Samsung Galaxy A02s review – $100 Budget phone got better

Hello there! This is the review of yet another budget phone from Samsung. The great feature of this is, it’s affordable yet still packs all the new features with Google Android 10 and Samsung’s One UI. This is now my current phone.

NETWORK	Technology	GSM / HSPA / LTE

LAUNCH	Announced	2020, November 24
	Status	Available. Released 2021, January 04

BODY	Dimensions	164.2 x 75.9 x 9.1 mm (6.46 x 2.99 x 0.36 in)
	Weight	196 g (6.91 oz)
	Build	Glass front, plastic back, plastic frame
	SIM	Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

DISPLAY	Type	PLS LCD
	Size	6.5 inches, 102.0 cm2 (~81.8% screen-to-body ratio)
	Resolution	720 x 1600 pixels, 20:9 ratio (~270 ppi density)

PLATFORM	OS	Android 10, upgradable to Android 11, One UI 3.1
	Chipset	Qualcomm SDM450 Snapdragon 450 (14 nm)
	CPU	Octa-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A53
	GPU	Adreno 506

MEMORY	Card slot	microSDXC (dedicated slot)
	Internal	16GB 1GB RAM, 32GB 2GB RAM, 32GB 3GB RAM, 32GB 4GB RAM, 64GB 3GB RAM, 64GB 4GB RAM
		eMMC 5.1

MAIN CAMERA	Triple	13 MP, f/2.2, (wide), AF 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro) 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth)
	Features	LED flash
	Video	1080p@30fps

SELFIE CAMERA	Single	5 MP, f/2.2
	Video

SOUND	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes

COMMS	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
	Bluetooth	4.2, A2DP
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS
	NFC	No
	Radio	Unspecified
	USB	USB Type-C 2.0

FEATURES	Sensors	Accelerometer, proximity

BATTERY	Type	Li-Po 5000 mAh, non-removable
	Charging	Fast charging 15W

MISC	Colors	Black, White, Red, Blue
	Models	SM-A025F, SM-A025F/DS, SM-A025G, SM-A025G/DS, SM-A025M, SM-A025M/DS, SM-A025U, SM-A025V, SM-A025A, SM-A025U1, SM-A025AZ, SM-S124DL
	SAR EU	0.40 W/kg (head)     1.37 W/kg (body)
	Price	$ 109.99 / € 161.82 / £ 121.00 / Rp 1,599,000

TESTS	Performance	AnTuTu: 90811 (v8) GeekBench: 495 (v5.1) GFXBench: 6.1fps (ES 3.1 onscreen)
	Display	Contrast ratio: 1765:1 (nominal)
	Camera	Photo / Video
	Loudspeaker	-29.8 LUFS (Average)
	Battery life	Endurance rating 114h

So, when you buy one of these, this is what you’ll get. Opening up the box, we have the quick start guide on the top, followed by the phone in the plastic cover with the selling specs on it. Let’s turn the phone on but put it aside for now. Also included in the box is the USB type C charging cable, the charging brick and a pair of earphones. Then finally, the sim ejector tool

The startup process is quite basic but annoyingly long cos Samsung has its own apps and services on top on Google’s, so more or less like doing the same thing twice but for 2 different companies.

 

The phone weighs 196g (6.91 oz)

And as you can see the glass screen up front is super glossy and catches fingerprints super easy.

The bottom has the 3.5mm headphone jack, the microphone, the USB type C charging port and the single bottom speaker.

The top holds a second microphone for stereo audio recording

On the right, are the volume rockers and the power button

The dual nano sim card and micro-SD card slot are on the left.

The bottom bezel is quite steep too, with this heavy chin, but I believe, you can get used to it with time.

The front of the device is a 6.5” PLS IPS display, which is 720 x 1600 px with an aspect ratio of 20:9

The screen is also super bright, which I found really helpful. Especially during these harsh sunny conditions.

 

Android 10

It’s rocking, the 14nm Snapdragon 450, 5000 mAh, 3GB RAM, 32GB internal storage. Note that, this space is subjected to the system and preloaded apps. So you’re basically getting like 20GB free for use.

There’s also a 4GB RAM version which comes with 64GB of internal storage, in case you’re interested in that rather.

As stated, this uses the Samsung One User Interface, which allows for landscape mode, virtually everywhere, even at the home screen. Unfortunately, I did notice that it’s slightly slower when swiping in landscape mode as compared to the more traditional one.

 

For security, are the usual android, pin and pattern unlock, but they include a face scanner. For this face unlock, I’m about 80% sure you can use it. The reason for that is, my kid brother is unable to unlock it with his face unlike some other devices in the past.

When face unlocking, there’s this animation around the teardrop selfie camera cutout which you can turn off if you want to.

Now since there isn’t any home button to tap and hold to activate google assistant so to assess it, you’ll have to swipe from the bottom left or bottom right.

Unlike, the Nokia 2.4 which had a dedicated button for google assistant, this doesn’t have one. More on the Nokia review…

 

On the back is a triple camera setup, but technically, just one is useable

There’s a 13MP, f2.2 (wide) with AutoFocus, a 2MP, f2.4 (macro) and a 2MP, f2.4 (depth) with LED flash

Pictures from the rear looks good enough for a 13MP camera. There’s enough sharpness when shooting wide, but then you lose it when you zoom in a little.

Here’s another test so you can get a better understanding of how sharp shooting wide is.

The Live Focus Mode in the camera app, uses the 2MP depth camera to help blur up the background of your images. And the cool part is you can control the blurriness from 1 to 7. Here’s a picture at blurriness 4 and here’s one at blurriness 7.

There’s also HDR or High Dynamic Range support which helps correct both under and overexposed shots. Here’s a photo with HDR off, and the same photo with HDR on.

Just see how fast it snaps and saves up images.



Night shots aren’t great so don’t buy this phone is night photography is something you’ll be doing often.

For the Macro camera, it’s so bad that, Samsung hides it in the more options tab. Now brace yourselves for some horrible looking images.

Among the more options tab is the deco pic mode which allows you to take pictures like this, if that’s what you’re into. But my favourite feature would be the inclusion of the PRO mode, which allows you to adjust the shutter speed, ISO and white balance and turn pictures like this, to pictures like this.

 

It shoots 1080p videos @ 30 frames per second, and here’s how it looks and sounds like.

 

The front facing lens is a 5MP, f2.2 camera which takes decent enough photos given good enough lighting. The selfie camera also shoots 1080p video @ 30fps

For gaming, I noticed no lags or drops in framerates, so I can’t complain so much here. What I did notice though, was the slight struggle in playing online games like the Call of Duty Mobile. Besides, that, every game launch and played with no issues.

 

So, for GHc 600, should you get this phone? Yes, totally, not because I’m a Samsung fanboy, but this phone is good enough for those who don’t want to spend too much on a phone but want a phone with some current specs and features.

The 4G network connectivity is also super-fast for downloading whatever you’ll be interested in.

A big display for viewing contents. Although the display is of 720p resolution, with YouTube’s update that allows 720p phones to play videos in 1080p, another problem with this device is solved.

A huge battery which will last you and entire day and sometimes over

Amazing feature from the Samsung One UI and Google 10



And although, it doesn’t come with any fingerprint scanner or Super AMOLED screen, it’s still worth the sacrifice.