Samsung Galaxy A20: smartphone review

At the beginning of the new year, the Korean company Samsung completely revised the capabilities of its products and decided to restructure the approach to future smartphones. The flagship A50, the gateway A30 and the promising A20 are the mobile devices of the “new strategy”. It is about him that will be discussed in this article.

Brief information

As you know, Samsung Galaxy A20 is considered the most affordable option from the above line and has the best price-performance ratio. Compared to the previous models, the A20 has got the latest software and an improved chipset from the manufacturer Exynos. Apparently, the Korean mastodon decided to take part in the race with the Chinese company Xiaomi and reach the same level of performance and cost. Everyone knows that the guys from Xiaomi make excellent devices for a meager cost. For many years they have angered the mobile market with their creations, so Korean competitors decided to strike back. Whether they succeeded in doing this will be known in this review.

Device assembly and appearance

First of all, it should be noted that in the A-series models, including the designating version, there is a special teardrop-shaped cutout. The developers tried their best and gave this innovation the name - Infinite V. It is noteworthy that the Koreans resisted this technique for a long time and did not introduce this effect into their own models, until 2019. But now it has become quite popular and Samsung is introducing a "drop" into all possible models.

The design of the device creates an ambiguous impression. The keyhole looks very neat against the seamlessly bordering seams and boasts crisp face-unlocking animations. The chin of the smartphone has noticeably decreased, as well as the panel frames that surround the screen. Compared to most of these devices, the A20 looks very sophisticated, but this is only one side of the coin.

On the back of the smartphone, the manufacturers decided not to experiment much and made the back cover from glossy polymer carbonate. This picture looks rather gloomy and cheap. The built-in sensor for scanning the fingers is made very voluminous. It has an extended area for finger contact, but unfortunately is too high, which makes it a little awkward to touch.

If you look at the overall appearance, everything looks relatively good.

Display

Samsung Galaxy A20 has a Super Amoled display with a rather dubious 720x1560 resolution, but this is only at first glance. The setting of this resolution has a positive effect on the operation of the smartphone in general, and especially on the speed and duration of the battery life. It also has a qualitatively expressed color and brightness.

The default color gamut setting looks pretty good, and besides, the phone's arsenal includes manual white calibration. This is the main privilege of amoled screens.Fans of warmer color adjustments are given the opportunity to install special filters in the main settings.

The Infinity V screen has several nice features:

• The left side of the screen contains all the necessary notification icons, and the right side contains the rest of the system shortcuts;
• The standard status bar has space for four application shortcuts, clicking on which will display all the detailed information about the current program.

Iron

Galaxy A20 is equipped with a solid Exynos 7904 chipset, which includes 6 cortex a53 cores, in combination with 2 cortex a73 cores. Slightly disappointing is the fact that despite the series of this chipset, it is weaker than the previous version 7885, which successfully operated on the previous generation models (J7, J9).

The processor works in combination with 4 gigabytes of RAM, 64 gigabytes of internal memory and the necessary connectors for a SIM card. On the territory of the Russian Federation, there is a lightweight version of the 3/32 GB smartphone. This move is designed to reduce the cost of the device. If necessary, memory can be increased at any time using flash drives.

In terms of performance, the processor is stable. Of course, this chipset does not reach the level of Snapdragon 650, but it functions much better than previous generation models, for example, the J series.

Performing test tasks to view performance, the processor performed well. In terms of daily tasks, the CPU was loaded to a minimum, no problems arose. In terms of games, things are okay, for example game heavyweights like PUBG or WarRobots have worked with periodic freezes, and a variety of mid-platform platforms are doing great.

The finger recognition scanner behaves quite smartly, in general, this model behaves interesting in this regard. Unlike other representatives of samsung smartphones on this device, you just need to hold a light touch of your finger and the scanner activates the system. You no longer need to pinch your finger and hold it. The face scanner works the same way - quickly and clearly.

operating system

The Samsung Galaxy A20 runs on good old Android 8.1. According to the developers, an update to Android pie is expected soon. In this device, as in all models of the branch, a special experience interface is installed, which is sharpened so accurately and conveniently that it can function without problems on such cheap hardware. The appearance of the interface, as well as its icon style, are borrowed from the one ui model. In general, the operating system works flawlessly, no problems arise.

The Galaxy A20 can delight fans of the streaming platform netflix and amazon as it fully supports HD streaming. The device also supports Samsung pay, so it is possible to pay for goods in any store using a smartphone.

Specifications

Camera device

The back of the device carries a 13 megapixel camera in combination with a 5 megapixel wide-format camera, which comes as an additional one. On the front side there is a front camera that has 8 megapixels.

The main rear camera takes good pictures. The colors are rendered correctly, the saturation of the picture is colorful, and in general the photos are obtained clearly, even in low light conditions.

The front camera does not shoot as well as the main one, and can produce good pictures only under good lighting conditions. It should be borne in mind that for that kind of money there are quite solid lenses that do not shoot so badly. If you focus on the camera when buying, then it's better to add money and buy a Samsung Galaxy A50, it has an order of magnitude better cameras.

Communications

Fortunately, the device has a built-in USB type c connector, and there is also a fast charging option. Both options are quite rare on the market in similar models of this price segment. The developers warn that the availability of wireless charging may affect the cost of the device.

Battery capacity and sound

The battery in this device is pretty serious. It has a 4000 mAh battery and can safely function for 24 hours, taking into account the included Internet, high-definition video and running applications. In short, the battery is powerful.

Mono speakers are installed at the bottom of the device. In general, this system works well, the sound is quite spacious, a balance is maintained between high and low frequencies. If you use an additional headset, the sound is simply amazing.

Package content

The smartphone comes with the most standard parts that should be included. In addition to the main device, the box contains a 15 watt charger, a usb type-c cord, a paper clip required for SIM cards and all the accompanying documents. It's worth remembering that Samsung's developers ship smartphones without an additional headset.

Advantages and disadvantages

• Distinctive design and keyhole;
• Large battery that will last for a long time;
• Supports Samsung pay, Amazon and Netflix streaming services;
• Useful usb type-c connector;
• Decent screen, good color rendering and brightness.

• Lack of LED indicator;
• Poor quality of the front camera;
• Weak support for powerful applications;
• Complete lack of dual-channel Wi-Fi.

Output

In any case, it is worth noting that this model is a clear breakthrough among smartphones from Samsung. The presence of a screen with a drop-shaped notch, a memorable appearance, excellent display quality and a bunch of features, including access to streaming services and payment in stores, make this smartphone a worthy representative among smartphones in this price segment.

It is worth considering that this is a branded product that will appeal to many principled users who do not approve of the Chinese market. Also noteworthy is the presence of fast charging, the required usb type-c connector, as well as a high-quality finger scanner. The impression is spoiled only by the mediocre built-in camera. However, it is worth evaluating it in terms of the price of a smartphone.