Last year, three of the top five bestselling phones worldwide were Samsung phones, according to Counterpoint Research, holding the number three, four, and five spots after the iPhone XR and 11. If you live in the US, when you think of Samsung, you probably think of the Galaxy S or Note — but the Samsung phones that sold so well were midrange Galaxy A-series phones.
Samsung is making a big push to sell more of these phones in the US with the $399 Galaxy A51. That price puts it in direct competition with the iPhone SE, but there are plenty of other Android phones that come in under $500. What makes the A51 different is Samsung’s marketing budget and partnerships.
Highlights:
- Galaxy A51 is priced at Rs 23,999, and its highlights are its 48 MP quad-camera setup and 4,000 mAh battery
- Does it have what it takes to live up to last year’s Galaxy A50?
In this price segment, the Galaxy A51 competes directly with the Redmi K20 Pro (review), Redmi Note 8 Pro, and Oppo F15 (review).
While the F15 is mostly design and no substance, the K20 Pro is a powerful device and the Galaxy A51’s closest competitor. So, does the Galaxy A51 prove to be a better pick over the K20 Pro? Is it a good daily driver? Is it a power-packed device, unlike its other A-series siblings? I used the smartphone for a week in my quest to answer all these questions.
Performance and software: a mixed bag The Galaxy A51 is powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 9611 processor and is coupled with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM. Whilst the RAM is good enough to handle heavy-duty tasks, the processor lets the smartphone down. It’s a pretty modern chipset, launched in Q3 of 2019, but it can’t hold a candle to many other processors out there. The phone can handle day-to-day tasks with aplomb. When it comes to gaming, you notice frame rate drops and when it comes to videos, the phone starts heating up. That’s just a sampling.
I tried opening 35 tabs on Google Chrome, took some photos in between, watched a few YouTube videos, and connected to a couple of Bluetooth devices. The phone felt warm and stuttered along. Still, the brand new One UI 2.0 shines through and through and makes the best of what it can of the Exynos 9611. Previous versions of One UI and TouchWiz were heavy, bloated, and simply unable to compete with other Android skins. Luckily, One UI, built on Android 10, is fantastic to use on a daily basis.
Versus the competition, the A51 isn’t so bad. The A51 does lose out in the gaming department and its night camera isn’t as good as the Redmi K20 Pro, but whether that matters to you or not is for you to decide. When we come back to the question of it being better than the competition, then Galaxy A51 may only lose in the gaming department and a little in terms of night camera with the Redmi K20 Pro.