Is the Galaxy A51 worth $399? By Android Authority

So I've got to admit something to you, guys I review a lot of flagships, they're fun. They usually have fascinating cool features and the surrounding hype is always insane, but the flagship market is a market of price over volume. These are luxury goods, I mean the Samsung Galaxy S 20 plus cost $1200. So then, this list comes out the other day, the most popular phones that shipped in the first quarter of 2020 and well. The galaxy is 20 plus isn't at the top of that list. It's not first and it's not.

Second, it's not. Third, it's ninth, but what is at the top of that list? Well, you've got the iPhone 11 for number one. They sold tons of those things and then at number two you've got this phone. The same thing: galaxy 851! Now it's pretty significant that this Samsung Galaxy ace series actually came to the US this year and that's probably because mid-range phones aren't crazy popular in the United States. A lot of people have flagships and that's simply because a lot of people buy their phones at carrier stores and carriers will give you huge discounts.

If you stick with them for two or so years, they make you sign contracts, and then you get a big amount off the cost of the phone. So this phone is interesting because the Samsung Galaxy a 51, has an MSRP of 399 dollars. That puts it right up against the iPhone S II. It puts it more expensive than the current price of the Google Pixel 3a, the Google Pixel for an is expected to come in around 350 dollars. So it's slotting in right in the middle of the mid-range and I mean it's.

The question that needs to be answered with the 51 is: is this the new mid-range phone to get before we get to that answer? We got to thank our sponsor at the official Python certification bundle over at the AAA store. Now we'll talk more about that later. So, let's continue so usually when you're, making a mid-range phone, one of the first things that's cut down on is build quality and the Samsung Galaxy a 51 is using plastic, but it's using a special composite that Samsung calls plastic, and it definitely feels better than just a regular plastic phone. It doesn't feel quite as sturdy or hardcore as actual glass, but it does feel pretty good in the hand, although, if you knock on it, you're definitely going to get that hole. The feeling that you get from plastic but I kind of, like it, I think it's a good compromise and that build quality also extends to the display.

Now it is a 1080p panel, but Samsung actually managed to pack an OLED into this phone and again usually when you're, making a mid-range phone, you have to cut down on the display a lot of manufacturers use LCD panels which just can't get those really deep blacks but, of course, Samsung being a display. Fantail manufacturer was able to stick an OLED in this phone. It looks perfect. It's super bright and really punchy, and we've come to expect that from Samsung phones. So that's really nice to see in here too now.

The only big problem I have with this display is the punch, hole, camera and usually I, actually really like punch hole, cameras, I, think they're, a good way of putting the camera in the phone without distracting you too much. But the key problem is here. This one does distract you quite a lot now, usually on Samsung's. Other phones. They've just got a hole in there for the camera, but in this one they put the silver ring around the camera, which makes it stand out even when the display is off.

I really don't understand why they did this because, on the Samsung Galaxy s, 10 series the note 10 series s 20 series: they don't have that ring, and they're actually able to use the OLED to make these cool effects around the camera. When you open it this stuff now they probably did this because they wanted to show you that it is a mid-range phone, and they can't have all the bells and whistles, but I still think it looks pretty bad now. That being said, that camera is a 32, megapixel, selfie camera, and it actually looks pretty good sharpness and contrast were perfect. But of course, greens and blues tended to be way over saturated, which is really common with Samsung phones. They really like to blow out those colors a lot, and it just doesn't look that natural and, of course those colors extend to the rear cameras, and there are a lot of rear cameras.

You've got a regular sensor which bends down to 12 megapixels you've got a wide sensor. That's 12, megapixels you've got a 5 megapixel macro camera and a 5 megapixel depth camera now, overall, for a phone, this cheap I was pretty surprised with the quality that was coming out of this phone. One thing that I get really annoyed at is over dynamic range and that's when a company just forces the shadows up way too much in order to get as much detail as possible and makes Alden blacks, look really weird middle gray, but Samsung actually retained a lot of the contrast in this phone on these cameras and I think that that looks pretty good. Now, of course, like I said before, the colors are a little over saturated, but the sharpness was generally good, and I think that for a $399 phone, it's not pixel 3ei quality, but it's getting there and a 5 megapixel depth. Camera actually helped quite a bit.

Now this is nice to have because it means you can use it on objects that aren't just people and animals and when I use on people it actually performed a little worse, attended to soften my skin quite a lot, and it had pretty bad hair detection. Although hair is really hard to detect, but on things that weren't people it actually cut out the object pretty well now sort of macro camera I definitely would have preferred a telephoto camera, but you can't have everything and Samsung's probably trying to save that for the s20 series, so that it sounds pretty good right. You've got perfect, build quality. You've got a great screen. Furthermore, you've got decent cameras, but unfortunately, Samsung cut down a lot on the processing in this phone now before I.

Get to that part. I've got to thank our sponsor the official Python certification bundle over at the AAA DL store since we're all stuck at home for this pandemic. Right now, you might as well pick up programming and the Python certification bundle can help you build practical, apps from scratch and then move into things like a big data management. We've got the whole bundle over a deal for just $50. So if you're looking to learn code click, the link in the video description, the GAO say 51 is using a Samsung Enos, 96, 11, processor, 128, gigabytes of storage and 4, gigabytes of RAM and, of course, eggs in most processors, I've, always kind of had the worst battery life and not quite as good performance as their Snapdragon counterparts.

But honestly I think it's that 4 gigabytes of RAM. That is really killing this phone. We did some testing last year which showed that modern versions of Android really need about 6 gigabytes of RAM to run smoothie, and that really showed in this phone apps took forever to launch. It would just randomly kick apps out of memory, and even just swiping around the I was really sluggish. I, don't usually say that an Android phone is slow because, usually, if you have over 60 gigabytes of RAM and the processor from the last couple of years, you're not really going to be able to tell a huge difference between flagship, modern processors unless you're playing something like games.

But unfortunately, the performance in this phone was just really, really bad. Even when I had all the apps closed on this phone, the phone still used two gigabytes of RAM just to run Android, and that means that it's definitely going to have to start kicking apps out of memory real soon. Obviously we saw this problem on the pixel 3 in pixel, 3, XL and Google had to improve that on the pixel 4 to actually make the fun run smoothly, and that process is probably a reason why the in screen fingerprint reader in this phone, though I'm glad it has one just sucks. It took like one to two seconds just to unlock the phone, and the hit rate was like 50%, the entire time that I was using it honestly I'd rather use a pin, unlock or like face unlock, which it also offers the in screen fingerprint reader. It's just not good, so you'd hope that with so many low powered components and a four thousand William hour battery, you would get amazing battery life right.

Well, that didn't really end up being the case, I mean the battery life was fine. It lasted me a little over a day, maybe a day and a half, but I got about four and a half hours of screen on time. No, the screen on time doesn't really matter, but on most phones, I get about six and a half hours of screen out of time. So that really wasn't that good. Now, while I'm just sitting at home most of the time, that's fine- and it does last me a little over a day, but I was kind of hoping for a little more with a four thousand William hour battery.

So here's the thing at $400 retail, this phone has a lot of competition. Again it's got the iPhone SE in the Pixel 3a and the upcoming pixel for a to compete against and at that price. I. Just don't think it's worth it when you have that bad of performance. Now, that being said, this phone is already discounted a lot on Amazon when I was writing.

This review I checked up, and it was discounted to two hundred and seventy dollars on Amazon, which is really, really cheap. Honestly, if you don't want to spend $400 on like a pixel, 3a XL or an iPhone SE, or any phones like that- and you only want to spend about 250 bucks. This is a decent option, but personally I would just buy a phone. That's a couple of years old and had a flagship processor back then, and at least six gigabytes of RAM and not get a phone. That's going to slow you down day-to-day, so guys that's been about it for the galaxy 51 review.

Let me know what you think about this phone in the comment section down below make sure you stay subscribed to endure.30, we've got a lot more phones coming up. Actually it's gotten really busy over the last like week, so we're going to be dropping a lot of videos very, very soon, so until next time catch you in the next video.

Source : Android Authority