Samsung Galaxy A06 review

The competition

The Galaxy A06 hasn't officially reached Europe as of writing this review. It is, however, selling in the US and India. We found official listings on Amazon for $169/INR 11,500 for the base 4GB/64GB version. Amazon India also has a listing for a 4GB/128GB version, retailing for INR 12,500, while in the US, you can pay $157 and get a 6GB/128GB unit.

Let's set the budget cap at around $200/€200. There are plenty of viable budget devices out there to consider. In Samsung's own lineup, there is the slightly older but arguably better Galaxy A15. The 4G variant, in particular, though, if 5G is a priority for you, there is a 5G one. Even though the A15 is from last year, Samsung promises three major OS updates for it instead of two, like the A06. You also get a much better FullHD, 90Hz, Super AMOLED display and a more powerful MediaTek Helio G99 chipset, to name just a couple of advantages.

We should also mention the Galaxy A25, which is a bit pricier, but not by that much. It is better still with four major OS updates, a 120Hz and brighter still Super AMOLED display and OIS on the main camera.

If you don't particularly care about updates and running the latest Android OS and actually like what the Galaxy A06 has to offer as a package, then you could just as easily save quite a bit of money and go for the Galaxy A05 instead, which is essentially the same hardware.

Samsung Galaxy A15 • Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 4G

Over in camp Xiaomi, there are at least a couple of great competitors to consider. The Redmi Note 13 4G instantly comes to mind. Some of its highlights include a very bright, 120Hz, FullHD AMOLED display, stereo speakers, a 108MP main camera and an 8MP ultrawide. You get 6GB of RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage, even in the base variant.

The 5G variant of the Redmi Note 13 also deserves a mention. It is a bit pricier and doesn't have stereo speakers, but that's the sacrifice you must make to get 5G.

Our verdict

There's no point in beating about the bush; the Galaxy A06 left us kind of disappointed as a whole. We expected Samsung to at least put some effort into improving its budget offering this year, but instead, we essentially got the same hardware package as last year's Galaxy A05. And it was not a particularly impressive package even a year ago.

The PLS LCD display, in particular, left us wanting. At 6.7 inches in diagonal, it is definitely big enough to be comfortable, but that's the only thing that it has going for it. It is not particularly sharp with its HD resolution. But even that we can overlook. The modest level of max brightness is harder to live with, and so is the fact that the panel is quite sluggish with plenty of ghosting and smearing.

The Galaxy A06 also brings a rather unimpressive single speaker to the table. No ingress protection of any kind, though we do like the overall quality of its admittedly plastic build. The MediaTek Helio G85 chipset is also barely enough to properly power the One UI experience. We aren't sure if the chip is entirely to blame or if the eMMC 5.1 storage is also dragging the whole experience down, but the UI is sluggish and not particularly responsive or snappy. And that's out of the box without months of regular use piled on top. We also don't particularly appreciate that most versions of the Galaxy A06 only get 4GB of RAM. The 64GB of storage in the base model is far from ideal, too, though at least there is a dedicated microSD card slot.

The camera experience on offer by the Galaxy A06 is okay for the class but largely unimpressive. Battery endurance is solid, but also nothing to phone home about. As far as things we genuinely liked go, there is the dedicated microSD card slot we already mentioned and the new side-mounted fingerprint reader, which works beautifully.

All things considered, there are a lot more negatives or rather deficiencies on this list than positives. We would probably shy away from the Galaxy A06. If you have your heart set on the Samsung experience, then we would steer you toward the A15 or, better yet, the A25. Alternatively, shop around with other manufacturers for a better deal since those do exist.

Pros

• Light yet surprisingly solid plastic build.
• The newly-added fingerprint reader is both speedy and accurate.
• Solid battery life.
• FM radio receiver and hardware proximity sensor on board.

Cons

• No charger in the very flimsy retail box.
• Display only offers HD resolution, is quite dim and reflective and has a lot of ghosting and smearing.
• Unimpressive single bottom-firing speaker.
• No NFC and a short list of onboard sensors.
• Unimpressive overall performance with plenty of slowdowns and hiccups in the UI and apps due to the modest chipset and eMMC storage.
• Mediocre photo quality and poor video quality.