The Galaxy A51 is Samsung’s answer to mid-range models like the iPhone SE andPixel 3a.
The screen and storage are particular standouts.
The standard storage of 128GB is also something that’s not common in this market segment.
One thing that surprised me about this phone is just how pretty it is.
Even so, I’d have liked to have seen some kind of grippy texture on the side.
The layout is pretty straightforward, with Samsung’s standard power beneath volume on the right.
The phone has a headphone jack on the bottom, where the mono speaker hangs out.
You’ll be using the former more often than on other phones, as the speaker’s pretty muddy.
It’s loud enough to listen to speech in a medium-sized room but not much else.
There’s no fingerprint sensor on the rear, but I dearly wish there was.
Using the Phone
The in-screen fingerprint reader is easily the worst single feature of the A51.
The Galaxy A51’s in-screen fingerprint sensor is awful.
I’d gladly trade this finicky fingerprint readers for wireless charging, water resistance, or stereo speakers.
I hope Samsung does this in the next revision.
On the other end of the spectrum, the screen is wonderful.
Performance
The octa-core processor (four primary, four secondary Cortex cores) handles most tasks easily.
I wish I could say the same for the RAM.
The expanded storage is one of the A51’s few differentiating features.
If the RAM is insufficient, at least the storage is plentiful.
Samsung’s big software build takes up almost 30GB of the built-in 128GB, which isn’t great.
But you might throw in a cheap MicroSD card to get as much as 512GB in storage boost.
Software
Oof.
But based on the Galaxy A51, I’d say Samsung is sliding back into bad habits.
I could meticulously list all of the extra and questionably necessary apps that Samsung fills this phone up with.
That is an Extremely Samsung thing to do.
The configs menu has been redesigned in unnecessary ways.
Even the power button defaults to launching Bixby instead of, you know, the power button menu.
Oh yeah, we got apps.
Most of these issues can be worked around if you really want to.
The Bixby-heavy launcher can be replaced with Nova.
The navigation bar can be cleaned up.
I think some people will be willing to overlook this.
(Yes, those exist!)
Video capabilities are also surprising.
When I forgot to charge the phone overnight, I was hitting below 15% before lunch.
That’s not the best battery life considering the size, and far from the worst.
Still, I’d call it “competent” if you’re after longevity.
Still, I never had a noticeable drop in data or voice coverage.
And it’s not as good as those phones.
Sorry to be so declarative, but that’s just the way it is.
That’s not to say, necessarily, that you shouldn’t buy it.
And Samsung does like to throw in the freebies.
That’s an easy way to tip the scales.
Unless you, too, are Extremely Samsung, there are simply better options out there.
