Samsung Galaxy A51 preview: Quad camera and Android 10 on a budget

Terminal updated: Jan 15th, 2020 at 12:37 UTC+01:00

Earlier today, Samsung launched the Galaxy A51 in Vietnam, the first of its 2020 A series smartphones and the sequel to the Galaxy A50, which is probably the most pop of Samsung'southward 2019 A series phones. With the Milky way A51, Samsung is focusing on the camera experience, with the A51 sporting four rear cameras, one of which is a macro camera for close-up shots.

The A51 also has an Infinity-O display like the one on the Galaxy Note 10, and information technology runs Android ten out of the box, becoming the first Galaxy phone to be launching with the latest version of Android out of the box earlier the next Galaxy S flagship comes effectually. I had the hazard to play with the phone at its launch in Vietnam today, and here are my initial impressions.

Galaxy A51 easily-on

The A51'due south macro photographic camera has a resolution of 5 megapixels, and, bluntly, the results aren't bad. I took three shut-up shots of props Samsung had put upward at the outcome, and the macro photographic camera lets you become considerably shut. However, yous do have to getreallyclose to the subject to get information technology into focus, so many will wish Samsung had but put in a telephoto lens instead. Telephoto lenses let y'all become close without physically moving closer to the subject area, and cost considerations are no doubtfulness the reason Samsung opted to equip the A51 with a macro camera.

At 12 megapixels, the ultra-wide camera on the Galaxy A51 has a college megapixel count than ultra-broad cameras nosotros've seen on other non-flagship Galaxy smartphones (which have a 5MP or 8MP ultra-broad photographic camera depending on the telephone's cost), but I couldn't test it plenty to say if the bump in resolution makes a big divergence. I couldn't test the 48MP principal camera or 32MP front end camera, either, just we'll have more to tell you nigh their quality in our full review.

I was as well unable to examination the on-screen fingerprint reader, but Samsung has hopefully improved its performance, equally the one on the Milky way A50 was rather mediocre. I did manage to browse through the full general software a bit, and information technology'southward corking to see that the A51 isn't going to be outdated at launch. It runs Android x with One UI 2.0 and felt pretty snappy and responsive. I saw features like Bixby Routines and Edge screen on the device, although the built-in screen recorder from One UI 2.0 was missing.

Samsung is making the Galaxy Annotation 10'south Infinity-O display the standard across its smartphone range next twelvemonth, and the A51 is the first of those devices to be coming to marketplace. Being a Super AMOLED panel, the colors and overall quality looked fantabulous, and the bezels are pretty small and make the 6.5-inch screen experience compact to use. As for the design, the phone has a crisscross blueprint in the upper one-half of the back and a ridged pattern in the lower half, and it all shines beautifully when low-cal hits the back at different angles.

I can meet the Galaxy A51 becoming another blockbuster striking for Samsung seeing how well the Galaxy A50 has washed worldwide. The macro camera, Infinity-O brandish, and Android 10 out of the box are meaningful upgrades that brand the $350 toll tag pretty compelling, although Samsung will have to brand certain it doesn't expect too long to launch the Galaxy A51 outside Vietnam given how apace the competition in the budget and mid-range is moving these days.