Samsung Galaxy A15 5G Review: A decent phone for the price

The Samsung Galaxy A15 5G is the successor to last year’s A14, which ranked first on our list of the best budget smartphones. It thus has its work cut out if it wants to keep its hold on the cheap market, which seems to gain new entrants every year who can fit more valuable features into affordable frames. The Samsung Galaxy A15 5G is one of the best inexpensive Android phones on the market today, thanks to its quality design and long battery life, as well as its respectable camera and user-friendly software.

Fortunately, the A15 5G succeeds on practically every front, combining a deceptively beautiful design with a 90Hz display, a long-lasting battery, simple software, and a reliable main camera.

Price when reviewed: $164.97| Check price at Amazon

KEY FEATURES

The Galaxy A15 5G has the same 6.5-inch Super AMOLED screen with 1080p resolution and a 90Hz refresh rate. It has the same triple camera on the back: a 50MP primary, a 5MP ultrawide, and a 2MP macro. Even the selfie camera remains the same: a 13MP sensor with 1080p video capture. The 5G version is powered by the same 5,000mAh battery that supports 25W rapid charging.

The sole difference between the Galaxy A15 4G and Galaxy A15 5G is the chipset: Helio G99 vs. Dimensity 6100+ 5G. And it is only found in the modem; the processor, GPU, and storage options remain the same.

The Galaxy A15 5G is a well-connected phone that supports Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, and GPS. It also has a 3.5mm socket and a microSD card, which are virtually extinct. We only wish splash resistance had been incorporated. Many other similarly priced phones from Xiaomi and Motorola have such basic ingress protection, and the Galaxy A1x deserves it as well.

SAMSUNG GALAXY A15 5G UNBOXING

The A15 comes in a compact box, therefore no charger is included, and must be purchased separately (the phone supports 25W charging, thus a standard Samsung 25W charger would be ideal).

The phone’s bottom features a USB-C charging connector, the phone’s only speaker, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is only found on inexpensive phones these days.

CAMERA

Samsung makes some of the greatest camera phones available, and while the A15 5G isn’t one of them, it does give adequate photo performance for the price.

The main 50Mp wide lens is the highlight – the only true highlight – and it can do a good job in the correct hands and lighting conditions. It lacks optical image stabilization (OIS) like most smartphones nowadays, but its use of focusing makes it easy to use and create beautiful photos.

In my view, the camera’s palette is well-balanced and lifelike, with less of the oversaturation that plagued previous generations of Galaxy phones. The skies are not overexposed, the colors are vivid without being overly vibrant, and the Portrait mode delivers sufficient information while remaining pleasing.

The good news ends here, though, because the two new lenses feel more like box-ticking exercises than true enhancements to the phone’s arsenal.

The ultrawide lens may take quite useful panoramic photographs if used steadily, although a number of our photos ended up with fuzzy edges or lines, at least when zoomed in a little. Similar to the 2Mp macro lens, photographs normally appear acceptable at first glance, but closer scrutiny exposes a touch too much rawness and blur.

As a result, users must exercise caution to get the most out of the phone’s additional cameras, which also applies to its night mode. The latter can be effective in certain situations and scenes, but it is hit-and-miss, so photographers must be patient.

The 13MP front-facing lens outperforms the two extra rear lenses in terms of forgivingness and ability to take flattering selfies in most lighting conditions. It isn’t ideal and can lack some liveliness, but it will undoubtedly give enough usable photos for social media and sharing.

DESIGN AND SCREEN

The Galaxy A15 5G follows Samsung’s design aesthetic for 2024, with flat sides and a boxy appearance. It’s made entirely of plastic, and it doesn’t feel particularly expensive in the hand, but it weighs less than you’d think for its size.

The raised edge on the right side of the phone (which Samsung refers to as “Key Island”) is the most distinguishing design feature, making it simpler to discover the buttons by tactile feel. Speaking of buttons, the power button doubles as a fingerprint reader and is flush with the phone’s side, with the volume rocker located directly above it.

The Galaxy A15 5G offers a screen upgrade over its predecessor, with a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED panel replacing the A14’s less attractive LCD.

This makes the phone ideal for watching videos, TV shows, and movies, and the high-definition 1080p quality makes it more than usable as a media device. While it doesn’t quite match other flagship models, the 90Hz refresh rate is extremely smooth, especially when contrasted to the 60Hz rates found on regular iPhone models.

The brightness does not quite match these optimistic fundamental specifications, with a maximum of slightly more than 800 nits. In most cases, adaptive brightness fills in the gaps, but if you’re going to a sunny park or beach, you may need to manually adjust the brightness to the maximum.

In comparison to more expensive versions, the bezel around the A15’s display is very thick, particularly at the bottom. The phone also has a teardrop selfie notch, which is less covert than the pinhole cameras found on Galaxy S models, for example, and will most likely reinforce the impression that you’re holding a less expensive handset.

Still, the A15’s screen looks good overall, especially for a phone in this price bracket.

Its speakers also punch a little above its weight, even though they are neither stereo nor exceptional, with music – even dense music – sounding clear and finely mixed.

HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?

The Galaxy A15’s performance is undeniably lacking, which is not surprising given its low price.

It is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ chipset, a 6nm processor designed to handle 5G. It otherwise shares the same specifications and performance as the Helio G99 processor found in the non-5G Galaxy A15.

The A15 5G variant, like the A15 4G, has 4GB of RAM. This is at the lowest end of the RAM scale, even for some inexpensive phones, such as the Motorola Moto G84 5G, which has a remarkable 12GB of RAM.

In practice, this means you’ll notice some slowdown and lag, even while opening apps and performing routine chores on your phone.

Compared to something like a Galaxy S24 or an iPhone 15, there is a noticeable difference, and anyone looking to save money while enjoying the 2024 performance would be disappointed.

It also implies that high-end gaming is nearly impossible on the A15, while less advanced games will experience a slowdown. Still, conducting daily activities and browsing the web is generally fine once the appropriate apps have been launched, so less ambitious users will not have too many problems.

The A15 also has 128GB of internal storage, which is sufficient for a ‘normal’ user who is unlikely to use it for anything other than calling/messaging, social networking, and shooting photos. There is a microSDXC slot, so if you capture a lot of images and videos, you can expand on what comes out of the box.

Finally, the benchmarks show that the A15 5G is one of the lowest-powered phones produced by a major manufacturer this year. With only 4GB of RAM, it outperforms some of its inexpensive competitors.

Buy it if...

• The design is attractive and solid.
• 90Hz OLED with good maximum brightness.
• Excellent battery life and rapid charging.
• Good main and selfie cameras.
• EIS for video.
• Dual SIM, 5G, NFC, microSD, and 3.5mm jack.
• Android 14 features One UI 6.

Don't buy it if…

• Lag and stutter are noticeable.
• The lowest model comes with only 4GB of RAM.
• There’s no splash protection.
• Poor ultrawide camera.
• There was no charger in the box.
• Virtual proximity sensor.

FULL SPECIFICATION