Now, I know we’re mostly showing more expensive devices here, but this time around we’ve got our hands on one of Samsung’s cheapest, if not the cheapest, new options, the Galaxy A12.
Design
Taste blue
When we say cheap, we mean really cheap. This phone starts at $ 180 and for the price it’s actually well built. It’s a full plastic construction, but we think the blue color and textured back makes it quite fun to hold in the hand. And also, a couple of cool things here. We have dual sim support with a dedicated Micro SD card slot and headphone jack.
Just to keep your expectations under control, the back feels a bit hollow and flexes inward when we push it down.
Otherwise, for security reasons, you get a side-mounted fingerprint scanner that does a terrific job. One or two weird read errors are possible, but we found it to be relatively fast and reliable.
And finally, we have a single bottom-triggered speaker that is a bit quiet, but doesn’t distort too much when listening at maximum volume.
Display
Pretty good
The screen isn’t exactly bright enough for easy outdoor use, but it should do the trick if you plan on looking at a quick message or two while walking the dog. At least it darkens a lot so it doesn’t accidentally blind you overnight. The panel isn’t AMOLED, so don’t expect incredible colors, but the IPS technology it’s equipped with is at least scorch-proof, doesn’t. t ghost and still produces colors good enough for the average person. Another thing we have to note, you don’t get crazy refresh rates here and your resolution is 720×1600 pixels, but that’s to be expected in this price range.
Camera
it just works
On the camera side, we are quite satisfied. With enough sun, we managed to take some really nice photos with decent sharpness.
You also get an ultra-wide secondary camera here and it’s not really sharp at all, but it still makes for some cool photos of your vacation.
Zooming in is not something we recommend you do as there is no dedicated lens for it, but some shots are pretty good and the colors are actually quite nice.
One area where Samsung is also doing a good job is in portrait mode.
A complaint from us though. Night mode would have been a good feature to include here as it is quite useful for some people and its absence limits us in the shots we can take in the evening.
For example, you can’t really see a face here, so our colleague had to go to a place with more light.
And here we also have a macro camera, which in our opinion is mostly a gimmick. It produces good colors and takes pictures up close, but it’s really not that sharp and we would have preferred the budget to have been spent elsewhere.
The videos aren’t too shabby though. You can shoot up to 1080p at 30 fps. It’s not really amazing or anything, but the quality is at least perfect for some family videos or the like while on vacation. But one more thing we have to mention, the microphone in this device had a bit of trouble recording vocals when there was background noise, so keep that in mind if you plan on making a video in a crowded place or in the dark. proximity to a busy street. And don’t expect any form of video stabilization here, which just might be the biggest issue if you actually plan on filming while walking.
And here’s an example without as much background noise.
Performance
Nail the basics
So, you might be wondering how it works given its surprisingly low price tag.
Well, let’s put it this way, it’s not winning races, but neither is it frustrating to be slow or choppy.
the The Galaxy A12 is equipped with an economical Helio P35 SoC. It’s not really meant for games or stuff like that, so it struggled when we tried Minecraft on it, but watching videos and browsing the web are things he does easily. We mostly scoured Reddit and watched a bit of YouTube and it managed to keep up, with a bit of a stutter.
You will notice that the apps take a while to open, but once they open, they generally perform well. Having such a weak processor also has the surprising advantage of consuming very little power.
Battery
What size is too big?
The battery capacity you get here is around 5000mAh. And it is just amazing. You can expect more than 2 days of use if you don’t overuse the phone. But then again, like any other device on the market, if you’re using it constantly, you’ll probably need to charge it the same day. You get a fast charger in the box for free, but keep in mind that “fast” here is only 15 watts and it still takes a few hours to fully charge this battery.
So the Samsung Galaxy A12, at least for us, is a pretty good deal at $ 180.
But we don’t know if it’s the perfect device at this price point. He makes a sacrifice in his performance. For example, for about the same price, you can get the Oneplus Nord N100 and it comes with more powerful processor and high performance camera.
Or if you are looking for something even more powerful, the Moto G Power has a Snapdragon 662 that will mop the floor with the A12 for just $ 20 more.
So it depends a bit more on preferences and what exactly you need in a device. Overall we’re in awe of what cheap phones can do these days, but what about you?
Do you think it’s a decent smartphone or would you go for something else at this price point, or maybe even spend a little more?
Now, I know we’re mostly showing more expensive devices here, but this time around we’ve got our hands on one of Samsung’s cheapest, if not the cheapest, new options, the Galaxy A12.
Design
Taste blue
When we say cheap, we mean really cheap. This phone starts at $ 180 and for the price it’s actually well built. It’s a full plastic construction, but we think the blue color and textured back makes it quite fun to hold in the hand. And also, a couple of cool things here. We have dual sim support with a dedicated Micro SD card slot and headphone jack.
Just to keep your expectations under control, the back feels a bit hollow and flexes inward when we push it down.
Otherwise, for security reasons, you get a side-mounted fingerprint scanner that does a terrific job. One or two weird read errors are possible, but we found it to be relatively fast and reliable.
And finally, we have a single bottom-triggered speaker that is a bit quiet, but doesn’t distort too much when listening at maximum volume.
Display
Pretty good
The screen isn’t exactly bright enough for easy outdoor use, but it should do the trick if you plan on looking at a quick message or two while walking the dog. At least it darkens a lot so it doesn’t accidentally blind you overnight. The panel isn’t AMOLED, so don’t expect incredible colors, but the IPS technology it’s equipped with is at least scorch-proof, doesn’t. t ghost and still produces colors good enough for the average person. Another thing we have to note, you don’t get crazy refresh rates here and your resolution is 720×1600 pixels, but that’s to be expected in this price range.
Camera
it just works
On the camera side, we are quite satisfied. With enough sun, we managed to take some really nice photos with decent sharpness.
You also get an ultra-wide secondary camera here and it’s not really sharp at all, but it still makes for some cool photos of your vacation.
Zooming in is not something we recommend you do as there is no dedicated lens for it, but some shots are pretty good and the colors are actually quite nice.
One area where Samsung is also doing a good job is in portrait mode.
A complaint from us though. Night mode would have been a good feature to include here as it is quite useful for some people and its absence limits us in the shots we can take in the evening.
For example, you can’t really see a face here, so our colleague had to go to a place with more light.
And here we also have a macro camera, which in our opinion is mostly a gimmick. It produces good colors and takes pictures up close, but it’s really not that sharp and we would have preferred the budget to have been spent elsewhere.
The videos aren’t too shabby though. You can shoot up to 1080p at 30 fps. It’s not really amazing or anything, but the quality is at least perfect for some family videos or the like while on vacation. But one more thing we have to mention, the microphone in this device had a bit of trouble recording vocals when there was background noise, so keep that in mind if you plan on making a video in a crowded place or in the dark. proximity to a busy street. And don’t expect any form of video stabilization here, which just might be the biggest issue if you actually plan on filming while walking.
And here’s an example without as much background noise.
Performance
Nail the basics
So, you might be wondering how it works given its surprisingly low price tag.
Well, let’s put it this way, it’s not winning races, but neither is it frustrating to be slow or choppy.
the The Galaxy A12 is equipped with an economical Helio P35 SoC. It’s not really meant for games or stuff like that, so it struggled when we tried Minecraft on it, but watching videos and browsing the web are things he does easily. We mostly scoured Reddit and watched a bit of YouTube and it managed to keep up, with a bit of a stutter.
You will notice that the apps take a while to open, but once they open, they generally perform well. Having such a weak processor also has the surprising advantage of consuming very little power.
Battery
What size is too big?
The battery capacity you get here is around 5000mAh. And it is just amazing. You can expect more than 2 days of use if you don’t overuse the phone. But then again, like any other device on the market, if you’re using it constantly, you’ll probably need to charge it the same day. You get a fast charger in the box for free, but keep in mind that “fast” here is only 15 watts and it still takes a few hours to fully charge this battery.
So the Samsung Galaxy A12, at least for us, is a pretty good deal at $ 180.
But we don’t know if it’s the perfect device at this price point. He makes a sacrifice in his performance. For example, for about the same price, you can get the Oneplus Nord N100 and it comes with more powerful processor and high performance camera.
Or if you are looking for something even more powerful, the Moto G Power has a Snapdragon 662 that will mop the floor with the A12 for just $ 20 more.
So it depends a bit more on preferences and what exactly you need in a device. Overall we’re in awe of what cheap phones can do these days, but what about you?
Do you think it’s a decent smartphone or would you go for something else at this price point, or maybe even spend a little more?