Samsung’s new Galaxy A series smartphone is all set to give tough competition to its rivals. I’m talking about the Samsung Galaxy A14, the most affordable 5G offering in the company’s A-series lineup so far. It is a good smartphone which many users will like in this price range. I used the handset for over a week and put it through its paces. Read this Samsung Galaxy A14 5G review to know how the smartphone performs in real life with mid-range Exynos chipset, 5,000mAh battery, 90Hz refresh rate screen, 50MP primary camera and more.
Decision
Samsung Galaxy A14 5G is a value for money smartphone. For the price, the handset gets most things right, including performance, camera and battery life. If the device had a fast charging solution and thinner bezels, the Galaxy A14 5G would have been the device to beat in the segment.
low
- The Samsung Galaxy A14 5G looks good with its clean and minimalistic design approach. It does not use a glass back or a large camera module, which has become a norm in the industry. Instead, the handset sports a flat back, with a textured finish and three standalone camera rings. The design offers some advantages. This helps the phone stand out among a sea of similar-looking smartphones, and ensures a smooth typing experience as the device doesn’t wobble much if you place the phone on a flat surface. Samsung uses a similar design language in its flagship Galaxy S23 series.
- Furthermore, the Galaxy A14 5G has rounded edges for a comfortable grip. The phone is completely plastic, but it’s well put together and doesn’t creak or flex. The handset comes in three interesting color options: Dark Red, Light Green and Black. I was sent the Dark Red color variant for review. The color tends to grow on you over time and does a great job of hiding fingerprints and smudges. In terms of I/O, the A14 5G sports a speaker grille, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a USB Type-C port on the bottom edge. The power button and volume rocker are on the right side of the handset. Like many budget phones, the fingerprint scanner is built into the power button. The scanner takes a fraction of a second to unlock a device, but the bottom line is that it’s reliable. There is no IP rating on the phone so make sure it is not exposed to water.
- Moving on, the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G sports a 6.6-inch FHD+ display of the LCD variety with 90Hz refresh rate and 440ppi (pixels per inch) density. The screen has a waterdrop notch for the selfie camera and some chunky bezels on the sides. Samsung has also added raised edges around the front to protect the screen from scratches when lying on a flat surface. The raised surface won’t bother you much while scrolling or playing games. For performance, it’s decent for what you’re paying. Colors look vibrant, while details are sharp and crisp. The 90Hz screen refresh rate works well in the UI and supported apps. Outdoor visibility is also fine. I didn’t have any problem reading messages, emails and texts on the smartphone under direct sunlight. The handset is also Widevine L1 certified, which means it can stream HD content from Netflix, Hotstar and other streaming platforms. However, watching movies and web series for hours may not be fun for many as the smartphone weighs a bit on the heavy side – 201 grams, to be precise.
- Coming to the meat of the matter, the performance. The in-house Exynos 1330 SoC is ticking the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G. It is a mid-range 5G-enabled chipset with 5nm manufacturing process and 2.4GHz clock speed. The handset neither stuttered nor paused regardless of what was happening on-screen. I could easily play a game or two of Subway Surfers and switch between apps seamlessly. However, the performance of the phone may drop slightly under extreme load like running too many apps at the same time. The CPU Throttle benchmark test can testify where the Galaxy A14’s performance dropped by up to 70 percent. In any case, the AnTuTu and Geekbench scores of the handset are better than the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1-powered Redmi Note 12 (Review) smartphone. The A14 scored 2,123 points on Geekbench’s multi-core test and 4,08,771 points on AnTuTu.
- Along with the chipset, the handset can be equipped with 4GB RAM + 64GB storage, 6GB RAM + 128GB storage or 8GB RAM + 128GB storage. Going with the 6GB RAM option would be a balanced approach, but of course, that would increase the price a bit. The storage can be further expanded using a microSD card in the dedicated slot. The phone also comes with the RAM Plus feature, which lets you add up to 8GB of virtual memory to keep more apps open in the background, using up the phone’s storage.
- The rear triple camera setup with 50MP primary + 2MP depth + 2MP macro lens will impress you with its daylight performance. The 50MP primary sensor clicks some crisp shots with good color reproduction and enough details when the sun is out. The sensor is also fast at focusing and processing images. The 2MP depth sensor works in tandem with the primary shooter to capture great portrait shots every time. There can be a slight issue with edge detection, but for the price, you can let it go. The camera viewfinder helps you focus on the subject and adjust the bokeh effect to your liking. The portrait mode of the phone also offers a ‘Colourpoint’ filter which keeps the subject in color and turns the background into black and white. Talking about the 2MP macro sensor, it takes decent close-up shots. However, given its smaller sensor size, images will be a bit lacking in detail.
- Like many other mid-rangers, the lowlight performance of the Samsung Galaxy A14 is not that impressive. However, you can still take decent shots with the handset’s primary camera enabled with Night Mode. The latter does its best to capture highlights and reduce grain in images. For selfies and video calling, the handset relies on the 13MP front camera, which outputs images with crisp details and accurate skin tones in natural light.
- In terms of software, the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G comes with OneUI 5.0 on top of Android 13 out of the box. The interface is clean and not much different from the previous iteration of the software, but Android’s physical UI design looks good. There are now more color palettes for wallpapers than ever before and a new gradient color scheme for calls. The phone also comes with some new features such as stacked widgets, a customized call background option for different callers, multi-window gestures, and new watermarking tools. However, the software is not without bloatware. The Galaxy A14 5G has a bunch of pre-installed third-party apps, which you can get rid of, but it’s a chore. Be that as it may, the handset is future-proof with two years of major OS upgrades and four years of security updates.
- The Samsung Galaxy A14 5G offers a solid battery life and can comfortably last at least a day. The handset’s 5,000mAh battery pack didn’t leave me searching for a charger before going to bed. I used the phone primarily for gaming, reading emails, checking Slack, and streaming web series/movies, and still had 20-30 percent battery left in the tank by the end of the day. While Samsung claims that the handset can last up to 2 days, it scored 13 hours and 8 minutes in the PC Mark battery test. The Galaxy A14 5G only supports 15W charging solution, which takes some time to charge the battery from zero to 100 percent. Also, the handset does not come with a charger. The latter has to be purchased separately, and while you’re at it, make sure it’s a Type-C charger. The regular USB Type-A adapter will not work with the charging cable bundled with the smartphone, as it is a Type-C to C cable.
- While I couldn’t test 5G on the Galaxy A14 due to network availability, the handset supports all major bands except the high-frequency n77 band. The latter is generally missing in budget/affordable smartphones. Whatever the case may be, the A14 5G is compatible with both Airtel and Jio 5G SIMs.
final call
Buyers are already ready with a choice in the affordable segment, and now, there is the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G smartphone. If fast charging and good viewing experience are your priorities, then without hesitation, you should not buy Samsung Galaxy A14 5G. similarly priced phones, including the Redmi Note 12 5G ,Review, Moto G62 5G ,Review), And realme 10 pro 5g ,Review, Will do better with him. The handsets offer better charging speeds and display quality with thinner bezels than the Galaxy A14 5G. Additionally, they also come with bundled chargers.
So, who should buy the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G? Anyone looking for a performance-focused 5G smartphone with decent camera capabilities and battery life for under Rs 20,000 will find the handset right up their alley. Long software support also makes this smartphone a future proof device. At the time of writing this review, the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G price in India is set at Rs 16,499 for the entry-level 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant, while the 6GB + 128GB and 8GB + 128GB options are selling at Rs 18,999 and Rs 20,999. , respectively.
Editor’s Rating: 3.5 / 5
pros
- I’m liking it
- smooth performance
- good main camera
- decent battery life
Shortcoming
- no charger in the box
- slow charging speed
- mono speaker
