Samsung Galaxy A06 review
OneUI 6.1 on top of Android 14
The Galaxy A06 runs Samsung's One UI 6.1 on top of the latest Android 14. Technically, this is the latest One UI version the Korean giant has to offer, and it is the same one running on the flagship S24 series, with some omissions.
In case you were wondering, Samsung's Galaxy AI isn't present on the A06. It is still relegated mostly to flagship devices, though Samsung has been broadening the reach of the features a bit lately. Not quite this much, though.
Another thing that only exists for Samsung's flagships is the amazing seven-year software support. The Galaxy A06 has two major Android upgrades in its future and four years of security patches. That's currently Samsung's basic support window, so it is what it is.
Some of the notable One UI 6 novelties include a redesigned Quick Panel, better notification visualization, an improved and simplified camera app, and more powerful gallery and editing tools, among others.
The Galaxy A06 gets a pretty feature-complete version of One UI 6.1. You are getting the same general UX and even most of the features of the Galaxy S series.
The good news to all Galaxy users is that the list of software features reserved for the flagships has been shrinking in recent years and currently includes niche things like Samsung DeX.
Everything else is typical One UI - lockscreen, homescreen, widgets and icons, theme handling, multi-tasking (available in both pop-up and split-screen state), and default apps.
You can read more details about OneUI 6 in our Galaxy A25 review.
Bechnmarks and performance
Nobody realistically expects much raw performance from a budget device like the Galaxy A06. Samsung went for a MediaTek chip for the A06 instead of one of its own chips. It is the Helio G85 - a pretty basic 12nm part.
The Helio G85 has a rather basic octa-core CPU setup comprising of two Cortex-A75 ores, clocked at up to 2.0 GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores, working at up to 1.8 GHz. The onboard GPU is quite modest as well - a dual-core Mali-G52 unit.
The Galaxy A06 isn't just strapped for CPU and GPU power. It is a bit deficient in the memory department as well. You only get 4GB of RAM in most variants of the Galaxy A06. A 6GB RAM version does exist, but we aren't sure it will make sense price-wise.
The Galaxy A06 is starved for storage in its base version, with only 64GB. On the plus side, there is a dedicated microSD card slot for storage expansion. Still, we would probably get a 128GB variant for futureproofing. Unfortunately, the storage is eMMC 5.1 and thus quite slow for today's standards. That definitely detracts from the general fluidity and responsiveness of the UI experience.
The Helio G85 inside the Galaxy A06 has pretty bottom-of-the-barrel CPU performance. The Snapdragon 680 4G chipset inside the Galaxy A05s is perhaps comparable in the CPU department, and the widespread Helio G88 isn't far off either. But other than that, almost every CPU in the price bracket has the Galaxy A06 beat.
GeekBench 6
- Multi-core
- Single-core
Redmi 13 5G
Redmi 12
Tecno Spark 10 Pro
Redmi 13
Redmi Note 12 4G
Xiaomi Poco C65
Galaxy A06
AnTuTu isn't much kinder to the Galaxy A06, either. Again, you are pretty much getting as little performance as possible in a modern smartphone, even in the budget category.
AnTuTu
- v9
- v10
Galaxy A25
Redmi 13
Redmi 12
Realme C55
Tecno Spark 10 Pro
Xiaomi Poco C65
Galaxy A06
At least the Mali-G52MC2 GPU inside the Galaxy A06 is a bit more respectable in terms of raw performance in its price bracket. It has basic Adreno GPUs beat like the Adreno 610 and 613. That doesn't mean you are getting amazing GPU performance by any means, but the Galaxy A06 makes do, especially with its HD resolution, which is a little easier on the GPU.
3DMark (offscreen)
- Wild Life (1440p)
- Wild Life Extreme (2160p)
Galaxy A25
Poco M6 5G
Galaxy A14 5G
Tecno Spark 10 Pro
Xiaomi Poco C65
Galaxy A06
Redmi 12
In practical terms, performance on the Galaxy A06 isn't great. The UI is sometimes slow and even laggy, and we don't think things will get much better with future software updates. The experience isn't ideal even fresh out of the box. The combination of a modest chipset, not a lot of RAM and pretty slow storage just doesn't work.
We've discontinued GFXBench graphics benchmarking as the app is often banned/blacklisted on the phones we receive for review. The graphics performance ranking in 3D Mark is just as meaningful, so we suggest you refer to that one instead.
Thermal-throttling
The MediaTek Helio G85 inside the Galaxy A06 might not be particularly powerful, but on the plus side, at least it doesn't kick off too much heat. The phone remains very stable under prolonged stress loads with minimal loss of performance over time due to thermal throttling.
Thermal-throttling
The surface of the Galaxy A06 doesn't get particularly warm, either. It remains perfectly comfortable to hold even after a prolonged stress test.
Reader comments
- Pyron87
- 12 Dec 2024
- Nu7
I wonder why nobody wants to mention the fact that this samsung phone can do 60fps video recording and its super smooth compared to all the redmi's you'd get for the same price and generally i do agree that the colours are off, but damm the...
- Anonymous
- 21 Nov 2024
- Nu6
Why not water proof
- Ruly
- 21 Nov 2024
- txp
As an owner of predecessor smartphone and have gone through couple of paragraphs of the review elaborated by GSMArena, it then lead me to say that this Samsung Galaxy A06 is worth to have for standard usage such phone call, chatting, social medias, l...