Samsung Galaxy A30 review

Design

Samsung came up with the Glasstic term to best describe the material used for the backs of its new Galaxy A series, and it contains the rather obvious answer - glass and plastic. Indeed, the Galaxy A30, just like the A40 and the A50, has a body made of those two materials.

Both the frame and back are made of plastic but one that looks more like glass than plastic. If you've seen one Glasstic phone, then you've seen them all. But if not, then you probably have no idea what exactly Glasstic is, have you?

The screen is covered by a piece of Gorilla Glass 3 by Corning. The A30 has a proper Super AMOLED at its front. And it seems to be the same panel we saw on the Galaxy A50 - a 6.4" 1080p unit with a U-shaped notch that houses the 16MP selfie snapper.

The earpiece is just above the selfie cam, but it is so small and thin that's it is almost invisible.

The AMOLED panel is premium hardware, but the high-quality stuff ends with it. The side bezels are tiny, but the chin is pretty big. Then there is this visible screen enclosure between the glass and the frame, which is very sharp around the bottom of the phone. Those are common among the cheap phones though and are not exclusive to the Galaxy.

The frame is very thin, curvy, and glossy, meaning it's pretty in the few seconds when it's not covered in fingerprint smudges, and is also hard to get a nice grip on.

Samsung Galaxy A30

The tri-card slot, the volume and power keys are on the right, while the speaker, USB-C port and audio jack are at the bottom of the Galaxy A30.

Samsung Galaxy A30

The Glasstic piece covering the back is flashy and dazzling. No matter if you opt for the blue, red, or black model, the color-changing effect be present on all of them. The piece is bent towards the longer sides and this may not be helping the grip but makes up for a thinner profile and a dash of premium feel.

The dual-camera is on the back humping just a tiny little bit and it won't wobble on a flat surface. The setup has the secondary 5MP ultra-wide snapper on the top and the 16MP main eye at the bottom. A single LED lash sits outside of this tiny hump.

The fingerprint scanner is also on the back and it's of our favorite kind - always on and blazing-fast. Its recognition is very accurate, too, and performance doesn't seem to be affected by smudges.

The Galaxy A30 measures 158.5 x 74.7 x 7.7 mm, which is exactly the same as the Galaxy A50. The A30 weighs 165g, a gram less than the A50.

Handling the Galaxy A30 is business as usual. The phone feels more like made of glass than plastic, which is nice but is easy to smudge and eventually it becomes a mess. It's not as slippery as the looks suggest though, and even if the profile is slim and not that grippy, we didn't have any major issues while handling it.