According to Samsung, the Galaxy A51 smartphone is the first smartphone in the series to sport Infinity-O display and macro camera for Rs 23,999. Apart from these highlight features, many of its specifications are similar to the existing Galaxy A50s, which includes AMOLED display, processor and design etc. Redmi K20 Pro (Rs 24,999) and Redmi K20 Apart from this, no other smartphone competes with Samsung Galaxy A51 at this price, which can prove to be an advantage for Samsung.
In such a situation, will this new lower mid-range smartphone prove to be better than the current competition? let’s take a look.
Samsung Galaxy A51 design
Samsung The design of the Galaxy A51 is very similar to the Galaxy A50s. Its body is made of polycarbonate and its weight is only 172g. Along with this, the phone also looks quite thin. Its thickness is only 7.9 mm. Fingerprints get easily printed on its shiny back. However, these marks are not much visible on the Prism Black color variant that we have. The finish of the back panel is a bit slippery, but thankfully Samsung provides a free case cover in the box with this phone.
Galaxy A50s compared to Galaxy A51 The biggest change is the Infinity-O display, which we’re seeing on a Galaxy A-series phone for the first time. Samsung has named the hole-punch display as Infinity-O. This hole-punch in this phone Galaxy Note 10+ Like it is given in the middle of the upper part of the display. Samsung may not have changed the design of the phone’s body much, but the hole-punch display definitely gives the phone a premium look, which we appreciate. The Galaxy A51 uses a Super AMOLED panel with full-HD+ resolution, which delivers punchy colors and good sharpness. Due to thin bezels all around, its display looks great from the front.
The buttons have also been fitted at a good place in the Galaxy A51. It has a card tray on the right side, in which two nano-SIM cards and a microSD card can be installed. At the bottom, 3.5 mm headphone socket, USB Type-C port and speaker grill are provided. A setup of four cameras has been provided in the rear of Galaxy A51. The good thing is that its camera bump is not too prominent.
Apart from the phone, the box of Samsung Galaxy A51 includes a 15-watt fast charger, a Type-C cable, a headset, a SIM tray eject pin and a cover.
Samsung Galaxy A51 specifications and software
In the Samsung Galaxy A51, the company has given the same Exynos 9611 processor included in the existing Galaxy A50s, which in 2020 and at this price, makes the phone feel a bit weak. Galaxy A51 has been launched with 6 GB RAM and 8 GB RAM options. Both variants have 128 GB internal storage. Apart from this, the phone includes dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5, GPS, NFC and FM radio etc. All the usual sensors are present in this phone. Galaxy A51 also has Widevine L1 certification. This phone supports Samsung Pay, so you can also use it for contactless payments.
Galaxy A51 has One UI 2.0 based on Android 10. This new version is similar to the previous version of One UI, which we have used before. However, the company has made some changes in it to improve the user experience. This UI now lets users change the wallpaper directly from a dedicated menu, instead of sending them to the theme.
Apart from this, the ‘Device Care’ sub-menu has also been redesigned. Battery usage information can now be tracked for the last seven days instead of the last full charge. Now you can also change the lockscreen app icon. As before, this version still has some bloatware (unwanted apps) pre-installed, including third-party apps and some Samsung apps, but most of those apps can be easily removed. Samsung has also added some India-specific features to the Galaxy A51. In this, now the user can convert your SMS into visual card. Apart from this, features like multilingual predictive typing and smart crop etc. are also included.
Samsung Galaxy A51 performance and battery life
The Galaxy A51 feels very similar to the Galaxy A50 in day-to-day use. We liked its thinness and light form factor a lot. Navigating its interface is fast, but it does not feel very smooth. Sometimes we have also seen lag in its system animations. Its benchmark performance also does not impress much compared to Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 or 665 chipset. Overall, this phone is a bit low considering its price.
Biometric authentication works well, but it’s a bit slow. Its in-display fingerprint sensor takes some time to authenticate the fingerprint and unlock the phone and the same is the case with the Face Unlock feature.
The Galaxy A51 comes with Dolby Atmos support, but this feature only works if you use headphones. The audio quality of the earphones that come with it gives an average experience. However, this phone offers better audio than some of the high-grade earphones available in the market. The output of the speaker at the bottom is not high, but it is enough for solo listening. One of the best parts of this phone is its display. The brightness of the display is quite good and the colors look quite good. Because of this, one gets a good experience in watching videos on the phone.
Samsung Galaxy A51 has a battery of 4,000 mAh capacity. The battery lasted 14 hours and 55 minutes in our HD video loop test. With regular use, the phone lasted comfortably throughout the day and at the end of the day, it had half a day’s worth of battery left. Fast charging support has been provided in this phone. Upon our testing, we found that the phone’s charger can charge it up to 67 percent in an hour. It takes more than two hours to charge completely. Although it is fast, but it is a little slow compared to other phones in the segment. For example, Redmi K20 Pro charges up to 80 percent in an hour.
Samsung Galaxy A51 cameras
Samsung has added an additional 5-megapixel macro sensor to the new Galaxy A51 phones compared to the triple camera setup included in the Galaxy A50s. The other three cameras include a 48-megapixel main sensor, a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera, and a 5-megapixel depth sensor.
The camera app in One UI 2.0 has also been slightly improved as compared to before. Most shooting modes are now grouped together in the “MORE” menu. The good thing is that you can add these to the main viewfinder interface as per your liking.
Its main camera takes photos in 12-megapixel resolution by default, but you can also take photos in full 48-megapixel resolution. This option is given in the aspect ratio setting. In good lighting conditions, the Galaxy A51 camera captures well-detailed images of subjects in the center of the frame, but subjects at the edges generally look a bit blurry and soft.
In low light the main camera captured photos with good colors. The pictures come with plenty of detail and noise (dots) are also less visible in them. It also has a dedicated night mode, but we did not see much difference between the photos taken in this mode and the photos taken in standard mode, because in low light, the app’s scene optimizer automatically adjusts the camera settings according to low light. Sets it.
Talking about wide-angle camera lens, it takes a very large area inside the frame, but spherical distortion is seen at its edges. Even with the “Ultra Wide Lens Correction” option turned on in the Camera app, we still noticed spherical distortion in many photos. Apart from this, in low light the pictures from this lens come out dark and with poor details. Even with night mode, there is no good effect seen in the pictures taken with this lens.
Live-focus mode blurs the background of photos. The quality of the pictures is good and its depth sensor also does the job of blurring the edges very well. Users can set the blur as per their choice.
Photos taken from close up also look good in this. The camera can focus quickly in good lighting. In macro camera the subject can be captured very close. Colors are good in macro shots and there is plenty of detail in the pictures.
The Galaxy A51 can capture video at up to 4K resolution, but it doesn’t include stabilization. The video looks good in good light, but in low light a lot of grain is visible in the video. If you make a video in 1080 pixels, you will get a stable video, but there is flickering in the moving video. This sparkle increases in low light. You can use the ‘Super-Steady’ feature in this camera app, which uses the wide-angle lens for video recording. In this the video becomes stable, but the detail gets spoiled a lot.
The front-facing 32-megapixel camera takes photos at 12-megapixel or 8-megapixel resolution by default. In this the selfie does not come out clearly many times. The camera softens the skin tone a lot. Sometimes this softness increases so much that the selfie looks blurry. Details are good in low light, but lack of sharpness is visible.
Other camera modes include Pro, Panorama, Food, Hyperlapse, Super Slo-mo and Slow Motion modes, which have also been seen in earlier Samsung phones. Bixby Vision and AR Emoji can also be accessed through the camera app. The Galaxy A51 also includes AR Doodle, which we have also seen before on the Galaxy S10 series.
Verdict
Samsung launched Galaxy A51 Galaxy A50s Has been launched at a price slightly higher than the launch price of Rs. In exchange for this extra price, the company has given you a fourth rear camera, a more modern looking hole-punch display and more RAM. At present, Samsung has launched only 6 GB variant of this phone in India, which is priced at Rs 23,999. The 8 GB RAM option is listed on the company’s website, but it is not available for purchase yet.
Power users will immediately argue that Galaxy A51 Priced at just Rs 1,000 more, the Redmi K20 Pro with similar RAM and storage options will deliver better performance, and to a large extent, they wouldn’t be wrong. In the Redmi K20 Pro, you get a flagship-grade processor, HDR display, more premium build quality and a better camera setup. If you do a lot of gaming, then yes, Redmi K20 Pro Would be a better option for you. Even for a little less money you can Redmi K20 Can also be found, which is a capable mobile phone.
However, there are some options in Galaxy A51 too, which some users may like a lot. Despite the high price, this phone will appeal to users seeking a simple and smooth experience. In this you get the experience of Android 10. Along with this, the phone has a thin and light body, Samsung Pay, good battery life, great display and of course the trust of the Samsung brand. We would have liked the inclusion of a more powerful processor at this price. Apart from this, its slow biometric sensor and average camera performance also makes the phone a step behind.
Even the Samsung Galaxy A50s now offers good value at its new starting price (Rs 19,990). However, if you want to buy a smartphone that does not get outdated quickly, then it would be wise to buy Galaxy A51 instead of Galaxy A50s.