REVIEW | Samsung Galaxy A30s

Samsung is the world’s largest maker and seller of mobile phones. Samsung has models across the price spectrum from low end to ultra-high-end.

The competition in the mid to low end has never been fiercer, and Samsung has found its competitors has been nipping at their heels. Samsung has responded as only Samsung can do with the new A range and the Galaxy A30s may be the best bargain of the series.

The hardware

The Galaxy A30s looks and feels like a high-end phone and even has a metal frame. The review unit feels expensive and is well-built. The Galaxy A30s has a plastic back panel with an outstanding looking design. Samsung has given the rear panel a gradient and prism-like finish.

The 6.4″ SuperAMOLED screen is as good as any of its competitors and despite the slightly lower resolution than Samsungs flagships models, is bright colourful and very easy to read in all lighting conditions.

Samsung also offers excellent memory options for a mid-range device, with the Galaxy A30s sporting 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The processor of the Galaxy A30s is a custom Exynos unit made by Samsung. In use the Galaxy S30s is sufficiently speedy, only in comparison to the S10 Plus did the A30 feel a little slow.

The battery life proved to be very good. The Galaxy A30s has a massive 4,000mAh cell packed into its thin chassis with 15W fast charging support.

Another high-end feature is an on-screen fingerprint scanner for a secure unlocking experience. The accuracy of this reader was good with the ability to use a pin code if you need to

Samsung is offering the Galaxy A30s in Prism Crush Black, Prism Crush White, Prism Crush Green and Prism Crush Violet. The Galaxy A30s is also very well put together with a solid, sturdy feel and seamless construction.

The camera

The Samsung Galaxy A30s comes with triple rear cameras. These are a 25MP primary camera, an 8MP Ultra-Wide camera and a new 5MP depth camera. The Live Focus 5MP depth camera, offers near professional-quality bokeh effects and portraits.

There are some smart camera tools, built into the hardware, including Intelligent Flaw Detector and Scene Optimiser. In actual use, the camera was quick, easy to use and in most conditions offered excellent quality.

The software

Samsung ships the Galaxy A30s with One UI 1.5, and Android 9.0 Pie. One UI 1.5 operates much like stock Android but has a few customisations and Samsung’s suites of apps. The standard set of Google apps are also included.

Samsungs One UI is its best yet. The One UI is clean easy to use and mostly intuitive with few complicated areas. Settings are logical and self-explanatory. In use the UI gets out of the way of daily operation and makes it easy to do all your daily task quickly and effortlessly.

The Samsung Galaxy store is also included and offers some decent skins and other apps that are not always available from the Google App store.

In this price range the Galaxy A30s offered a very competitive performance which indicates Samsungs optimisation of hardware and the operating system. Games played well and switching between apps was fast and fluid. The camera responded quickly, and the low display resolution was not particularly apparent.

The unit we tested was the Casper Nyovest special edition, and the Galaxy A30s has around a hundred wake-up messages recorded by Nyovest specifically for the alarm clock function.

Conclusion

The most critical number for the Galaxy A30s is the price. Recommended retail is R4,899.00 though with some research prices as low as R3,999-00 were available. At this price, the Galaxy A30s may be the best midrange device at the moment.

The combination of high-end features, such as construction, under-screen fingerprint sensor, is smart and capable. The advanced camera subsystem and more than adequate memory make the Galaxy A30s a great phone.

The compromises are few and hardly affect daily use. Samsung, for example, has included a low-speed USB C connector a choice that hardly anyone would notice.

If you want high end looks and feel with sold performance, the Galaxy A30 s could be just what you looking for. As always test, before you commit, but choosing the Galaxy A30s, will not be a wrong move.

For more information www.samsung.co.za.

Steven Ambrose | Techhuman | @ambio | mail me |