Samsung Galaxy A71 review

Android 10 and One UI 2

The Galaxy A71 is among the first Samsung smartphones to boot Android 10 out of the box, complete with the latest custom One UI 2.0. It's nice to see that new models are launching with their software already up to date, as opposed to having to wait several months for an OTA.

We've already seen the 10/2.0 combo on several flagship Galaxies, where it arrived as an update. On top of that, the second version of One UI isn't all that different from the original, save for the new take on gesture navigation. Even so, the A71's build comes with a small surprise - you get Edge screen.

Previously reserved for the flagships where they would go together with the curved edge displays, the Edge screen set of features have made their way to the mostly flat-screened Galaxy A71. Edge panels is a well-known, long-standing feature that gives you quick access to apps, actions, tools, etc. with a single swipe from the side. You can choose which side the handle is located on, as well as adjust its position along the edge of the phone. In the Edge screen sub-menu, you will also find Edge lighting - it's a feature that can light up different types of peripheral glow for notifications, and as you've probably guessed, there are tons of options and styles to choose from.

Edge screen

Gesture navigation is also available, and you get to pick between the One UI 2 set of actions or go back to the One UI 1 way of doing things. The former is like the current native Android 10 approach with a swipe-in from the sides for 'Back' and swipe-up from the bottom for Home or task switcher. The old way is by swiping up from three separate areas on the bottom that do what the on-screen buttons before them used to do. If you can't be bothered with gestures, the conventional onscreen nav bar remains an option too.

Navigation options

Other cool recent developments have made their way to the A71, including Dark mode. It skins UI elements in black and shades of dark gray and also invokes the dark modes of supported apps, which include the in-house ones as well as the Google suite (not Maps, though, not yet).

Dark mode

Biometrics on the Galaxy A71 include an optical fingerprint reader and basic camera-only face detection. The fingerprint reader experience is trouble-free, with the usual multi-step setup feeling a bit tedious but rewarding when it comes to accuracy afterwards.

It's not the fastest of sensors and feels more like Samsung's ultra-sonic units in the flagships as opposed to a good, nearly-instant optical one, and the laggy animation doesn't help with perceived speed, but it's mostly a usable reader that doesn't get in the way.

Settings • Biometrics

Other than that, the Galaxy A71's UI is One UI as we've come to enjoy. The shift of actionable UI elements towards the bottom for easier reach has been widely praised, and we're also digging the iconography.

Lockscreen • Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer • Notification shade • Task switcher

Performance and benchmarks

The Samsung Galaxy A71 utilizes the Snapdragon 730 chip (non-G version) - one of the most preferable upper-midrange platforms from Qualcomm. It's an upgrade over the A70's Snapdragon 675 - the 730 has newer CPU cores and GPU, plus it is built on an 8nm LPP node and hence should be more power-efficient.

The Snapdragon 730 offers an octa-core processor with two Kryo 470 Gold (Cortex-A76) cores clocked at 2.2 GHz, and six Kryo 470 Silver (Cortex-A55) ones, working at 1.8 GHz. The Adreno 618 is in charge of graphics, up from Adreno 612 on the A70.

Finally, the Galaxy A71 is available only with 128GB UFS 2.1 storage, but there are two variants with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM. Those could be market-dependent though.

The Snapdragon 730 processor is indeed the best mid-range CPU you can get nowadays and the Galaxy A71 maxes out the Geekbench tests.

GeekBench 4.4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A71
  7039
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  7008
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  6999
• Realme X2
  6926
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  6863
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  6584
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  6017
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  5401
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  5396
• Honor 9X
  5345

GeekBench 4.4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  2558
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  2537
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  2536
• Realme X2
  2508
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  2472
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  2391
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  1905
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  1715
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  1668
• Honor 9X
  1559

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Realme X2
  1750
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  1733
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  1703
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  1692
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  1622
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  1294

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  548
• Realme X2
  545
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  542
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  542
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  493
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  347

The Adreno 618 GPU sounds beyond promising on paper and it has proven to be more than adequate to handle all 1080p content. The tests show it doubles the Adreno 612 performance from the previous Galaxy A70 and is among the most potent GPUs in the mid-range.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A71
  27
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  27
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  24
• Realme X2
  24
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  24
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  24
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  13
• Honor 9X
  12
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  8.9

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A71
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  15
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  14
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  14
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  13
• Realme X2
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  8
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  7
• Honor 9X
  6.5
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  5.6

Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  9.4
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  9.3
• Realme X2
  8.9
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  5.6

Aztek OpenGL ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A71
  10
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  10
• Realme X2
  9.2
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  5.6
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  4.7

We, and the people, do love trusting AnTuTu as it tells no lies, and so the Galaxy A71 seems to fall in the cream of the mid-range crop.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  224759
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  218200
• Realme X2
  215578
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  211915
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  192458
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  180057
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  167750
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  144574
• Honor 9X
  140362
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  113051

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  279355
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  272229
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  263396
• Realme X2
  257443
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  257146
• Honor 9X
  187528
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  175363

The benchmarks agree on the superiority of the Galaxy A71 in the mid-range. Its price is a bit hefty at launch though - you can buy a Galaxy S10e for the same cash and get a massive performance boost, but then again size does matter in this case, too.

The Snapdragon 730Gis one very capable chip and it will handle all tasks and games flawlessly. Plus, it will run pretty cool within the A71, so you should expect no heating and hiccups.