Samsung Galaxy A51 review

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Introduction

If 2019 taught us anything it's that Samsung's A-series span pretty much the entire spectrum of feature sets and price brackets short of a true flagship. The 2020 roster is only beginning to unfold and the company kicked things off by adding 1s to product names in the mid-tier - thus the Galaxy A51 was born.

That 1 means a lot when you look at the A51 and A50 side by side. For starters, there's 1 more camera on the new model - a close-focusing 5MP shooter. The chipset is also "1" better - the A51 is powered by the Exynos 9611 as opposed to the 9610 in last year's phone. And then a 0.1-inch increase in screen diagonal continues the theme albeit at a lower order of magnitude.

Let's put our lame attempts at numerology to the side, and mention the other upgrades that the Galaxy A51 brings - almost exclusively in the camera system. There's a 48MP Quad Bayer primary unit now replacing the 25MP conventional module of the A50 and the ultra wide-angle cam's sensor has grown in pixel count - it now stands at 12MP as opposed to the A50's 8MP, still with 123-degree coverage.

And you be the judge if this counts as an upgrade, but the selfie camera now sits in a cutout in the top center of the display, unlike the A50's notch. Infinity-O replaces Infinity-U. The camera itself should, indeed, qualify as an upgrade - a 32MP Quad Bayer unit where the A50's 25MP snapper used to sit.

Samsung Galaxy A51 specs

• Body: Glass front (Gorilla Glass 3), polycarbonate back and frame.
• Screen: 6.5-inch Super AMOLED, 20:9, FHD+ (1080x2400px), 405ppi.
• Rear camera: Primary: 48MP, 1/2" sensor size, 0.8µm pixel size, 26mm equiv. focal length, f/2.0 aperture. Ultra wide angle: 12MP, 1.12µm, 13mm, f/2.2. Macro: 5MP, 25mm, f/2.4. Depth sensor: 5MP, 1/5", 1.12µm, f/2.2. LED flash; 2160p@30fps video recording.
• Front camera: 32MP, 1/2.8", 0.8µm, 26mm, f/2.2. 1080p@30fps video recording.
• Chipset: Exynos 9611: octa-core CPU (4x2.3 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4x1.7 GHz Cortex-A53), Mali-G72 MP3 GPU.
• Memory: 4/64GB, 4/128GB, or 6/128GB versions, UFS 2.0; dedicated microSD slot for up to 1TB expansion.
• OS: Android 10; Samsung One UI 2.0.
• Battery: 4,000mAh, 15W charging.
• Connectivity: Dual SIM (4G), Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, USB-C; 3.5mm audio jack.
• Misc: Under-display fingerprint reader, single bottom-firing loudspeaker.

Samsung Galaxy A51 unboxing

There's no 'New year, new me' when it comes to the A-series presentation and the Galaxy A51 arrives in a familiar white box with a glossy print of the phone on top, a cutout with the model numbers helping identify what's inside.

And inside, sure enough, you'll find the Galaxy A51. Besides the phone, you'll be getting a 15W power adapter - the tried and tested QC2.0-based Samsung Adaptive Fast Charging unit, plus a USB-A-to-C cable to complete the link. A basic set of earbuds is also part of the bundle, but there's no protective case - other makers take the exact opposite approach, and we'd probably pick a case instead of a headset, but to each their own.