Samsung Galaxy A6 review: A confused and expensive offering

With the Galaxy A6 and Milky way A6+, Samsung is trying to achieve a middle ground between upkeep and mid-range smartphones. These are interesting devices that have the potential to be the perfect phone for a certain kind of consumers. Nosotros have already reviewed the Galaxy A6+, and before nosotros can explain who should consider buying its smaller cousin, a short introduction of the Milky way A6 is in order.

The Galaxy A6 is interesting for the fact that it is the cheapest Milky way phone that has an Infinity brandish and a metallic build. But the question arises: Just how much has Samsung had to sacrifice in other areas to have arrived at the €300 price tag?

Allow'southward find out in our Galaxy A6 review.

Galaxy A6 review: Design

The Galaxy A6 has a compact and comfortable trunk for people with boilerplate-sized easily. The metallic on the phone gives it a premium feel, and at least three people I asked guessed its price to be higher up €350. Of course, the downside to the metallic build is how easy information technology is for you to driblet the device.

The fingerprint scanner is placed at the back, beneath the rear photographic camera. Reaching the fingerprint sensor is like shooting fish in a barrel, just there's ane problem. Subsequently tapping the scanner, the phone sometimes took several seconds to react and unlock the device. Waiting for more than a second is as well long when you lot want to unlock your telephone, and it's a disadvantage the Galaxy A6+ suffers from as well.

Brandish

The five.six-inch Super AMOLED Infinity display on the Galaxy A6 is tolerable, but not exactly everything it could be. For example, there'southward no Always On Brandish feature, despite information technology being bachelor on the A6+. The screen likewise isn't sharp plenty. The HD+ resolution is practiced plenty for the screen size, but I expected more for €300.

The colors on the A6 display are what yous would await from an AMOLED panel, though it's not too vivid. You take total customization for the screen manner in the brandish settings. There are the usual presets, such as AMOLED Movie theatre or Bones (Basic is the almost realistic), and you lot tin can also switch between a cool and warm look for the entire screen.

The bezels are acceptable, but Samsung needs to brand them even smaller for a better 'Infinity' look. The software navigation keys work well, though I kept reaching for a home button to turn on the phone. That's something virtually consumers moving from a traditional Galaxy device to 1 with an Infinity display will take to get through cheers to the lack of a physical home button.

Camera

The 16-megapixel rear photographic camera on the Milky way A6 takes pictures with plenty of detail and pretty colors with good lighting. Dynamic range is decent, and the dedicated HDR manner can go far even better. And while the camera app feels rather responsive in saving pictures, the lack of optical image stabilization means a trivial movement tin can blur photos easily. Every bit expected, in not-so-practiced lighting, there'south less item. It'southward respectable plenty as long every bit you're not shooting in the dark, though quite a bit of noise can creep in. The nighttime modes helps in taking ameliorate pictures in low-low-cal weather, only it can take a few seconds and then y'all have to concur the phone steady.

The 16-megapixel selfie camera takes pictures that wait skillful in well-lit environments, though the pictures don't come out as sharp as y'all expect from a 16 MP sensor. Indoors, especially in actress dim atmospheric condition, selfies have more noise and style less item. The forepart-facing flash helps and has 3 levels of brightness, but a flash in your face can be quite annoying in my opinion. In that location's also a Selfie focus mode for taking bokeh selfies, but it's software-based and is unable to ever find the edges of the face properly.

Videos are shot at Full Hard disk drive resolution and have some camera milk shake, simply they await expert in other aspects. Of grade, noise levels increase as you turn the lights down. Like the A6+, the A6 doesn't get the new photographic camera app that debuted on the Milky way S9. Information technology's an odd omission as the cheaper Galaxy J6 has it, and information technology was besides released for the Galaxy A8 (2018) through the Oreo update.

Performance

The Milky way A6 is powerful for most tasks with the octa-cadre Exynos 7870 under the hood. There can be a few stutters when you lot tap on something (for instance, when browsing the web), but non that often. Low-cal gaming is possible but heavier games can't go on a stable frame rate. The low screen resolution helps proceed the performance skilful plenty, simply once more, a device with a €300 price tag deserves better. I also noticed issues with quick typing. It tin can exist a chip sluggish, though it's unclear if that'south a result of the telephone's performance or an effect with the screen on our review unit.

Audio, call quality

The Galaxy A6 is similar to the Galaxy A6+ in this regard. Dolby Atmos isn't very helpful, other than increasing the book somewhat and adding but a sprinkle of surround audio-similar result. It only works over Bluetooth and earphones; Samsung has bundled its cheapest earphones with the phone, so using a better third-party pair is recommended. The loudspeaker is to a higher place average as far every bit loudness is concerned, but information technology'southward besides shrill and lacks depth. Every bit far as phone call quality is concerned, I ran into no issues. Both parties can hear each other properly, and network reception was by and large quite excellent.

Software

The Milky way A6 runs Android 8.0 Oreo with the Samsung Feel 9.0 UX, same as the Galaxy A6+. The features list is mostly similar on both devices, and so yous tin can check out our Galaxy A6+ review for more details. Overall, Samsung's software continues to be quite pretty, which gives the user experience a refined feel (making the performance issues all the more jarring). The Galaxy A6 is likely to become the Android P update, but whether it gets a second major update like the Milky way A series phones from previous years is something we volition have to wait and come across.

Battery life

With the 3,000 mAh battery under the hood, the Galaxy A6 can last up to a day on average, with usage involving Snapchat, WhatsApp, Facebook, web browsing, and watching some videos. Screen on times hover at around the 3-60 minutes mark, but going beyond that will reduce the overall bombardment life, making this a no-go for heavy users and tasks such as navigation and long hours of gaming.

In that location's no fast charging support, which is to exist expected because the A6+ doesn't have it either. Going from 0 to 100 percent tin can take up to 2 hours and 30 minutes. You lot get the usual mix of power saving modes that can help extend battery life. While the A6+ doesn't usually require these modes to exist enabled, the A6′ lower endurance makes them more necessary.

Decision

The Galaxy A6 is not for those who value operation or bombardment life. Information technology's for people who capeesh a premium build, piece of cake-to-utilise software, and the piece of mind that comes from owning a phone from a large company like Samsung. Even then, it's too expensive for most customers. That'south the problem with the Galaxy A6+ too, which makes these phones rather confused offerings.

Pros	Cons
Well congenital, compact trunk	No Always On Display
AMOLED display is decent	No fast charging or USB Type-C port
Easy-to-use and skilful-looking software	Fingerprint sensor takes fourth dimension to wake up device
Takes good selfies	Likewise expensive for its performance
	Rear camera is average
	Battery life could exist better