At the end of last year, Samsung presented its new mid-range for the first half of 2020. As we always do with our analyzes, it will be divided into different sections to try to offer the most complete content in each of them, without losing detail of everything that we have found this Samsung Galaxy A51 . At first we can say that it has been a balanced experience, very satisfactory in some sections and less in others, but in general, the balance is positive.
Design
We saw that the design was very similar in all of them, at least in essence. We could say that this Samsung Galaxy A51 is the one that will mark the design of all future Galaxy 2020 . We say this above all because of the front design, inherited from the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 with the hole in the screen centered and on the back, which now has a larger camera module, something that we will also see in the Samsung Galaxy S20.
The first thing that catches the eye of this Samsung Galaxy A51 when we take it out of the box, is its low weight, to be in front of a phone that reaches 6.5 inches in diagonal. We were also struck by how narrow it is , something that is due to the panoramic format chosen for its screen, which is almost 21: 9. Regarding the weight, everything is probably related to its construction materials, since it is plastic, both in the back and in the frames.
The frames look metallic, but the rear plastic doesn’t feel like glass (but it is much better than the plastic of the old Galaxy or the Poco F1, for example). This rear end catches fingerprints quite a bit, unsurprisingly, but on our blue-colored unit they are perfectly disguised . In addition, it has a series of geometric shapes that give it a distinctive touch, especially when it reflects the light at the rear. Beyond the silkscreen of the brand and the certifications, the only thing that disturbs the rear is the camera module.
This module is larger than usual and inside we find four “L” shaped cameras, along with an LED flash . What we liked about this module is that it does not protrude excessively from the back, so the phone almost does not dance when we place it on a table without a cover.
On the side frames we find the volume buttons and the lock / Bixby button on the right, while on the left we have the tray for the two nanoSIM cards and a microSD card (they can all be used simultaneously). In the upper frame we only have a microphone, while in the lower one we have the 3.5 mm jack, the USB type C, the main microphone and the multimedia speaker .
On the front of the phone, it’s probably what we like the most about the phone. The screen is very panoramic and has very few frames, but without a doubt, we love the fact that it does not have such rounded corners, because in the end it offers more useful space to users. The hole in the screen is tiny, surrounded by a very thin reflective ring . As a detail, if it had been 1 millimeter higher, they would have nailed the placement of the hole on the screen, since the notification bar would not be oversized.
Display
We move on to what we have found the best point of this Samsung Galaxy A51 and it is its screen. In the characteristics we have already told you that it is a 6.5-inch super AMOLED panel in 20: 9 format . At first, this already promises, because today, few screens with this technology disappoint. In this Samsung Galaxy A51, the screen is a tool of enjoyment, in every way.
It has a resolution more than enough for this screen size, we will not notice pixels or we will miss more detail in any situation. So far it is expected of a screen in FullHD + resolution, but without a doubt what we liked the most is the quality of the panel . It offers vivid colors (also configurable), but without becoming too exaggerated or unreal, with perfect viewing angles, in which the rainbow effect that we see in some phones with these screens or anything like that does not appear.
Without a doubt, the advantage of an AMOLED panel is the contrast it offers us and in this terminal it was not going to be less. The blacks are completely pure, because the pixel is completely off, so the experience when watching a video, a movie or simply using the dark mode in a social network, is a joy, especially at night, Well, we will not notice that brightness comes out of the dark areas.
Regarding the brightness levels, they are more than correct and we have no problem with either the minimum or the maximum brightness. The first of them allows us to see the content in very dark environments without being annoying and the maximum, on the contrary, in very bright environments without having to shade ourselves with the hand . The only thing, to say that the minimum brightness is only achieved manually, in automatic mode it never goes down to the lowest possible.
Regarding the screen format, at first we thought it would be too panoramic, but on a day-to-day basis it becomes very comfortable. Not only because it allows the phone to be narrower, but because we can see more content from our favorite apps . The only defect is when watching videos in 16: 9 format, as the content is smaller than we would like, although we can always zoom to occupy the entire screen (depending on which videos we will lose too much information by doing this).
Sound Quality
The truth is that taking into account the good screen we have in the Samsung Galaxy A51, we expected the audio to be at the level, since other Samsung phones have already offered us a very good experience in this regard. The truth is that in terms of sound, we are not exactly happy . We have a single speaker at the bottom, very easy to cover with your hand when holding it horizontally, but this is not what we have disliked, but its quality.
It offers high volume levels, but everything sounds too canned , especially the vocals. Samsung has wanted to calibrate it so that the bass sounds better, but overall it is not a good audio experience. As a positive point, we can always use traditional headphones to improve the experience thanks to its USB type C port.
Processor
The Samsung Galaxy A51 belongs to the mid-range, but it is not exactly cheap. the performance of the Exynos 9611 of this Galaxy A51 is very similar to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 , a processor that we see in much cheaper phones. The truth is that it also shares a very similar performance with the Exynos 9610 of its predecessor.
On a day-to-day basis, it offers reliable performance within any application, although we have noticed some failures in applications based on a feed, such as Twitter or Instagram, in which when scrolling, it sometimes remains “hooked” for a tenth second , as it costs him to load his content, a jerk of a lifetime. We see something similar in the OneUI 2.0 launcher, where sometimes, when touching an application icon, it seems not to respond and we will have to do it a second time. We have tested with Nova Launcher as well and that does not happen, in addition to feeling faster.
In games, we will be able to play those that are currently more fashionable without problems, even Call Of Duty Mobile in high graphics with a good frame rate, but this game is very well optimized. Other more casual games such as PUBG have also moved wonderfully and if you are not an extreme gamer, the Samsung Galaxy A51 will be more than enough power for you, but you have to understand that there are other processors that offer better performance in this price range.
With RAM we are not so satisfied. Despite the fact that the applications load fast and everything usually moves smoothly, we have noticed how some applications were closed immediately when exiting them. On some occasions, this has happened simply by exiting an application to home and re-entering, seeing how it had to reload. On the other hand, in other applications, it keeps multitasking even one day later after the last use. Perhaps having made the jump to 6 GB of RAM with the Samsung Galaxy A51 would have been the key.
About the experience we have in general with the software, it is that it needs to be polished with updates. During our test period we have received an OTA route that improves the stabilization of the camera , but in the system we have not noticed any changes. We say this by details such as the gestures on the screen, the new ones in OneUI 2.0, which are not quite fine, because on more than one occasion, instead of detecting the gesture, we see how it is within the app in which we are scrolling or opening some menus.
Something that you will surely notice if you buy the phone is that when we exit a horizontal application (game, YouTube, etc.) the launcher appears for half a second in the horizontal interface , something that should be polished in future updates.
Cameras
The main one 48 megapixels, with a wide angle, a macro camera and a depth camera. Pretty standard everything. To say that the photographs have always been taken with the intelligent enhancement deactivated , to see the results with the least possible retouching, because in the end this ends up over-saturating the photographs, normally.
The point is that during the day, with HDR mode on automatic, the results have been very striking, with vivid colors, good dynamic range and a good amount of detail . The resolution is natively 12 megapixels, but we can change to 48 within the camera application, as we will explain later. It is a camera that will offer us really good results in photography, better than we expected, why lie.
With the wide-angle camera, during the day we will also obtain good photographs , with the normal distortion of this type of lens and that in the end is part of the grace of using them. With good lighting, the 12 megapixels offer good detail for a camera with “x0.6 zoom”, also with good dynamic range and with colors very similar to those of the main camera, something essential for the experience of switching between cameras. is satisfactory. Of course, in shady areas we notice that noise appears immediately.
As soon as the lighting goes down, that’s where the surprise comes. In the viewfinder of the camera everything has a ghostly halo that augurs disastrous results, as well as an interpretation of colors and fatal light. To our surprise, when we took the photo, the result is surprisingly good , with good colors, little noise, good temperature and decent detail for night shots. Even without night mode, in very dark scenes the processing is capable of getting a good level of detail.
With the wide-angle camera, as we could expect from its characteristics, the results are not so good at night. The interpretation of the colors of the streetlights changes excessively compared to the main camera, being too yellow and there is a lot of noise in the shot. Of course, we can also use the night mode with this camera, which allows us to greatly reduce image noise by sacrificing a bit of viewing angle (for image stabilization issues).
The macro camera is curious, but it is not something that you will put much use to. Above all, it improves the results with flowers, because you can get closer than with the normal camera, but it shows that it has much less detail and a worse image processing.
Regarding video, we are also at a higher than normal recording quality in the mid-range. We can also record with the wide-angle camera and it has a correct stabilization. As a trick, t and recommend activating mode “super-stabilization” as it improves image stability and viewing angle.
The front camera is another aspect in which this Samsung Galaxy A51 stands out. Not so much because it is 32 megapixels, because normally the photos are taken at 8 megapixels due to the fusion of pixels, but because of the good interpretation it makes of the scene: good colors, dynamic range and great level of detail . We are not exaggerating if we say that we have seen worse cameras in high-end phones, but in this case, it gives very good results.
Analyzing the camera application, it is not packed with features, but it has just enough for someone who wants to take photos without having to handle too many settings. The only thing we want to explain is how to change the resolution for the photos, as it is not obvious. If you want to use the rear 48 megapixels or the front 32 megapixels, you must touch the icon that says 4: 3 and choose the 4: 3H option . We also leave you a link to a little trick to get unlimited storage in original quality with Google Photos for this phone.
Battery
A few years ago, having a phone with a 4,000 mAh battery was crazy, but today, we could say that it is the most standardized capacity on the market. This Samsung Galaxy A51 will allow us to use it throughout the day without many problems to reach the night without having to go through the charger. Of course, if what interests you are the hours of the screen, we have been around 5 hours and 30 minutes, more or less , both in a single day, and in a day and a half since we disconnected the phone.
We have done tests switching between dark mode and light mode and there is no difference in consumption, so we think that it is due more to the software, than to the hardware. Therefore, we hope you can receive updates to improve in this regard , but in general it will satisfy a large majority of users, but not the most demanding.
Regarding its charging time, since the standard charger is 15W and is the maximum that the phone supports, according to our timed tests, the time to reach 100% is 1 hour and 45 minutes (in some cases a little less , but it is average). We have seen faster charges in this price range, no doubt, but the truth is that if we charge the phone at night, it will not be a problem
thanks for every thhng.