Samsung Galaxy A02: Affordable Phone

Memory	Price
32 GB Internal Memory 3 GB RAM	PKR 16,699/-
64 GB Internal Memory 3 GB RAM	PKR 17,899/-

As someone who loves to stay on the cutting edge of technology, I am always looking for the latest device to test out. That’s why when I heard that Samsung released the A02 smartphone, I couldn’t resist getting my hands on it and seeing what this potential was all about. 

With its sleek design and powerful processor, it surely had a lot of potential! After a few weeks of playing around with the different features, here is my honest review including design, display, processor, battery, camera, and so on. 

Big Display

This phone houses a big 6.5 inches display. So, you shouldn’t worry about the size of this screen, you wouldn’t have any problem seeing through the screen of this phone. It has a 270 PPI density which is fine considering the price of this phone. 

Screen to body ratio is fine too. The ratio is almost 80% which is not bad according to me. The colors on this screen are good and you can see the details of everything on it, however, you wouldn’t be getting an awesome AMOLED panel on this phone. Samsung this time has used a PLS IPS panel on this phone to contain the price of this cell phone.

The IPS panel isn’t bad at all instead it is now outdated by super duper new screen panels providing better color contrast and distribution. Still, you will have no problem using this phone indoors but when outdoors you might face difficulty seeing through this screen.

Decent Design

This phone has only two color options which are blue and black. The phone is made out of plastic. The sides and back are plastic but with a smooth texture that looks like glass. 

The screen has maintained the U-shaped notch on the front of the phone, which by now has become a common design element of Samsung for their low-tier A series cell phones.

This notch has the front camera trapped inside it and the earpiece which is located just above it. On the bottom, you get the 3.5mm jack and a USB 2.0 charging option. At this price don’t think about Type-C, Samsung isn’t that benevolent.

The bezels on this phone are not very pleasant. They take away all the aesthetics and beauty of this phone. But if we look at the price point at which this phone is offered I would say you have to sacrifice a few things and this should be acceptable. 

If you really care about the design of your phone I would advise you to increase your budget and look for better options available today.

How’s the Performance? 

This phone comes with a Quadcore, Mediatek chipset, and a 3GB RAM option across both variants 32GB/64GB. It is just enough for daily light to normal usage but if you are a person who wants to enjoy his/her phone to the maximum, this is not for you.

The 3GB RAM lets you know every time that it is not enough RAM. Whenever I open two to three applications in the background it starts lagging and the speed gets so slow that it becomes annoying. 

You can do very light gaming but if you try to go a little hard like Asphalt 8 or PUBG you will feel the sluggishness in the performance. 

Is the Software good?

This phone has Android 10 and ONE UI2.0 straight out of the box, which is good. Samsung has always provided their phone with at least 3-5 years of software support and you should expect no less than this, this time as well. 

So, if you buy this cell phone now you can use it for a good amount of time without worrying about it getting outdated. 

Dual Camera

This phone has a horizontal camera setup on the back. The camera has two lenses, one is the main camera lens while the other one is a macro camera. The main camera is 13 Megapixels and the macro camera is 2 Megapixels.

The front camera is 5 Megapixels, which is too low for a phone at this time. You are not going to get any mods for the camera and there wouldn’t be any adjustments in your pictures at the back end by the phone itself. What you will get are filters that you can apply afterward. 

The image quality is below average. The crispiness, color distribution, and vibrance is simply not up to the mark. There is no low light mode and even in the bright sunlight, you will be getting images that are just okayish or sometimes below that. This is not a phone for camera lovers!

Big Battery

The only area where this phone just outshines everything is its battery. It has a 5000 mAh big battery. It will easily give you one day of battery backup and if you are a light user you can even extend the backup to two days.

It isn’t just all good, it has downsides as well like you can’t fast charge your phone because there is no option available for that. You can’t wirelessly charge your phone so you have to deal with that. 

The most annoying thing for me is its slow charging because once you have successfully drained out its battery you have to show patience. It will take around 4 hours to charge it to 100%.

Final Words

This is a very basic phone with a good battery packed inside and a dual camera. It won’t be something out of the box but it does the basic functions like calling and messaging perfectly.

If you can manage to get your budget a little higher you will get many options to choose from. You can have a phone which at least runs smoothly and has a better response than this phone. But if you are on a strict budget then don’t expect too much and use it for basic tasks.

So, it’s a no for me if you ask me whether to go for this phone or not.