Samsung Galaxy A02s / Samsung Galaxy M02s review

 


now the a02s has a bit of a confusing
name situation
but if you remember only one thing you

should know that the s differentiates

this phone from its even lower specs

a02 and m02 siblings

semantics aside this phone has a

standard and clean design for its class

ours has a blue paint job with

differently shaded rhombuses on the back

it's a unibody plastic panel which makes

sense for the price

it's very similar to the galaxy a12 but

the texture is nicer

even though it's plastic at 196 grams

this phone isn't exactly light it's

understandable with the battery size

though

the camera island lies almost completely

flat unlike many other galaxies which

means this phone won't be very wobbly

on flat surfaces the buttons are a bit

mushy and while it's not a deal breaker

the experience is notably unpleasant

there's no fingerprint sensor here as

it's an entry-level device

but you can use the selfie camera for

face unlocking

it works quickly and reliably though

it's not the most secure option out

there

the a02s has some pretty thick bezels

and

an even thicker chin this is far from

surprising considering it's a budget

phone

as for the display itself it's a 6.5

inch pls

lcd with a 720p resolution

that means it doesn't have a

particularly high pixel density at 270

ppi

but it also means that the screen draws

less power the lcd has a max brightness

of around 400 nits which isn't too bad

the contrast ratio was excellent

especially compared to the galaxy a12

on the audio side of things you'll find

a headphone jack at the bottom

you also get fm radio if you're using

wired headphones

there's a single downward facing speaker

which had average loudness

a touch louder than the galaxy a12 but

unimpressive overall

if there's a standout feature on this

phone it's definitely the battery life

thanks to the 5 000 milliamp hour

battery the a02s got 114 hours of

endurance on our tests

though it's a bit behind the galaxy a12

which has the same battery capacity

and screen size but a different chipset

the phone ships with a 15 watt fast

charger and it gets from flats

to 30 in half an hour it needs around

two hours and a half for a full charge

still that's much faster than the galaxy

a12's three hour charging time

the a02s relies on the snapdragon 450

chipset and either three or four gigs of

ram

this is a chipset that's been around

since 2017 and honestly

it shows this phone is significantly

slower than its competition

which sport more powerful chipsets for

the same money oddly enough the phone

was less prone to stutters than the a12

however

the galaxy a02s runs android 10 with one

ui 2.5 on top we're hoping that it'll

get android 11 eventually

though this device isn't exactly the

highest priority for samsung

what is promising is that this phone

will get four years of security updates

other than that you'll be pleased to

know that one ui 2.5 is very consistent

from phone to phone

so what you find here won't be so

different from what you see on other

galaxies

you have the same in-house gallery app

file manager samsung browser gesture

navigation as well as a system-wide dark

mode

the a02s has a triple camera setup

consisting of a 13 megapixel main camera

a 2 megapixel macro shooter

and a 2 megapixel depth sensor in

comparison the a12 has a larger

48 megapixel quad bare main snapper but

if there's any difference in image

quality

it's not in daylight photos during the

day photos were sharp

and detailed and were definitely good

enough for the class

there's some grain in uniform areas but

we've seen noisier images from more

expensive phones

what's more unpleasant is that colors

have a greenish hue and dynamic

range is limited there's no tele camera

but it takes decently zoomed in shots

and it's definitely better than the a12s

portraits taken in live focus mode are

nicely done and subject detection is

consistently good overall

there's no hdr here however so

highlights will be blown out in backlit

scenes

you should also know that live focus

handles non-human subjects quite well

too

the macro camera takes unimpressive

shots they're not very detailed because

of the low resolution and the fixed

focus is limiting

at night is where the entry-level nature

of the main camera really shows through

images have a very narrow dynamic range

under exposed shadows and blown-out

highlights

the detail in dark areas is particularly

mushy

in better lit areas images are usable

it's a bit of a shame that this phone

doesn't include a night mode because it

would really have benefited from it

the selfie camera isn't particularly

impressive either images are soft

and have little detail even when we

disable all the skin softening

noise was plentiful too colors could be

more saturated but the dynamic range was

good

still you should tap on your face for

proper exposure in backlit scenes

the a02s maxes out at 1080p

at 30fps and there is no stabilization

to speak of

footage was sharper and had more detail

than the a12 but you'll still find

a greenish tint and a limited dynamic

range

if you're dead set on a galaxy phone and

you really can't stray from

the budget segment then it's between

this phone

and the galaxy a12 of the two the a12 is

better overall

but if you're looking for the cheapest

galaxy phone around

well this one is okay if brand loyalty

isn't that important to you though then

you have a lot more options

there's motorola's g9 play the redmi 9

or even the real me 7i

these phones have faster chipsets and

some even offer 4k video capture

some might be a little more expensive

but it actually might be worth it over

the headaches that come with lower

chipsets

and there's also future proofing to

consider so

take your pick wisely thank you for

watching everyone stay safe and

i'll see you guys next time

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