Samsung Galaxy A71 review

Where to buy

Samsung has greatly simplified its phone ranges in recent years. At the very top end, you get the Galaxy S and the Note series, as well as the foldables. Where you used to get a confusing range of A series, J series and more, there’s now just the A series, which represents Samsung’s entire value-focused market. The Galaxy A71 sits on the upper tier of Samsung’s mid-range pricing – or just below the true premium range, depending on your point of view – but you do get quite a lot of phone value for your money.

Design

Design

• The 6.7-inch display stands out at this price point
• Punch hole camera
• Headphone jack is still present

• Read our full review of the Samsung Galaxy A71's design

  The Samsung Galaxy A71 is a big phone, but that’s what you get when you pack in a 6.7-inch display. Excluding the far more expensive Galaxy Fold and Galaxy S20 Ultra, the Galaxy A71 offers the largest screen size of Samsung’s range.

  The Galaxy A71 features a Super AMOLED Plus display with a 1080×2400 pixel resolution, and like so many of Samsung’s displays, it’s a real joy to look at. Sure, you don’t get the fancy 120Hz of the S20 Ultra, but you’re not paying for that, and 60Hz is demonstrably easier on battery life in any case.

  Samsung ships the Galaxy A71 in either a silver or black finish, but the nearly bezel-free display means that this is just a colour choice you’ll see at the back of the phone. While it has the gloss you might associate with a glass back, it’s resolutely plastic with a subtle diagonal panel effect slicing through its pinstripes. And like many glossy plastic backs, you’ll quickly lose sight of those features underneath fingerprints. However, you won’t be adding any by unlocking, because it incorporates an in-display fingerprint reader instead.

  Controls are quite simple, laid out on the right-hand side to cover volume and combined power/Bixby voice functions, depending on your preferences. Yes, Samsung is still trying to make Bixby a viable contender against the likes of Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple’s Siri. You’re not forced to use it, however, and there’s no solely Bixby button to be found anywhere.

  What the Galaxy A71 does keep that Samsung’s dropped from its more premium lines is a dedicated headphone jack. Of course, Bluetooth is supported if you prefer Bluetooth headphones, but if you’ve invested in a nice pair of wired cans, you’re free to use them on the Galaxy A71.

Camera

Camera

• Quad lens camera works acceptably
• Macro lens isn't strong
• Low zoom

• See sample photos and read our full review of the Samsung Galaxy A71's camera

  The rear of the Galaxy A71 looks somewhat the same this year’s crop of Galaxy A20 phones, with a rectangular black square housing four distinct sensors and a flash unit. The primary sensor is a 64MP one, although it predictably defaults to pixel binning to produce actual 16MP images. It’s matched up with a 5MP depth sensor, 5MP macro sensor and 12MP ultra-wide 123-degree sensor, which is quite a decent recipe for a phone in this price range.

  What’s noticeably absent here is any kind of optical zoom lens at all. While it’s got a nice big primary sensor, it caps out at a measly 8x digital zoom.

  Samsung provides its standard camera UI with quick switching between the primary and ultra-wide lenses, but if you want to use the macro mode, you’ll have to access it via a sub-menu. The Galaxy A71 also supports Samsung’s “live focus” feature for providing blur for portraits and just about any other object you’d care to name. It can produce some very pleasing results with a little work, but I often found that the blur selector would swap out for the brightness control at just the wrong moment if I wanted to make a focus adjustment.

  It’s a similar story with the 5MP Macro lens as well. It’s possible to get some interesting and fun shots from it, but you’ll have to maintain some patience with placement and focus issues. The Galaxy A71 fares much better with its multi-exposure night mode, which produces images that are up there with the best that Samsung has done. Now, that’s still a little below the likes of Huawei and Apple in the low-light flagship space – but you’re not paying flagship-type money here.

  Samsung Galaxy A71 sample photos

  

  

  

  

Performance

Performance

• Snapdragon 730 plus 6GB RAM works well
• Triple SIM+microSD slot is great
• Fingerprint sensor is slow

• View test results and read our full review of the Samsung Galaxy A71's performance

  Aside from its immense screen, Samsung has also bumped up the specifications for the Galaxy A71 relative to last year’s Galaxy A70, jumping from a Snapdragon 675 to a slightly snappier Snapdragon 730 CPU. It’s paired with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage, expandable via microSD.

  One nice touch here is that the Samsung Galaxy A71 features a triple-slot SIM tray, with space for two nano SIMs plus a microSD card slot. Most phones make you choose dual SIM or extra storage, but with the Galaxy A71, you can actually have both.

  In benchmark terms, the Snapdragon 730 delivers similar performance to most mid-range phones right now, although it can’t help but be flattened by the performance of Apple’s iPhone SE 2020:

  It’s a very similar story for 3D graphics, where the Galaxy A71’s benchmark figures actually make it look a little worse than it is, bearing in mind Apple’s custom silicon in its iPhone SE 2020 and the higher-end Snapdragon sitting in the Nubia Z20:

  The Galaxy A71 is an Android 10 handset running Samsung’s own OneUI launcher. Amongst Android launchers, it’s one of my favourites given its relatively clean and simple change set from “pure” Android. You do get a run of pre-installed Samsung-specific apps that mimic many Google features, although if you’re otherwise heavily invested in the Samsung ecosystem via smartwatches or TVs, there’s some utility in that.

  The standard Samsung Galaxy A71 – which is the model I tested out – lacks any kind of 5G connectivity, but there is a 5G model available, simply titled the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G.

  It’s a little more expensive than the regular A71, with the hook being the inclusion of 5G. However, it would appear that it’s also rocking a different processor, with one of Samsung’s own Exynos processors taking the place of the Snapdragon 730 in most markets. It’s not entirely clear from Samsung’s specification sheet if that’s true here, but it’s worth bearing in mind, because typically, Exynos processors lag behind their Snapdragon equivalents in a straight line power race.

Battery life

Battery life

• 4,500mAh battery runs well
• USB C charging, but no wireless charging

• View test results and read our full review of the Samsung Galaxy A71's battery life

  The Samsung Galaxy A71 has to feed that large display with a decent sized battery. Samsung equips it with a 4,500mAh non-removable battery which recharges via USB C only. At this price point, you might start wondering about wireless charging, but it’s sadly absent from the Galaxy A71.

  Still, that 4,500mAh battery performed solidly against phones of its price range in our standard battery test, running a full-screen YouTube video at full brightness and moderate volume for an hour to test relative battery drain. Here’s how it compared against similar phones:

  Even with moderately heavy use, the Galaxy A71 had few issued making it through a day’s usage, and it’s even possible that you might be able to stretch that to two days if you were a little more gentle on it than my typical usage patterns.

  The same probably isn’t true for the Galaxy A71 5G, however. The added push of that 5G modem should give it plenty of speed when it comes to downloads but at the very likely cost of quite a bit of battery life.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy A71?

The Galaxy S20 line and upcoming Galaxy Note 20 lines remain Samsung’s flagships and get the best that Samsung has to offer, but it’s great to see a more affordable phone come out of the South Korean giant that distils most of those features without too many compromises. There’s certainly a market segment that doesn’t like large phones, and if that’s you, then the Galaxy A71 won’t suit you.

Everyone else should definitely give it consideration, however, because Samsung’s put a lot of really nice tech into this particular phone, and even in the very competitive mid-range space, it does a good job of standing out for all the right reasons.

Pricing and availability

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Specifications

Images: Alex Kidman