cycles tend to be faster for this demanding group of consumers, one reason why the F41 is also available on Flipkart’s smart upgrade plan.
Samsung attempts a new colour palette with the F41. We checked out the Fusion Green (the device is also available in Fusion Black and Fusion Blue) – it’s essentially a deep green shade that fades into black. It looks elegant and the plastic back doesn’t look tacky at all. It’s a fingerprint magnet though. At 191 gm, it’s almost the optimal heft for your hand. This form factor is significant given that the device is packed with 6000 mAh battery under the hood. Battery life is one of the standout features of the F41. You might be able to stretch it from 9 am on day one to 5 pm on day two with moderate use. We wish Samsung had bundled a 25W charger instead of the 15W charger in the box. The device takes almost three hours to go from 0 to 100%.
Samsung’s vibrant displays have given it an edge over the competition, particularly in the sub Rs 20,000 price band. The F41 is no exception. The 6.4-inch Super AMOLED (1080 x 2340 pixels / 403 PPI) is one of the best at this price range and works as a binge-watch screen. We’re not big fans of the teardrop notch but it’s not unusual at this price point. Aside from the robust battery and the vivid display, the F41 also features a dependable triple rear cam. It’s driven by a 64MP primary lens that combines with an 8MP ultra-wide lens and a 5MP depth sensor. It’s quite a versatile shooter with decent lowlight images (on Night mode) and options like Samsung’s new Single Take that shoots a cool burst of images and videos. The 32MP selfie cam is no slouch too.
The F41 is propelled by an Exynos 9611 processor that we’ve already experienced in other Samsung devices that we reviewed this year like the M21 and the M31S. We tested the 6GB/64GB variant; there’s also a 6GB/128GB option. Both variants offer support for Micro SD cards (up to 512GB). It’s certainly not the best processor and RAM at this price point but it’s enough to get the job done for most users without any huffing or puffing. The F41 clocked 1288 in our Geekbench Multi-core benchmark, that’s slightly better than what the M31S registered in our tests.
Samsung’s new One UI 2.1 is available for this device. Samsung’s custom UI is layered over Android 10 and it’s quite pleasing on the eye. We wish the device didn’t come pre-loaded with a tonne of Apps but you can uninstall them. That’s a minor crib in a device that scores on the three key factors – camera, display and battery life that don’t just matter for Gen Z consumers but most smartphone users in India. The Samsung Galaxy F41 delivers serious bang for the buck
The Samsung Galaxy F41 comes in three colours – Fusion Green, Fusion Black and Fusion Blue. It’s available on Flipkart at a special launch price of 15,499/- (6GB/64GB) and Rs 164,999 (6GB/128GB)
