Samsung Galaxy A71 review: A beautiful all-rounder mid-range phone

The Galaxy A70 was 1 of the best mid-range phones Samsung put on the market last year. The A70 had amazing battery life and was Samsung'due south starting time mid-range phone to feature 25W fast charging. It also had a large and beautiful AMOLED display, skillful performance, and a flagship-like software experience. Samsung launched the Galaxy A70s a few months later with a higher-resolution principal photographic camera, and then came the Galaxy A71, made official in December last year.

The Galaxy A71 brings an excellent amount of upgrades over its predecessor. It has the new Infinity-O Super AMOLED console like Samsung'due south flagships, a newer, more efficient processor (the Snapdragon 730), a quad camera setup at the back that includes a 64MP primary shooter and a 5MP macro photographic camera, and Android 10 with One UI two.0 out of the box.

Is the overall package i that volition satisfy those looking for a mid-range telephone that doesn't burn a hole in their pocket but all the same offers a high-end experience? Let's discover out.

Galaxy A71 design and display

The Galaxy A71 is a pleasure to concur and use. Despite the 6.seven-inch display and 4,500 mAh battery, the A71 is sleek and light. There's plastic on the back, just the phone feels premium while non being glace every bit a telephone with a drinking glass dorsum. It also looks hitting – the rear panel has thin stripes running from the top to bottom and a couple of lines running across diagonally. When the lite hits the dorsum console, information technology creates a beautiful rainbowish pattern across those stripes.

The display is beautiful as well. All the AMOLED awesomeness is nowadays: vivid colors (with the option to switch to a more than natural look), deep blacks, wide viewing angles, and excellent brightness levels. Thank you to the Infinity-O screen, the bezels have been reduced, and the punch hole for the front photographic camera looks better than the U-shaped camera cutout nosotros saw on the Galaxy A70'south brandish. A smaller punch hole would have been nice, though.

The in-display optical fingerprint sensor has been improved also. Information technology's much quicker and more accurate than concluding twelvemonth, fifty-fifty more so than the theoretically superior ultrasonic in-display sensor on Samsung's flagships. Naturally, facial recognition is supported, and it works well nearly of the time. You get the option to add your face 2 times thanks to 1 UI two.0, and so it's pretty easy to make sure the phone most never fails to properly discover your face.

In the box, the Galaxy A71 comes with a 25W fast charger with a USB-C to USB-C cable and 3.5mm earphones. The A71 doesn't have a screen protector applied out of the box, and a case isn't bundled, either. The latter isn't exactly necessary, though nosotros would recommend getting both a screen protector and a case to keep this pretty footling phone safe from everyday habiliment and tear.

Galaxy A71 photographic camera

The Galaxy A71'due south 64MP primary camera takes 16MP photos using pixel binning, and when the lighting is right, yous get really cute pictures. There's a lot of detail in daylight shots and good dynamic range. Color reproduction is also true-blue to existent life in most cases. Nighttime shots come out noisy/grainy, though, and the dedicated Night style tends to focus on increasing the item in dark objects rather than decision-making noise levels. That said, with good artificial lighting, the photos are pleasing and look pretty proficient, at least on the phone'southward display. Bokeh shots using the Alive Focus feature likewise wait first-class thanks to the high-resolution sensor.

The 12MP ultra-wide photographic camera takes meliorate photos that what the 8MP ultra-wide camera on the A70 was capable of, at least in terms of the item captured. The A71 also has a 5MP macro camera that'southward barely serviceable. I hope Samsung will starting time putting higher-resolution camera sensors in its upper mid-range devices, equally the 5MP sensor barely resolves whatever detail no matter how good or bad the lighting may exist. That besides makes it tough to go focus right, unless you're looking closely at the screen while framing a macro shot.

Below are a few samples from the primary camera, the macro camera, and the ultra-wide photographic camera. Pictures taken in auto and Night mode are next to each other, and then are the photos taken with the regular and ultra-wide cameras. At the stop of the gallery, yous tin see a couple of Live Focus bokeh shots.

In addition to Live Focus, the Galaxy A71 supports the Galaxy Note x's AR Doodle characteristic, Super Ho-hum-mo and regular slow movement video recording, and 4K video recording at 30 fps. The Super Steady recording way, which uses the ultra-wide camera and crops part of the frame to replicate smooth video, is present too. AR Emoji and Bixby Vision are also supported, and so is a basic Pro way that lets you lot customize parameters like ISO and white balance.

For selfies, the 32MP front camera gets the job done with above-average detail and fairly accurate peel tones. Live Focus selfies have pretty good separation of the discipline and the background. The usual bug with blurring effectually hair are all the same in that location, though you would be difficult-pressed to discover those on the phone's screen.

Galaxy A71 software

The Milky way A71 has all the fancy Android x and One UI 2.0 features that you find on Samsung'southward flagship phones. The congenital-in screen recorder let you record on-screen content with a unmarried tap, Bixby Routines lets you lot automate various tasks on your phone, and Edge screen lets you quickly access apps and other functionality past swiping in from the edge of the display. Y'all besides get full Samsung Pay back up.

Other features, like Link to Windows for one-touch connection to Microsoft'due south Your Phone Companion app on a PC, side key customization to select what the ability key does on a double or long printing, and Game Booster for diverse in-game functionality (such equally changing whether the phone focuses on performance or power saving) are also present. Standard Galaxy features like Dual Messenger, themes support, and Always On Brandish are included besides.

The only problem is the fact that Samsung preloads the phone with some unnecessary apps. The pool game yous encounter in the photo beneath (in the performance department)? That was preloaded on the phone, and and so were Processed Beat out Saga and apps similar MrOwl, Helo, and DailyHunt. You tin can uninstall all of these apps, but I don't understand why they are preloaded on a telephone that isn't priced as aggressively every bit more affordable Samsung devices (similar the Galaxy A51 and Galaxy M31).

The Galaxy A71 volition get security updates every three months, which is standard fare for most of Samsung's mid-range phones. You can expect two major Android Bone updates (Android eleven and Android 12), with the first arriving one-time next twelvemonth if the Galaxy A70'southward Android x release schedule is anything to go by.

Galaxy A71 performance

The Snapdragon 730 is one of the better mid-range smartphone chipsets out at that place, and it'due south a bang-up friction match for a device like the Galaxy A71. Performance in day-to-day use is excellent. There's barely whatever stutter or lag to be seen, and all of the graphically intensive gaming titles — including ported PC games similar Life is Strange – run well.

In fact, gaming performance is where the A71 brings a substantial boost over the Galaxy A70. The A70 was powered by the Snapdragon 675, which is equivalent to the Galaxy A51's Exynos 9611 in terms of graphical prowess. Yet, for some reason PUBG Mobile doesn't support the HDR graphics setting on the A71, and I promise that will alter shortly every bit the telephone is perfectly capable of handling high-end graphics.

Milky way A71 battery life

Battery life is some other surface area where the Snapdragon 730 should technically offer an reward over the A70, as the Snapdragon 730 is an 8nm chip while the Snapdragon 675 is a 11nm fleck. That said, battery life on the A70 was already stellar, so the A71 doesn't experience like a major upgrade in this regard.

Still, it has impressive bombardment life and can go y'all up to two days on a unmarried charge with low-cal usage on Wi-Fi and a little mobile information, and a full solar day if you lot are a heavy user who tends to play games, lookout YouTube videos and practise other power intensive things on their phone. If you travel a lot, the A71 has excellent endurance even when used every bit a hotspot.

25W fast charging allows the A71's iv,500 mAh battery to go from 0 to 100 percent in around 80 minutes. Starting at 1%, x minutes of charging tops up 18% of the battery and 30 minutes takes the bombardment charge to 50%. Standard 15W fast charging is supported also, though at that place's no wireless charging support (which isn't surprising for a mid-range Milky way smartphone these days).

Galaxy A71 audio and call quality

The Galaxy A70 had a frustratingly quiet loudspeaker, and unfortunately, Samsung hasn't fixed that on the A71. Full book is adequate for YouTube videos, but not for gaming and streaming apps similar Netflix, making headphones necessary any time you lot're non in a pocket-sized serenity room. The speaker never distorts, but I'm not sure that's a do good when the volume levels are and so depression.

You do get Samsung'south usual mid-range earphones in the box, and the quality remains unchanged: A lot of treble, non enough bass, though enabling Dolby Atmos helps fix the latter to some extent. Merely hey, since there'southward a headphone jack on this telephone, y'all can easily swap the in-box earphones for a better 3rd-political party product. Every bit for call quality and network reception, I have no complaints, and everything worked as it should.

Galaxy A71 verdict

We loved the Galaxy A70, and the Milky way A71 brings some neat upgrades. Its performance is notably improve thanks to the newer Snapdragon chip, the display has been upgraded to an Infinity-O console, there'due south a higher-resolution chief camera and a macro photographic camera at the back, and yous get Android 10 and One UI 2.0 out of the box. The A71's design is excellent, and there'south not a lot information technology doesn't do well.

A louder speaker would have been nice to see, and the depression-low-cal photographic camera functioning leaves something to exist desired as far as racket levels are concerned, only these aren't deal-breakers. A beautiful brandish, fast functioning, mostly skilful cameras, crazy long battery life and every bit fast charging, and the latest software make the Milky way A71 a well rounded upper mid-range smartphone that you can't go incorrect with.

Pros	Cons
Slim and cute pattern	Low-light photos could be meliorate
First-class half dozen.7-inch Infinity-O Super AMOLED display	Macro camera needs a higher-resolution sensor
64MP camera takes great daylight photos, fairly good dark photos	Speaker too repose
Great performance from the Snapdragon 730 chipset	Unnecessary preloaded apps and games
Fantastic bombardment life, super fast charging
Android 10 with total-featured Ane UI ii.0 out of the box
In-display fingerprint sensor considerably improved over Milky way A70