If you need a smartphone with an AMOLED screen, two cameras with a wide-angle lens and a good battery, but at a reasonable price, the Samsung Galaxy A30 Review is an excellent choice.
Updated Samsung Galaxy A-Series
In the past couple of years, we have been witnessing a full-scale offensive by Chinese smartphone makers on all fronts. No one is already surprised by the amazing success of Huawei, the Xiaomi army of fans is growing exponentially. Yes, and other Chinese manufacturers of smartphones are trying to keep up.
Samsung Galaxy A30 review This could not affect the balance of power in the market for mobile devices. Gradually, Apple is losing its position, already very few people are interested in smartphones from LG and Sony. Samsung is also experiencing not the best of times, since Chinese smartphones have significantly pressed it in the budget and mid-price segment. Xiaomi and Huawei are particularly successful in this.
It seemed that Samsung could no longer adequately respond to this threat. But the company, as an experienced boxer, withstood the blow and adequately responded. This spring we saw a very decent line of new M-series, designed to win positions in the budget segment. Moreover, they did not forget about the mainstream segment of the market. The Korean company for many years has been producing decent, respected buyers, A-series smartphones. And so this year, rather interesting smartphones of this series were presented to compete with Chinese manufacturers. One of them, of course, is the Samsung Galaxy A30 Review. It is about him today that I want to tell.
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Samsung Galaxy A30 Official Specs & Retail Price
Specifications
| Dimensions and weight | 158.5 × 74.7 × 7.7 mm, 165 g |
| Body materials | Plastic |
| Display | 6.4 inches, 1080 × 2340 pixels (19.5: 9), SuperAMOLED, 403 ppi, automatic brightness control, AlwaysOn Display, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| operating system | Google Android 9.0, OneUI 1.x |
| Platform | Exynos 7904 (14 nm technoprocess), two Cortex A73 cores with a frequency of up to 1.8 GHz, 6 Cortex A53 cores with a frequency of up to 1.6 GHz, Mali G71 MP2 |
| Memory | 3 GB of RAM, 32 GB of ROM (free of 21.8 GB), microSD memory card up to 512 GB> 4/64 GB option |
| Wireless interfaces | Wi-Fi a / b / g / n / ac, dual-band, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC |
| Network | 2G: 850/900/1800/1900> 3G: 850/900/1900/2100> 4G: B1 / B3 / B5 / B7 / B8 / B20; 4G TDD LTE B38 / B40 / B41> Dual SIM, nanoSIM (non combo slot) |
| Navigation | GPS / GLONASS |
| Sensors and connectors | USB Type-C (USB 2.0), accelerometer, proximity sensor, light sensor, gyroscope, geomagnetic sensor, Hall sensor, rear panel fingerprint sensor, face unlocking |
| Main camera | 16 (f / 1.7) + 5 MP (f / 2.2) (wide-angle and ordinary camera), LED flash, 1080p video recording |
| Front-camera | 16 Mp (f / 2.0), bokeh effect, various additional effects, autofocus absent |
| Battery | Li-Pol 4000 mAh, talk time up to 23 hours, video playback up to 18 hours, LTE time up to 14 hours |
| Degree of protection | not |
| Colors | black, red, blue and white, in other countries there are additional colors |
| Sound | FM radio |
| Payment system | Samsung Pay, Google Pay |
Design
Samsung decided to make big changes in the design of A-series smartphones. To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by the look of the Samsung Galaxy A30 Review. The sleek profile, glossy back panel and smooth bends made me pinch myself twice to believe that this is really a device of the Galaxy A. I used smartphones of this series before, but, frankly, the new Galaxy A30 is just another design aesthetic. The bulkiness and outdated design have disappeared, and now you get a device that is easy to handle and operate with one hand. The phone looks attractive and quite durable. The ergonomics of the smartphone are pretty good, and the reduced weight and the tapered back mean that the phone is comfortable to hold in your hand.
When I first got the Samsung Galaxy A30 Review out of the box, I caught myself thinking that even though it was a mid-priced device, it looks quite premium. In this smartphone, the developers continued to work on their interesting concept, which was called 3D Glossy Plastic. Its essence is that, when creating a smartphone, to protect the screen used durable glass Gorilla Glass, and the back panel consists of a glossy plastic Glastic. But this is not an ordinary polycarbonate, but a slightly imitating glass. And no wonder that at the first moment I thought that there was glass on the back panel.
With dimensions of 158.5 × 74.7 mm, the Samsung Galaxy A30 Review is rather thin, only 7.7 mm, and weighs quite a bit – 165 g. And this is taking into account that the smartphone has a high-capacity battery. Plastic does not spoil the impression at all, but fingerprints and small scratches easily remain on it if you wear it without a protective cover.
On the back you will see a dual camera, which is located vertically on the left, and under it an LED flash. The camera module has a shiny edging and protrudes slightly above the panel. I am sure that the protective cover will help to hide this protrusion a little.
Just below, almost in the center is a fingerprint scanner. But it is too high for my hands, and I had to stretch my index finger to get to the scanner.
Samsung Galaxy A30 Review comes in three colors: red, black and blue. I had a black smartphone. Although it looks more like dark gray, it was nice to look at. The fact is that in bright light the surface was iridescent with different shades.
The front panel is covered with a protective glass Gorilla Glass 3 with a 2.5D effect. The screen of the Galaxy A30 has a rather thin frame on the sides,
and at the top you will definitely notice a drop-shaped notch in which there is a place for the front camera. Slightly taller, above the neckline, is a lattice of conversational dynamics.
On the left side there is a hybrid tray for two nano-SIM-cards, as well as a MicroSD memory card, the latter having a separate recess. This situation will definitely please those who want to use not only two SIM cards, but also a memory card at the same time.
On the right side, the familiar volume of the already-paired volume rocker and the power button were carried out. The buttons have different sizes, so they are easy to grope.
At the top end we see only a lonely, small hole for an additional microphone.
But below is more interesting. They did not forget to place a 3.5 mm headphone jack, which I am sure will please potential buyers, a USB Type-C (USB 3.1 Gen.1) connector for charging, as well as a multimedia speaker grille and another conversational microphone.
Great screen
I am sure that many of you were surprised at such a headline, but this is the real truth. The fact is that the developers of the Korean company have equipped the mid-range smartphone with a high-quality 6.4-inch Full HD + Super AMOLED Infinity-U display. It is almost frameless, with narrow frames on the sides. Is that the lower chin is a little thicker, but it does not spoil the overall picture. The screen has a resolution of 2340 × 1080 with an aspect ratio of 19.5: 9 and a maximum pixel density of 403 ppi. Quite familiar, I would say, standard sizes and resolutions for a modern mobile device. But still, the use of Super AMOLED technology gives the Samsung Galaxy A30 Review a slight competitive advantage. After all, the presence of such a display allows not only to have a smaller thickness of the body of the smartphone, but also makes it possible to reduce the overall power consumption.
Galaxy A30 precisely manages to attract attention with its bright and clear AMOLED panel. Viewing angles are good, and the display gives out bright, saturated colors.
And what about the sound?
The hero of our review is equipped with two speakers: the main and conversational. But this is the usual, not stereo speakers. They are quite enough for calls, notifications, listening and watching videos. I note that I was pleasantly surprised by the good sound quality, no extra wheezes and noises. The main speaker is quite loud and the sound is good, although it lacks a little bass and clarity. You also do not miss the incoming call in a noisy place. While talking, everything is good and clearly audible, but sometimes there is not enough of a larger volume of volume, especially on the street.
Of course, I was pleased with the fact that Samsung decided to keep the classic 3.5-mm jack for connecting wired headphones to its smartphone. You can also easily connect wireless headphones using a Bluetooth module.
In addition, you have access to advanced settings technology Dolby Atmos, as well as an equalizer, which has nine bands with five presets. This will allow you to customize the sound for themselves and their needs.
Samsung Galaxy A30 is not designed for gamers.
Although the elegant design and bright display are undoubted advantages when choosing a mid-level smartphone, but these are not the only criteria. We all want him to easily cope with everyday tasks, easily open any mobile game, do not hang and do not slow down while working.
The new product from Samsung copes well with everyday tasks, but when you run heavy applications like games, performance drops. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the Samsung Galaxy A30 Review equipped with a mid-level processor Samsung Exynos 7904 seventh series. It is made on the 14-nm process technology and is intended, first of all, for smartphones of the mid-budget segment. The Samsung Exynos 7904 is an eight-core processor that consists of two fairly powerful ARM Cortex-A73 cores with a frequency of 1.8 GHz, diluted with six moderate ARM Cortex-A53 frequencies up to 1.6 GHz. The graphic core of the Mali-G71 MP2, already familiar to such smartphones, is responsible for the graphics. That is, now the manufacturer can not only install displays with a resolution of up to 2400 × 1080 pixels on its devices, but also install 32-megapixel sensors of photo modules of the front and rear cameras as much as possible. Samsung Galaxy A30 Review will please the built-in LTE-modem, which is able to share data over the cellular network at speeds up to 600 Mbps. There is also a set of dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, NFC support, Bluetooth 5.0 module, as well as support for almost all satellite navigation (GPS / GLONASS / BDS / Galileo), which is already familiar to a modern smartphone from a Korean company.
Samsung Galaxy A30 Review is available in two configurations: 3 or 4 GB of RAM and 32 or 64 GB of flash memory. In Ukraine, both options are available, so the choice is yours. In addition, you can expand the memory card MicroSD up to 512 GB, and you do not have to sacrifice the SIM-card.
Galaxy A30 copes well with everyday tasks such as messaging, browsing social networks and surfing the web. I almost never encountered hangs or delays after the initial setup process is completed. Although the opening and loading of applications is not quite fast, but this is largely due to the animation.
The smartphone is also able to smoothly run games with intense graphics, such as PUBG, but on the middle chart. The same situation with all the other “heavy” shooters. That is, they will work smoothly, but not at high settings. In other words, if you want to enjoy mobile games to the full, then the Samsung Galaxy A30 Review is clearly not your assistant. At the same time, the usual casual games are going very well. It is also worth noting that while playing a game, the body of the smartphone in the area of the fingerprint scanner is quite noticeably heated. Of course, not critical, but you just notice it.
Samsung Galaxy A30 Review, like all modern Samsung smartphones, is directly out of the box running the new Android 9 Pie with the new Samsung OneUI brand interface, which is quite simple, intuitive and better than previous attempts by Samsung. Software for the Galaxy A30 offers many options that can be customized depending on your preferences. Whether choosing a topic from an array of available, switching parameters for displaying notifications in All on Display or setting up a notification panel, OneUI will help with everything.
I do not want to talk particularly about OneUI, who are interested, we have a complete overview of its functions and capabilities. But I’ll note that this user interface has a lot of noticeable improvements over the previous Samsung shell, since it’s designed for simplified use of a smartphone with one hand.
In particular, the Samsung Galaxy A30 Review comes with a set of gestures, as well as support for using one hand, touch finger gestures, smart hold, etc.
Upgraded application icons combined with system-wide night mode are very eye-catching. The number of pre-installed programs has decreased. In this case, the main focus is on providing a simple and understandable interface with an emphasis on the content you need. This has its advantages and disadvantages, but it can be attractive for many age groups. There are a number of pre-installed applications, such as Amazon, DailyHunt, Samsung Members, and several Microsoft applications that will definitely come in handy. One thing saddens: most of them cannot be removed. This means that they occupy several gigabytes of memory, and you, for example, do not use them.
The last few years have been complaints that Samsung is often slow in releasing updates, including security patches. But it seems that the situation is beginning to change for the better. The fact is that during the period under review, the Galaxy A30 received a security fix for April 2019, which improved the sound quality, safety and stability of the headphone connection. And this is a middling company, not a flagship device.
Decent Dual Camera
Samsung has always amazed with its ability to equip even mid-level devices with good, high-quality cameras. And the Galaxy A30 also did not disappoint in this regard. The smartphone boasts a dual main camera, which has a 16-megapixel main lens with a wide aperture of f / 1.7, which makes it possible to take good pictures of poor lighting. The second lens is simpler: a 5-megapixel sensor, but with an ultra-wide-angle lens and an aperture of f / 2.2 and 123 degrees of view. The Galaxy A30’s front panel features a 16 megapixel selfie camera with f / 2.0 aperture. The camera system does not support video recording in 4K resolution, but only in FullHD at a speed of 30 frames per second.
The camera application is quite easy to use with basic modes, such as “Photo”, “Video”, “Live focus”, “Pro” and “Panorama”. The mode switches are located below, and the button for switching between standard and wide-angle modes is slightly higher. Nearby is the “Scene Optimization” button, which is enabled by default. This allows the camera to detect certain scenes and automatically adjust settings to offer more attractive photos. For example, if you shoot food, the camera will detect this and automatically increase the saturation so that it looks brighter, more attractive and ready to work in social networks.
The main camera captures beautiful photos in daylight with greater saturation and good detail. In the daytime, the Galaxy A30 will produce results that are similar in definition and attractiveness to competitors’ photos, in particular, Redmi Note 7. When shooting indoors, this effect disappears a bit, since the photos are often obtained with some noise and disturbed smoothness.
The wide aperture of the main camera is well suited for decent photos in low light. Photos look bright and sharp until the image is magnified. However, the lack of a complex long-exposure mode is missed in complex scenarios in low light, when the camera cannot reduce noise or provide greater clarity.
Like any other Galaxy phone of this year, the Galaxy A30 also features an ultra wide-angle secondary camera that is best used during the daytime. This is useful when you want to shoot scenes that require a wider field of view, without having to step back a few steps. Wide-angle shots in low light conditions are not so unattractive, because sometimes photos look blurry, soft and devoid of detail.
The 16-megapixel front-facing camera also allows you to take clear selfies during the daytime, but performance drops instantly indoors and in low light. Additional glare will immediately appear, and the facial features will be unclear. Beautification is enabled by default, but you can turn it off for more realistic selfies.
In general, cameras are good for daytime shooting, but if you prefer to take pictures after sunset, then you should look at other new smartphones in this price category, for example, from Xiaomi .
This year, Samsung was somewhat surprised by all the high-quality high-capacity batteries for most of its smartphones. And the Galaxy A30 is no exception. The device has a 4000 mAh battery, which is enough to solve the most intense tasks. By the end of the day, I always had at least 30% charge. And this is despite the fact that the smartphone was quite intensively used. Basically, it’s surfing the web, working with documents and mail, viewing some social networks and chatting in them, sometimes allowing himself a 30 minute PUBG session. I often listen to music on YouTube Music, and also watch streaming video. Add to this a constantly on-line mobile connection, GPS, Bluetooth for Samsung Galaxy Watch Active watches and wireless headphones.
I noticed that even with the Always-On display turned on, you do not have to charge the Galaxy A30 more than once a day. Samsung Galaxy A30 Review also offers several intensive battery saving features to help you get the most out of it. In the maximum power saving mode, you can only use the Phone, Messaging, Internet, and Settings applications. This will stop background applications, biometrics and reduce brightness, thereby maximizing battery life.
Samsung Galaxy A30 Review supports fast charging. Included you get an adaptive fast charger for 15 watts with power supply. The whole process of charging from 0% to 100% took me just over an hour and a half.
Competitors
If we consider the list of possible competitors, then, first of all, I would call, oddly enough, the Samsung Galaxy M20 . It has a similar technical equipment, the same processor, almost similar cameras, but an IPS-screen. Perhaps for someone this fact is a minus. But the Galaxy M20 is equipped with a more capacious battery, and it is also a bit cheaper.
You can also look at Asus ZenFone Max Pro M2 . Though it was last year, it has better cameras, a more powerful chipset, and the battery is one of the most capacious in this price category. But, again, the stumbling block is the use of IPS-matrix with a huge neckline at the top.
Although the main competitor I still would call Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 . By the way, they are very similar in appearance, but the smartphone from Xiaomi has a glass back panel, unlike the plastic one of the Samsung Galaxy A30. In addition, Redmi Note 7 is one of the best cameras in this price segment. In technical terms, it is also more powerful because of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 chipset and the Adreno 612 graphics processor. The Xiaomi smartphone costs a bit less, but it doesn’t have an NFC module, which many may not like.
Is it worth buying a Samsung Galaxy A30?
The Samsung Galaxy A30 Review is a beautiful and noteworthy smartphone for its price. Despite the plastic construction, it looks more attractive and presentable than some of its competitors. With the Galaxy A30 Samsung Galaxy A30 Review, you also get decent performance, good battery life and an excellent AMOLED display. It also comes with One UI, which gives it an edge over most M-series counterparts. But in terms of the camera there is no unambiguity: during the day it takes great pictures, and at night it will definitely upset your expectations.
