Samsung Galaxy A15 5G Review: Budget Beauty

At a look

Professional’s Ranking

Professionals

• Glossy design
• Strong primary digicam
• Tireless battery life
• Easy 90Hz show

Cons

• Gradual efficiency
• No IP Ranking
• Middling charging pace

Our Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy A15 5G is without doubt one of the finest finances Androids accessible right now, combining premium seems to be and beneficiant battery life with an honest digicam and user-friendly software program.

Worth When Reviewed

$199

Greatest Costs As we speak: Samsung Galaxy A15 5G

$199.99

The Samsung Galaxy A15 5G is the successor to final 12 months’s A14, which sat atop our checklist of the perfect finances telephones. It subsequently has its work minimize out if it needs to take care of its grip on the finances market, which yearly appears so as to add new entrants in a position to squeeze extra helpful options into reasonably priced frames.

Thankfully, the A15 5G succeeds on virtually all fronts, combining deceptively fashionable seems to be with a 90Hz show, a long-lasting battery, user-friendly software program and a stable primary digicam.

Simply how a lot value-for-money does it supply, and does it evaluate to extra mid-range and costly alternate options?

Design & Construct

• Stylish color selections
• Flat-edged plastic physique
• No IP ranking

It might carry the ‘finances’ tag, however the Galaxy A15 5G seems to be like a costlier telephone than it truly is. Except for the all-important Samsung emblem, it includes a very tasteful selection of colors, all of which shimmer and mirror otherwise as you flip the telephone in your palms.

My overview mannequin sports activities the Character Yellow color, which lives as much as its identify by giving the telephone some distinctiveness in a market saturated by uninspired finances telephone designs. It seems to be contemporary, shiny and trendy whereas serving to you disguise the truth that you haven’t spent £1,000 on a cell.

It additionally helps that the A15 5G has the identical type of flat-edged design because the S24 lineup, with its squared sides making it simpler to grip. There’s a neat triple-lens digicam module on the rear of the telephone, arrayed in a vertical line within the top-left nook, with the Samsung emblem on the backside rounding off a laudably uncluttered design.

Simon Chandler / Foundry

The telephone is comparatively light-weight, with its 200g making it snug to hold and use for longer durations. With a 6.5in display onboard (extra about that beneath), it’s comparatively massive, though not too massive.

It’s value mentioning that, at 8.4mm, it’s about 1mm thicker than the usual Galaxy S24, in addition to one among its primary rivals, the Motorola Moto G84 5G. This isn’t an excessive amount of of an issue, because it by no means feels significantly weighty or cumbersome in your palms.

However as aesthetically pleasing because the A15 is, it lacks an IP ranking of any type in anyway. Mixed with an ordinary glass display, this implies you could have to take a bit extra care with it than you’ll with one thing extra premium.

Display screen & Audio system

• 6.5in Tremendous AMOLED show
• Teardrop selfie notch
• 90Hz refresh charge

The Galaxy A15 5G represents one thing of an improve over its predecessor within the display division, that includes a 6.5in Tremendous AMOLED panel, versus the much less spectacular LCD show of the A14.

This makes the telephone nice for watching movies, TV and movies, with the high-definition 1080p decision making it greater than usable as a media system.

Whereas it doesn’t fairly evaluate to extra flagship fashions, the 90Hz refresh charge is tremendous clean, particularly when in comparison with the 60Hz charges you discover on customary iPhone fashions.

Simon Chandler / Foundry

Brightness doesn’t fairly evaluate to those promising core specs, with its max topping out at simply over 800 nits. This isn’t an excessive amount of of an issue in most contexts, with the adaptive brightness typically filling within the gaps, however you could have to manually increase the brightness to the restrict when taking the telephone to a sunny park or seashore.

In comparison with pricier fashions, the bezel surrounding the A15’s show is pretty thick, significantly on the backside. The telephone additionally homes a teardrop selfie notch, which is much less discreet than the pinhole cameras you discover on Galaxy S fashions, for example, and can most likely reinforce the feeling of dealing with a less expensive system.

Nonetheless, the A15’s display does look fairly total, significantly for a telephone in its worth vary.

Its audio system additionally punch a bit above their weight, even when they’re neither stereo nor spectacular, with music – even pretty dense music – sounding clear and properly layered.

Specs & Efficiency

• Mediatek Dimensity 6100+ chipset
• 4GB RAM and 128GB storage
• MicroSDXC slot

There’s little question that efficiency is the Galaxy A15’s weak level, which most likely isn’t stunning for a finances telephone.

It runs on a Mediatek Dimensity 6100+ chipset, which is a 6nm processor constructed to deal with 5G. It’s in any other case similar in specs and efficiency to the Helio G99 processor discovered contained in the non-5G Galaxy A15.

As with the A15 4G mannequin, the A15 5G comes with 4GB of RAM. That is on the decrease finish of the RAM spectrum, even for some finances telephones, with the Motorola Moto G84 5G wielding a really spectacular 12GB of RAM for instance.

In observe, this implies you’ll expertise a good quantity of slowdown and lag, even when opening apps and pursuing among the extra mundane duties your telephone does for you.

In comparison with one thing like a Galaxy S24 or an iPhone 15, you’ll positively discover a palpable distinction in fact, and anybody hoping to avoid wasting cash whereas having fun with 2024 efficiency might be disillusioned.

Simon Chandler / Foundry

It additionally implies that any type of high-end gaming is kind of inconceivable on the A15, whereas much less superior video games may even run into slowing points. Nonetheless, finishing on a regular basis duties and searching the online is usually wonderful as soon as corresponding apps have opened, so much less bold customers received’t have too many points.

The A15 additionally offers 128GB of inner storage, which is completely wonderful for a ‘typical’ consumer who most likely received’t be utilizing it for far more than calling/messaging, social networking and taking pictures. There’s a microSDXC slot, so when you’re somebody who likes to take loads of pictures and movies, you might have the choice of increasing on what you obtain out of the field.

Lastly, the benchmarks beneath affirm that the A15 5G is without doubt one of the least-powered telephones launched by a serious producer this 12 months. With solely 4GB of RAM, it’s outperformed by a number of of its finances rivals.

Samsung Galaxy A15 5G benchmarks

Cameras

• 50Mp primary rear digicam
• 5Mp ultrawide
• 2Mp macro lens
• 13Mp selfie digicam

Samsung makes among the finest digicam telephones round, and whereas the A15 5G isn’t one among them, it offers sufficient digicam prowess for the worth.

The spotlight – the one actual spotlight – is the primary 50Mp extensive lens, which may do a superb job in the suitable palms and light-weight. It doesn’t function optical picture stabilisation (OIS) like most mobiles right now, however its use of autofocus does nonetheless typically make it straightforward to make use of and to seize pleasing pictures.

In my expertise, the digicam’s palette is well-balanced and naturalistic, with little of the oversaturation that used to bug earlier generations of Galaxy telephones. Skies aren’t overexposed, colors are vibrant with out being too vibrant, whereas the Portrait mode offers sufficient element whereas being flattering.

Simon Chandler / Foundry

That is the place the excellent news ends, nonetheless, as a result of the extra two lenses really feel extra like box-ticking workouts than real additions to the telephone’s arsenal.

The ultrawide lens can take pretty helpful panoramic pictures if used with a gentle hand, however a number of of our pics ended up having blurred edges or strains, a minimum of if you zoomed in a bit. It’s an analogous story with the 2Mp macro lens, in that photos often look wonderful at first look, however a more in-depth inspection reveals a bit an excessive amount of rawness and blur.

As such, customers will have to be cautious to get essentially the most out of the telephone’s further cameras, one thing which can be mentioned for its night time mode. The latter can be utilized properly in some circumstances and scenes, however it may be hit or miss, so photographers should have some persistence.

Battery Life & Charging

• 5000mAh battery
• 25W wired charging
• No wi-fi charging

With a 5000mAh battery on board and relatively restricted drains on its assets, the Galaxy A15 5G is constructed to final customers by the day, if not significantly longer.

The PCMark for Android battery take a look at returned a powerful results of simply over 15 hours, whereas my day-to-day use of the system discovered me simply making it by to a second day while not having to recharge.

Sure, the extent will drop extra rapidly when you hold the 90Hz mode on on a regular basis and use the telephone for entire afternoons or evenings. However on condition that the A15 isn’t actually minimize out to be a devoted gaming telephone, for example, the everyday consumer could discover themselves utilizing it for less than important functions, extending its battery life right into a second day.

As beneficiant because the telephone’s battery is, the A15 doesn’t include a charger out of the field. And it’s appropriate with chargers of a most of solely 25W, so replenishing the battery isn’t a very speedy affair although a results of 55% in half an hour isn’t dangerous both, managing to match the 33W Redmi Notice 13 5G with the identical battery capability.

This doesn’t detract from the worth for cash supplied by the A15’s battery an excessive amount of. The telephone will show a dependable companion for many customers, saving them from worries that they could run out of juice earlier than they return dwelling.

Software program & Apps

• Android 14
• One UI 6
• Three years of core updates
• No AI options

The Galaxy A15 5G runs on Android 14 with Samsung’s One UI 6.0 excessive, retaining a lot of the options One UI 6 brings to extra premium Galaxy telephones.

The one important omissions are the absence of an always-on show and DeX mode, which might be not stunning on condition that the A15 isn’t marketed as a productiveness telephone and Samsung is inside its rights to maintain options for costlier fashions.

In any other case, the A15 gives a sometimes clean One UI expertise, even when the telephone’s sluggish efficiency means you could have to attend a second longer than ordinary for apps to open. Menus such because the Fast Settings panel are straightforward to entry and laid out intuitively, with the bigger icons making issues less complicated.

Simon Chandler / Foundry

As with different Galaxy telephones, the A15 gives loads of customization choices, permitting customers to alter wallpapers, dwelling and app screens to swimsuit. It additionally gives the Modes and Routines options first launched with One UI 5, permitting you to regulate settings in keeping with the time of day, what you’re doing and/or the place you might be.

One slight, albeit solely unsurprising, draw back is that the A15 doesn’t include any of the neat AI-based options yow will discover with the Samsung Galaxy S24 sequence. It is a disgrace, however on condition that these options don’t supply something actually game-changing (but), most customers most likely received’t discover.

In contrast to the equally reasonably priced Galaxy A25 5G, which Samsung will deal with to 4 years of core Android updates, the A15 5G will obtain three. This can be disappointing for some, however given how underpowered the A15 already is, it is probably not lifelike to count on Samsung to increase its software program life too far and that is typical for telephones of this worth.

Worth & Availability

The Samsung Galaxy A15 5G launched with a worth of £199. UK clients also can purchase it from Amazon, Very and Currys.

The A15 5G comes with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of reminiscence as customary, however sure areas have the chance to purchase the telephone with 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage. 

Sadly that’s not the case within the US the place the telephone is $199.99 and solely accessible in two colors from the official retailer. It’s also possible to get it from Amazon and BestBuy.

So far as alternate options go, there’s the 4G model of the A15, which can prevent £30 when you’re not too fussed about 5G. There’s additionally the Galaxy A25, which for about £50 additional provides extra RAM, a sooner processor and a brighter show with an excellent smoother 120Hz refresh charge.

One other good possibility is the Motorola Moto G84, which is one other extra highly effective possibility in the identical worth bracket. Discover extra choices in our greatest finances telephones chart.

Do you have to purchase the Samsung Galaxy A15 5G?

The Samsung Galaxy A15 5G is a really sturdy all-round finances telephone, with its solely actual weak spot being its lack of computing energy. 

Due to this fact don’t purchase it with gaming or different demanding duties in thoughts however aside from this, it gives nice seems to be, a giant fluid show, an honest primary digicam, and spectacular battery life.

Sure, the extra digicam lenses aren’t significantly helpful, and sure, three years of core Android updates isn’t something to write down dwelling about, however there are minor blemishes on a finances telephone that in any other case offers nice worth.

Specs

• Android 14, One UI 6
• 6.5in Tremendous AMOLED (2340×1080) 19.5:9, 90Hz
• Mediatek Dimensity 6100+ processor
• 4GB LPDDR4X RAM
• 128GB RAM UFS 2.2 inner storage
• Cameras:
• 50Mp primary/extensive sensor
• 2Mp macro
• 5Mp ultrawide
• 13Mp entrance going through
• Facet-mounted fingerprint scanner
• Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2.4GHz+5GHz, VHT80
• Twin SIM (Nano-SIM, twin stand-by)
• Bluetooth 5.3
• 5,000mAh battery
• 25W wired charging
• 160.1 x 76.8 x 8.4mm
• 200g