Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00Samsung's Galaxy S line, like their S10, S8 phones, are very well known.
00:06They market them heavily, especially in North America, we see these things everywhere.
00:09Their A lineup is not as well known, and for the past couple of years,
00:14their A line, which is their kind of mid-tier budget line, has not been great.
00:19They have these mediocre phones, and they've let Chinese brands just dominate that market over the past little bit.
00:24But this year, they brought something that feels legitimate and competitive in this market.
00:28These are the A20, A50, and A70 phones from Samsung.
00:32So, these phones have been available in Europe and Asia for the past month or so, maybe two months.
00:38But they're finally coming into North America, and the fact that they're bringing these into US and Canada
00:44is both interesting and somewhat telling as to how confident Samsung is about these phones,
00:49in terms of how well they'll actually do, how competitive they actually are in today's market.
00:54So, these are priced at $250, $350, and about $550, maybe $570 US dollars.
01:00I'm not able to get an exact US price on this, because this one is not available in the US.
01:04The other two are. I'm just converting from Canadian dollars to US for the A70.
01:09Now, at this price point, for these exact prices, if I'm being honest,
01:14if you're getting a Chinese-branded phone, like either a Huawei or a Xiaomi phone,
01:18you're gonna get slightly faster processors for your money with the Chinese phones.
01:22With these three Samsung phones, you're getting a way better OLED panel,
01:25you're getting cleaner software, a wide-angled camera system, and a brand name, if that's important to you.
01:31Now, these are missing some relatively important features.
01:33So, things that they are missing that matter to me, you don't get stereo speakers,
01:37you don't get wireless charging, and you don't get any kind of water resistance.
01:40So, there are phones out there that don't have an official IP rating,
01:44like they're not officially certified for water resistance,
01:46but they do have a degree of water resistance kind of built into the phone manufacturing process.
01:52There is seemingly none of that with these phones.
01:54So, when I pop out the SIM tray, there isn't even a rubber gasket on that.
01:58On devices like the OnePlus phones, and even the Pixel 3a,
02:01even though these aren't officially IP certified, there is a rubber gasket.
02:05So, in the manufacturing process of these Samsung A-series phones,
02:09they really didn't seem to care about water resistance.
02:12Now, in terms of things they do have on these phones, and these are probably more important,
02:15they have excellent OLED panels. These are really nice-looking screens for the price point.
02:19They also have headphone jacks, they have expandable storage, they have big batteries,
02:23and they also have a flat screen edge.
02:25This is something I've talked about in some of my phone videos.
02:27I feel like some of the premium phone manufacturers out there put this curvature to the front display,
02:33and it just, it doesn't really do anything functionally.
02:35If anything, it impedes the display. It just looks really pretty.
02:38And I'm glad that for a device like this, they kept it flat.
02:41So, clearly, these phones are made for real use.
02:45Not to look pretty in pictures and commercials, but for real functionality.
02:49Now, another feature all three of these share is a plastic back.
02:53And I'll be honest, for the first few days I used this, I actually thought it was glass,
02:56because it's got that glass shimmer, it's got that glass glossiness to it.
03:00But it is actually plastic. Well, Samsung calls it glastic, but it's a plastic back.
03:05With that plastic back, this device scratches more easily,
03:08and because it's got such a shiny finish, the scratches show.
03:11But it's the right decision, right? If you ever drop a plastic phone, it's not going to shatter,
03:14it's not going to spider. This is the way to go, and it makes it cheaper, right?
03:18I'm glad that they spent less money on the backing material,
03:21and more money on the internals of the device, where it actually matters.
03:24Plastic, on a phone at this price, is the way to go.
03:27The previous A-series phones, they had glass, even at the $300, $400 price point.
03:32It made no sense. Plastic was the right choice.
03:34Okay, I'm not going to do a review on all three of these phones.
03:37The one that I like the most is the A50. It's the $350 unit,
03:41so I'm going to focus this conversation around this.
03:44This is $100 more than the A20, and you get a higher-res screen.
03:48It's 1080p instead of the 720p on the A20.
03:50You get a zoom lens on the camera, you get an in-display fingerprint sensor,
03:53which works surprisingly well for a $350 phone.
03:56It's not super fast, like you do have to get used to its speed,
03:59and you also have to get used to the positioning of your thumb when you place it on the screen,
04:02but once you get used to it, it works well.
04:04And it's features like this that make this phone stick out for me.
04:07It's not like a flagship killer. Clearly, that's not what they're going for.
04:10They don't want to cannibalize the sales of their actual flagship phones,
04:13but they're bringing features like this in-display fingerprint sensor
04:16and just a solid overall phone experience at a $350 price point.
04:21It's awesome.
04:22But you should be aware of, I guess, two big differences
04:26between these three phones and the more expensive flagship phones.
04:30So I'll just kind of go over the two.
04:31The big one is performance.
04:33These three phones are not running the fastest SoCs out there.
04:36The A50 and A70 are running more mid-tier stuff.
04:39The A20 is running more entry-level stuff.
04:42It still offers great value for the money at $250,
04:45but if you're looking for kind of like a snappy experience,
04:48and I feel like a lot of my audience is, I wouldn't go for this one.
04:51It's not so much the in-app performance or even the UI.
04:54It's more about switching between apps.
04:55With only 3GB of RAM, this is a more limited experience.
04:58The A50 is a lot better with the faster processor and 4GB of RAM,
05:02but I still did notice some pretty aggressive app closures,
05:06and I do think it's a matter of RAM management.
05:07Samsung's never been awesome at it.
05:09I really wish I was getting better performance with this phone
05:11because of its price point, but that's what we have.
05:14If you're just using your phone in a more, I guess like a more simple manner,
05:19like you're not switching between 5 or 6 apps frequently,
05:21then you probably won't even notice it,
05:23but for the people that are used to multitasking and want to multitask,
05:27then you will notice a difference in performance between this
05:30and something with more RAM.
05:31And the 6GB of RAM in the A70 deliver a smoother experience,
05:35but it is a lot more expensive, so you kind of expect that.
05:38Now, the other feature that is similar between these 3 phones
05:43and different from all the other flagship phones out there is the camera system.
05:47Now, traditionally, Samsung's mid-tier phone lineup
05:50has usually been packed with poor cameras,
05:52and this year's cameras are good, but they're not great.
05:56I wish I could say that they're great,
05:57but I can't because of the existence of the Pixel 3a and the Pixel 3a XL.
06:02This phone's camera is just so much better than these 3,
06:05and it's, like, similar in price,
06:07so it's hard to call these things anything better than good.
06:10If you're taking shots in good lighting conditions or outdoors, it's fine.
06:14There's some overexposure, and sometimes focusing has some issues,
06:17but I'm happy with it.
06:19It's the low-light photos it has troubles with.
06:21It overexposes some of the lights, and it just struggles.
06:24But to be honest, I'm content with these cameras.
06:27Like, for the money, I'm not going to complain, right?
06:29I'm not looking for the best camera.
06:31If I was, I'd be picking up the Pixel 3a or the Pixel 3a XL
06:35for this kind of price point,
06:36but you're getting a really good phone experience overall with the A series.
06:40And as I used these phones for the past little bit,
06:42it just made me realize that, like,
06:45I remember Marques a few years ago saying,
06:46good phones are getting cheap, cheap phones are getting good.
06:49And this, to me, is, like,
06:52this is clearly a really cheap phone that is great.
06:56It's pressure from the consumer market
06:57and pressure from the Chinese manufacturers
06:59that have shaped these phones to be what they are,
07:01to be as good as they are for as little as they cost.
07:04But if you're interested in an inexpensive phone,
07:06I highly recommend checking out these A series phones.
07:08They surprised me.
07:10Like, I've never loved the older ones.
07:11These ones are fantastic.
07:13Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video.
07:14Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it.
07:16See you guys next time.