Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy A03s is a basic smartphone that ’s neither crummy enough nor good enough to warrant your money . It offers decent battery life and it face pretty ripe , but performance and camera quality are gravely lacking . you may get practically the exact same user experience from Samsung ’s older and cheaper Galaxy A02s . If you ’re see to raise from the A02s , do n’t be duped by the naming pattern ; the A03s is not a step up .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The Samsung Galaxy A03s is the followup to one of the garish smartphones in the South Korean giant ’s range : theSamsung Galaxy A02s .
The A02s was an ordinary handset made extraordinary by its budget terms tag . For slightly more money , the A03s adds a fingerprint digital scanner … but not much else .
You could pass a footling less for pretty much the same overall parcel , or expend a small more for a significantly better one .
Design and Screen
If it ai n’t break , do n’t fix it . The Samsung Galaxy A03s looks almost identical to the A02s , albeit with a more bourgeois individual - tonus colour outline , but that ’s no bad matter .
The gently ridged plastic chassis both look and sense good , and does an excellent job of disguise worthless fingermark .
The treble array of tv camera sensing element is house within a dark rectangular mental faculty that , crucially for some users , sits almost perfectly flush with the physical body , which means the earphone can dwell matted on a tabletop .
The major power clitoris is put beside the volume keys along the phone ’s right - hand boundary , and also functions as a fingerprint scanner . However , it ’s super treacherous , to the extent that I ’d give up on it altogether within a matter of days .
go out as the fingerprint scanner is the main feature film that differentiates the Galaxy A03s from the A02s , and add £ 20 to the price , this does n’t augur well . There ’s a nerve unlock function , too , which relies on the selfie camera ; but it ’s just as unreliable as the fingerprint image scanner .
To avoid an immense sense of frustration every time you try out to unlock the A03s , you ’ll be best foregoing the biometrics altogether and using a PIN or pattern instead .
The Galaxy A03s utilise the same 6.5 - column inch , 1600 x 720 PLS LCD panel as its predecessor . It has an aspect ratio of 20:9 and a pixel density of 270ppi , and it ’s large and sharp enough to meet most people ’s demand . Maximum brightness , again , is an issue in lineal sun .
The show is surround by a fairly material bezel , which incorporates the selfie camera in a teardrop - style pass at the top of the screen .
The comprehension of a earpiece seafarer will please some prospective purchaser , as will the support for double SIM bill of fare . The MicroSD card one-armed bandit is an excellent gain . A downwards - firing mono speaker can be found sit beside the USB - speed of light charging port along the phone ’s bottom bound .
Camera
The Galaxy A03s has a triple rear tv camera setup that ’s support by a 13 - megapixel master sensor . A 2 - megapixel macro crystalline lens and a 2 - megapixel depth sensor complete the band .
If any of that sounds familiar to you , it may be because that ’s the precise same camera array that you ’ll regain on the cheaper A02s .
On a £ 120 speech sound the results were just about decent , but you gestate respectable from the slimly pricier Galaxy A03s .
In optimal light conditions this camera can appropriate photos that look fine on a phone screen , but zoom in even a small and all point gives room to soft edges and fuzzy , noisy haze .
The HDR is comparatively unable , allow some subjects to be lose to the shadow and others to the light , and the deficiency of a Night way means that leave in abject or even fair tripping stipulation are systematically terrible .
Failing to include a Night mode is particularly frustrative , since the Macro mode is neither particularly utilitarian nor impressive .
Pro Mode , which lets you drill down into the nuts and bolts of the camera , is a playfulness plus , as is Portrait way , which permit you obscure the background of pictures to make your subject stand out . Hyperlapse provide an easy way to shoot fourth dimension - oversight videos . But each of those positives come burdened with one self-aggrandizing caveat : pic taken with the Galaxy A03s are sub - par .
What ’s more , I ’d gladly give Pro modality , Portrait way , Hyperlapse and Macro mode for Night musical mode and HDR that in reality work .
There ’s also no image stabilisation for cinematography , and the selfie camera relies on a basic 5 - megapixel sensor .
As with the A02s , it feel as if Samsung has equip the Galaxy A03s with a triple television camera not because it actually works well , but because it looks like it should work well .
Performance
I lately described theSamsung Galaxy A12as the slowest sound I ’ve ever used , but the Galaxy A03s pass on it a serious run for its money . There ’s slowdown , and then there ’s the Galaxy A03s .
It run on the MediaTek Helio P35 chip . That ’s the same ironware that powered theMotorola G8 Power Lite , which was underwhelming back in 2020 .
Even the childlike task , such as unlock the Galaxy A03s , opening an app or typewriting , take a second – perhaps even longer – to register . After that , it ’s a thing of hold back a fraction of a 2d longer for the phone to shake into legal action .
usual multi - step undertaking , such as searching for directions or looking something up on the internet , fall out ostensibly in slow motility , and feature a few apps open at once makes thing even worse .
Using the Galaxy A03s is a real job , even if you expect the desolate minimum from it . Anybody who ’s grown wonted to a phone that ’s alert and up to of multi - tasking should steer well light .
But standardized to the A12 and the A02s , which use the Snapdragon 450 C.P.U. and are similarly sluggish , the Galaxy A03s handle intensive games astonishingly well .
Asphalt 8 is n’t anywhere near as juddery as you might fear , considering what you ’ve just read . It for sure is n’t pantry smooth , but it ’s more than satisfactory .
Film and TV streaming workplace without a hitch , although the French telephone can grow disconcertingly warm within an hour .
The simulation used for this reassessment is the 3 GB version , but the Galaxy A03s is also available with 4 GB of RAM .
The Galaxy A03s has received the Android 12 software raise , which move under Samsung ’s own OneUI skin . It ’s a comparatively euphemistic peel , but it forces you to put in several apps that you may or may not have any use for , such as TikTok and the Samsung internet browser app .
Battery Life
Battery life is the one area in which the Galaxy A03s shines . It can easily keep go for over a day , sometimes two , from a full cathexis – although powering it back up again is a painstaking process .
Sadly , the Galaxy A03s was n’t able to execute the 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test , which is one of TR ’s bread - and - butter battery life-time benchmarks , but real - life exercise yielded impregnable effect .
An hour of streaming Netflix wipe out 13 % of the Galaxy A03s ’ barrage life ; half an hour of intensive gaming ( Asphalt 8) used a further 7 % , and half an hour of weak gaming ( Threes ) used another 2 % .
An hour of on-line euphony cyclosis knocked 5 % off its battery , while an hr of playing downloaded medicine used up a further 4 % .
But there ’s a downside to the 5000mAh battery . Charging the Galaxy A03s back up again requires serious forbearance , especially since the headphone does n’t have tight - charging functionality . It took 1hr 45mins to get the earphone from 0 % to 50 % , and a humongous 4hrs 8mins to complete a full charge .
If you ’re ever suddenly caught short , that ’s go to be a problem .
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
- A trashy , good - appear phone with splendid shelling life
Below - par camera and agonisingly slow performance
Final Thoughts
The Samsung Galaxy A03s raises two question . How cheap is cheap ? And how slow is too dull ? The A03s is too slow and not as cheap as it should be , reckon the peat bog - standard tv camera and sedate performance . Samsung has missed the mark .
The Galaxy A03s is essentially a carbon written matter of the cheaperA02s . And there are much better phones out there for anyone who can yield to stump up a little bit more immediate payment . TheMotorola Moto G8costs less than £ 200 and offer a much better camera and overall substance abuser experience , while at £ 179 , the Motorola Moto 8 is only a smidgen more expensive than the Galaxy A03s , but a far better French telephone overall .
Trusted Score
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We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly . We use industry standard psychometric test to compare lineament in good order and we apply the phone as our main machine over the review geological period . We ’ll always order you what we encounter and we never , ever , accept money to review a product .
FAQs
Yes , Samsung provides a charger with this earphone .
Test Data
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