Samsung Galaxy A70 review

Another tri-eyed camera

Just like the Galaxy A50, the A70 has a triple camera on its back featuring a larger main sensor. The primary cam is now a 32MP f/1.7 snapper with PDAF, joined by a familiar 8MP fixed-focus, f/2.2 ultra-wide and a 5MP, fixed-focus, f/2.2 depth sensor. There is also a single LED flash around.

The 5MP isn't a standalone module that you can take actual pictures with - instead, it's a 'Depth Camera', to be used for 'Live Focus', in Samsung's own terms.

So, the primary shooter has a 32MP resolution sensor behind a fast f/1.7 lens with a focal length that's reported as 26mm. Then, there is the 8MP sensor behind an f/2.2 aperture lens that delivers a 120-degree field of view. The EXIF data reports 12mm equivalent focal length for this one.

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.

Live focus mode is present, naturally, with all so many cameras and a dedicated depth sensor. 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 Galaxy A70 by default shoots in 12MP, but this can be changed from the aspect settings - 3:4 corresponds to 12MP, while 3:4H means 32MP. When shooting in 32MP you can't use Auto HDR or any HDR for that matter, and capturing photos takes a second or two, but those are pretty much the only caveats.

Let's start with the high-res images - this is NOT the default mode, and it takes a couple of seconds for a shot. The detail levels aren't what you'd expect from the 32MP number though they are not necassarily bad. We already observed a similar thing in previous Samsung mid-rangers such as the last Galaxy A9 and A50.

So, the photos are a bit soft but the processing tries to compensate for that with sharpening. This works to some extent for the foliage but you can notice sharpening halos and jaggies elsewhere.

Still, the colors turned out pretty accurate, the contrast is very good, and the dynamic range rather high even though no HDR was involved.

Samsung Galaxy A70 32MP photos

The A70 camera saves 12MP photos by default using pixel binning, and those shots are much faster to capture. The images aren't that impressive though - sure, those look sharp and have enough detail, but we've seen other midrangers do better with fewer pixels to work with. The colors and contrast are pretty good, though, while the dynamic range is consistently excellent.

The thing is we were able to get slightly better images by just downsizing the 32MP shots on a computer. Maybe the processing algorithm makes a few compromises on the way caused by insufficient hardware resources, or maybe it is something else.

So, while the 12MP default photos excel in colors and dynamic range, but they are just average in detail.

Samsung Galaxy A70 12MP photos

The A70 has the Auto HDR turned on by default. If HDR is involved, the photos often look a bit better with even exposure, and some of the blown highlights get rescued.

HDR off • HDR on

The ultra-wide camera produces heavily distorted 8MP images as there is no distortion correction applied. This is hardly an issue as the purpose of the wide-angle snapper is to fit as much as possible into a 4:3 image and that's the price to pay. Pixel level quality isn't great, but the colors and contrast are excellent, and the dynamic range is often improved by the Auto HDR without hurting the color presentation of detail levels. Overall, those images should be enjoyed for what they are - exaggerated perspective shots or trick shots on the cheap.

Samsung Galaxy A70 8MP ultra-wide-angle photos

Moving on to low-light performance. The 32MP low-light photos are hardly worth showing. The 12MP shots have a good color saturation, but all highlights are clipped due to the camera's tendency of overexposing dark scenes. On closer inspection, the level of detail is poor, and the images are way softer than we'd have liked them. We've seen much better low-light photos from budget phones, so Samsung must improve in this field for sure.

Samsung Galaxy A70 12MP low-light photos

Using HDR will restore most of the blown highlights and balance the exposure - these at the expense of one extra second needed to snap the photo. The result is far from ideal, but still better than the regular non-HDR photos. We'd say the extra wait is worth it if the closer inspection didn't reveal rather uneven sharpness across the frame and even extra softness possibly due to the imperfect photo stacking.

HDR off • HDR on • HDR off • HDR on

There is no Night Mode on the Galaxy A70, 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 unusable without any software enhancements.

Samsung Galaxy A70 8MP low-light ultra-wide-angle photos

And once you're done looking at real-life samples, don't forget to head over to our Photo compare tool to check out how the Galaxy A70 deals with our studio charts.

12MP: Samsung Galaxy A70 against the Huawei P30 Lite and Realme X in our Photo compare tool

Samsung Galaxy A70 (32MP) against the Galaxy A50 (25MP) and Realme X (48MP) in our Photo compare tool

Portraits

The Galaxy A70 has a standalone 5MP camera to capture depth information and should be producing some good portrait shots. Those are saved in 12MP, and indeed they turned out impressive, especially when coming from a low-tier mid-ranger. The separation is excellent - there are no abrupt transitions. Sure, the photos aren't perfect, but we've seen flagships do way worse and we got more than we hoped for from a budget mid-ranger.

The bad news is that when the light isn't perfect, the portraits become blurry and the focus is often inaccurate.

Samsung Galaxy A70 12MP portraits

Selfies

The Galaxy A70 comes with a high-res 32MP selfie camera, which may or may not be the same as the main 32MP one. If you get the distance right, and if there's plenty of light - you can get some detailed shots. Colors are spot on too.

Samsung Galaxy A70 32MP selfies

Just like the main 32MP snapper, the selfie one shoots in 12MP by default, unless you opt for 32MP. The Auto HDR is available only in the 12MP mode. And if it fires, it rescues blown highlights. Other than that - the images are very detailed and have excellent colors.

Samsung Galaxy A70 12MP selfies

By the way, the selfie camera offers normal (wide) and close (zoomed) mode, though with just one front camera, the "zoom" is achieved by cropping the center from the 12MP shot and the result is a "zoomed" 8MP photo. That's a neat trick we first saw Samsung do with the Galaxy S10 series.

Samsung Galaxy A70 8MP zoomed 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 subject separation is s mostly good unless you have a pair of headphones on your head, or a cap or if your hair is curly like our Angie's. Auto HDR works here when needed, too, and does an excellent job.

Samsung Galaxy A70 12MP selfie portraits

Video recording

The Galaxy A70 records video up to 4K at 30fps, while both 30 and 60 fps are available at 1080p mode. You can also use the ultra-wide-angle snapper for videos, but it supports only one resolution - 1080p at 30fps. The audio is always recorded in stereo at 256kbps.

Electronic stabilization is not available, though.

The Galaxy A70 captured nicely detailed 4K videos for a mid-ranger, with excellent contrast and dynamic range. The color presentation is accurate and overall - we are happy with what we got.

The A70 excels on 1080p video capture both at 30 and 60 fps - the clips are highly detailed, sharp and with little noise. Dynamic range is good too, and the colors are spot on.

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 A70 compares to rivals in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete picture.

2160p: Samsung Galaxy A70 against the vivo V15 and Realme X in our Video compare tool