With almost 21% global smartphone market share, Samsung has held the top spot for smartphones for quite some time. This has been possible thanks to the budget offerings like the Samsung Galaxy A03. Samsung made a global launch of Galaxy A03 in South Korea on 21st January 2022. With its aggressive price and impressive battery, is this going to be the next great smartphone in the lower end tier? Let’s find out.
Key Specifications of Samsung Galaxy A03
Design and Build Quality
The Samsung Galaxy A03 costs a fraction of their high-end S series. While it is not comparable to the flagship models by any means, the A03 appears to be a functional phone for the low-end segment. And the functionality starts right at the design.
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The phone is made of plastic all around with a glass front. The back of the phone features textured plastic which is meant to bring a premium look and feel to the device. Even though the phone is completely plastic, it feels durable at 196 g. However, the weight adds to the thickness of the phone which is around 9.1 mm.
On the right side of this Samsung phone, you will get the volume rocker and the power button. The left houses the hybrid sim slot which comes in either a single sim or dual sim variant with a dedicated micro-SDXC slot.
There is a single speaker on the bottom along with the 3.5 mm headphone jack. But perhaps the biggest gripe with the phone is the micro-USB port. Almost every Android phone these days regardless of the budget comes with a USB Type-C port. Other than the charging port, the phone offers relative quality to the budget.
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The Display
When it comes to aggressive budget phones, it usually comes with cut corners. These phones try to minimize the cost by using cheap or lower-end specifications in almost all the departments. The same is true for the Samsung A30 as well.
The display of the device is a PLS TFT screen. It is an outdated form of LCD panel which is rarely seen in mainstream phones, let alone Samsung. However, the choice is understandable given the price of the device.
The display itself has a 720P resolution with 270 ppi. It would be better to keep a low expectation from the panel as it doesn’t really compare with AMOLED or IPS panels. The display gets fairly bright but the nit value is not rated for the device. There are a few occasional color shifts here and there on the device. Viewing angles aren’t also that great but that was expected from a TFT panel.
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So is it a good panel by any means? Yes and no. Yes, because there’s only so much that can be asked from a device that costs this less. No, because Samsung could’ve at least gone for an IPS LCD panel keeping the current resolution.
The Camera
Samsung's latest budget device Galaxy A03 comes with a dual-camera setup on its rear side. The rectangular platform and vertical lens alignment might remind anyone of the iPhone 12 series, but the design has become standard over the years.
The main sensor is a 48 MP f/1.8 wide-angle sensor. The secondary camera is a 2 MP depth sensor which is as good as useless. Now it might feel like a great thing that Samsung opted for a 48 MP sensor. But there aren’t any supporting features like Laser AF, OIS, EIS, or PDAF. Instead, the sensor only has standard AF. As a result, even the Samsung post-processing cannot really do much.
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The pictures look decent in outdoor and bright conditions. But as soon as things get a bit dark, the images look underexposed and grainy. The only good thing about the camera is the portrait mode which showed a decent edge detection at different lighting conditions.
The front has a 5 MP selfie camera. Again, there isn’t much to talk about as it just gets the job done. It's good enough for casual shots and video calls but that’s about it. The cameras can also shoot 1080P at 30 fps resolution.
Processor and Performance
The processor of the Samsung Galaxy A03 is not rated by any company. Most androids use either the Snapdragon or MediaTek chipset. Samsung is also known for using its in-house processor, the Exynos chip.
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However, Samsung only mentions an octa-core processor for the phone with 2 1.6 GHz and 6 1.6 GHz without any official certification. There is also no mention of the GPU on the device. Samsung may have gone with a low-end processor built in-house. Either way, users are still getting a processor that is capable of churning out the day-to-day tasks.
The phone is not a gaming device by any means. It can run lightweight 2D games but that is about it. Users can try to play graphics-intensive games but it’ll only end up thermal throttling the device and considerable lag on the gameplay. Part of the performance gap is due to the eMMC 5.1 storage which is the previous generation of UFS 3.1 storage.
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The OS is the Samsung One UI based on Android 11. The One UI is a dynamic new OS that is far better than the previous iterations. Users will have a decent experience using the phone. Performance-wise, the phone is good enough for lightweight day-to-day usages like browsing the web or social media.
Battery and Charge Time
The phone has a 5000 mAh non-removable battery. There is no fast charging on the device. Users will get around 6 to 8 hours of battery life depending on the usage.
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Price of Samsung Galaxy A03 in Bangladesh
The Samsung Galaxy A03 is not officially available in Bangladesh yet. The official price of the device in India is 9,990 INR which is equivalent to 11,516 BDT (1 INR = 1.15 BDT). However, the price may vary depending on various factors like tax and company policy.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy A03 is a nice phone considering the price. The phone has a few highlights like the battery and the build quality but also cuts corners in other departments. It’s evident that the phone is aimed at the entry-level market with people looking for a smartphone for lightweight usage. While it’s not the best phone in its price segment, it definitely gets the job done for regular use.