It’s Galaxy Note season and this year the best one is the Ultra. Samsung‘s mixed things up a bit atop the lineup and the one you want in 2020 is the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. We have it right here.
Last year, in a one-off effort, Samsung put out the Note10 and Note10 Plus – a relatively closely-specced pair where size was really the key factor for picking one over the other. Not so this time around. The Note 20 Ultra and Note20 are both big and feature parity is out the door – in a similar fashion to how the S20 Ultra is above and beyond the S20+, only even more so.
Pounding on the Note20 in absentia isn’t what we’re here for and we’ll deal with its shortcomings and limitations when one shows up at our doorstep. For now, let’s focus on the Ultra.
First appearing on the other S20 Ultra, the oversized camera hump makes a return on the Note 20 Ultra. Most of the bits inside are the same, including the main 108MP cam and the 12MP ultra wide. But the periscope telephoto that’s in part responsible for the sheer size of the assembly is now 12MP, swapping out the 48MP unit of the S-series phone – we’ll have to see about that.
Galaxy family shot: S20 Ultra • Note20 Ultra • Note10 Plus
The display is a nice marriage of Note-style geometry with some high refresh rate coming in from the S20s, now supposedly made even better with an adaptive refresh rate adjustment. Oh, and spoiler – it’s the brightest AMOLED screen we’ve seen to date.
The S Pen is here, of course, now relocated to the left side. It’s improved too, getting a 9ms latency (down more than 4 times compared to the Note10), system-wide Air actions, and a Notes app to make you forget Google Keep.
All this comes in a redesigned package featuring a stainless steel midframe where once was aluminum and the brand new Gorilla Glass 7 (aka Victus) for improved durability. For improved looks, the matte finish on the back will ward off fingerprints, though only the Mystic Bronze color option gets that treatment, sadly. The Mystic Black is all shiny.
Samsung Wireless DeX (desktop experience support)
ANT+
Bixby natural language commands and dictation
Samsung Pay (Visa, MasterCard certified)
Ultra Wideband (UWB) support
BATTERY
Type
Li-Ion 4500 mAh, non-removable
Charging
Fast charging 25W
USB Power Delivery 3.0
Fast Qi/PMA wireless charging 15W
Reverse wireless charging 4.5W
MISC
Colors
Mystic Bronze, Mystic Black, Mystic White
Models
SM-N985F, SM-N985F/DS
SAR
0.57 W/kg (head) 1.02 W/kg (body)
SAR EU
0.32 W/kg (head) 1.47 W/kg (body)
Price
$ 1,044.99
Some other points on that list raise questions, however. Like the battery capacity that’s less than on the S20 Ultra, and the axing of the 45-watt charging support. The increasing gap between the Snapdragon and Exynos platforms is another less than ideal reality that users in half the world need to come to terms with.
Speaking of, we’ll be reviewing the Exynos version of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, in 5G spec. That’s one of few times you’ll hear 5G mentioned in the review, however, as we’ll be dropping it for the sake of brevity.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra unboxing
A rather typical Samsung presentation, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra‘s two-piece black cardboard box features the S Pen printed on the lid. A slightly glossy ‘N20’ contrasts against the matte material while the side edges of the top surface have striped patterns to allude to the curved display inside.
As part of the package, you’d be getting a 25-watt charger that adheres to USB PowerDelivery with the PPS bit of the standard supported as well. A USB-C-to-C cable is included, naturally. A pair of AKG-branded in-ear headphones are in there too, if you’re not getting a pair of Galaxy Buds Live as part of some pre-order bundle.
This being a review unit and not strictly a retail-ready package, it was missing the usual spare S Pen tips and the tool for replacing them. Different sizes of tips for the earbuds were nowhere to be found either. We can’t imagine Samsung‘s skipping either of these things and commercially available units will likely have them.
Competition
If you want the ultimate smartphone with a stylus available now, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has no competition even at its steep price of $1300/€1300, it’s simple as that. If you’re willing to compromise in one direction or another, a world of options opens up to you.
If you’re dead set on the S Pen, but the Ultra is too expensive, you have a couple of options – a plain Note 20 or a Note10 Plus. The newer model will get you a next-gen processor and camera setup as well as longer software support. It will come in at $1000/€1000, however, and you won’t be getting a high refresh rate display in the process, and we’re not yet ready to forgive it for its plastic back either.
The Note10+ is glass on both sides all right, and while it too refreshes at 60Hz, at least it’s got the 1440p resolution unlike the Note 20. The Note10 Plus is, admittedly, a generation behind in camera technology, but it still has an easily good enough tri-set. Best bit about it is the price, though that does vary wildly from region to region – a little over half the Note 20 Ultra in Europe at about €800, but a less enticing $1100 in the US. It’s actually more expensive than the Note20 in India at current rates, so that’s easily settled there.
Pick a Note: 20 Ultra or 10 Plus
If, on the other hand, the S Pen is little more than a nice-to-have to you and you’re willing to sacrifice that, but want to keep the camera system, the Galaxy S20 Ultra is just the one for you. If you’re in Europe that is – while the S20U is a good €250-300 less than the N20U there, for some reason it is $100 more in the US and about the same price as the Note in India. A minor hit in battery life is also part of the deal in the Eurozone, but it’s hardly consequential and you’ll probably live just fine with the S20 Ultra’s ‘only’ 1200nits of peak brightness instead of the Note’s 1500nits.
That’s just the Samsungs, though. Oppo will sell you a Find X2 Pro for €1100 through official channels and a case could be made it’s the better deal. It’s a different camera system on the Oppo with its own pros and cons, but it’s a very capable one nonetheless and offers similar coverage, plus the all-important (if only to select few) autofocus on the ultra wide cam. It’s mostly a tie in battery life with the Find charging twice as fast. The Find’s display is nearly as good as the Note’s too – arguably even better in a way because it can run in 1440p at 120Hz. You’ll be sacrificing memory expansion (is it an issue with 256GB of base storage on the Oppo?) and the selfie cam tops out at 1080p30 which could be limiting if you’re one to vlog.
Another entrant from China is the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro – since Xiaomi’s Ultra isn’t leaving its home market. We’re seeing deals for the Mi 10 Pro for as low as €800, and the €500 that you’ll get to keep in your pocket can justify a lot of trade-offs – not that you’d have to make a ton. The Mi’s display isn’t quite up there with the Note’s but refreshes at a sensible 90Hz and is as bright as a Galaxy from the spring. A true quad-cam setup can give the Note 20 Ultra a hard time in most conditions, but this one too is underpowered on the selfie video front. Perhaps the Mi’s biggest downside is the lack of an IP68 rating.
If you’re eyeing the Note 20 Ultra for its zoom power, maybe Huawei could interest you in a P40 Pro+ that can do 10x optically (sort of). That one has no Google services and no stereo speakers, yet is even pricier, though at this point does an extra €100 really count? It matches the Note 20 Ultra for selfie video capture, for a change, adding 3D face mapping in the process. Battery life is a toss up, the display is very good on the Huawei if not quite as good and the 990 Kirin is a bit behind the 990 Exynos. But 10x zoom, though. Okay, 8.5x, technically, but still 8.5>5.
Verdict
With the bulk of smartphones at most price points, some careful examination is needed to establish if they are a good deal or if the competition offers better bang for your buck. It’s rarely so when it comes to Galaxy Notes thanks to the lineup’s practically exclusive feature set – yes, the S Pen is a big chunk of that, but it’s about the entire full-featured package. Taking that a level up to Ultra in 2020, the concept of value-oriented deal almost becomes irrelevant.
The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is not twice as good a smartphone as the Note10+ that you can find for half its price in some parts of the world. Dropping this much money on a phone in these… unusual times is irresponsible. This phone or that phone will give you 90% of the experience at 60% of the price – or randomly cooked-up numbers of the sort. The Note 20 Ultra itself isn’t perfect, not to mention it’s even less perfect in half of the world.
Perhaps all of that is true. But the Note 20 Ultra is the most complete Galaxy and very likely the most complete smartphone you can buy right now. If your latest bank statement signs off on it, so do we.
Pros
The best display on the market.
Surprisingly good battery life for the display/battery combo.
S Pen is a joy to use, wireless DeX is a nice addition.
Incredibly versatile and well-performing camera system.
Cons
The camera bump could be unsightly depending on who you ask.
Performance divide between versions, Exynos variant isn’t up to the same standard.
Charging speed is not competitive.
Either 120Hz or 1440p, why not both? Also Adaptive refresh rate mode has a questionable effectiveness.
Ultra – that’s where you end up when you one-up your usual Plus. In other words, Samsung‘s outdone itself this year and has gone above and beyond its S20+ to give us the Galaxy S20 Ultra.
Leading the spring-time roster this year, the Ultra marks a shift compared to the 2019 lineup. Where last year we had the similar in most ways S10 and S10+, and then the S10e positioned below them, this time around there’s a model above the mainstream S20 and S20+ – the new moniker makes all the sense then.
And it’s ultra alright. Sure, it’s got an even bigger display and packs a larger battery with faster charging than the other S20s, plus you can have it with up to a ridiculous 16GB of RAM, while the non-Ultras top out at a modest 12GB. But that’s not it.
It’s the camera – likely the most extraordinarily all-out setup we’ve seen to date. The primary cam uses a sizeable 108MP sensor which combines 9 tiny pixels into one big one with processing designed to make use of the extra data being gathered – Nonacell as Samsung calls it.
Then there’s the telephoto shooter – it’s got an unmatched combination of a big 48MP imager and a periscope lens offering 4x optical zoom over the main. Samsung has ‘100X space zoom’ branding on the back of the phone and we’ll be sure to check by just how much it misses the moon, but in any case it’s a spectacularly impressive tele camera on paper.
The ultra wide isn’t quite there. While it is a new unit with a big sensor and large pixels, it’s still missing a vital part of what makes a truly good camera – autofocus.
Over on the front, there’s yet another ultra camera touch – Samsung‘s fitted a 40MP selfie module to set it apart from the so familiar 10MP units on the regular S20s. It’s going to be one lengthy camera section.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G
Body: 166.9×76.0x8.8mm, 222g (220g for the non-5G); curved Gorilla Glass 6 front and back, metal frame; IP68 rating; Cosmic Grey, Cosmic Black color schemes.
Front camera: 40 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 0.7µm, PDAF.
Video recording: Rear camera: 8K 4320p@24fps, 4K 2160p@30/60fps, FullHD 1080p@30/60/240fps, 720p@960fps. Front camera: 4K 2160p@30/60fps, FullHD 1080p@30/60fps.
Battery: 5,000mAh, 45W fast charging support over Power Delivery 3.0 (25W charger supplied in the box).
Misc: Fast Qi/PMA wireless charging 15W; Power bank/Reverse wireless charging 9W; Ultra-sonic under-display fingerprint reader; NFC; FM radio (USA & Canada only); Stereo loudspeakers; Samsung DeX support (desktop experience).
Mind you, we’re reviewing the 5G version of the Galaxy S20 Ultra, while an LTE-only variant will apparently also be in existence. It’s not a hugely important distinction for the purposes of this review, as we have little along the lines of 5G networks in our neck of the woods anyway. We’ll be omitting the ‘5G’ for the remainder of the article. Another clarification due here is that we’re reviewing the Exynos version of the handset, as is typically the case.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G unboxing
The Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G ships in what’s become the standard Samsung box for high-end models – black, not very flashy at all. The visuals have changed slightly and now there’s an outline of the phone on the lid, with the ‘S20‘ so big it spills over to the sides.
Inside, there are few surprises. You get the 25W charger as opposed to the 45W one, even though the phone supports the higher wattage, and there’s a USB-C cable to complete the link. The pair of AKG branded earbuds ending in a USB-C connector are also a familiar sight from the Note10 bundle. Perhaps the only slightly unusual bit is the clear silicone case you’ll find in the paper sleeve you need to pry out of the lid of the box.
Competition
Let’s face it, if you’re considering spending $1400/€1350 on a phone, you’re probably not driven entirely by reason. Impulsive and/or compulsive buyers as we may be ourselves, the numbers in that first sentence still command some deliberation, even in a money-is-no-object context.
The way we see it, that much cash buys you a Galaxy Z Flip and the flippy Samsung will certainly catch more jealous stares than the ultra Samsung. The Flip is more fragile, it has a much less impressive camera setup and a plebeian 60Hz display (which is also kinda plastic), and not a whiff of 5G. But which one is cooler though?
Funnily enough, for S20 Ultra money you can get almost two Galaxy Note10s in Europe, though that doesn’t seem to be the case in other places. Still, if you do the sane thing and opt for a single Note, maybe even a Plus, you stand to save a lot wherever in the world you are and gain an S Pen in the process. However, Note10s only zoom half the way the Ultra can, and S20s can refresh their displays twice as many times a second as Note10s do.
Or maybe get an iPhone, that’s always an option. A sensible 256GB 11 Pro Max will leave you with $150 in the bank if you’re in the US and save you all the trouble of having to figure out when you’ll be recording with which camera on the Ultra – the iPhone can record with all of them at the same time. Of course, the Ultra’s 4x and 120Hz trump cards remain. There’s a tiny caveat that with Apple’s pricing, the iPhone will actually cost a few dozen Euros more around here, and a cool 30% more in India. So if you’re in India, get the Ultra over the iPhone, obviously.
Seriously, though, the regular Galaxy S20s that we’re still waiting to get our hands on, could end up being the best value S20. Latest chipsets, 120Hz screens too, interesting cameras in their own right, easily more pocketable than the Ultra even if you go for the Plus, and available in moderately interesting colors.
Verdict
The Galaxy S20 Ultra is not without potential. But the overenthusiastic marketing and the sheer size of that camera bump had us expecting the next big thing – instead, space zoom it isn’t and Nonacell is nona-mazing, at least for now.
Yes, the periscope telephoto is great and it’s superior in every way to that other similar periscope telephoto that came a year earlier, but we are a year later now and that’s expected. Yes, the Ultra’s got a big-sensor primary camera which could probably do great things eventually but we didn’t see magic over the past couple of weeks. Yes, it’s the best display Samsung‘s put out, but why can’t we get the refresh rate and the resolution all at the same time? Hmm…
At the Ultra’s asking price, you deserve to be spoiled, and you deserve to be getting magic. And since that’s apparently not the case, we’d advise you to check out the more affordable Galaxy S20s this spring. And, if you think you could keep your sharp fingernails away from it, might as well consider the Z Flip.
Pros
Big, bright and beautiful 120Hz AMOLED display.
The great periscope telephoto cam offers versatile zoom options.
The new gen chipset is a solid upgrade performance-wise.
Stereo speakers are nice and loud.
Charging is very fast.
Cons
Ultra expensive.
Underwhelming battery life with 120Hz refresh rate.
108MP Nonacell camera fails to live up to the hype.
‘Space zoom 100x’ is just for marketing.
Fingerprint sensor performance is way behind the competition.
The Galaxy A-series have grown so much in the last couple of years and Samsung is keeping the family afloat with a couple of successful models despite the fierce Chinese competition in the mid-range. Well, it appears that the Galaxy A lineup is mature enough to introduce a flagship smartphone of its own – the Galaxy A90.
What makes a flagship device flagship-worthy? Good screen, performance, cameras and features are all integral part of a true flagship device and the Galaxy A90 appears to have most of them in its checklist. So in a sense, it’s a flagship Galaxy A smartphone by mid-range standards.
Of course, Samsung isn’t trying to sell you a flagship phone with the Galaxy A90 but instead, it’s trying to bring 5G to the masses. As of now, not many SoCs support 5G and all of them are high-end chips so the best way to do it is to put one of them in a ready and somewhat successful mid-range formula – in this case the Snapdragon 855 in a Galaxy A70.
As you go across the specs sheet real quick, you will see that the Galaxy A70 is an almost identical device to the Galaxy A90 5G. The only difference is in the chipset and the main camera – the Galaxy A90 gets the popular 48MP sensor while the A70 settles for the 32MP one.
Samsung Galaxy A90 specs
Body: Gorilla Glass 6 front and back panel, aluminum side frame
Screen: 6.7″ Super AMOLED, 1080x2400px resolution, 393 ppi.
But we can’t shake off the feeling that the it’s a bit early for this phone. The 5G adoption is too small for now and anyone looking to be an early adopter will be aiming for the premium segment anyway. And besides, the Galaxy S10 is selling for roughly the same price, which is a true flagship phone, minus the 5G.
Design
Expectedly, there’s virtually no difference between the Galaxy A70 and A90 in terms of design. Since the screen measures 6.7″ in diagonal, it’s easy to assume that it’s unwieldy, to say the least. It’s one of the biggest Galaxies around so users will small hands will struggle.
The curved back and the thin side bezels do help with the overall handling while the top and the bottom bezels are considerably slim too. It does give the impression of a high-end smartphone when looking at it from the front.
Interestingly, the Galaxy A90 uses glass for its back instead of plastic like its cheaper sibling, the Galaxy A70. The glass panel features geometric patterns giving it a more distinct look and the available colors are Black and White. The patterns themselves do look a lot different from what we’ve seen before.
The glass back is also a home to the triple-camera setup tucked away in the upper-left corner. It’s vertically stacked but the bump isn’t as prominent as one would expect. Perhaps it’s because the Galaxy A90‘s chassis is 0.5mm thicker than the A70’s making the camera bulge less prominent.
Unfortunately, we don’t have any information regarding the device’s frame but since Samsung didn’t say anything specific about it, we’d assume it’s plastic.
Hardware and features
This is not the first smartphone we’ve seen with Snapdragon 855 so we know what to expect in terms of performance. The SoC is paired with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage as a base offering and you can upgrade to the 8GB/128GB configuration. Strangely, microSD card support applies only to the 6GB model. The modem inside is Qualcomm’s X50, which is also found on the range-topping Galaxy S10 5G.
The device is built around a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED panel with a U-shaped notch. An extra tall 20:9 aspect ratio (1080 x 2400px resolution) makes the phone ideal for videos, web browsing and multi-tasking. It’s just a few pixels shy of the 21:9 cinematic experience offered on some phones.
On the camera front, we’ve got a 48MP main one with a rather small f/2.0 aperture and PDAF, 8MP ultra wide-angle lens with f/2.2 and a 5MP depth sensor. The notch houses a 32MP shooter and just like the main one, it supports native quad-pixel technology and outputs 8MP images.
This is one of the few Samsung devices with the 48MP sensor and our two main complaints are the narrow f/2.0 opening of the lens – rarely can you find even a midranger with a smaller than f/2.0 aperture – and the lack of OIS. The exact same camera can be found on the Galaxy A80.
Then again, the more advanced ISP on the Snapdragon 855 chipset could mean some minor improvements here and there. Speaking of the Snapdragon 855, it brings a couple of camera-related features that are only available on the Galaxy flagship handsets. Thus, the Galaxy A90 can shoot Super Steady videos (like the S10s and the Note10s), makes use of the Scene Optimizer and Flaw Detector. Of course, 2160p video recording in 30fps is also possible.
Additionally, for the first time, Samsung is bringing DeX support for its mid-range A-series with the Galaxy A90. Most probably hardware limitations have kept the PC-like experience away from the series but with the Snapdragon 855, DeX is now available over the USB-C connector.
While on the subject of connectors, the Galaxy A90 seems to be missing the 3.5mm audio jack from the equation. Strangely, the Galaxy A70 has one.
Lastly, the whole hardware sips from a generous 4,500 mAh battery supporting 25W fast charging in compliance with the Power Delivery standard. But don’t hold your breath for that one because the Galaxy A70’s charging times were far from the ones we got when testing the Galaxy Note10+.
Battery life should be stellar, given that the Snapdragon 855 has proven to be a remarkably efficient SoC and should be in the same ballpark as the Galaxy A70. However, when 5G is involved, since the Snapdragon 855 doesn’t have an integrated modem, the X50 is expected to draw more power too.
Wrap-up
As we already pointed out, Samsung isn’t aiming at the premium-seeking users with the Galaxy A90 but instead, it tries to deliver a semi-flagship experience with 5G connectivity at a more reasonable price point, as far as 5G phones go. It’s by far the cheapest 5G option out there and it’s already out in Korea for roughly €685.
The price is surely steep and it begs the question of how bad you want to be an early 5G adopter? For the same price (even a few bucks less), you can snatch a full-fledged flagship like the Samsung Galaxy S10 or the considerably cheaper S10e. Of course, both are limited to 4G support and have considerably smaller screens. If 5G and big screen are a necessity for you, the A90 is the only option you have and that’s what Samsung is aiming for.
The confirmation comes from Samsung’s biggest mobile experience store in India, courtesy of an inquiry from Android Authority and a separate reaffirmation from Sammobile. The Opera House store in Bengaluru has said that it will start sales of the devices from January 29th, as stock won’t reach India until the week after the launch. It also says it has begun taking preorders with an ₹2000 ($27) deposit, in return for which it will keep customers updated on availability via WhatsApp. Those leaving a deposit will not need to decide which variant they want until the official announcement. After all, technically, these devices “don’t exist” yet.
The store also confirmed that Indian devices will be powered by the still-unannounced Exynos 2100 chipset, rather than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 believed to be under the hood in some other markets. They also confirmed the colors seen in teaser videos – gray, pink, purple, and white for the Galaxy S21, pink, purple, silver, and black for the Galaxy S21 Plus, and silver or black for the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
Yesterday, we got our first look at what’s believed to be the camera array for the range, suggesting a main sensor at 12MP, along with a 12MP ultra-wide lens and a 64MP telephoto lens. The Ultra has a quad-array with 108MP main shooter, 12MP Ultra Wide lens and not one, but two telephoto lens, one of which offers up to 10x optical zoom, the other 3x zoom. One thing that hasn’t been confirmed or denied is the rumor that Samsung won’t be bundling a charger with this year’s flagships, at least in some countries. That’s a surprise yet to come.
In an unexpected turn of events, a regional branch of Samsung revealed the launch date for the Galaxy S21 series before any announcement from its global offices. More specifically, Samsung India confirmed the company’s next-gen flagship series will be debuting on January 14th. It did so in quite a casual statement issued to Android Authority earlier today.
We followed up with Samsung’s local offices and had a company official confirm the development. Not only that, but they actually said Samsung Experience Stores in India are already accepting Galaxy S21 pre-orders in exchange for a token advance fee of Rs. 2,000 (just over $27).
Is Samsung India jumping the gun with these Galaxy S21 pre-bookings?
If that sounds a bit premature, that’s probably because it is. Because it seems these early pre-bookings are completely blind, i.e. they are not accompanied by any concrete pricing or availability details. Yet with Samsung now confirming our October scoop by announcing a definitive Galaxy S21 launch date that falls in the first half of January, those who pre-book them today might already have their new Android flagships by the end of the same month.
Anyone who pays the aforementioned fee will be able to choose from any of the available models once the actual pre-orders open on January 14th before everyone else. Finally, Samsung India also revealed the color options for the entire flagship series, stating that the Galaxy S21 will be available in white, gray, pink, and purple, whereas the Galaxy S21+ will also be offered in purple and pink, in addition to black and silver. Those last two hues will be the only options presented to prospective Galaxy S21 Ultra buyers.
This is not just a smartphone. It’s a gaming smartphone.
Have you notice lately about a new breed of smartphones? Aside from the growing popularity of the folding phone, gaming smartphones are all on the rage right now. The rise of mobile gaming gave way for smartphone manufacturers to make gaming focused devices.
So are they just regular smartphones with slightly better specs on some areas or are there things common among these monstrous computing devices?
Here’s five distinct features that a gaming smartphone could or should have. We are not saying that all these things exist in a single smartphone but more often than not, these come as standard to be able to say that your smartphone is gaming focused.
1. High Refresh Display
What’s the difference between high resolution and high refresh displays? High resolutions are typically 1440p or 4K AMOLED displays mostly seen on flagship smartphones. High refresh rate displays are higher than 60Hz (the standard refresh rate even on laptop monitors). Gaming smartphones can have 120Hz or 144Hz refresh rates which provides a very smooth animation for gaming. It also allows you, the player, to react sooner to moving targets or elements in the UI. You have to see it to appreciate it. The Asus ROG Phone 3, ZTE Nubia Red Magic 5G have 144Hz refresh rate and a 1080p resolution. The OnePlus 8 Pro has a 120Hz refresh rate and a 1440p resolution. Notice that as the refresh rate increases, the effective resolution decreases. It’s a trade off to preserve battery life and maintain a cool thermal for the smartphone.
2. Enormous Battery Capacity
The Asus ROG Phone 3 has 6000mAh battery. ZTE Nubia Red Magic 5G, 4500mAh. Xiaomi Black Shark 3 Pro, 5000mAh. If you plan on gaming for longer sessions, your smartphone need to last for longer. Yes, you can plug in your smartphone to a powerbank while gaming but that’s not a wise idea if you want to maintain the performance of your smartphone. Your typical smartphone have 2500 to 3000mAh battery capacity. It’s perfect for regular daily tasks. But for high refresh rate gaming, a bigger lithium power source is needed. That’s why the big gaming smartphone brands are packing the highest possible battery to give you the edge to win.
3. Even Bigger Storage
OnePlus 8 Pro and Xiaomi Black Shark 3 Pro give you 256Gb of internal storage. And so is the Asus ROG Phone 3. ZTE Nubia Red Magic 5G, 128Gb. We all know that game files when downloaded locally can take up a lot of space. So gaming smartphones, in following this principle needed to have big storage spaces for these games. 256Gb is great but having the option of adding an external micro SD card, it’s even better. This means that you can allocate you faster internal storage for your games, and your external storage for all your other files.
4. Custom Cooling Solution
How does your smartphone keep itself cool? Simple, it transfers the heat from the CPU and other components to the case. That’s why when you hold your smartphone that just performed a very heavy task, it’s really hot. Yes, you are the heat sink. You absorb and transfer the heat from the device to your hands. Gaming smartphones, on the other hand, goes way beyond this solution and provide you with a custom cooling solution to accelerate this process. You will not see it but inside an Asus ROG Phone 3 are bigger copper heat sinks and thermal paste. Yes, the same thing you use on your desktop and laptop CPU. In effect, it can dissipate heat faster than your conventional smartphone.
5. Performance, Performance, Performance
It’s all about the performance. If your gaming smartphone has a weak CPU, it will not stay on top that long. Samsung Galaxy S20, Snapdragon 865 chipset. The same with Xiaomi Black Shark 3 Pro and ZTE Nubia Red Magic 5G. Asus ROG Phone 3’s got a better one, the Snapdragon 865+. In short, only the best processor with the highest possible speed will be allowed in this category. As soon as a new high performance processor is released, a gaming smartphone could have that hardware to maximise your gaming credibility – if only on paper.
Now you see how gaming smartphones are different from your pedestrian smartphones. They are based on performance, endurance and efficiency. Although your smartphone has these qualities too but nothing beats a smartphone that was specifically built, designed and sold to be good at gaming.
Call us at 8011 4119 if you have smartphone problems, Sydney CBD Repair Centre will fix it for you.
Why go to a repair shop or a manufacturer or the smartphone shop you bought the phone from? When you can do it yourself?
So you have to know if you are an enthusiast or a tech oriented individual. If you own a shop and you fix smartphones for a living, then this video is not for you. However, if you only do screen replacement once or twice a year, then watch out for the risk of DIYing a screen replacement.
Risk #1: You buy the wrong replacement part.
Think about it, the only places where you can buy these replacement parts is online shops or an actual repair shop that is willing to sell you one.
There will be a risk that you can buy the wrong part from a slightly different model. Whether it’s an iPhone or Android smartphone, you might end up with a half open smartphone that you fixed up in your kitchen counter because you can’t finish it because of a wrong part.
Risk #2: You don’t have the right tools or the knowledge to use them.
If you’ve seen some of our videos, we have a lot of special tools specifically designed to perform an operation. Oftentimes, we create our own tools based on experience.
If you don’t have the right tools to do the job, then you can jeopardise the whole repair by giving your already damaged device more damage. It’s a risk that you have to think about. Remember that a smartphone screen is made up of glass. You still have to be very gentle with it and use non-metallic tools to pry your smartphone open.
Risk #3: You can have complications while disassembling or reassembling the device.
You’ve watched videos on ifixit. you have the tools. You have the right part. But what if somewhere down your screen replacement operation, something came up that was not discussed in the repair video that you watched? What if your smartphone didn’t boot up when you tested it? What will you do?
Complications like these can happen if you don’t know the nuance of fixing a specific smartphone model. What is your smartphone chassis is bent? What will you do? What if you punctured your battery? These complications do happen, folks, so watch out.
Risk #4: You can spend more if you damage other components.
Speaking of complications, one other risk is damage to other components. So you thought that you just have to remove the broken screen and you’re good to go? One wrong move and you can bend your smartphone’s housing. Hashtag, bendgate. You can puncture your battery if you’re not careful too. That’s why no metallic objects should be used when you interact with electrical or glass components of a smartphone. You can also leave scratches on the smartphone’s aluminum body.
Damaging other parts of the smartphone if you’re not careful is a risk.
Risk #5: You don’t know advanced troubleshooting techniques if the smartphone won’t boot up after your screen replacement.
We already discussed this. What if your smartphone required more troubleshooting after you successfully replaced the screen? Do you know how to deal with it? If you’re not sure, just let the pros do it.
Sometimes, when you drop your smartphone and whacked the front display, you can also dislodge some parts inside the smartphone. Or your smartphone just won’t accept the replacement screen. It’s like next level skills that you can only get from years of experience fixing smartphones.
Call us at 8011 4119 if you have smartphone problems, Sydney CBD Repair Centre will fix it for you.
We know very well of the dangers of a battery exploding or instantly dying on you. One is a fire hazard and a health hazard. The other one can let you down on critical situations. So how can you tell that your battery needs to retire and you need to get a new one?
Reason #1: Reduced Battery Life
One of the main reason is when your battery isn’t as lively as it used to be a year ago. It needed a recharge after lunch? It needed one again just after six o’clock. What is going on? Aging. That’s what’s going on. Some lithium ion batteries just lost their capabilities to hold charge after a year. Some batteries are extreme so you might end up with a bad one. Get a new battery installed if you still want to use your old device.
Reason #2: Unexpected Shutdowns
This is worse. You are still at 80 percent and then out goes your smartphone to sleep. What’s going on? Well, your battery is not even registering the accurate charge through it’s controller. This means that it can go from hero to zero in a second. Battery replacement? Sure.
Reason #3: Bootloops
Smartphones are smart. That’s why when they detect that your battery is not supplying enough voltage to start up the device, they immediately retry. And then retry again. And again. You’re in a loop. A boot loop. Some factors can also cause this like corrupted OS or a bad motherboard. However, if you can fix it with a battery replacement, then go for it.
Reason #4: Physical Damage
Need I say more? Your smartphone is literally trying to rip itself apart because the battery pack is bloating. This is dangerous so don’t even attempt to open up your device if you don’t know what you’re doing. It can explode. Go to a repair centre immediately and have this sorted out.
Call us at 8011 4119 if you have smartphone problems, Sydney CBD Repair Centre will fix it for you.
These 5 screen menace could happen to your smartphone too!
In the many years of Sydney CBD Repair Centre operation, we have faced screen issues of all sorts. From the subtle cracks to the totally obliterated smartphone display. We fix all of them. Here are the top 5 most common that we deal with on the daily.
Damage #1: Cracks
We’re pretty sure that you’ve seen a crack before. When you drop something glassy and brittle, it will most likely crack, shatter or disintegrate into smaller pieces. Your smartphone is no different. It will crack when you sit on it the wrong way. It will crack when you drop it on the hard floor. It will crack if you tried to fix it yourself. It will crack if you ran it over with your car. All this Gorilla glass technology and your smartphone’s display won’t last long if you don’t cover it with thick screen protectors. This damage is as old as the first fully glass LCD on the modern smartphone. It’s also the most common so if you cracked yours, then welcome to the club!
Damage #2: Dead Pixels
To be honest this is not that annoying if you’re not really particular on your smartphone’s condition. A dead pixel is not a broken Google smartphone but exactly how it is said – dead/broken pixels. Your smartphone can exhibit a permanent dot where a pixel is not anymore working. It’s unnoticeable if you got one or two of them. However, if you got a big region with dead pixels, then you might need to replace your screen.
Damage #3: Ghost Touch
Ghost touch is when your smartphone screen is moving some of the UI elements totally on its own. This means that the touch mechanism is detecting touches that you didn’t do. Hence, the name ghost touch because it seems like someone unseen is using your smartphone. But there is no ghost involved, fortunately. This is just a faulty touch assembly that picks up taps and drags because some portions of it are permanently pressed down. It can detect this all the time so when you use your smartphone, it seems like it is using your smartphone with a ghost.
Damage #4: No Backlight
This is a tricky one to diagnose. Your smartphone screen has many layers. There’s the touch assembly, the LCD/LED layer and the backlight, if it is an LCD. What it does is it lights up your screen. DUh? But when it gets busted, you will not see a thing. Seriously. However, if you light up your smartphone with a flashlight, you can see that your smartphone is perfectly working but you just don’t see a thing! Screen replacement is the way to go on this one or maybe a software update. But updating your smartphone is rarely the solution on this hardware problem.
Damage #5: Brightness or Colour Issues
Of course, you can’t complete this list without mentioning the washed out colour problem on some displays. There are also cases of burn-in on some AMOLED display where it retains some images of static UI elements. But this one is stemmed on either a bad smartphone setting or a bad display overall. You can’t ramp up your smartphone’s brightness outdoors or you just don’t see colour accurately like you did before. If tinkering with the settings on your smartphone wouldn’t work, replace the screen mate. We’ll help you with that.
Call us at 8011 4119 if you have smartphone problems, Sydney CBD Repair Centre will fix it for you.
A 5.2-inch Super AMOLED display, 14nm Exynos chipset, a body made out of a glass/metal combo, IP68 certification, 16MP f/1.9 cameras front and back – it sure sounds like Samsung’s next flagship. Only it’s not the flagship we’re talking about, but the Galaxy A5 (2017) premium mid-ranger.
Of course, we are guilty of hand-picking that selection of specs to prove a point, and there are other fields in that spec sheet that would give away the A5’s lower position in the Galaxy universe. Display resolution is one (1080p), and the chipset is another (Exynos 7880). Even though it’s made on a cutting-edge 14nm fabrication process, it’s still only mainstream Cortex-A53 cores inside and not hard-hitting Mongooses or Kryos. And then the cameras lack OIS and 4K video recording, even if they both offer higher resolution than the Galaxy S7.
Connectivity: nano SIM (dual SIM version available); LTE (Cat. 6); Wi-Fi ac; Bluetooth 4.2; FM Radio; USB Type-C; 3.5mm jack
Battery: 3,000mAh
Misc: Fingerprint reader, IP68 certification for dust and water resistance, Samsung Pay
Main shortcomings
Somewhat expensive – the Galaxy S6 can be had for less, the S7 is slightly pricier, but will certainly dip in a couple of months when the S8 comes out.
Android is still Marshmallow, though an update is coming.
No 4K video recording at a price point, where you can find plenty of phones that support it.
It’s not exactly what you call a bargain, the A5 (2017), unfortunately. Its price tag makes a pretty solid case for the Galaxy S6, and why not even the S7 when the time is right? It’s also not looking good that Samsung is putting out a new premium product with good ol’ Marshmallow, and no shiny fresh Grace UX can make up for that.
None of that means we don’t like the premise of a premium full-featured (or thereabout) smartphone positioned a notch below the flagships – quite the opposite. We’ll be looking into just how much the A5 (2017) deserves its place in the world on the following pages, starting (not unusually) with a hardware overview.
The Galaxy A5 (2017) measures 146.1 x 71.4 x 7.9 mm which is standard for a 5.2-inch phone – most other devices with the same diagonal are within a millimeter in each direction
As for weight, the A5 (2017) is on the heavy side of average. Its 157g aren’t really an issue, but the similarly sized Huawei P9, for example, tips the scales at just 144g. The brand new HTC U Play is even a notch lighter at 143g, though admittedly it is severely battery-deprived (2,500mAh).
Hardware overview
If there’s one area where the Galaxy A5 (2017) can stand up to flagship-grade scrutiny it’s build and looks. To a non-discerning eye the A5 can easily pass for an S7 – the aluminum frame, the dual-glass sandwich, the shapes and proportions – it’s all top-shelf material.
What’s been missing on the A-series for a while now and hasn’t made an appearance on the Galaxy A5 (2017) either is a notification LED. That one seems to be a flagship-only feature as of late. The top bezel of the midranger does contain all the other usual stuff though – earpiece, proximity/ambient light sensors, and selfie camera.
More importantly, and unlike any previous non-flagship or non-rugged phone, the A-series for this year have IP68 certification for dust and water resistance.
We do tend to compare the Galaxy A5 (2017) to both the existing S7 and the projected S8 and while the S7 is so last year with its 3.5mm jack, the S8 may be one of the trendsetters to lose it. So there – the Galaxy A5 (2017) is on par with the current top model in this respect, and possibly better than the upcoming one.
The Galaxy A5 (2017)‘s wired interface is in fact more up-to-date than the current flagship S7. The Type-C USB port only made it on a Samsung phone with the Note7, but we all know how that ended. Other than a somewhat obscure C9 Pro, the A-series remain the only Samsung handsets with a Type-C port. Beat that, S7.
One odd design decision sees the loudspeaker placed on the right side of the phone, right above the power button. For ringtones that’s as good as any other position and in a way it’s better for video viewing when holding the display in landscape orientation than the prevalent bottom placement. There are no stereo speakers, but there aren’t any on Samsung flagships either. Not yet, at least.
As with a few other previous A-series models, the A5 (2017) has a couple of card slots. The one on the side accommodates one nanoSIM, while the slot on top takes a microSD card. The latter can also fit an additional nanoSIM card on dual SIM versions of the A5 (2017) and in this case the microSD slot remains available – it’s a dedicated solution and not a hybrid one and we can’t stress enough just how much we prefer it this way.
On the back, the S-series have been having all sorts of sensors, but not the A’s – it’s the bare minimum here with just the camera module and the LED flash.
Your palms will undoubtedly appreciate the curves on the back, which make the A5 a joy to handle. Some people tend to complain that glass is slippery, but we’ve had more issues in this respect with satin-finished aluminum on some phones, so it’s probably down to the individual’s skin properties. What’s not debatable is that on glass backs smudges reign.
Display
The Galaxy A5 (2017) like all self-respecting Galaxies packs a Super AMOLED display. The A5 in particular is smack in the middle between the 4.7-inch A3 (2017) and the 5.7-inch A7 (2017) in terms of diagonal, and its 5.2-inch panel has FullHD resolution. That amounts to a 424ppi density but the Diamond Pixel arrangement makes that less sharp than a competing LCD with equal number of subpixels for each color. It’s still plenty sharp though.
The display can give you that AMOLED punch that’s become synonymous with the tech, at the expense of color accuracy. In Adaptive mode average DeltaE is 5.3 with Red waaay off at 11.2, but also quite inaccurate whites. Switch to basic mode, however, and you’re treated to an excellently calibrated display with an average DeltaE of just 2.0 and a maximum of 3.2. Cinema and Photo modes are somewhere in between – whatever floats your boat.
Maximum brightness is excellent, particularly if you engage the Auto mode, in which case the display gets a healthy boost in bright conditions. That said, last year’s model could pump out more nits in Auto mode. Even so, the A5 (2017)‘s numbers are right up there with the S7 flagship – excellent. Contrast is infinite, it’s Super AMOLED’s treat for you. With a minimum brightness of just 1.8 nits night-time scrolling sessions won’t strain your eyes either.
Display test
100% brightness
Black, cd/m2
White, cd/m2
Contrast ratio
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
0
421
∞
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) max auto
0
601
∞
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)
0
413
∞
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) max auto
0
559
∞
Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017)
0
408
∞
Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) max auto
0
518
∞
Samsung Galaxy S7
0
391
∞
Samsung Galaxy S7 max auto
0
563
∞
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
0
392
∞
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge max auto
0
610
∞
Samsung Galaxy S6
0
363
∞
Samsung Galaxy S6 max auto
0
619
∞
Huawei Honor 8
0.34
374
1101
Huawei Honor 8 (Max auto)
0.34
395
1161
Honor 8
0.37
460
1243
Huawei nova
0.25
385
1540
Huawei P9
0.46
500
1094
OnePlus 3
0
433
∞
OnePlus 3T
0
447
∞
As for sunlight legibility, the AMOLED A5 for 2017 is on par with last year’s model, and slightly better than the A3 (2017), but none of them is a match for this or last year’s flagships. In fact, the A5 (2017) sunlight contrast ratio is virtually identical to the budget J7 (2016) – sounds great from that phone’s perspective, not as flattering from the A5’s. That said, only top-of-the-line LCD-equipped phones can post such results (the likes of the iPhone 7 and Xperia XZ), and it’s not them that the A5 is facing, pricey as it may be.
Connectivity
The Galaxy A5 (2017) is well-stocked on connectivity options. Samsung specifies Cat.6 LTE (300Mbps downlink, 50Mbps uplink), with a disclaimer that it may vary by region and carrier, and since the Exynos 7880 itself supports Cat.7 you may want to check locally if the 100Mbps DL speed is of such crucial importance to you (you know who you are).
There are single SIM and dual SIM versions, each of them with two card slots. In each case there’s a dedicated microSD slot as well – on single SIM models (such as the one we had) there’s no cutout for the second SIM in the top slot (presumably, no contacts and hardware, maybe?).
There is also dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth v4.2 (but no detail on aptX for high-quality audio), NFC and MST (for Samsung Pay, where available), and an FM radio receiver. There is no IR transmitter, though.
A Type-C port is in charge of charging, but only adheres to USB 2.0 spec, so you’re limited to a ‘measly’ 480Mbps theoretical maximum transfer speeds. USB OTG is supported for attaching peripherals, but there’s no MHL support for wired video output. Thankfully, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) battery life
The Galaxy A5 (2017) is powered by a 3,000mAh battery – oh, look, it’s the same capacity as the Galaxy S7. And this one has fewer pixels to render, plus a chipset that should be more frugal than the thirsty flagship number-crunchers.
Well, indeed it is. The Galaxy A5 (2017) only fell short of the S7’s time in the voice call test, and just by an hour and a quarter. At close to 22h its result is still perfectly acceptable.
It gets better in the screen-on disciplines. It takes 14 and a half hours of our Wi-Fi web browsing test to deplete the A5’s battery – a remarkable feat, even if the smaller A3 (2017) does outlast it by an hour. The S7, on the other hand, can’t even make it to 10h.
In video playback the A5 crosses the 16-hour mark before calling it quits – another superb performance. The flagship is closer here, but still falls short by an hour and a half.
As for standby, we’ve tested the phone both with the Always On Display feature engaged and then turned off. While it does take a massive toll on standby time (and consequently on the overall endurance rating), you should bear in mind that our testing can’t account for the phone turning off the display completely when it’s in a pocket, for example. So, presumably, actual real-world standby with the AOD on should be much better.
The overall endurance rating of 95h is an excellent result and is a testament to the inherent benefits of having a 14nm chipset on board – be it an Exynos or a Snapdragon.
Software
Remember the Note7? The Galaxy flagship phablet (that wasn’t meant to be) introduced a redesigned Samsung user interface called Grace UX. The Note7 being absent, the 2017 A-series are the only phones to come with the updated Android overlay out of the box, but it is also being seeded as we speak with the Nougat update for the S7 and S7 edge. Mind you, in the A5 (2017)‘s case it’s on top of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, though a bump to Android 7 is in the works.
This generation of A-series is the first to feature Always On Display (AOD). Three main views are available – Clock, Calendar and Image, with some customization available. Notifications from third-party apps show up (something that didn’t work when the S7 launched, but was added later).
The Always On Display dims when ambient light is low and will shut off when the Galaxy A5 is in your pocket. This saves energy, but you can be more explicit about it and put AOD on a schedule (or it may just be that you don’t like the extra light while you sleep).
The lockscreen can be secured with the fingerprint reader. It’s not the fastest we’ve seen, but it’s no slower than the readers that flagship Samsungs use.
The fingerprint reader can do more than that. Web sign-in remembers the passwords you use for sites and can automatically fill them in when you touch the fingerprint reader. You can also secure your Samsung account (more on that in a bit).
The Homescreen has the Briefing pane on the left (which you can disable) and supports themes and icon packs. More interestingly, it supports sort of a 3D Touch feature, not unlike the one found on the Google Pixel phones – you tap and hold on an app and a contextual menu appears. However, it offers just basic app handling actions and is not tied to the actual functionality of app.
The notification area should be quite familiar as well. A line of quick toggles is available above the notifications. Pulling the shade further down reveals all toggles, a brightness slider and a handy search field (Google prefers to put the search field on the homescreen instead).
We like the idea of the Block notifications button, it allows you to quickly mute notifications from pushy apps (games are often guilty of crying for attention when you haven’t played them in a while). Still, we don’t like the aesthetics of it.
The app switcher is the usual rolodex, but unlike the A3 here it offers split-screen multitasking (standard on Nougat, but this is Samsung’s implementation in Marshmallow). The apps that can go in multi-window have an icon next to the X, and that’s one way of doing it – the other is to hold the task switcher capacitive key.
The App drawer has a search field that looks through the apps you have installed, but also suggests apps from Galaxy Apps (you can search the Play Store if you prefer).
Being a somewhat larger phone than the A3, the A5 also gets a one-handed operation mode. It’s part of the Advanced features menu where you can also enable other actions like double press on the Home button to launch the camera and screenshot capture with a palm swipe.
Secure folder creates a separate zone so sensitive files (photos, documents, etc.) and apps can be locked away from prying eyes. Once you enter the Secure folder, taking a photo with the camera or snapping a screenshot places the file in the Secure folder. To access those from the regular gallery, you’ll first have to move them.
The reason you want to secure your Samsung account with your fingerprint is that you get 15GB of cloud storage for free. Everything from contacts to photos can be synced and you get to choose which files are synced over LTE and which are left for when Wi-Fi is available (contacts, calendar and notes don’t use much data, but photos do).
Camera
The Galaxy A5 (2017)‘s primary camera is based on a 16MP sensor that sits behind a 27mm-equiv. lens with an f/1.9 aperture. It’s lost the optical stabilization, unfortunately – last year’s model had that. Autofocus is also contrast-detect only – or at least no phase detection is being advertised. There is a single-LED flash, but that’s been Samsung’s treatments of its flagships, so why should the A-series be any better.
The camera interface has not received substantial changes. Grace UX has brought only minor refinements like swipe gestures.
As usual for Samsung smartphones, you can launch the camera with a quick double press on the Home key. The viewfinder greets you with only a flash mode toggle and a shortcut to settings.
From here you can swipe down to switch between the front and rear cameras, which is much appreciated even if not very original (LG says hi!). Swiping to the left gives you a panel with color filters, while in the other pane you get access to the shooting modes.
That’s where HDR mode resides – there is no Auto HDR like on flagships and the HDR mode is a swipe and a tap away, instead of just a tap. A Pro mode is present too, though that’s clearly a huge overstatement – you get control over exposure compensation, ISO and white balance presents, plus a metering mode selector, but no manual focus and no manual shutter speed. We gather the ‘pro’ could pass for ‘program’, but not ‘professional’, really.
Image quality is quite good, with low noise and minimal signs of noise reduction. Colors are pleasingly vivid too, without being over the top – in this weather it’s mostly the iPhone graffiti in the second image that can testify to that, but it’s enough (also the Photo compare tool down below). Dynamic range is good, though in extreme cases like the 4th and 5th sample you’re bound to end up with blown highlights.
HDR needs to be engaged manually, there’s no Auto and certainly no live preview like on the flagships. In high-contrast scenarios you might be wise to take a shot in normal and HDR mode, just in case. It does what it promises without much drama – shadows get a modest boost, and some detail in the highlights is salvaged, adding up to a very natural-looking image. Some might prefer a little less subtlety here.
We’ve seen better panoramas than the ones coming out of the Galaxy A5 (2017), but then again, we’ve seen better weather too, though certainly not lately. Anyway, the A5’s panoramas are about 1,800px tall, detail is about average, and stitching is very good, of course provided there are no moving objects.
Selfie camera
The selfie camera on the Galaxy A5 (2017) is another 16MP f/1.9 unit, though naturally not of the same caliber as the rear one with the same numbers. For one, the front-facer lacks autofocus, and you’d think that’s a non-issue for a cam used almost exclusively at arm’s length. It would have been, had the focus distance been tuned to arm’s length shooting, and that’s not the case.
Which is sad, because at the proper distance the results are superb, only that means just your face is in the frame, and presumes some serious interest in your pores. At arm’s length everything’s a blur.
The evenly matched pixel count prompted us to make a comparison between the front and rear cameras, and… well… makes you wonder just how crucial composition needs to be for it to make such a trade-off in quality worth it.
Video camera
The Galaxy A5 (2017) captures video up to 1080p/30fps, so no 4K recording out of this one. We’ve sort of grown used to expecting a phone in this price range to be able to do it – damn you, OnePlus 3.
The A5’s videos are encoded with a 17Mbps bitrate, the usual number, while audio gets a generous 256Kbps, stereo.
The FullHD video output is good, with nice levels of detail and low noise. Colors are rendered quite well too, though once again you’re better off looking at the Video compare tool to get a better idea. Audio, by the way, is surprisingly clear, and it can’t be down to just the bitrate.
Final words
One thing is clear from this review – Samsung has got the alphabet wrong. A has never been as close to S as it is with the A (2017) series. The Galaxy A5 (2017) carries more than a passing resemblance to the reigning Galaxy S7 flagship – let’s just say that if the S7 were to stumble into the A5, they’d take a selfie together.
It’s hard to split the two for looks and build quality, and that includes the IP68 certification. Only now making it outside of a select group of flagship or rugged Samsungs, the dust and water proofing is shared across the entire ‘A’ lineup this year. Same for the Home button with a fingerprint reader, complete with Samsung Pay capabilities, but that’s old news – it was already available on last year’s As.
Another thing to trickle down into the upper midrange is the cutting-edge internals. The 14nm chipset at the heart of the A5 (2017) may not outperform the top-end silicon of the day, but its efficiency is immediately evident – the battery life of the A5 is just marvelous.
The 5.2-inch Super AMOLED display is equally great – gone are the days of dim AMOLEDs with colors all over the place. This one is bright, it can be accurate if you want it to be, and it is well visible in the sun. Flagships retain the QHD resolution as a trump card, but the A5 is perfectly okay with its FullHD.
16MP cameras front and back – we can see smiles lighting up the faces of Samsung’s marketing team. The front cam can be super-detailed, only you need to keep the phone a foot away from your face, and that barely fits our grown-up mugs. We don’t know about you, but that’s not how we like our selfies. The rear camera is a lot more balanced and a capable overall performer. Its images are detailed and exhibit mature detail rendering, pleasing colors, and dynamic range is quite wide.
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) key test findings
Build quality and materials are flagship-grade (IP68 rating, too), but the glass back is inevitably prone to fingerprints.
The high-quality Super AMOLED display has excellent maximum brightness and infinite contrast and can put out punchy or spot-on colors depending on your preference. Sunlight legibility is not quite up there with the best, but it’s still better than any LCD.
Battery life is superb – the phone’s endurance rating is 95h, and it posted excellent numbers in all our individual tests.
Grace UX or TouchWiz, Samsung’s interface is functional and feature-rich, now also sleeker. It’s still based on Android Marshmallow, which is less than ideal in 2017.
The Exynos 7880 performs great if you take into account its efficiency. In absolute terms, it’s an average midrange SoC that’s not greatly suited to the most demanding tasks. Then again, Game launcher could help you alleviate that by lowering the resolution at which games are rendered so you get all the special effects.
The loudspeaker posts a Good rating for loudness, it’s nice and clear at maximum volume too.
Image quality from the main camera is good – there’s sufficient detail, colors are nicely saturated, and dynamic range is pretty wide.
1080p video quality is very good, so is the audio that accompanies it.
The 16MP selfie camera produces spectacular results, but its focus is fixed way too close, so you’re forced to choose between narrow coverage or images that are simply not in focus.
The Galaxy A5 (2017) may look like the (still) current flagship S7, but it is the S6 that it will give it the hardest time. The previous-gen top model boasts a higher-grade camera with 4K video recording and OIS, a higher-res display and a superior chipset. We’d even cautiously suggest that the much more versatile 5MP selfie shooter of the S6 wins over the 16MP one of the A5. The A5 (2017) fights back with its IP68 rating (the S6 carries none), a microSD slot, a FM radio and longer battery life, plus a Type-C port if that’s a decider for you.
Oh, we almost forgot – the S6 is one of the best choices if you want to take advantage of Samsung’s Gear VR platform. The A5 (2017) stays quietly in the corner when the big boys talk VR.
Then there are the other As from this year. Maybe you’re eyeing the A3 (2017) for its pocketability, just beware that it’s got a lower-res (and lower pixel density) display, a slower chipset, less RAM and storage and lower-res cameras. It does keep a lot of the important stuff like the microSD slot (though hybrid on the dual-SIM version), IP68 rating, and superb display and battery life. It’s also cheaper, duh.
Or, you could go one up and pick the 5.7-inch Galaxy A7 (2017) if that’s available near you. Much fewer trade-offs here – the hardware is almost identical, only you’d be paying a little more for a larger diagonal and more battery (so possibly better battery life). The one caveat – Samsung won’t be selling the A7 in Europe – a decision which is beyond us.
There’s yet another option that needs to be mentioned, and it’s none other than the Galaxy S7. Of course, it’s considerably more expensive right now, but it’s due for replacement in three months, so if you could wait, the S7 will certainly be a much better deal then. The A5 (2017) has nothing on the flagship – all the advantages over the S6 vanish (alright, there’s the FM radio), and the S7 is hands-down the better phone altogether.
The Xperia X Performance goes for Galaxy A5 (2017) money in most markets. It’s a model that’s close to being a year old if you count from the announcement or half that if you consider the actual launch.
The X Performance is among a select few devices to offer an IP68 rating for dust and water protection, so the A5 has found its match on this front. Not regarding battery life, though – the Sony is nowhere near. It does boast a Snapdragon 820 chipset, which it chooses not to use for UHD video, but its advantages for mobile gaming remain – it’s much better suited to the task than the A5’s Exynos 7880.
Huawei has a couple of phones to compete with the A5 (2017) for your affection. Another flagship due for replacement, the P9 is a bit pricier but has a lovely dual 12MP camera (color+monochrome) on its back and a more powerful chipset (that still doesn’t support 4K video recording, mind you). The A5 is dust and water resistant, though, and makes much better use of its 3,000mAh battery than the P9.
Going for the Huawei nova instead, you’d save a few notes, but still get a premium midranger – this one made of metal. Unlike the P9, the nova has a single rear camera (but then so does the A5), only it can record 4K video. Battery life isn’t half bad, but it’s no match for the marathon runner that the A5 is and the Samsung handset’s display is superior in all respects. Did we mention the A5’s IP68 rating? Well, now we have.
Priced identically to the Galaxy A5 (2017), the OnePlus 3T deserves a spot here. Sure, you can’t find it in a store, and claiming a warranty might be a minor pain in the…hassle, but it’s hard to beat it in bang-for-buck ratio. Packing one of the most powerful chipsets available, the 3T also comes with more RAM and storage. The latest from OnePlus packs 2x16MP cameras too, and both are arguably slightly better than the A5’s, plus the main one can capture 2160p video.
The A5 has its strengths – the 32GB of memory may look modest next to OnePlus’ 64GB or 128GB (has anyone actually gotten one of those), but a 256GB microSD card can easily dwarf that, as the 3T offers no option for expansion. Perhaps you’re tired of reading about the A5’s water-resistance and excellent battery life, but that’s only because no other phone manages to match it on both of those counts, most not even on one. The OnePlus 3T certainly can’t.
Going through the numbers that define the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) it’s all too easy to focus on the negative stuff. No 2160p video recording. £400/€430. Android 6.0.1. Even that name is a bit too much – A5 (2017).
Those numbers can easily be countered with a few others that ring much more nicely, but let’s not get so hung up on the digits. The facts are that the Galaxy A5 (2017) is beautifully-built; it will live through a downpour; it packs a screen that’s only bested by flagships, and has battery life to spare. Of course, it’s not ideal, and it’s not cheap, but you’re also unlikely to find a better match for the description in the previous sentence. Well, not unless you dig even deeper into your pocket.
One of the first phones with five cameras on board and, several months after the announcement, still the only one with four on the back – it’s the Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018). We set out to discover how well the impressive specsheet translates into real world performance.
Sitting on top of the ever-confusing Galaxy A-series, the A9 leaves no doubt it’s the best-equipped of the bunch. Of course, it’s got more cameras than any other – it adds a telephoto module to the A7’s regular/wide/depth configuration. There’s ‘only’ a single cam on the front – the 24MP selfie shooter doesn’t get a depth sensor of its own.
It’s not just the camera count that sets the A9 apart from the rest of the 2018 midrange Galaxy models – it’s also got the most powerful chipset. Its Snapdragon 660 outclasses the Exynos chipsets of its lesser brethren and only falls short of the recently announced A8s (which lacks a year designation, so it doesn’t really count).
The largest display of the A-series is also to be found on the A9 (2018), its 6.3-inch diagonal only bested by that pesky A8s that came out as we were doing the A9’s review, so we had to reword stuff here and there. Anyway, the A9 (2018) feature set continues with more RAM than you could possibly need, 128GB of storage that you can also expand with a dedicated microSD slot, and ample battery capacity complete with Samsung’s sort-of fast charging – yup, the A9’s spec sheet has all the right boxes checked.
Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018) specs
Body: Glass back, metal frame; 162.5 x 77 x 7.8mm, 183g; Caviar Black, Lemonade Blue and Bubblegum Pink color schemes;
Memory: 6GB/8GB (market dependent) of RAM, 128GB of storage; dedicated microSD slot for expansion.
Battery: 3,800 mAh Li-Po (sealed); Samsung Adaptive Fast charging.
Connectivity: Dual SIM; LTE Cat. 9 (450Mbps download/50Mbps upload); USB 2.0 Type-C port; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO; NFC; Bluetooth 5.0; FM radio.
Misc: Rear-mounted fingerprint reader; Samsung Pay; single speaker on the bottom; 3.5mm jack.
Well, we would have preferred Android Pie instead of last year’s Oreo, but in a world where the Note9 doesn’t have v9.0 of the OS yet, and the S9 only got it as a post-Christmas present, we didn’t actually expect it of the A9, of all models.
And while we usually avoid thinking in price-vs-performance terms before evaluating a phone on its merits, the number Samsung is asking for the Galaxy A9 (2018) raised a few eyebrows around the office as soon as the phone got in through the door. We’ll be quick to go over the lab test results, but not before we have a look at the A9’s design.
Design and 360-degree spin
The Galaxy A9 (2018) is immediately recognizeable – after all, there’s no other smartphone with 4 cameras on the back, as we established. The quad-cam array is positioned in the top left corner and is remarkably less intrusive than we would have thought – or is it just us getting used to multi-camera setups?
The four modules are arranged in a row, instead of a 2×2 square and it’s perhaps this setup that makes them less in-your-face. It also helps that they all peek at you from one shared window instead of, say, Huawei’s 2+1 configuration on the P20 Pro. Even so, Samsung didn’t find room in there for the flash and it’s outside of the camera cluster.
Instead of the Galaxy A7 (2018)’s one-off side-mounted fingerprint reader, the one on the A9 is placed more conventionally on the back. If you’re switching from a smaller phone, this reader may seem a bit high, but if you’re coming from another 6+-inch phone it’s exactly where you’d expect it to be. A word of praise to Samsung for having no text other than the company logo to spoil the look of the back.
The front is very clean too – the 6.3-inch Super AMOLED takes center stage, naturally, with thin sides and meatier, though not excessive, top and bottom bezels. Samsung still calls it Infinity Display even though it’s less ‘infinity’ than on the S9s and the Note9s of this world. Some folks will prefer it that way – if you’re into large screens, but like them flat, the A9’s the way to go in Samsung’s lineup.
The top bezel houses the usual elements you’d expect to find there. The earpiece is in the middle, the selfie camera is to its right, while the ambient light and proximity sensors share a cutout on the left. There’s nothing below the display.
The Galaxy A9 (2018)‘s frame is made of metal, keeping together the glass sandwich. Down on the bottom, there’s a USB-C port (we still can’t forgive Samsung for pairing the A7 with a microUSB port in 2018), a good old 3.5mm jack, the single loudspeaker, and the primary mic.
Up top you’ll find the secondary mic pinhole and the card slot. That card slot is our favorite type – it takes two nanoSIMs and a microSD card, so you’re not forced to choose between dual SIM versatility and extra storage.
Samsung’s messed things up a bit with the control scheme on the A9 (2018) and moved the volume rocker to the right, above the power button. It used to be a given that your Samsung will come with a power-on-the-right-volume-on-the-left setup, but that’s no longer the case. There still is a button on the left of the A9 – that one’s for Bixby. Even though we find the arrangement unorthodox for a Galaxy, we had no issues with actually using the buttons, so the above are just pointless musings. The click action is good too.
The Galaxy A9 (2018) measures 162.5x77x7.8mm, which is about right for its display size. The 6.4-inch Note9, in fact, has a marginally smaller footprint, but its curved screen helps with the numbers. And then the A9 is actually a full millimeter thinner than the flagship. The A9 (2018) is also reasonably light for the combination of display size and battery capacity, and its 183g won’t be a burden on your jeans pocket.
Competition
A large-screened smartphone with upper mid-range internals and a bunch of cameras – who else makes those? Practically everyone, though as we’ve established, not one of them can beat the Galaxy A9 (2018) for the sheer number of its rear cameras. Then again, having many cameras on board hasn’t translated into great image quality for the Galaxy, so let’s explore what other options you can get for the same amount of cash.
OnePlus 6T • Xiaomi Pocophone F1 • Huawei P20 Pro • Samsung Galaxy S9+
The OnePlus 6T is the first that comes to mind. Just like the A9, it has one useless camera on the back, but the one that it does use, it uses a whole lot better than the Galaxy. It’s also got a more powerful high-end chipset and overall more streamlined software experience.
The Pocophone F1 caused quite the stir and for a reason – it packs some flagship-grade internals at a fraction of a flagship’s price. It’s also a lot cheaper than the A9, and it also has the Snapdragon 845 of the OP6T, which easily beats the A9’s 660. And the Pocophone isn’t really behind this particular Galaxy in any meaningful way either.
Now, if you want some of that actual flagship feel, the Huawei P20 Pro can be had for about as much as the Galaxy A9 (2018), and it is a superior phone all around, particularly in the camera department where the A9’s chops lie on paper.
The curious thing, however, is that you could be getting a better phone while remaining loyal to Samsung and without spending much more than you’d shell for the A9. The Galaxy S9+ is a couple of months from its due replacement and depending on where you are, deals are to be scored any day now.
Verdict
Conceptually, the Galaxy A9 (2018) shows the direction the industry is headed – single device, all the cameras. In practice, however, it’s precisely these cameras that let it down. Of course, we can’t expect Samsung to make a better cameraphone in the midrange than its current top models, but the A9’s image and video quality is as if it’s coming from another era and it’s not the future we are talking about.
Which is sad, because it’s otherwise a capable phone. All the rest of the important stuff is there – a high-quality display, battery life to spare, a powerful chipset, more RAM and storage than you know what to do with – these are all covered. You know, except for the camera.
The prohibitively high price doesn’t help its case either. We’d understand it if there were no major dealbreakers, but with a camera like this, it’s not really so, is it?
Let’s put it this way – if you’re after the bragging rights for having the world’s only quad-rear-cam phone, well, the Galaxy A9 (2018) is the rather obvious choice. But if you are after taking nice pictures with your phone regardless of the number of cameras it has – well, there are better options out there.
Pros
Excellent display all around.
Very good battery life.
Powerful chipset, a ton of RAM, boatloads of storage and a dedicated microSD slot – it’s hard to beat the A9 when it comes to the essentials.
Cons
Really disappointing image quality, particularly for a phone that’s advertised for its camera prowess.
Old OS version, Pie update is going to take a while if it arrives at all.
