Samsung Galaxy A71 Review: Big battery, strong performance, swanky looks make this mid-range phone worth checking out

Sick of smartphones inching closer to the Rs 1,00,000 price tag?

While we're in the lockdown, the economy is taking a huge hit and people are battling cash crunch with stalled business activity. People have begun conserving cash, spending mostly on essentials currently, but even after the lockdown many experts point out at the change in spending patterns and how in times of uncertainty, people would want to remain prudent spenders. Much as a smartphone is a necessity in today's day and age, the sky-high prices of top smartphones may put off many.

Samsung's new Galaxy A71 seems like a suitable remedy. By introducing the A71 to its mid-range phones, Samsung has hit on exactly what consumers are looking for - a big screen, plenty of cameras and long battery life.

This phone targets the youth which spends a whole lot of its time in the online realm, consuming and creating volumes of video content.

With upgrades over its predecessor the A70, it is positioned in the affordable premium segment, competing against the likes of Vivo V19, Redmi K20 Pro and also, OnePlus 7T.

Let's dive right in to find out if the A71 is worth your money.

Design & Display
The Samsung Galaxy A71 design is all about the huge display as is the case with most of Samsung's mid-range and the premium phones.

A 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display with Infinity-O design and a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels is gorgeous to look at and makes it the biggest A-series phone to date.

The screen is punchy, bright and has good viewing angles.

The back of the phone is made out of plastic, like most other Galaxy A-series smartphones, but the shell has appealing patterns and reflects psychedelic colours. The gradient design combined with the glossy coating makes the back look and feel like glass and looks quite appealing. The fit and finish are on par with the best that Samsung has to offer.

Despite the big screen, the phone is lightweight, slim and with minimal bezels around the side it fits in the hand better then you'd imagine.

It also comes with a Widevine L1 certification, so you can stream HD content and have an enhanced experience while binge-watching Netflix.

As for the placements, it features a mic, Type-C USB port, single-grille speaker and a 3.5mm audio jack (a plus point) at the bottom. And on the top, the phone has a single mic.

On the left, it features a SIM tray with dedicated slots for two SIMs in addition to a microSD card, which is very rare in this price segment. With this, people need not compromise on second SIM for extra storage.

Cameras

The front-facing, 32-megapixel snapper takes high-quality selfies even in slight awkward lighting conditions which should satisfy selfie fans.

Also, the camera UI comes with Beauty mode turned on by default, which you will have to turn off manually if you do not appreciate all the skin smoothening.

Turn it around and the Galaxy A71 packs four cameras embedded in a rectangular module, identical to what you get on the Galaxy S20 series, consisting of a 64-megapixel primary camera coupled with a 12-megapixel ultra-wide lens, a 5-megapixel macro lens and a 5-megapixel depth sensor.

The quality of the images captured by the main sensor during the bright sunlight is impressive, in fact, brighter than seen with the natural eye.

There's little to no noise, and auto HDR does a great job bringing out detail in photos. A71 also takes great portrait shots in Live Focus mode, however, it does fall behind when it comes to low-light shots.

Performance

Last year, what made the A70 stand out was its Snapdragon 675 chipset. The successor gets an upgrade with Snapdragon 730 which delivers reliable performance in everyday tasks, doubles as a good chipset for gaming without any lag or hiccups while performing.

It comes with an 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, which is further expandable up to 512GB using a microSD card. The Galaxy A71 comes with One UI 2.0 based on Android 10 out of the box, and you get the same set of features as the Galaxy S20 series.

The big standout feature on the Galaxy A71 is its battery. With a 4500mAh battery under the hood, more than enough to last a day despite over six hours of screen-on-time spread over 15 hours.

And when you do need to charge the phone, there's a 25W fast-charger bundled in the box. You'll get up to a 50% charge in flat 30 minutes and a full charge takes about 80 minutes.

Verdict

A71 manages to tick a lot of boxes with a bright and huge screen, a sleek design, a long-lasting battery and more.

The smartphone is great for content streaming and even brings the brand trust offered by Samsung.

Areas, where the A71 falls short, is the in-display fingerprint sensor and the night mode disappoints.

Also, there's no wireless charging or water resistance here, but if you're looking for a reliable phone, which gives you the flagship feels, the Galaxy A71 is a great choice in 2020. It also offers fantastic value at about 30K.