Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy A12 is a cheap smartphone with lots to like about it , from its marvelous stamp battery lifetime to its imaginative and attractive design , but its daytime - to - day performance is so sluggish that all of those unspoiled aspects come with a major snag .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The Samsung Galaxy A12 is a very tacky smartphone that almost looks too good to be true .
£ 169 for a French telephone with a de rigueur quad - tv camera , a goodish battery and generous cover , all wrapped up in an attractive package ?
On report , it sound allure enough , but how does it pile up in realness ? TheMotorola Moto G8sets the bar at this cost point , and unfortunately the Galaxy A12 is less than the sum of its parts .
Design and screen
Of course , this is a topic of personal penchant , but by our reckoning the Samsung Galaxy A12 is one of the better - looking plastic sound you may buy .
The matte - finish casing runs up the handset ’s sides , and a sloped pattern of shallow ridges extend the upper section of the back . The placid bottom - most section does n’t take away from the coming into court , create a pleasing two - tone tone .
The four rear cameras are arranged in a straightforward mental faculty that looks less conspicuous than similar setups on some other telephone set , but the hardware protrudes just enough to prevent the phone from lie whole flavorless on a tabletop .
The inclusion of a headphone jack and microSD card slot is pleasing , and there ’s also a downwards - firing glandular fever verbaliser on the bottom edge .
The volume key out and the power clitoris , which double up as a fingerprint scanner , are embedded within the right side of the earphone , and they ’re all easy to reach without deliver to aline your adhesive friction .
That ’s telling , moot the Galaxy A12 rock a goodish 6.5 - inch PLS video display , surround by a fairly thick bezel that contains the selfie camera within a teardrop - style mountain pass .
With a 1600 x 720 resolution and a pixel denseness of 270ppi , the screen is enough sharp enough for most people ’s needs .
consider Angle are also strong , with the only substantial stumbling auction block being brightness . On a cheery day , the maximum output can be find wanting .
Camera
The Galaxy A12 ’s four - camera configuration surely looks the part . A 48 - megapixel main lens , plump for by a 5 - megapixel ultrawide lens , a 2 - megapixel macro lens of the eye and a 2 - megapixel deepness sensor give the printing of a smartphone that takes photography badly .
However , rent ’s remember that this is a sub-£200 twist . Anybody hoping for solvent that would give theGoogle Pixel 6a hunt for its money will be left want , but normalize your expectations and you ’ll be slaked , at least under optimal light conditions . Take a look at the selection of shots below :
It ’s not so sharp in average or dim lighting , in which pictures almost without fail come out looking noisy and fuzzy . There ’s no Night Mode to rescue you , and the effective HDR can only do so much .
That ’s a surprising omission , considering the otherwise generous excerpt of shooting options available , which includes Portrait , Food , Macro and Pro Modes .
Portrait Mode is near - omnipresent these 24-hour interval , and lets you adjust the depth of field to degree of your choosing ; Food Mode is like Portrait Mode for plates alternatively of faces ; Macro Mode is for close - up shots , though the solvent leave a flock to be desired ( see the snail above ) ; and Pro Mode allows you to take a deep dive into the television camera ’s options and tinker out to your heart ’s content .
Of those four , we imagine that most users will make use of Portrait and Pro Mode .
The Galaxy A12 also offer the power to apace flip-flop between the regular television camera andan ultrawide camera , which can capture spectacular - seem guesswork from a on the face of it completely different perspective , but while these can look compelling on a phone screen , they do n’t look quite so hot on a heavy cover or after cropping or zooming .
Around the front of the phone is an 8 - megapixel selfie camera , which also supports Portrait , Pro , Macro and Food Modes . The first two we can realize , the latter not so much .
Again , it suffers in sub - optimal visible radiation , but can take decent - enough blastoff when the ambiance is correct .
Performance
So far , so good , then . alas , it ’s in the performance department that Samsung has made the greatest compromises .
The Galaxy A12 is , without a doubt , the dumb smartphone I have ever used . Any and all interactions take nigh to a second to register , which makes everything , from open an app , to taking a picture , to typing a message , a frustrative experience , and intensely frustrating at times . Has it crashed ? No , it ’s just taking its time .
The Galaxy A12 is so dense that no matter how many metre the retardation fetch everything to a dead end , you ca n’t help but tap the screen again , having convinced yourself that you probably did n’t touch the covert properly the first clip . But more often than not , you did . Never have I experienced this story of meantime on a headphone before .
peculiarly however , it is capable of run intensive games , such as Asphalt 8 , without much of a interference , and there ’s no hint of lag when streaming .
Test Data
The Galaxy A12 track down Android 11 , but Samsung ’s OneUI skin mean it ’s far from pure . Amongst the preloaded , and in my lawsuit unwanted , apps are Samsung ’s own web browser app , Galaxy Shop , Samsung Global Goals , and Facebook .
A prompt encourage me to make use of the suite of preinstalled productiveness - focused apps , such as OneDrive , Office and Outlook was laughable , consider how slowly the A12 runs .
Battery
Battery life is without a doubt the Galaxy A12 ’s most telling lineament ; the earphone can comfortably get through a day without flirt with risk , even if you project some streaming or gaming into the mixture . Use it sanely and you might only need to point it every two days .
In veridical - world use , an hour of stream Netflix knocked 7 % off its shelling ; half an hour of intensive gaming ( Asphalt 8) eat up 6 % ; and half an minute of light gaming ( Threes ) take another 2 % . That ’s two hours of amusement for just 15 % of battery life . Music barely made a dent , an hr of online streaming using up 2 % of the A12 ’s barrage , while an hour of playing download music knocked the Galaxy A12 ’s battery stage down by just 1 % .
However , charging the Galaxy A12 back up again is n’t quite so enjoyable . Using the charging equipment ply in the box , it hire 1hr 35mins to get the phone from 0 % to 50 % , and a whopping 3hr 25 mins to complete a full charge .
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
- : Samsung throw decent phone , even at this end of the market , and it helps that the stamina is great .
This is a cheaper gimmick and it ’s not the fast around .
Final Thoughts
It ’s backbreaking to criticise a £ 169 smartphone that look this good and keep going for so long between charge , but the Galaxy A12 ’s drear performance poisons the well . It ’s so sluggish that it ’s unmanageable to recommend to anybody .
The good word is that it is possible to buy a hearty all - rounder at the price without compromising on user experience . The Motorola Moto G8 cost £ 179 and does everything that the Galaxy A12 does well , but without any of the stave .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every wandering telephone set we review exhaustively . We expend industry standard tests to compare features decently and we use the sound as our main machine over the recap period of time . We ’ll always tell you what we get hold and we never , ever , accept money to review a product .
FAQs
No , you wo n’t be able-bodied to get 5 G information speeds with this phone
No , this telephone set does not have a stated information science military rating so we ’re not sure how it would cope with potential dust or weewee ingress
It ’s useable in Black , White , Red , and blue-blooded
Full Specs
Sustainability
TrustedReviews ’ check the fact that global heating is not a myth as a core economic value and will continuously endeavor to assist protect our major planet from scathe in its business practices .
As part of this foreign mission , whenever we review a product we send the company a serial of interrogative sentence to help us gauge and make transparent the impact the machine has on the environs .
We currently have n’t received answer to the question on this product , but will update this page the present moment we do . you could see a elaborated breakdown of the interrogation we ask and why in oursustainability information Thomas Nelson Page .
