Samsung Galaxy A71 is a great smartphone, but at its price we will buy a better device

Samsung has not had a good run on the upper-medium shelf for years. The smartphones of Chinese rivals did everything better, costing less than comparable smartphones from Korea. Does Samsung Galaxy A71 change this state of affairs?

Last year's Galaxy A70 was a solid smartphone. Perhaps not standing out from the crowd, but solid.

Samsung Galaxy A71, although the name could indicate a slight refresh, is a completely new deal. New aesthetics, better components and - according to Samsung - better cameras. I spent enough time with the Galaxy A71 to put all these claims to the test. And I say how it is.

Samsung Galaxy A71 looks great.

From the visual side, it is difficult for this smartphone to fault anything. If it wasn't for the fancy color, you might think it's the Galaxy S20 +.

Speaking of which - what color do you think is the test variant of the Samsung Galaxy A71? Let me know in the comment - the answer is waiting at the end of the text.

Everything is in place here. There are slim frames. There is a tiny hole for the front camera instead of the indentation on the screen. There are beautiful gradient backs. All this in a solid, aluminum-glass housing, which despite the large size of the display (6.7 ") is fantastic in the hand. Honestly? If I did not know the price, I would really think that I am holding a smartphone from the top shelf.

I would think the same thing looking at the Samsung Galaxy A71 display. The 6.7 "Super AMOLED panel with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 px makes a great impression. Viewing angles are perfect, saturated colors (but not oversaturated), watching series on this display is pure pleasure.

As it is an AMOLED panel with "real" black (black pixels are not illuminated), it looks great on a dark theme. The system overlay and dark-compatible applications look phenomenal, and AMOLED also allows you to use the elegant-looking Always-On mode.

The fact that we are dealing with an average, not the highest price shelf, reveals the arrangement of speakers surrounding this display. We will not have stereo speakers here, but only a single speaker at the bottom of the cabinet, playing at most on average.

The lower price shelf is also known by the Samsung Galaxy A71 specification.

The heart of the smartphone is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 processor, supported by 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of data space.

The A71 specification is definitely weaker than the top models, but honestly? Enough for everyone. I did not find a single case in which the combination of processor and RAM could not cope with support. Applications and games run with perfect fluency. The graphics in mobile games look so good that a horse with a row who will distinguish the game on the Galaxy A71 from the game on the Galaxy S10 +.

The operational memory is not lacking in any situation. Switching between applications takes place immediately. You can easily start navigation, Spotify and web browser, and none of them will be "beaten".

In terms of performance and component capabilities, the Samsung Galaxy A71 is a great compromise between performance and energy efficiency. Speaking of which - the battery in this smartphone has up to 4500 mAh. Theoretically, this should be enough for two days of work, but unfortunately reality shows something different.

On the plus side, I must point out that I have never once drained the Galaxy A71 battery in one day. Even though I don't know how I tried, the energy always lasted until the evening.

However, there is no question of using the Galaxy A71 all day, although it would be possible were it not for one snag - huge drainage of the battery at rest. Samsung Galaxy A71 managed to lose from 10 to even 22 percent overnight. energy. I would blame it on a specific copy or some software bug, if it wasn't for this absolutely typical behavior on most mid-range Android. I am currently testing the slightly more expensive Note 10 Lite and behaves identically when it comes to battery drainage.

Staying with the disadvantages - what else did not work on the Samsung Galaxy A71?

I have already mentioned the mono speaker. You can add a very average quality headphone connector to the set. It exists in the Galaxy A71 and in fact so much can be said about it. Qualitatively it is so.

The most annoying disadvantage of the Galaxy A71, however, is the fingerprint reader under the screen. It's small, terribly inaccurate and annoyingly slow.

In practice, he turned out to be so unreliable that I stopped using it - instead, I unlocked the screen with a face scan. This solution, on the other hand, is not safe, because it can be deceived by a photo, but it works quickly and reliably.

A nice touch is the scanning animation around the front camera, known even from the Galaxy S10.

While the Galaxy A71 is well made, like any other smartphone at this price, it is not waterproof. A pity, it would be good to have even splash resistance.

I also need to point out a small minus in the software. Although the Galaxy A71 works under the control of Android 10, we will not find in it Android 10 gestures, but the original implementation of Samsung gestures, which is ... well, miserable. It would be nice if Samsung implemented the same gestures as in other Android 10 smartphones.

Of the other significant flaws, I noticed only occasional problems with Bluetooth connectivity. Smartphone could not disconnect from the smartphone, headphones or hands-free kit in the car, so that it could re-connect immediately. It also happened several times that I had to restore permissions for a specific Bluetooth connection so that, for example, the car received access to contacts. However, such small things can be easily repaired.

Worse with the camera.

The camera in the Samsung Galaxy A71 does not knock.

On paper, the Galaxy A71 has a pretty impressive set of sensors on the back. The main camera has a resolution of 64 Mpix and a lens f / 1.8. The wide-angle module has a 12 Mpix matrix and f / 2.2 lens. We also have a macro camera with f / 2.4 lens and 5 Mpix matrix, and a depth sensor with a resolution of 5 Mpix.

If you just thought that a similar arrangement of cameras can be found in the costing PLN 1000 less Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro - you are on the right track. In terms of quality, the Samsung Galaxy A71 is unfortunately also closer to smartphones for PLN 1000/1500 than to the OnePlus or Xiaomi costing a bit more, not to mention the Huawei P30.

In a good light the photos are ... ok. That's all you can say. The main sensor produces shots at a resolution of 16 Mpix, connecting four adjacent pixels together. As a result, we should get a more detailed image and brighter shots in poor lighting conditions, but ... this does not happen.

Added to this is the strange processing of automatic HDR. The option that we are used to on every other smartphone works very strangely here. On one hand, we have slightly underexposed shots, but at the same time burned bright areas. Blacks pulled out of the shadows turn grayish. Other colors are saturated and nice, like it is with Samsung, but the whole picture gives the impression as if someone had applied a saturation filter on it. The "wow" effect is missing.

A camera with an ultra wide angle lens has a problem with image distortion. I would expect such behavior from a smartphone for PLN 1,500, but with PLN 2,000 it could be better, especially since the quality and detail of the image is at most average.

Similarly with the macro lens, which macro is only in name. It has huge problems with sharpening the object, and its quality, due to the very low resolution matrix, is so-so.

All these disadvantages multiply in poor lighting conditions, where the Galaxy A71 copes just as average as any other phone costing less than PLN 2,000. For general average quality you have to add very slow autofocus in the dark and very high noise.

The front camera is no better.

This one has high resolution (32 Mpix), but produces - again - average results. Both in good and bad light.

In addition, Samsung did a similarly useless thing here, as in the Galaxy S10 +. We have the option of expanding the frame artificially. However, it is so insignificant that ... it could be just the default focal length for the front camera.

Samsung has a problem. And even two - for the letter X and the letter O.

At the time of writing, the Samsung Galaxy A71 costs PLN 1999. Which makes it only PLN 150 cheaper than the excellent one, in my opinion a much better Xiaomi Mi Note 10 (review soon).

Mi Note 10 beats Samsung's phone in almost every respect - from cameras to working time. Only in the technical specifications both smartphones go head to head.

Here, however, there is a problem on O - OnePlus 7T . You don't even have to bother to buy OnePlus for around PLN 2,200. Just PLN 200 more than the Galaxy A71 we get a better phone in absolutely every way. With a better screen. A better camera. Stereo speakers. Much better components. I would have no doubt which smartphone to recommend if someone asked me "Samsung Galaxy A71 or OnePlus 7T?". The choice is obvious.

However, what Samsung is Samsung.

The sales results in Poland clearly show that a lot of water in Wisła will pass before any rival challenges him equal to the one he was competing with Xiaomi. Samsung has a well-established brand in Poland and long-term relationships with operators. He is in a winning position from which he would not look. This state of affairs will not last forever.

Consumer awareness is growing, and Samsung's Chinese rivals are spending more and more on advertising in Poland. They are also entering operators, where the vast majority of telephones are still selling in our country.

And this is a serious problem for Samsung, because - objectively speaking - their smartphones have no arguments in the clash with the Chinese. It just is.

Let's not get it wrong - Samsung Galaxy A71 is a great phone. It does everything the average user could wish for and does it well. The problem is that other smartphones from this price range are doing it better.

So Samsung has two options - either try harder or ... lower the price. Because if the Galaxy A71 cost PLN 1,700, I wouldn't even think of comparing it with Xiaomi Mi Note 10 or OnePlus 7T. He would play in a different league against other rivals he would definitely win.

However, costing PLN 1999, it stands close enough to the giants that it is impossible not to compare it to them. And in this system, Galaxy A71 unfortunately has no chance.

Is it worth buying Samsung Galaxy A71?

Yes. But on the condition that we buy it on promotion or get a bargain offer from the operator - which is a very likely scenario.

However, if someone were wondering if it is worth going to the store and buying it for cash at a regular price of PLN 1999, then ... no. Definitely not worth it.

PS. According to Samsung, the color of the presented model is ... blue! Looking at the color palette, there is actually a color called Tiffany Blue, and in this shade is the test Galaxy A71. Judge for yourself how much it has to do with "blue". I am a simple boy. For me this copy is green. Well, maybe "mint" in a more sophisticated version.

Samsung Galaxy A71 is a great smartphone, but at its price we will buy a better device