Galaxy A01 overview: Naked-bones good telephone for the funds acutely aware

The Galaxy A01 is a no-fuss, low-priced Android telephone that’s the least expensive member of Samsung’s A-series of funds phones. Priced at $150 (although we have seen it on sale for as little as $100 unlocked from Samsung), the telephone’s bare-bones {hardware} and options — like its plain design and low-resolution display– aren’t a lot to get enthusiastic about. However the handset covers the fundamentals effectively sufficient that, for its low worth, it needs to be a good machine to snap pictures, test electronic mail, watch movies and, after all, make calls.

Due to its higher digicam specs and up to date OS, I favor the Galaxy A01 over 2019’s Motorola Moto E6 and 2018’s Moto G6, which additionally might be discovered for $100 to $150 now. Nevertheless, the A01 lasted just below 12 hours in our battery exams, so if you need one thing with extra juice and might spend $100 extra, think about the Moto G Power ($250 at B&H Photo-Video) as an alternative. Along with a triple rear digicam system and a sharper show, the G Energy lasted greater than 24 hours throughout our battery exams.

Galaxy A01’s design and show

The A01 has a 5.7-inch LCD show. Whereas watching movies is ok, the telephone’s 720p decision means I can not watch movies on the sharper 1080p decision, which many YouTube movies might be considered in. Some on-screen icons (just like the digicam) additionally look fuzzy on nearer inspection, and general the LCD display is not as vibrant and wealthy as, say, the Galaxy A51’s ($400 at Amazon) OLED show.

Skinny and sufficiently small to navigate with one hand, the A01 has a teardrop notch for its front-facing digicam that retains it trying fashionable. Up prime is a headphone jack and on the bottom of the telephone are two small slits for the audio speaker grille. That is one thing to pay attention to; everytime you put the telephone down to look at video, the audio will probably be barely muffled in opposition to no matter floor it is laying on. Once I laid it on my desk I did not hear a lot of a distinction in comparison with once I was holding the telephone in my hand, however once I put the A01 on my mattress to look at movies, the sound did dampen a tad extra.

Galaxy A01’s digicam struggles with portrait photographs

The Galaxy A01’s digicam takes clear, colourful pictures in ample lighting, and crimson and inexperienced hues particularly pop in some footage. There have been a number of photographs the place the sky was overexposed, and was blown out to white. Later within the night, I used to be capable of take an excellent shot of the blue sky, with the foreground and subject material evenly uncovered as effectively. The digicam has an 8X digital zoom that’s first rate at getting extra particulars from faraway objects, however picture high quality does get muddier and washed out the nearer you zoom.

Stay Focus for portrait pictures was additionally actually inconsistent. Although some footage turned out OK, a number of others had the foreground or object blurred out as an alternative of the background, even after I made positive that the impact was prepared to make use of. Samsung stated they’re trying into the difficulty, and I will replace the overview once I hear again.

The digicam can document 1080p video. Video high quality is evident and sharp sufficient, however the telephone does not have optical picture stabilization so footage will not be super-smooth when you’re transferring round rather a lot.

Galaxy A01’s inside storage woes 

Talking of pictures, you may doubtless want to make use of Google Photos cloud service to retailer your pictures and movies or spend money on a microSD card. The telephone solely has 16GB of inside storage, practically half of which is taken up by the OS and apps. My overview unit is from Verizon and got here with many preloaded apps. Once I first turned it on, having taken no pictures or downloaded any apps of my very own but, it had solely 4.9GB of usable reminiscence. After uninstalling as a lot bloatware as I may (there have been some apps I could not delete together with a bunch of Verizon apps), I acquired to about 6.8GB. Once more, the telephone does have expandable reminiscence as much as 512GB, so I like to recommend that route for onboard storage.

Efficiency is first rate with a Snapdragon 439 chipset

Outfitted with a Snapdragon 439 processor, the A01 operates shortly sufficient for probably the most half. There have been occasions once I observed it was sooner at quitting apps and launching the digicam than even the Galaxy A51, which has a extra superior processor. However on occasion I observed that the A01 took a beat or two to do issues too, like opening sure apps (Geekbench Four particularly took some time to launch). It wasn’t sufficient to throw the telephone out the window, however if you need a lightning-speed person expertise, this telephone is not for you.

Benchmark outcomes are additionally on par with my actual life observations, with the Galaxy A01’s Geekbench Four and 3DMark’s Slingshot Limitless scores on par with G6 from two years in the past. More moderen funds telephones, just like the Galaxy A51 and Moto G Energy comfortably beat the A01 with their extra superior processors. (Observe that I couldn’t obtain Geekbench 5 or 3DMark’s Ice Storm Limitless exams on the telephone.)

Galaxy A01’s battery life

Powered by a 3,000-mAh battery, the telephone can final all by way of the work day with gentle utilization. That features watching movies, snapping pictures and looking the online for a number of hours out of the day. Throughout exams for steady video playback on Airplane mode, the telephone averaged 11 hours and 47 minutes. That is an excellent time to clock in (and that is longer than, say, the Pixel 4 from final 12 months, which initially offered for $800, thoughts you, and lasted solely 10 hours). However each the A01 and Pixel Four have one of many shortest battery runs I’ve seen within the final two years. If you’d like one thing method longer, try the Moto G Energy, which lasted greater than 24 hours for a similar check. We’re additionally conducting streaming video battery exams, and I will replace the overview when I’ve these numbers.