Review Summary
Expert Rating
The Samsung Galaxy A12 was announced in the Indian market as an affordable smartphone, with its price starting at Rs 12,999. The phone offers several features aimed at attracting budget users, such as a massive battery, good charging speeds, and a decent camera. So how does the Galaxy A12 fare as a daily driver? Let’s find out in this review.
Verdict
For a price of Rs 12,999, the Galaxy A12 does feel a bit underwhelming considering it packs in only a big battery and a decent set of cameras that work well in daylight conditions. Objectively, the lack of powerful internals will play to the detriment of the Galaxy A12 as the market is full of cheaper alternatives.
The lowdown
Like any other budget Samsung phone, the Galaxy A12 has a unibody plastic design with a textured finish at the back. The square quad-camera setup is on the top-right and on the side is the fingerprint sensor of a capacitive variety. The phone is not lightweight and even with the frame being quite grippy it will still be a task to operate the phone one-handed. A USB C port, 3.5mm headphone jack and speaker grille are present at the bottom. You are getting a decent-sized 6.5-inch HD+ display TFT LCD panel with the refresh rate being a standard 60Hz and a waterdrop notch, called the Infinity V display, present on top. As with any other Samsung panel, the viewing experience is good although the brightness could have been better.
In terms of cameras, there is a 48MP primary sensor, a 5MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro shooter. Daylight photos are very much acceptable with the occasional drop in dynamic range. Contrast levels are good and mostly exposure is handled well. The ultra-wide sensor works well but has warmer colour tones and lacks the detailing of the primary sensor.
The macro sensor is average while the depth shooter works well for background separation. The low-light photography leaves a bit to be desired, because of its slow focus times and long shutter speeds. The lack of dedicated night mode also doesn’t help. On the front is an 8MP selfie shooter which takes good selfies but not so much at night.
The performance is handled by the Helio G35 SoC which does seem slightly underpowered seeing what the competition has on offer. It is supported by 4GB RAM and up to 128GB of storage expandable via a microSD card. In short, any regular smartphone activity can be accomplished without stress but graphics-heavy usage can be problematic.
On the software side, the phone runs Android 10-based OneUI 2.5 which is now a bit old for my liking. I do, however, prefer the ease of usability as compared to some of the other skins in the market. The A12 packs in a 5,000mAh battery that can be charged using the 15W fast-charging support in under two hours. The phone will quite easily last you the entire day on moderate usage.
Final verdict
The Galaxy A12’s saving grace is its big battery and a set of cameras that perform well in the daylight. In most other aspects, it is mostly a hit-or-miss and that makes it falter against the competition. The budget segment has evolved quite a bit and I believe that Samsung’s more recent Galaxy M12 is a better answer to its rivals.
Editor’s rating: 3 / 5
Pros
- Good battery life
- Daylight photography is good
Cons
- Chipset could have been better
- Higher-resolution panel could be used
- Still on Android 10
- Night photography is average
 | Rs. 10,999.00 | Go To Store |
 | Rs. 12,649.00 | Go To Store |
 Samsung Galaxy A12 | vs |  POCO M3 |
| Samsung Galaxy A12 | vs |  Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 |
