Samsung Galaxy A6 Plus Review

The Smartphone has become everyone’s ultimate desire and while mobile makers also keeping that the same in concern and coming up with the phone that meet expectations. Samsung still believes that user experience isn’t directly propositional to on-paper specifications.

Samsung has come up with multiple additions to its mid-range smartphone portfolio in India with the launch of new devices under its Galaxy A and Galaxy J series. One such smartphone launched by the company is the all-new Galaxy A6+ and priced at Rs 25,990 (4GB RAM), justifying the internals that includes an Exynos processor, an Infinity Display, and dual cameras. But more than this, the smartphone borrows the design language of the premium flagships.Almost with such a  impressive features  Does the Samsung Galaxy A6+ stand true to its price tag? Let us take look:

Design and performance

The biggest change introduced on the Galaxy A-series this time is the elongated ‘Infinity display’ with 18.5:9 aspect ratio.It is carved out a single metal unibody for the handset. The front panel of the smartphone is black while the rear panel will bear one of the three amazing body colours – Black, Blue, and Gold. The rear side houses the cameras, LED flash, fingerprint sensor, and some inscribed text at the bottom about the designing and manufacturing of the phone. Power and lock key is on the right, with a smartly placed loudspeaker grill that doesn’t muffle while holding the phone in landscape.

Coming to performance, Galaxy A6+ worked very well for almost all types of operations including calling, messaging, using social media apps, playing music/ videos and even gaming. Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 SoC and a 4GB RAM, it is capable enough of handling multi-tasking up to a good extent. Only if you are running multiple heavy apps in the background will you start experiencing a few lags here and then.

The Galaxy A6 Plus runs the Android Oreo 8.0 with company’s custom UI on top. We must say Samsung has hugely improvised their software in terms of looks, transitions and optimisations. It looks lot cleaner and easy to use.

There are a couple of India-centric features that Samsung has baked in this time. First and the most interesting one is the ‘Chat over video’ that allows users to reply to text on WhatsApp and messages app without interrupting the video. The device offers split screen view which also includes a ‘Snap’ option to set a small window for one of the apps and an ‘App Pair’ to save a combination of split screen apps on your home screen for future use. Samsung has also put in many of its ingenious apps like the S Secure, Samsung Mall, S Bike mode and more.

The 3500 mAh battery on the Samsung Galaxy A6+ is good enough to last a day. Samsung claims to have used an AI-powered memory management on the Galaxy A6+. As per the company, the feature is able to move media content from social media and chat applications to an SD card by itself when switched on. The feature is also able to delete saved APK files on the device.

Other specifications include an onboard storage of 64GB with expandability up to 256GB, standard connectivity options such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and FM radio. However, the phone does not support NFC, which is okay considering we don’t have many NFC payment options available in India everywhere. You get a 3.5mm headphone jack and a standard Micro-USB charging port, the latter of which could have been, at least, upgraded to the Type-C version.

Display

There are two brownie points for Samsung here. One, for making available its much-sought Infinity display at a more affordable price and another for embedding it in a manner that it does not look odd or out of place. The display on the Galaxy A6+ does not round off at the edges, as seen in the Galaxy S8 and like. Instead, the display has been neatly housed between slim bezels at the side and a bit wider bezels on the top and the bottom. In functioning, the display is just the same though and will certainly allow the users a lot of functionality right on the lock screen.

The trend is about 18:9 aspect ratio, and being among the first ones to adapt the change, Samsung has done it in the Galaxy A6 Plus as well. But in this case, it’s 18.5:9 similar to other Galaxy smartphones.

The display has a full HD+ resolution and it’s undoubtedly the highlight of the phone.  It’s bright, immersive and crisp. Samsung’s AMOLED panels have always impressed and this one makes sure it has the best screen in its league too.

Camera

There’s a dual camera setup having a 16MP primary and 5MP secondary sensor. On the front, there’s a  towering 24MP sensor. Both also sport rear fingerprint scanners and offer Dolby Atmos audio support.the front camera that comes with Beauty effects, as well as AR stickers – but you can use both the features for the rear cameras too.

The camera shots with front one is praise worthy. The pictures looked well-defined with ample of details and punchy colours. Coming to the photographs produced by the rear cameras, the colours look accurate with details – however zooming in shows lack of details instantly. There is a decent dynamic range to the images taken in daylight. Things turn south the moment you open the camera app in dark conditions. The photographs taken in low-light conditions lack detail and are too grainy and murky to convince you.

Pros & cons

The Samsung Galaxy A6+ is here to make a dent in the market amassed with the phones of similar specifications and offerings. While the on-paper specifications won’t make your jaw drop, its real-world performance might entice you to go for it. The photography is decent according to the price range, however, we have seen better photographs clicked by the Honor 8 Pro.

The Samsung Galaxy A6+, however, comes with a better availability via both online and offline markets, unlike the competitors that are sold online only. If you can excuse the weight, heavy performance, and low-light photography, the Samsung Galaxy A6+ can be an option for you.