Samsung from Xiaomi: Galaxy A6s - pros and cons

Just a few days ago, Samsung presented its new mid-range device, the Samsung Galaxy A6s.

It is noteworthy that this year the Samsung campaign promised to release the Samsung galaxy P30 smartphone. An interesting feature of this model was supposed to be a fingerprint scanner built right into the display. However, something went wrong, and instead of the P30, the developers announced the release of the Galaxy A6s.

And besides, this is the first Samsung phone given to the development of a third-party company.

How it was

Recently, Samsung's business in the Chinese market is not going well, and Samsung decided to experiment. They made this phone not at their factories, but at the Wintech factory in China. The same factory makes smartphones for Xiaomi.

This decision was made by top managers of Samsung to reduce the cost of production and strengthen their positions in the Middle Kingdom. Therefore, it is quite possible that we will have a solid smartphone with a good value for money.

Moreover, the internet is replete with estimated price tags of $ 260 for the base model, which adds optimism.

If the experience turns out to be successful, then in the future, Samsung's management plans to completely transfer the production of smartphones of the middle and low-budget segment to Chinese factories.

So what is it, a smartphone from a Samsung at the price of Xiaomi, is the experiment a success and is it really worth the money.

Let's figure it out.

Design

It seems to us that the Koreans made the right decision by handing over the design work to a third-party manufacturer according to the OEM development scheme, because the appearance can definitely be considered one of the undoubted advantages of the phone.

There is nothing particularly revolutionary here, the phone is made in the best design traditions of 2019. Metal cases with glass on the back.

The device can be purchased in 4 colors: black, blue, red or pink-violet. Not an ordinary color scheme. Blue and pink-violet look especially impressive. Moreover, the bezel of the front of the screen is the same color as the back.

On the front panel there is a tempered glass screen, which occupies ~ 78% of the total body area.

At the top is a selfie camera with an earpiece. Fortunately, the developers did not make this part in the form of a monobrow, it looks like a classic strip, although this may upset someone.

On the left is a volume rocker and a combined SIM card slot. On the right is the lock button.

On the rear panel on the left, the developers have placed a camera, a fingerprint scanner is located just below.

In general, the design makes a good impression, except that the device visually seems large.

Display

The new "not-quite-Samsung" brainchild has a large, bright Super Amoled display. Based on a good IPS matrix, it has an impressive 16 million colors.

Full HD 1080 x 2160 display with 402 ppi pixels per inch. In this device, the designers planned to implement the bezel-less display technology, which is hinted at by the 18: 9 aspect ratio, but it does not look as impressive as, for example, the Samsung S9 or Samsung Note 9. Nevertheless, the display is very good, and it's a sin to complain about it, especially considering the $ 260 price tag.

Main characteristics

The new smartphone has quite high specifications for its price segment. In the table, we briefly talked about each, then we will analyze them in more detail.

CPU

The processor deserves special attention, since the Snapdragon 660 is almost the best solution in the mid-price segment.

The 14nm die houses 8 Kryo 260 cores, which are improved versions of the A73 and A53 cores. True, the developers are modestly silent about how exactly they were improved. But tests show that this model compares favorably with its previous versions.

The fact is that Snapdragon 652 had significant heating problems. Since its release, throttling has been its main problem. At high loads, it got very hot and the processor had to reduce the frequency, because of which it could not fully realize its potential.

In this connection, many manufacturers preferred the 625 chip, which warmed up and had incomparably higher energy efficiency, although it was significantly inferior in performance to the 652.

The new chip is similar in performance to the stripped-down version of snapdragon 835. It has a high performance that significantly exceeds its predecessors in the face of 650 and 625 chips. In addition, it is devoid of the main drawback of Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 - overheating.

To a large extent, this was facilitated by a new technical process. The processor correctly distributes the load across all the cores, which was clearly visible in the tests and allows them to load up to the maximum frequency.

There was no noticeable throttling during this. The processor confidently kept the frequency for a long time.

With that said, it's safe to say that this is definitely one of the best, if not the best processor in the mid-range segment.

CPU performance can be measured by geekbench 4

Front and rear camera

Outsourced camera manufacturers also picked up a very decent one. The rear camera is equipped with a 12 megapixel sensor with an aperture size of f 1/8. The second sensor is almost traditionally used for portrait photography. It allows you to blur the background, creating a bokeh effect.

It also has settings for panoramic shots and HDR.

An unexpectedly pleasant addition was the ability to shoot 4K video.

The front selfie camera does not stand out in anything special, except for a resolution of 12MP.

Memory

The amount of RAM is good news. 6 GB is more than enough to help the processor deliver decent performance.

There is no need to complain about the built-in memory either. The minimum base storage is 64 GB. This should be more than enough for anything, considering the possibility of installing an SD card.

Battery

A 3300 mAh lithium-ion battery is quite common in this price segment. Such a battery has become more or less the gold standard for the middle class. It can be guaranteed that it should last a day without recharging. More details can be said only with more thorough tests.

The new power-hungry processor suggests that the results will differ for the better.

In addition, the Quick charge system is implemented here. The USB Type-c connector is used for recharging.

Advantages and disadvantages

• Nice design with interesting colors.Despite the fact that the glass case is not new for a long time, it is still popular and looks great. Moreover, this device has a pleasant color scheme.
• Nice screen. The large bright Super Amoled screen looks great. Color reproduction and pixel density are at a high level, no complaints about the screen.
• Smart processor. The decision to use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 in this model was a great idea. At the moment, this is probably the best possible option for the middle class.
• RAM. 6 GB of RAM will be a nice addition to the fast processor.
• Camera with the ability to shoot 4k video.
• Quick charge system quick charge

• A minor design issue is the phone's large width. Not that it matters that much, but it somehow looks suspiciously like a shovel.
• The rear camera looks rustic, despite the ability to shoot 4K video. Surely this can only be found out after more thorough tests.

Output

The main drawback can be attributed, perhaps, to the disappointed expectations of people who were waiting for the galaxy P30 with its built-in fingerprint scanner. Here, the sensor is in its usual place, which probably caused some disappointment.

Otherwise, if you look at it without bias, the ODM developer has a good smartphone with balanced characteristics, worthy of many Samsung models. In addition, the estimated price of $ 260 for such a device is good news.

It seems to us that this device will be in demand, and there will be people willing to buy it even in China, where Samsung wants to strengthen its position. In the meantime, we can only wish them good luck.