Samsung Galaxy A51 64GB review: a bid for the best smartphone of 2022

All the advantages and disadvantages of the heir to one of the best-selling smartphones of last year

It is not surprising that the Samsung Galaxy A50 became one of the most exciting premieres of last year. There is no magic - it’s just that at the time of the premiere, no one could compete with the “Korean” in terms of the set of characteristics and price. The whole year also went briskly: the A50 regularly became the best in various ratings, outselling all competitors.

Samsung didn’t delay with its successor, the Galaxy A51. It was presented in December, and will arrive in Russia in January. Apparently, the Korean manufacturer intends to repeat the success and ensure that the A51 becomes one of the best smartphones of 2022. But can it?

First about appearance

• Dimensions : 158.5 x 73.6 x 7.9 mm
• Weight : 172 grams
• Case colors : black, white
• Case material : plastic
• Connector : USB Type-C
• SIM card slot : separate
• 3.5 mm jack : yes

What I like right away is that the Samsung Galaxy A51 is compact and lightweight . The screen diagonal is slightly smaller than other “spade-shaped smartphones”, and the side ends are slightly rounded, so it’s easy and pleasant to hold.

By the way, about lightness. The back cover is again made of plastic, which Samsung bashfully calls Glasstic . The use of plastic in Samsung's line of mid-range smartphones is severely condemned by many, and for good reason: it makes the cases slippery and not resistant to fingerprints, and they also look cheap.

To be fair, the Galaxy A51 is not as slippery as previous A-series models . But it gets dirty and loses its presentation with the same breathtaking ease. And the plastic frame at the ends turned out to be completely unstable to scratches.

I praise the Galaxy A51 for its elegant form . The curves of the ends are made flawlessly, the side buttons are spaced perfectly, and the camera block protrudes above the body completely imperceptibly, so that the smartphone lies flat on the surface and does not rock like a fragile shuttle.

The camera block itself, let's say, is not for everyone . Given the long history of bickering and mutual jibes between Apple and Samsung, it is strange to see a camera unit in a new smartphone so similar to the one we saw in the iPhone 11 Pro. But I admit that there was no other option to cram 4 cameras into the body at once.

The presence of a headphone jack and a slot for three cards - two SIM cards and a MicroSD card - is something we always welcome.

Cameras - without any “Buts” and “Ahs”

Let's start with the width. It is better to use it very carefully. At night it lathers, and during the day there is noticeable soap around the edges of the frame. Especially when there is not enough lighting.

A51

Shirik A51

Main camera

Macro camera

The main module shoots at 12 megapixel resolution by default. For those same promised 48 megapixels, you need to go into the aspect ratio parameters of the frame. The setting is called "3:4H", which is strange. Firstly, why 3 by 4 and not vice versa? It seems that the whole world has long ago adhered to the designation 4:3, 16:9 and so on - the long side comes first. Secondly, why is the resolution setting hidden in the frame composition? It would be logical to include it as a separate button or a separate line in the shooting parameters.

Hi-Rec 48 MP

A51

Hi-Res 48 MP

In any case, I recommend always shooting with a resolution of 48 megapixels. This also applies to night conditions. This way you can get more out of the frame both in terms of detail and overall quality. Only the HDR mode will not work, and it helps only in particularly contrasting scenes, when there are a lot of shadows, or sun, or, conversely, dark areas of the picture. Keep in mind.

Without HDR HDR

And now a couple of examples why the Samsung Galaxy A51 cameras are definitely not “Ah”. Along with the A51, a sub-flagship, the Galaxy S10 Lite Night, entered the market in January. Its sensors are also not top-end, but the quality is still higher than our average one, especially noticeable when comparing the widths. Below are examples:

A51

S10 Lite

A51

S10 Lite

Shirik A51 Shirik S10 Lite

Shirik A51

Shirik S10 Lite

The front camera, as always, highlights the face and makes it slightly flat. God knows why, but I like it. Selfie processing algorithms have sunk into my soul once and for all since the Galaxy S9. And anything is better than the hopeless yellowness of the iPhone.

Video recording

The smartphone records nice-quality videos in 4K resolution. Yes, there is no stabilization, but there is maximum clarity and sharpness.

However, the manufacturer itself does not care about this; Samsung is promoting a separate Super Steady mode. There is a separate icon in the viewfinder, when you click on it, the resolution drops to 1080p, but the picture becomes as smooth as possible.

Personally, this quality unsettles me. And God bless her, with stabilization - I want the most charged picture, this, for my taste, is more important.

What's wrong with the Galaxy A51's display?

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• Matrix : 6.5 inches. Super AMOLED
• Resolution : 1080 x2400
• Ratio: 20:9
• Glass : Corning Gorilla Glass 3

It’s not interesting to write about the displays of Samsung smartphones - they are always excellent . The display in the Galaxy A51 is also very nice - with good brightness and contrast, great customization options. In the settings, you can enable dark theme and reading mode, adjust color rendering, and if you want to get really crazy, play with the white balance in the advanced settings.

The frames of the Galaxy A51 are delightfully thin, and the cutout for the camera is very tiny , which is elegantly emphasized by one of the pre-installed wallpapers.

But they saved on protective glass ; the Galaxy A51 uses not the most advanced Corning Gorilla Glass 3, but not the more advanced 5 series.

Screen

If you forget about the slight color distortions that I talked about at the very beginning of the review, then everything is fine with the screen. Oleophobic coating, visibility in the sun - I didn’t have any questions about it.

Always on. Unlike let’s not point a finger at the Little Elephant, notifications are displayed on it... Displayed as they should.

How to shoot Samsung Galaxy A51

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• Main camera: four lenses - f/2.0, 48 MP + ultra-wide-angle f/2.2, 12 MP, 123 degrees + macro f/2.4, 5 MP + depth sensor f/2.2, 5 MP
• Front camera: f/2.2, 32 MP

As usual, the Galaxy A51 pleased us with the consistency of the camera application. For example, to enable the 48 megapixel shooting mode, I had to rummage through all the menus, and suddenly found it in the frame format menu. By the way, you also need to switch back to the normal resolution manually, be careful, otherwise you will quickly fill up your smartphone’s memory with giant pictures.

The smartphone wasn’t exactly pleased with the quality of photography, but it didn’t disappoint either. The Galaxy A51 is good at color reproduction, but detailing, especially in less than optimal lighting conditions, is clearly lacking. This can be seen both in landscape photographs and in subject photography.

Here and below: to see the photo in high resolution, click on it

The trees in the distance have merged into mush

But the smartphone caught the shades of the winter sky remarkably accurately

The “live focus” function works perfectly, the smartphone correctly recognizes what to focus on and what to blur beautifully

The Galaxy A51 also did a good job of separating a complex subject from the background.

The 5-megapixel macro lens gets the most out of it and works great for an inexpensive smartphone

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Before shooting with an ultra-wide-angle module, you should go into the settings and activate the distortion correction function , with it the curvature of space on the sides is much less. The “shirik” itself traditionally blurs the image on the sides of the frame.

Distortion correction disabled

Distortion correction activated

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The maximum zoom available on the Galaxy A51 is eight times . It's of little use.

Regular shooting

2x zoom

8x zoom

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The selfie camera, despite its fairly high resolution, is also not amazing . The detail is low, and the beauty mode vigorously lathers, turning people into celluloid.

The low detail is especially noticeable in the hair. Click on the photo to open it in original resolution

Beauty mode in all its glory

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Communication with the outside world

I observed strange problems with 5 GHz Wi-Fi. The speed (especially downloading) is significantly lower than that of other smartphones. And lower than when connected to a 2.4 GHz network. And even if you bring it close to the router, it doesn’t help. I would like to believe that for some reason the A51 does not dock well specifically with my antediluvian router...

Otherwise, everything is fine with the connection. LTE of all necessary bands, USB Type-C, etc.

NFC, of ​​course, exists; you can and should use your smartphone as a wallet.

A little about the performance of the Samsung Galaxy A51

• Processor : 8-core Exynos 9611 (4×2.3 GHz + 4 1.7 GHz)
• Graphics : Mali-G72
• Available memory configurations : 4/64 GB, 6/128 GB

The smartphone has good hardware, and the more surprising is how it behaves in everyday life . The Galaxy A51 surprised us with stuttering, especially noticeable when switching between applications. Perhaps the problem is in the crude firmware of our test unit?

The results of synthetic tests were not encouraging . In Antutu, the Samsung Galaxy A51 scored 175,817 points, and in the overall rating it took a position next to Redmi Note 8 and Redmi Note 8T - noticeably cheaper devices.

However, the Galaxy A51 showed its best side in games , without question it offered maximum graphics quality in PUBG, and it was comfortable to play.

The second point is the brakes.

Using a smartphone is sometimes difficult - it simply slows down. Of course, not in everyday tasks, but when launching complex utilities, opening a heavy video on YouTube, or taking a 48-megapixel photo. It takes about 3 seconds to create such a picture and during this time the device is immune to clicks.

Again, strange behavior for a smartphone whose “brains” is the Exynos 9611 processor. It contains four standard Cortex A53 cores and four fairly powerful Cortex A73 cores with a frequency of up to 2.3 gigahertz. What's wrong?

I think it's a matter of software optimization. The One UI shell is visually one of my favorites, but in terms of optimization it has room for improvement. I think it’s all due to the scattering of models; full-time developers cannot keep up with the proper optimization of each one. In fact, in less than one year, Samsung launched three almost identical models onto the market:

• A50 in February 2019
• A50s in August 2019
• A51 was released at the end of the year

And I don’t take into account all the other devices of the A and M series, each of which followed the fate of our hero - it was updated once or twice a year. Samsung has never paid so much attention to budget and mid-range devices, but here it is for you! Apparently he can’t cope, he just can’t keep up.

AnTuTu Geekbench 5 Geekbench 4 Androbench

Be that as it may, you can play the same PUBG Mobile on the Galaxy A51, albeit only on medium graphics settings. With high settings you obviously won’t get any pleasure from the game. So it’s still impossible to call a smartphone a gaming smartphone.

How's the battery?

• Battery capacity: 4000 mAh
• Fast charging: supported
• Charger included: 18 W

Modest battery = modest autonomy . Without recharging, the Samsung Galaxy A51 lasts no more than one day, and this is not the results we expect from a smartphone in 2022. But again, perhaps it’s all about the test firmware.

The smartphone has fast charging , but the included charger is not the most powerful. It allows you to charge the Samsung Galaxy A51 from zero to 100% in just under an hour and three quarters. In half an hour, the smartphone will charge 30%.

Samsung also respected those who are afraid of fast charging , considering it destructive to the battery: support for fast charging can be disabled in the settings.

Galaxy A51 battery life - could be better

Samsung, is that you? I've been carrying the A51 for a month now, and you know it's running out of charge every day. Moreover, this does not depend at all on whether I am using the device or whether it is simply lying on a shelf with the Always On Display active.

AOD in action

And now my real scenarios. If you drive the 51st both in the tail and in the mane, then it will run out of charge by the evening. Yes, such a weak 4,000 mAh under the hood, or more precisely, such mediocre optimization of energy consumption.

If you don’t touch the smartphone at all, it will be discharged to zero in just a day and a half. Just like that, without any notifications, vibrations - only with the active AOD mode. If you disable this option, the downtime will increase to two days. Whatever one may say, this is not enough. Any other device on Android or the same iPhone 11 Pro will quietly last a week.

Fast charging up to 15 watts is supported. A full cycle takes 1 hour 50 minutes, and in the first half hour the device accumulates only 30%. At a time when even average competitors can charge half in 30 minutes, this looks strange.

Owner recognition in Samsung Galaxy A51

• Fingerprint scanner: yes
• Face recognition: yes

A smartphone can recognize its owner in two ways : using a scanner under the display or using the front camera. Both options work acceptable; recognition takes a matter of seconds.

And finally, answers to a couple of popular questions about the Samsung Galaxy A51

Samsung A51 slows down

Once you fill the Galaxy A51's memory by more than half, it will begin to lag mercilessly

The second drawback of the Galaxy A51 is interface lag. I placed it in second place not because it lags unobtrusively, but because you can only detect it after you unlock the smartphone.

At first, I attributed the lags to flaws in the applications my wife uses. But, firstly, nothing like this ever happened on my Honor View 20, and secondly, neither clearing the cache nor reinstalling applications helped.

What will happen to the Galaxy Note after Samsung refuses to release it?

It’s difficult to say what exactly is causing the lags, because I tried everything: cleaning my smartphone, erasing cache files, freeing up more than half of the memory, and even uninstalling updates for Google applications and services. As a result, some of this actually helped. It seems that after I erased Google Play updates, the device became faster, but not for long.

After he downloaded all the updates again, and the Galaxy A51’s memory again filled up by more than (plus or minus 60 gigabytes), it began to lag again. I concluded that the whole point is that it cannot process such a volume of data. But, kamon, what to do with this memory if it cannot be filled even halfway?

What are the main differences between the Samsung Galaxy A51 and the Galaxy A50 and A71?

The new smartphone differs from its predecessor A50 in the size of the cutout in the display, which is why its usable area has become a little larger, and of course, in the camera configuration: the main module is not 25, but 48 megapixels, and a macro lens has been added. These are not dramatic improvements, so if you want to save money, feel free to take the Samsung Galaxy A50, which has become noticeably cheaper compared to the new model.

The key differences of the A71 are a slightly larger display diagonal (6.7 inches, not 6.5), a 64-megapixel main camera module (otherwise the configuration is the same) and a larger battery (4500 mAh) with a more powerful charger. In Russia, the smartphone will be sold only in the 6/128 GB configuration. Is it worth overpaying 7 thousand rubles for this? Decide for yourself.

Design, ergonomics

Externally, the Galaxy A51 is very different from its predecessor - it has a design common to the new Samsung models (S10 Lite and A71). The main differences are the use of an Infinity-O display (with a hole for the front camera instead of a drop-shaped notch) and a different design of the main camera module.

The side faces are plastic, with an aluminum finish; the back cover is also plastic, with a varnish coating that quite successfully imitates glass to the touch. The smartphone is available in four main colors – red, blue, black and white; we reviewed the latter option. The texture of the back panel coating is quite complex; the manufacturer calls it Prism design: the white color is not quite white, but with a slight pearlescent tint, plus the surface is “lined” with diagonal lines that divide the body into several zones. Depending on the viewing angle, they reflect light slightly differently, plus a subtle pattern of many thin vertical lines is applied to the bottom of the panel.

The frames around the screen of the Galaxy A51 are small, at the bottom and especially at the top - quite a bit wider than on the sides. The hole for the camera is also quite small, ~3 mm in diameter, so the display takes up more than 87% of the front panel.

On the top edge there is a noise-canceling microphone, above the hole, at the junction between the side edge and the screen, there is a speaker. On the left side there is a SIM card tray (installation of two nanoSIM cards plus microSD memory cards is supported), on the right there is a power button and a volume rocker. And below you can find a USB Type-C connector, a main microphone, a multimedia speaker and a mini-jack for connecting a wired headset.

Thanks to the thin frames, we can say that by today's standards, the Samsung Galaxy A51 is a medium-sized smartphone (158.5 × 73.6 × 7.9 mm, weight 172 g - almost a copy of the A50 in size, and only 6 g heavier). It fits easily into a front trouser pocket and fits well in a medium-sized hand - the side edges feel a little thin, but thanks to the smoothed corners they do not cut into the palm. But, of course, you won’t be able to operate a 6.5-inch display with one hand in any case.

Autonomy

Phones rarely default to battery backup these days, and the A51 doesn't disappoint when it comes to power. The 4000 mAh battery in the smartphone can comfortably last more than a day. 15W fast charging isn't fast enough, and for the asking price a 25W USB charger from Samsung might be more suitable.

Battery parameters and charging options: