Samsung Galaxy A30 review

A dual-camera on the back

The Samsung Galaxy A30 has two snappers on its back - the main 16MP PDAF f/1.7 snapper is joined by a 5MP fixed-focus, f/2.2 ultra-wide and there is also a single LED flash around. There is no depth cam on the A30, but it can do portrait photos with defocused backgrounds just fine - Live Focus as Samsung calls the mode.

So, the primary camera has a 16MP resolution sensor behind a fast f/1.7 lens with a focal length that's reported as 26mm. Then the 5MP sensor behind an f/2.2 aperture lens that delivers a 120-degree field of view. The EXIF data reports 13mm focal length.

The camera app is very much the same as on any current Samsung, only with more icons in the viewfinder to control which camera is being used. The icon with 3 trees means ultra-wide-angle cam, while 2 trees denote the regular camera.

Basic operation is business as usual with side swipes for cycling through modes and an up/down action for toggling between the rear and front cameras. There's an AI-powered Scene optimizer mode that should recognize certain types of scenes and adjust parameters accordingly. We kept it off, as it doesn't make that much of a difference, plus we tend to prefer to add the effects after. The shown modes, as well as their arrangement, can be tweaked in settings.

There's also a Pro mode, but there's hardly anything pro about it - you can only choose ISO (in the 100-800 range), exposure compensation (-2/+2EV in 0.1EV steps), and white balance (presets, but no light temperature).

Camera app

Image quality

The photos we snapped with the main camera in broad daylight turned out very good, keeping in mind the A30's price. The stills have plenty of fine detail, generally realistic colors, and excellent contrast. The dynamic range is above average and Auto HDR triggers extremely rarely - only in very demanding scenes. That said, just like on the M30, there were instances when it could have helped, and the phone didn't engage it, so keep an eye on that.

There is some noise in areas of uniform color, and the grass presentation could have been better, but the A30 is a budget phone, and it offers more than enough for its class.

Samsung Galaxy A30 16MP photos

The ultra-wide-angle camera relies on a 5MP sensor with fixed focus. There is no lens correction available, so distorted buildings are expected.

During the day this tiny camera produces pleasant photos, which may not be filled with much detail, but they do have a super-wide field of view. The colors are more popping than what we experienced on the 16MP regular stills, but probably Samsung has tweaked it this way to create livelier images and enough distraction from the inferior quality. And indeed, it does.

Samsung Galaxy A30 5MP ultra-wide-angle photos

The low-light photos from the main 16MP camera are nothing impressive as expected. They do have good color saturation, a step up from the M30's low-light images, but highlights will get clipped, just like on the other phone. The level of detail is underwhelming, and there's prominent noise across the board.

Samsung Galaxy A30 16MP low-light photos

There is no Night Mode on the Galaxy A30, so you can't get anything close to Huawei's low-light shots. And this is mostly felt in the ultra-wide-angle photos, which are rather abysmal without any software enhancements.

Samsung Galaxy A30 5MP ultra-wide-angle low-light photos

Once you're done looking at the real-life samples, don't forget to head over to our Photo compare tool to check out how the Galaxy A30 deals with our studio charts.

Samsung Galaxy A30 against the Galaxy A40 and Moto G7 Plus in our Photo compare tool

Live Focus

The ultra wide-angle camera isn't used for depth information, so the software does all the heavy lifting and does the edge separation on its own. The Live Focus photos surprised us with very good separation and very smart detection. You can adjust the strength of the bokeh in real time or later on in the gallery with the slider below.

The Live Focus photos are saved in 8MP resolution.

Live Focus 8MP samples

Selfies

The 16MP selfies are soft and average in detail, but they do offer excellent contrast and punchy colors. The Auto HDR fires here more often than not, but it does an excellent job in restoring the clipped highlights.

If you get the distance right, and if there's plenty of light - you can get some nice shots.

Samsung Galaxy A30 16MP selfies

Portrait mode is available on the selfie camera as well, with just the one camera. The portraits are softer than regular selfies, while the edge detection is far worse than on the main camera. The processing tries to mask the defects and artefacts with extra blur, mostly unsuccessful though. The Auto HDR works here when needed and does an excellent job.

Samsung Galaxy A30 8MP portrait selfies

Video recording

The main camera can only record up to Full HD at 30fps, and the same goes for the wide-angle unit. There is no electronic stabilization on any of the snappers.

But if you'd like 4K video recording, the good news is that you can download Open Camera or another third-party camera app from Play Store and enjoy 2160p recording. Be aware though, that the snapper is limited to 4K capturing at 20fps and the clips will be choppy.

If all else fails, the 1080p videos (17Mbps bitrate) from the main camera are excellent, if not class leading. Those are highly detailed, with little noise and true-to-life colors. Dynamic range is good too. We'd rank the A30's 1080p clips among the better ones we've seen, not just in its class, but overall. And their stereo audio is top-notch, too, captured with 256kbps bitrate.

The footage from the ultra-wide-camera doesn't have award-winning detail, but it's decent as ultra-wide videos go.

Here's a glimpse of how the Galaxy A30 compares to rivals in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete picture.

Samsung Galaxy A30 against the Galaxy A40 and the Galaxy A50 in our Video compare tool