Samsung Galaxy A14 5G Review

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy A14 5 chiliad remain a firm affordable all - rounder in former 2024 with reassuring stamen , a square screen , a decent independent photographic camera and a long - term software hope . However , its carrying out is somewhat sulky , as is its charging speed , and you ’ll regain various upgrade from the newer Galaxy A15 5G.

Pros

Cons

Key Features

Introduction

You might retrieve that there are plenty ofcheap phoneoptions on the mart . However , when it comes to 5 G phones in the £ 200/$200 - ish chain of mountains , the £ 219/$199 Samsung Galaxy A14 5 G was one of relatively few to be released in 2023 .

The question is , is it still worth buying a year after its release ? While the Galaxy A14 5 gee remains a capable earpiece at a now even cheap price point than its original RRP , it has since been exchange by the newer Galaxy A15 5 gravitational constant with an upgrade display and more .

While that does complicate things somewhat , there ’s still a lot to like about the Galaxy A14 5 one thousand liken to other gravely budget telephone like theRedmi Note 12and thePoco M5s .

So , let ’s dive in and see how the Samsung Galaxy A14 5 GB stacks up a whole year after its initial release .

Design and screen

It ’s quite thick too , to the tune of 9.1 mm , while a weight of 202 g gives it quite a morsel of heft . Given that weight , you might don that some metal was used in the headphone ’s structure , but this is an all - pliant organic structure .

It ’s worth noting too that this is one area that the newer Galaxy A15 5 G improves upon , with a slightly repress thickness of 8.4 mm and weight of 200 g.

Typically Samsung ’s plastic work is exemplary , but I was a little disappointed by the feel of the A14 5G. In particular , my own test unit developed a rheumy plane section low down on the right - hand edge .

The rear of the A14 5 G appear and feel a lot better than the rest of it . Samsung has given it a texture of very finely spaced but large concentric circle – or portions of them at least . It gives the telephone set a alone aspect , and also proves to be super grippy . It help stand off fingermark smudges too , which is always a welcome lineament .

My theoretical account come in a light metal Green tone , but customers can also choose from Silver and Black .

The A14 5 guanine ’s 6.6 - inch presentation does n’t capitalize on Samsung’sOLEDexpertise , but it is a very credible LCD . This is a so - called PLS panel , which is effectively Samsung ’s take on IPS . This means that it gets enough promising , and viewing angles are good .

You get an plenteous 1080 x 2408 ( FHD+ ) resolution , so it ’s nice and knifelike , and a90Hz peak refresh ratekeeps thing feel smooth . With that said , it ’s impossible to execute the A14 5 G ’s display directly out , with a binary pick between Standard ( 60Hz ) or Adaptive ( up to 90Hz , depend on the state of affairs ) .

It ’s not a hugely colour - accurate screen , with a little of that Samsung vibrancy at play , but the consequence is n’t excessive . Everything pop nicely , and as alluded to , it gets to a somewhat - vivid 526 nits according to my colorimeter .

If Samsung ’s OLED is important to you , it ’s deserving take note that it is a lineament of the newer Galaxy A15 5 gigabyte – though the projection screen is also slimly smaller at 6.5 inches , so you ’d have to count up the pros and cons for your specific utilisation - subject .

Camera

Samsung has made a curious , some may say sheer decision with the Galaxy A14 5 G tv camera system . It ’s essentially localise all its egg in a individual 50MP wide sensor basket , with no ultra - all-embracing or telephoto backups .

Those two extra lens that you see in the pictures are a pair of 2MP sensors , one for macro shots and one for depth assist . They ’re barely worth remark beyond that , with the 2MP macro camera in particular just not extend the sharpness want to take compelling confining - ups . Macro shots are a total blurry washout here .

Still , it could be argued that Samsung ’s gamble has paid off . The A14 5 G ’s main sensor acquire reasonably decent , well - equilibrize shaft , at least in good firing . Contrast and photo are for the most part on period , and detail is good . Skin tones also look nice and instinctive , while even the portrait manner works pretty well at separating subject from background in a sea of pantry bokeh .

You do get a footling of Samsung ’s punchy colour skill here , which favor social medium pop over a naturalistic limning of a shot . The force is not gross , though , and actually have a good deal of sense given the target area audience of unseasoned and chance users .

I did initially miss the option of take ultra - wide pellet , but there ’s a certain mother wit of logic to its omission . The Sojourner Truth is , tacky speech sound tend to have terrible extremist - all-embracing cameras , make shots that look nowhere near as unspoilt as the main sensor .

It ’s a similar case with the lack of a telephoto , with the A14 5 M cropping in on that 50MP main detector rather . This does attend to show up the limitations of the ironware , with barb that lead off to get a little fuzzed even at 2x .

Night manner is n’t so unattackable here , producing somewhat cloudy , mealy shots . It ca n’t help that there ’s no OIS to serve out , so any stabilisation has to be done algorithmically . That might explain why Samsung has inter Night mode away in the More menu .

The 13MP selfie camera is n’t bad at all . No , you do n’t get the rich colours of the independent sensor , but everything looks reasonably instinctive , including pelt tones . There is n’t a vast outcome with overexposure either , as is often the case with cheaper selfie cameras .

The newer Samsung Galaxy A15 5 K does improve the television camera offering reasonably , swop out the 2MP astuteness sensor for a 5MP ultrawide to bring wide - angle shots to the budget shooter , though without spend enough time with it , I ca n’t say if there ’s a illustrious improvement to the overall experience .

Performance and software

Samsung has equipped its trashy and cheerful Galaxy A14 5 constant of gravitation with a correspondingly chintzy and cheerful MediaTek Dimensity 700 mainframe . This 7 nm chip is not a novel component , having power the like of the Redmi Note 10 5 G , the Realme 8 5 constant of gravitation , and the Poco M3 Pro 5 gibibyte way back in mid-2021 .

I did n’t find this chip to be a especially impressive performer back then , and I certainly did n’t line up it to be up to much more than two class down the line . Paired with a lowly 4 GB of RAM , booting up and switch between apps takes a beat longer than is well-situated , and there ’s a general inconsistency to animation speeds while voyage about .

In benchmark term , it falls behind rival budget campaign from the Poco , Redmi , and Realme brands . The Realme 9 5 G is a good breaker point of comparison , because despite being a year old at this item it offer a similar Mary Leontyne Price and spec , but parade a clean-cut performance vantage .

The provision of just 64 GB of entrepot feel a little meagre too , by mod cheap speech sound standards . We ’ve come to expect double that , though you do get a microSDXC slot for expanding upon purposes .

It ’s not an experience that ’ll meliorate that much with the unexampled Galaxy A15 5 G either , sporting an ever - so - slightly raw MediaTek Dimensity 6100 + and the same 4 GB of RAM , but at least it starts with a further 128 GB of computer memory .

As for computer software , the phone gambol Samsung ’s custom OneUI Core 5 sits on top of Android 13 , though it has since had the update to the newer OneUI 6 free-base on Android 14 . As ever , Samsung ’s UI is a beloved - it - or - digest - it affair . For many users , it ’s the only smartphone user interface they ’ve ever known , and offers a in high spirits degree of customisation .

For others , it lacks the crisp lucidness of stock Android and its close variants . Samsung ’s UI is by all odds more visually cohesive than most of its Chinese rival , but it lacks the leanness of Motorola ’s lightweight UI .

It ’s not the worst offender on the bloatware front . You get Netflix and Spotify , a few Microsoft apps , a brace of rubbish game , and LinkedIn preinstalled , plus a few of Samsung ’s own apps . I still do n’t get why we postulate another web web internet browser when Chrome comes preinstalled , but that ’s far from a Samsung - exclusive complaint .

On the update side of thing , Samsung has said that it will support the A14 5 gram with two old age of baseline Android update and four years of security update . That ’s pretty darn good for a cheaper phone , although consider the phone has now had the Android 14 update as of other 2024 , there ’s only one allow for .

Battery life

The Galaxy A14 5 chiliad comes with a big 5000mAh battery , and despite that somewhat inefficient 7 nm processor , it ’s easily upright for a full day of intensive usage .

I found that I was able to get to the end of a 15 - hour day with 5 60 minutes and 40 minutes of screen - on time , and would be left with a lilliputian over 20 % pull up stakes to trifle with . Lighter use could conceivably see you getting through two full day .

In practical footing , an hour of Disney+ cyclosis sapped 10 % of a care , while 30 minutes of light play on Vampire Survivor ate 6 % . This is n’t the most efficient speech sound when it comes to medium performance , but then you could say the same about most low-priced earphone .

charge speeds are n’t particularly rapid , with a maximum of 15W supported . However , Samsung does n’t include a courser in the box . We ’re used to find that in more premium models , but it sense like a scrap of an oversight in a cheap telephone , which is going to be a candidate for a first smartphone .

Certainly , Samsung ’s key cheap phone rivals ( including Poco , Redmi , Realme , and Motorola ) all tend to bundle their phones with chargers – and often more speedy ones at that .

I used a Samsung 25W brick to test the Galaxy A14 5 yard ’s 15W charging speeds , and found that it would charge to 15 % in 15 minutes and 30 % in 30 arcminute . It for the most part kept to that ‘ 1 % a mo ’ design the right way up until it had about 5 % leave , at which point it slowed aright down , ultimately take just unsure of 2 60 minutes 30 minutes for a full charge .

That ’s not too speedy , even for a loud phone . It is slightly better jolly by the newer Galaxy A15 ’s 25W shoot , but that ’s still not too speedy .

Latest deals

Should you buy it?

: The Samsung Galaxy A14 5 G ’s 5000mAh battery will get you through two full days of light exercise .

The Samsung Galaxy A14 5 G has an old , rheumatoid processor that does n’t handle ripe task like gaming particularly well .

Final Thoughts

Samsung has created another dependably square low-cost selection in the Galaxy A14 5 chiliad , but it struggles to offer something flat - out better than itsbudget - focus contender – especially with the sack of the new Galaxy A15 5 G that ready some of the gist complaints about this model .

Its display is fine , and both its 50MP main camera and its 13MP selfie camera are capable of taking decent shots in good lighting . I ca n’t fault the A14 5 G ’s stamina , either .

Despite all that , I ca n’t aid but amount off a little underwhelmed . Rival blade have been propose broadly equivalent specs , but with much better carrying into action and faster charge speeds , for some time now . What ’s more , the A14 5 thou ’s build character is n’t quite up to snuff , at least on our test exemplar , which is n’t something I expect to see from Samsung .

There ’s a common sense of dependability about all of Samsung ’s speech sound , and the A14 5 G wo n’t countenance anyone down . But in this area of the market , where the margins are tight , Samsung ca n’t quite seem to make a determinate program line .

Trusted Score

How we test

We test every peregrine phone we review soundly . We use industry - stock test to compare feature film properly and we expend the phone as our master gimmick over the revue time period . We ’ll always distinguish you what we find and we never , ever , accept money to reexamine a product .

Find out more about how we try in ourethics policy .