Samsung Galaxy A14 5G Review

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy A14 5G is a stable inexpensive all-rounder with reassuring stamina, a stable display screen, an honest fundamental digicam and a long-term software program promise. Nonetheless, its efficiency is considerably sluggish, as is its charging velocity, and you will get extra on your cash with usually older fashions from rival manufacturers.

Introduction

You would possibly assume that there are many low-cost telephone choices available on the market. Nonetheless, in relation to 5G telephones within the £200/$200-ish vary, the £219/$199 Samsung Galaxy A14 5G is certainly one of comparatively few to be launched in 2023.

The Redmi Word 12 and the Poco M5s are maybe the obvious rivals that spring to thoughts, however neither packs 5G connectivity. Motorola provides the Moto G53 5G and G73 5G, however at £190 and £270 respectively, they’re not fairly in the identical weight class because the A14 5G.

Elsewhere, each the Nokia G60 5G and the Realme 9 5G are getting on a bit now, with no signal (but) of the Realme 10 5G right here within the UK. The Honor 90 Lite appears to pip the Galaxy A14 5G to the submit in a few methods, and appears to have settled on the same value, however solely after some discounting.

All of which is a considerably long-winded approach of claiming that the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G has this specific nook of the market largely to itself for now. Can it capitalise on this surprising alternative?

Design and display screen

• Plastic design is just a little creaky
• Grippy textured rear
• Respectable 6.6-inch FHD+ 90Hz show

Samsung has made a quite chunky telephone within the Galaxy A14 5G. Its floor space takes up a substantial 167.7 x 78mm of area, with a pretty big 6.6-inch show added to some notably thick bezels, together with an enormous chin. 

It’s fairly thick too, to the tune of 9.1mm, whereas a weight of 202g offers it fairly a little bit of heft. Provided that weight, you would possibly assume that some metallic was used within the telephone’s building, however that is an all-plastic physique.

Usually Samsung’s plastic work is exemplary, however I used to be just a little upset by the texture of the A14 5G. Specifically, my very own take a look at unit developed a creaky part low down on the right-hand edge. 

The rear of the A14 5G  seems and feels loads higher than the remainder of it. Samsung has given it a texture of very finely spaced however massive concentric circles – or parts of them a minimum of. It offers the telephone a singular look, and in addition proves to be extraordinarily grippy. It helps fend off fingerprint smudges too, which is all the time a welcome characteristic. 

My mannequin is available in a lightweight metallic Inexperienced tone, however clients may select from Silver and Black.

The A14 5G’s 6.6-inch show doesn’t capitalise on Samsung’s OLED experience, however it’s a very credible LCD. This can be a so-called PLS panel, which is successfully Samsung’s tackle IPS. Which means that it will get loads vivid, and viewing angles are good.

You get an ample 1080 x 2408 (FHD+) decision, so it’s good and sharp, and a 90Hz peak refresh charge retains issues feeling clean. With that mentioned, it’s unattainable to run the A14 5G’s show flat out, with a binary alternative between Commonplace (60Hz) or Adaptive (as much as 90Hz, relying on the state of affairs).

It’s not a vastly colour-accurate display screen, with just a little of that Samsung vibrancy at play, however the impact isn’t extreme. All the pieces pops properly, and as alluded to, it will get to a pretty-bright 526 nits in accordance with my colorimeter.

Digicam

• 50MP fundamental sensor, no OIS
• 2MP macro and depth sensors
• No ultrawide

Samsung has made a curious, some could say daring resolution with the Galaxy A14 5G digicam system. It’s primarily positioned all its eggs in a single 50MP broad sensor basket, with no ultra-wide or telephoto backups.

These two further lenses that you simply see within the photos are a pair of 2MP sensors, one for macros photographs and one for depth help. They’re barely value mentioning past that, with the 2MP macro digicam particularly merely not providing the sharpness wanted to take compelling close-ups. Macro photographs are a complete blurry washout right here.

Nonetheless, it might be argued that Samsung’s gamble has paid off. The A14 5G’s fundamental sensor takes fairly respectable, well-balanced photographs, a minimum of in good lighting. Distinction and publicity are largely on level, and element is sweet. Pores and skin tones additionally look good and pure, whereas even the portrait mode works fairly nicely at separating topic from background in a sea of buttery bokeh.

You do get just a little of Samsung’s punchy color science right here, which favours social media pop over a naturalistic depiction of a scene. The impact isn’t egregious, although, and really makes a great deal of sense given the audience of younger and informal customers.

I did initially miss the choice of taking ultra-wide photographs, however there’s a sure sense of logic to its omission. The reality is, low-cost telephones are likely to have horrible ultra-wide cameras, producing photographs that look nowhere close to nearly as good as the primary sensors.

It’s the same case with the dearth of a telephoto, with the A14 5G cropping in on that 50MP fundamental sensor as an alternative. This does serve to point out up the restrictions of the {hardware}, with photographs that begin to get just a little fuzzy even at 2x.

Evening mode isn’t so robust right here, producing considerably murky, grainy photographs. It may possibly’t assist that there’s no OIS to assist out, so any stabilisation needs to be finished algorithmically. That may clarify why Samsung has buried Evening mode away within the Extra menu.

The 13MP selfie digicam isn’t unhealthy in any respect. No, you don’t get the wealthy colors of the primary sensor, however every thing seems fairly pure, together with pores and skin tones. There isn’t an enormous situation with overexposure both, as is commonly the case with cheaper selfie cameras.

Efficiency and software program

• MediaTek Dimensity 700 chipset
• 4GB RAM
• Android 13 with OneUI Core 5

Samsung has geared up its low-cost and cheerful Galaxy A14 5G with a correspondingly low-cost and cheerful MediaTek Dimensity 700 processor. This 7nm chip isn’t a brand new element, having powered the likes of the Redmi Word 10 5G, the Realme 8 5G, and the Poco M3 Professional 5G approach again in mid-2021.

I didn’t discover this chip to be a very spectacular performer again then, and I actually didn’t discover it to be as much as far more than two years down the road. Paired with a lowly 4GB of RAM, booting up and switching between apps takes a beat longer than is snug, and there’s a normal inconsistency to animation speeds whereas navigating about.

In benchmark phrases, it falls behind rival price range efforts from the Poco, Redmi, and Realme manufacturers. The Realme 9 5G is an efficient level of comparability, as a result of regardless of being a 12 months previous at this level it provides the same value and spec, however reveals a transparent efficiency benefit.

The availability of simply 64GB of storage feels just a little meagre too, by trendy low-cost telephone requirements. We’ve come to count on double that, although you do get a microSDXC slot for enlargement functions.

As for software program, Samsung’s customized One UI Core 5 sits on prime of Android 13. As ever, Samsung’s UI is a love-it-or-tolerate-it affair. For a lot of customers, it’s the one smartphone interface they’ve ever identified, and provides a excessive diploma of customisation. 

For others, it lacks the crisp readability of inventory Android and its shut variants. Samsung’s UI is unquestionably extra visually cohesive than most of its Chinese language rivals, but it surely lacks the leanness of Motorola’s light-weight UI. 

It’s not the worst offender on the bloatware entrance. You get Netflix and Spotify, a number of Microsoft apps, a few garbage video games, and LinkedIn preinstalled, plus a number of of Samsung’s personal apps. I nonetheless don’t get why we’d like one other net browser when Chrome comes preinstalled, however that’s removed from a Samsung-exclusive grievance. 

On the replace aspect of issues, Samsung has mentioned that it’ll help the A14 5G with two years of baseline Android updates and 4 years of safety updates. That’s fairly darned good for a less expensive telephone.

Battery life

• 5000mAh battery
• 15W charging help
• No charger within the field

The A14 5G comes with a big 5000 mAh battery, and regardless of that considerably inefficient 7nm processor, it’s simply good for a full day of intensive utilization.

I discovered that I used to be capable of get to the tip of a 15-hour day with 5 hours and 40 minutes of screen-on time, and can be left with just a little over 20% left to play with. Lighter use may conceivably see you getting by means of two full days.

In sensible phrases, an hour of Disney+ streaming sapped 10% of a cost, whereas half-hour of sunshine gaming on Vampire Survivor ate 6%. This isn’t probably the most environment friendly telephone in relation to media efficiency, however then you possibly can say the identical about most inexpensive telephones.

Charging speeds aren’t notably fast, with a most of 15W supported. Nonetheless, Samsung doesn’t embody a charger within the field. We’re used to seeing that in additional premium fashions, but it surely appears like a little bit of an oversight in an affordable telephone, which goes to be a candidate for a primary smartphone.

Definitely, Samsung’s key low-cost telephone rivals (together with Poco, Redmi, Realme, and Motorola) all are likely to bundle their telephones with chargers – and sometimes extra fast ones at that.

I used a Samsung 25W brick to check the Galaxy A14 5G’s charging speeds, and located that it might cost to fifteen% in quarter-hour and 30% in half-hour. It largely stored to that ‘1% a minute’ sample proper up till it had about 5% left, at which level it slowed proper down, in the end taking simply shy of two hours half-hour for a full cost.

That’s not too speedy, even for an inexpensive telephone.

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Geekbench 6 single core

Geekbench 6 multi core

Adobe RGB

Max brightness

1 hour video playback (Netflix, HDR)

30 minute gaming (gentle)

Time from 0-100% cost

Time from 0-50% cost

30-min recharge (no charger included)

15-min recharge (no charger included)

3D Mark – Wild Life

GFXBench – Aztec Ruins

GFXBench – Automobile Chase

Samsung Galaxy A14 5G

692

1827

-2 %

526 nits

10 %

6 %

147 min

48 Min

30 %

15 %

327

9 fps

12 fps

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