With Samsung launching its top of the line S line-up that comes with skyrocketing prices, we thought it would be best to check out their not so costly upgrade called the Galaxy A51 smartphone. The A51 is a successor to the last years Galaxy A50 which now gets treated with a Quad Camera setup, an Optical Fingerprint sensor and 6 gigs of RAM. Having used the device for the past couple of weeks, here’s our in-depth review.
Design
The design stays true to the A50 launched earlier, with the same basic looks which despite feeling minimal, has a certain finesse to it. The back panel is far more angular and fits comfortable to hold. The choice of materials is spot-on as the body feels rugged and durable at the same time. The chrome rainbow effect still looks prominent as it certainly draws a lot of attention when we used it around the office. What has changed is the new camera setup on the back which now comes with a quad-camera setup with looks a bit squarish on the outside. This new design seems a bit out of shape and nowhere symmetrical to look at.
Coming to the screen, the 6.5-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-O display looks stunning which is a typical thing with Samsung. The punchy colours and great colour reproduction, translated into better viewing angles and a lovable Netflix experience. Slimmer bezels lend a helping hand to the front design which looks simple and clutter-free.
Processor
The A51 is powered by a new Exynos 9611 64-bit octa-core SoC paired with Mali-G72 MP3 GPU. This setup runs splendidly as we never noticed any lag or hiccup withing our daily use of social media and casual apps. Surprisingly enough, the heavy titles such as COD and PUBG ran great despite pumping the graphics to an extremely high level. Samsung has heavily optimised the gaming experience to pull in all the resources towards delivering a consistent frame rate.
The only issue we faced in performance was the optical fingerprint sensor which was sluggish and in-responsive at times. This could be fixed with a software upgrade as the sensor happens to be the same one used on other A series devices.
Camera performance
The quad-camera setup on the Samsung Galaxy A51 consists of a 48MP primary sensor, a 12MP Ultra-Wide-Angle lens, a 5MP depth sensor, and a 5MP dedicated macro lens. Although we hoped this setup might be a far improvement over the 3-camera setup on the A50, we were wrong.
The 48MP primary sensor captures some great shots with its high-fidelity range and superb dynamic depth. The images taken under adequate sunlight yielded perfect shots that needed a little editing if any. However, the same couldn’t be said about the low light performance as the combined result from all the lens setup felt poor and not up to the mark. On the plus side, we quite liked the result obtained from the wide-angle lens with its distinct fish-eye effect. Fortunately, Samsung bundles the camera app with a lot of features such as Live Focus, Photo, Video and other modes like Pro, Panorama, Macro, Food, Night, Super-Slow-Mo, Slow-Motion and Hyper lapse. Although we couldn’t test everything out then, we think all would earn a fair result.
Speaking about the front-facing 32MP selfie camera, we think the sensor works pretty well. It does come with a wide-angle mode to fit in a lot more people in a single shot which might come in handy. As before, this sensor struggles in low lighting conditions which is not much of a bummer. All in all, we think the A51 doesn`t take a huge leap over the A50 as we expected.
Battery
The battery happens to be one remarkable department when Samsung seems to be working on. The A51 despite sporting the same 4,000mAh unit now shines through over 22 hours of heavy use. Moreover, the 15W fast charging is the icing on the top as it juices the battery to a complete 100 per cent in under an hour. This improvement can be pinned down to the upgraded OneUI which is now less resource-intensive as before.
Gizmo Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy A51 is still a strong contender that gives Samsung a run for its money. Despite the nominal changes around the processor and battery life, we think the A51 is a remarkable smartphone which should last you a long time. For a price tag of ₹24k, the smartphone is one heck of a device that would fulfil all your request and keep up with your active lifestyle. The A51 is nothing extraordinary but shines through the competition with its consistent performance and dependable stature. So, if you are in the market looking for a bank for your buck, take a look at this eye candy.
