Home » Samsung Galaxy A6 hands-on, first impressions

Samsung Galaxy A6 hands-on, first impressions

Written By Carl Lamiel
Published • May 22nd, 2018
Hands-onMobile
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Samsung is officially launching the Galaxy A6, a 5.6-inch smartphone packing the company’s own Exynos 7870 chip, 16-megapixel front and rear cameras, and Dolby Atmos speakers today. We took the device for a quick spin, and here are our observations.

The Galaxy A6 possess some traits that may remind us of last year’s J7 Pro sans the construction which has now favored metal instead of polycarbonate. The front part consists of the 5.6-inch display with a tall 18:9 aspect ratio, the 16-megapixel camera with its dedicated LED Flash, the call speaker, and a few sensors. Navigating the device is done on-screen which takes up lesser space, and the minimal bezels at the top and bottom part help in using the device when in landscape mode. The display, though, only takes up to five different touch points at a single time, so this could be a nuisance if you’re more into games.

At the left side of the device are the volume rockers, plus two different slots that can be popped out by a SIM ejector tool — the smaller one is for the first SIM, while the longer slot houses the second sim and a dedicated microSD card slot.

The power/lock button and the right-firing stereo loudspeaker are both placed at the right side of the device. The loudspeaker has Dolby’s Atmos system, which provides a more spatial listening experience, it proved that when we listened to a few tunes like Ed Sheeran’s Perfect. The speaker highlighted more of the front vocal layers and kept background music at a low, averaging at 75dB.

Just at the bottom is the micro-USB port along with the 3.5mm audio port and main microphone. It made us wonder why Samsung still stuck with a micro-USB, considering most of its rivals are already using USB Type-C.

Switching to the back of the device reveals the 16-megapixel rear camera along with the accompanying LED Flash and the rectangular fingerprint scanner. Samsung took cues from the J7 Pro and designed the A6 with embedded plastic lines at the top and bottom parts to aid in signal reception since the device is all metal. This could be an eyesore for those who wanted to have pure, pristine rear parts. It could be easily hidden by a case of your choice though. The back is non-removable, and so you’re left with having the 3,000mAh battery intact.

Holding the device feels like it’s just a 5.3-inch phone, which is a good trait of phones with tall screens cramped in small bodies. It’s a joy to use given that we can reach most parts by hand, and the fingerprint scanner is placed at a part where it’s easily accessible.

For cameras, we have a single 16MP rear and front, shots by the rear have a potential to be good in the right setup. Images in brightly lit environments have good detail, sharpness and color reproduction. However, color accuracy is a little off but still acceptable. Selfies, on the other hand, have a kind of creamy feel to it, even when just set to auto. Check out our initial sample shots.

REAR CAMERA SHOTS

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SELFIE SHOTS

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Powering the Samsung Galaxy A6 is Android Oreo built with the company’s own Experience UI, which we have previously seen on flagship devices like the S9 and S9+. Navigation is fluid, though it might take some time to get accustomed to if you’re coming from another custom software or pure Android UI. Bixby is also present, though without the physical dedicated button we have on flagship devices.

The Exynos 7870 is a good chipset for running multitasking functions, but we’ve noticed in some of our graphics tests that it may suffer lag from time to time. Here are some initial benchmarks results:

AnTuTu – 62,923
Geekbench – 722 (Single-Core), 3,569 (Multi-Core)

The Samsung Galaxy A6, in Black or Gold color variants, will be available in stores around the country with a Php16,490 price tag. Does A stand for awesome? We’ll find out in the coming days as we take this device for a full spin and review.

Samsung Galaxy A6

Specification	Samsung Galaxy A6
Display	5.6-inch HD+ (720 x 1440) 18.5:9 Super AMOLED display
CPU	1.6GHz octa-core CPU
RAM	3GB
ROM	32GB storage
Storage	microSD up to 256GB
Rear Camera	16MP AF F1.7 rear camera w/ LED flash
Front Camera	16MP FF F1.9 front camera
Connectivity	4G LTE Cat.6, 2CA
SIM	Dual SIM (nano)
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4/5GHz)
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.2 LE, ANT+
GPS	GPS, Glonass, BeiDou
NFC	NFC
Sensor	Fingerprint scanner
Security	Face Recognition
Audio	Speakers w/ Dolby Atmos
OS	Android 8.0 Oreo
Battery	3,000mAh battery
Dimension	149.9 x 70.8 x 7.7 mm
Color	Black, Gold