Samsung Galaxy A18 4G review

Design, build quality, handling

If you've encountered a Galaxy A phone in say the last three years or so, particularly a lower-end model, then you know what to expect from the Galaxy "budget design." Well, ok, that's probably not entirely fair to Samsung's designers, since the look is being constantly refined. Still, some staples like the teardrop notch, the vertical camera arrangement and the raised buttons on the right frame remain.

The refinement sees the middle frame flatter and cleaner. Looking back at older budget A-series phones, Samsung was fine with slightly curvier sides, but it's now keeping up with the trends. These corner bends are quite aggressive and do carry over to the display corners as well, which are missing more than the usual amount of pixels. Another bit that's increasingly popular lately.

The raised portion of the middle frame that houses the power button and volume rocker is a distinctly A-series thing at this point. The rest of the design is trying to, in broad terms, converge with the S series. The camera island that is once again an actual island, instead of three separate modules is a good example of that.

Since we are already on the topic of controls, the A18 4G has a perfectly standard set. The right-hand side buttons we mentioned are perfectly well-positioned height-wise and offer good tactile feedback.

The power button hosts the capacitive fingerprint reader. These have very much matured as a technology already. The sensor here is both accurate and snappy, we have no complaints with it.

The opposite side of the frame is almost entirely empty, except for the SIM and microSD card tray. Even though Samsung has gotten increasingly good at pulling off a metal-like matte finish on its plastic middle frames, the frame is still plastic and hence does not require the addition of antenna lines.

For all the flack it gets, plastic is a pretty good smartphone building material. Sure, it's technically not as premium as metal, but it is sturdy, does not dent quite like metal and it is pretty light. The Galaxy A18 4G tips the scale at 196 grams, which is a bit more than its A17 4G predecessor, but still relatively light.

Samsung Galaxy A18 4G

Rounding off the controls tour, there is a secondary microphone hole on the top frame - a pretty tiny one. The main microphone is on the bottom frame, alongside the bottom-firing speaker and the Type-C port. No 3.5mm audio jack - you have to go all the way back to the Galaxy A15 to get one in this particular "Samsung range". No IR blaster either, but again that was never expected.

Samsung didn't really experiment with the color selection - you can get the A18 4G in Black, Gray or Light blue. Though, you might find alternative names for said colors on some markets as well. Our review unit clearly says Silver on the box.

All the colors are very subdued and understated. Nothing flashy or gaudy. We do particularly like how Samsung color-matched basically every part of the body it could. That includes the middle frame and the little ring around the camera island. It's not a one-to-one match with the back panel, but rather a very close complementary shade.

Plastic definitely doesn't mean poorly built. The Galaxy A18 4G feels very solid and has no flex or hollowness. As a bonus, Samsung even managed a slightly higher IP64 ingress protection certification this year (compared to IP54 on the Galaxy A17 4G). Hardly a huge leap and one that only affects the dust-resistance rating, not the water one. The A18 4G does have a sizable, confidence-inspiring rubber gasket on its SIM tray so it might still survive a brief dip in fresh water even if it is not officially rated to do so. IPX4 generally means it should be fine under a "spray nozzle" for a brief time, so things like rain are ok.

One thing regarding durability we can't overlook is the apparent downgrade of the front glass compared to last year's model. That one got Gorilla Glass Victus+ while the A18 4G gets Gorilla Glass 3. It is an older and presumably cheaper product. The newer Victus stuff is generally rated for up to 2 meter drops on to hard surface, while that number goes down to 1m for Gorilla Glass 3. Also, Victus+ advertises up to four times better scratch resistance. Not a welcome change for sure.