Samsung Galaxy A12 - Smartphone 64GB, 4GB RAM, Dual Sim, Blue

Product Information

The Galaxy A12 comes with a 6.5in PLS display (basically Samsung’s IPS-like panel) with a resolution of 720 x 1,600, giving you approximately 264 pixels per inch. And while this may be some way short of Full HD experiences that you can get for the price, even with the large panel it looks perfectly sharp in day-to-day use. That’s not the only reason to consider it though, as the Samsung Galaxy A12 also has a big screen, a quad-lens camera, and other features that are worth knowing about. use of the content you supply does not violate these Terms of Use and will not cause injury to any person or entity. Being a basic phone there’s not much to talk about on the features front for the Samsung Galaxy A12. It runs Android 10 at the time of writing, so its software is one generation behind, but Android has reached the point where the new versions don’t typically add a lot, so that’s not a huge problem.

that violates any law, statute, ordinance or regulation (including, but not limited to, those governing export control, consumer protection, unfair competition, anti-discrimination or false advertising);that is, or may reasonably be considered to be, defamatory, libelous, hateful, racially or religiously biased or offensive, unlawfully threatening or unlawfully harassing to any person or entity; Charging is done at a respectable 15W. That’s classed as fast charging, and while many pricier phones have double the charging power or more, you still won’t be waiting around all day for this to juice up. Of course, there’s no wireless charging here. Display Size: Measured diagonally, the screen size is 6.5" in the full rectangle and 6.4" accounting for the rounded corners. Actual viewable area is less due to the rounded corners and the camera cutout. There’s also a 5MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera, which probably isn’t something you’ll use much given the low megapixel count, but it’s nice to have for when you want to fit more in a scene. Finally, there’s an 8MP f/2.2 camera on the front for your selfie needs, and the ability to record 1080p video at 30 frames per second – both of which are fairly standard at this end of the market. Features Much of that is down to the outstanding things other manufacturers are doing on a budget, but Samsung’s entry-level handsets have been able to hold their own in the past. It’s hard not to pin the disappointment entirely on the MediaTek Helios MT6765. Exynos and Qualcomm handsets never felt this sluggish.

For any content that you submit, you grant SAMSUNG a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully transferable right and license to use, copy, modify, delete in its entirety, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from and/or sell and/or distribute such content and/or incorporate such content into any form, medium or technology throughout the world without compensation to you. The Samsung Galaxy A12 has a quad-lens camera, which is more lenses than you sometimes get at this end of the market. It’s also substantially more than, say, the Galaxy A10. For memory, you get 64GB built in. There are other storage capacities, but they don’t seem to be widely available in the UK. Still, 64GB is decent at this end of the market, and what’s even better is that there’s a microSD card slot with support for cards of up to 1TB, so you can massively build on the included storage. The 6.5-inch edge-to-edge screen featured on the Galaxy A12 makes it an appropriate model for users that prefer big screens but don't like dishing out high prices that are usually associated with these models. Combined with the four lenses on the rear side, the phone gives off a relatively premium feel at the first impression. However, this feeling goes away as soon as you touch its plastic body, operate its slow processor and interact with its 720 x 1,600-pixel resolution LCD display during your daily tasks. Battery Life and PerformanceYou don’t get OLED at this price, and its resolution is just 720 x 1600, so it’s not the sharpest of displays, coming in at 264 pixels per inch, but that’s all in line with the price you’re paying. But of course at this price there are some compromises too – and whether you can live with them or not will depend on what you need from your phone. Below we’ll dive into all of that, so read on to see if the Samsung Galaxy A12 is the smartphone for you. Screen Right out of the box, the phone feels sluggish with stuttery animations and apps that take a couple of seconds to open. Granted, it does catch up with itself after a period of use, but it’s certainly not ideal for multitasking, despite the relatively generous 4GB of RAM it’s endowed with.

Actual user memory will vary depending on the mobile phone operator and may change after software upgrades are performed. You also shouldn’t expect miracles of composition as soon as the light levels drop. As these pictures of my garden at sunset show, as soon as the light goes, so does the image quality, with plenty of noise and blur replacing the crisp detail of the daylight shots. This is a problem that all phone cameras face, to be clear, and the Samsung Galaxy A12 isn’t the worst offender by a long shot. Virtual Proximity Sensing : Sensing proximity information by using software without proximity sensor. It’s not all bad in the performance charts, though: the one area where the hardware really shines is in efficiency, with the 5,000mAh battery managing a whopping 25hrs 58mins in our looped video battery test. In practice, it’s reasonably sharp, so you’re unlikely to miss the extra pixels too much, and it’s a slight upgrade in both size and resolution on the 6.2-inch 720 x 1520 Samsung Galaxy A10.The other camera modes are fine as far as they go, but aren’t the kind of thing you’ll turn to often. Still, should you ever want to take a close-up shot of a 5p piece as I did below, you’ll get decent results. Memory size - User memory is less than the total memory due to storage of the operating system and software used to operate the phones features. As you might guess from the narrow aperture and the low price of entry, photography on the Galaxy A12 is a mixed bag. In bright conditions, photos are quite good, with a decent composition and enough detail to be worthwhile. Yes, you can certainly do better by spending more money, but the pictures are clear enough for sharing, and you can get good results in the right conditions.

The Samsung Galaxy A12 has a huge 5,000mAh battery. That’s one of the biggest you’ll find in a mainstream phone – a few have now pushed their way to 6,000mAh, but most don’t go above around 4,500mAh, and many still hover around 4,000mAh or even less. In practice this large size means you can get up to around 20 hours of web browsing or 21 hours of video on a single charge, which in real terms means the Galaxy A12 will comfortably last a day and may even stretch to two for lighter users, which is well above average for battery life. The 8MP (f/2.2) front-facing camera is good enough for selfies and video calls. By default, it has ‘beautification’ options enabled (centre) which are more subtle than some, but can be turned off completely (left) or maxed out (right). As ever, max out at your own risk, because to me the results look anything but natural. Connectivity options meanwhile include 4G, Bluetooth 5.0, and NFC – there’s no 5G, but that tech is yet to make its way into any phones this cheap. VerdictThe Samsung Galaxy A12 captures video at 30fps in 1080p or 720p – there’s no 60fps option for either and, clearly from the footage I captured, no attempt at stabilisation either. Video of me walking through a park was just too bumpy to be usable, and swift pans also temporarily turned the footage into a blur fest. In short, this isn’t one for wannabe filmmakers. Samsung Galaxy A12 review: Verdict That said, the Galaxy A12 does suffer from the same problem plenty of budget handsets do, which I assume is exacerbated by the poor performance of its MediaTek processor. It’s what I euphemistically call ‘the cat problem’: