Is Samsung Galaxy A51 worth your money?

Korean smartphone giant Samsung launched a new addition in their A series line-up back in December 2019. However, ‘this quite old’ but updated device is still very popular among gadget geeks. Let’s check out what it has got at a glance!

Design and display

The body of the Samsung Galaxy A51 has a similar design to that of the Galaxy A50s. The glossy body of this device is prone to picking up fingerprints.

The biggest change here is the Infinity-O display, seen for the first time on a Galaxy A-series phone. The Galaxy A51 uses a super AMOLED panel with a full-HD+ resolution, which produces punchy colours and good sharpness. It also looks striking from the front.

Specifications and software: Samsung has stuck with the same Exynos 9611 processor for the Galaxy A51 as the A50s, which in 2020 and at this price, feels a bit weak. The Galaxy A51 is available with 6GB or 8GB of RAM, and both variants have 128GB of internal storage. Other specifications include dual-band wi-fi 802.11ac, bluetooth 5, GPS, NFC, and FM radio. The usual sensors are present and this phone also has Widevine L1 certification. As the Galaxy A51 supports the Samsung Pay, so one can use it for contactless payment.

The software running on this phone out-of-the-box is Samsung's One UI 2.0, which is based on Android 10. The new version looks and feels similar to previous versions of One UI when used, but Samsung has made some tweaks to improve the user experience. It is now a lot easier to change the wallpaper as there is a dedicated menu for this, instead of getting redirected to the Themes app.

Performance and battery life

The Galaxy A51 model feels very similar to the Galaxy A50 when it comes to day-to-day usage.

In AnTuTu Benchmark, it received a score of 1,86,220 points. The back of the phone got a bit warm while gaming and running stressful apps, but never uncomfortably so.

Samsung has used a 4,000mAh battery for the Galaxy A51. There is fast-charging function, thanks to which it was possible to charge the battery to 67 per cent in an hour. Charging it completely took around two hours. It is relatively quick, but not as quick as others in this segment such as the Redmi K20 Pro, which charges up to 80 per cent in an hour.

Camera

Samsung has added a new 5-megapixel macro camera to the three types of cameras that were on the Galaxy A50s. They include a 48-megapixel primary sensor; a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera; and a 5-megapixel depth sensor.

The main camera captures oversampled 12-megapixel photos by default but photos can be shot at the full 48-megapixel resolution if needed. Under good lighting, the Galaxy A51 managed to capture detailed shots of objects that were in the centre of the frame. However, objects towards the edges typically looked a little blurry and were comparatively softer.

The wide-angle camera captures a lot more of any scene in the frame but it does introduce some pretty bad barrel distortion. Even after enabling the “Ultra-wide lens correction” option, some shots still looked unnaturally warped. Photos shot in low light looked visibly darker and had poorer details. Night mode does not help much here either.

Live-focus mode blurs out backgrounds for a more dramatic look. Image quality is good and the depth camera helps the Galaxy A51 do a decent job of edge detection.

The Galaxy A51 can shoot video at up to 4K, but without any stabilisation. Video quality is not bad if shot under good light, but in low light, clips are grainy and details are weak. Selfies generally were not very clear.

Pricing: Samsung has launched the Galaxy A51 at a slightly higher price than the Galaxy A50s. The price of this phone is Tk 27,499.