The Samsung Galaxy A15 5G is the successor to last year’s A14, which ranked first on our list of the best budget smartphones. It therefore has its job cut out if it wants to keep its hold on the cheap market, which appears to gain new competitors every year who can fit more important features into affordable frames.
Fortunately, the A15 5G succeeds on practically every front, combining deceptively beautiful design with a 90Hz display, a long-lasting battery, simple software, and a reliable primary camera.
How much value for money does it provide, and how does it compare to more midrange and costly alternatives?
Design & Build
- Chic colour choices
- Flat-edged plastic body
- No IP rating
The Galaxy A15 5G may have a ‘cheap’ price tag, but it appears to be more costly than it is. Aside from the all-important Samsung logo, it comes in a really stylish range of colors that shimmer and reflect differently when you spin the phone in your palm.
a laudably uncluttered design
My review model is in Personality Yellow, which lives up to its moniker by distinguishing the phone in a market crowded with uninspiring cheap phone designs. It appears fresh, bright, and current while helping you hide the fact that you didn’t spend £1,000 on a phone.
It also helps that the A15 5G has the same flat-edged design as the S24 range, with squared sides for better grip. The rear of the phone features a nice triple-lens camera module arranged in a vertical line in the top-left corner, with the Samsung logo at the bottom finishing out a laudably minimalist appearance.
The phone is quite lightweight, weighing only 200g, making it easy to carry and use for extended durations. It has a 6.5-inch screen (more on that below), which is quite large but not overly large.
It’s worth noting that at 8.4mm, it’s around 1mm thicker than the normal Galaxy S24 and one of its key competitors, the Motorola Moto G84 5G. This isn’t too much of an issue because it never feels particularly heavy or bulky in your hands.
However, as cosmetically attractive as the A15 is, it lacks any IP certification. When combined with a regular glass screen, you may need to handle it with a bit more care than you would with something more expensive.
Screen & Speakers
- 6.5in Super AMOLED display
- Teardrop selfie notch
- 90Hz refresh rate
The Galaxy A15 5G offers a screen improvement over its predecessor, with a 6.5in Super AMOLED panel replacing the A14’s less attractive LCD display.
This makes the phone ideal for watching videos, TV shows, and movies, and the high-definition 1080p quality makes it more than functional as a media device.
While it doesn’t quite match other flagship models, the 90Hz refresh rate is quite smooth, especially when contrasted to the 60Hz rates found on regular iPhone models.
The brightness does not quite match these optimistic fundamental specifications, with a maximum of slightly more than 800 nits. In most cases, adaptive brightness fills in the gaps, but if you’re going to a sunny park or beach, you may need to manually adjust the brightness to the maximum.
In comparison to more expensive versions, the bezel around the A15’s display is very thick, particularly at the bottom. The phone also has a teardrop selfie notch, which is less covert than the pinhole cameras found on Galaxy S models, for example, and will most likely reinforce the impression that you’re holding a less expensive handset.
Still, the A15’s screen looks good overall, especially for a phone in this price bracket.
Its speakers also punch a bit above its weight, despite the fact that they are neither stereo nor exceptional, with music – even dense music – sounding clear and finely mixed.
Specs & Performance
- Mediatek Dimensity 6100+ chipset
- 4GB RAM and 128GB storage
- MicroSDXC slot
The Galaxy A15’s performance is undeniably lacking, which is not unexpected given its low price.
It is powered by a Mediatek Dimensity 6100+ chipset, a 6nm CPU designed to handle 5G. It otherwise has the same specifications and performance as the Helio G99 CPU found in the non-5G Galaxy A15.
The A15 5G variant, like the A15 4G, has 4GB of RAM. This is at the lowest end of the RAM scale, even for certain inexpensive phones, like as the Motorola Moto G84 5G, which has a remarkable 12GB of RAM.
In reality, this means you’ll notice some delay and lag, even while opening apps and performing routine chores on your phone.
Compared to something like a Galaxy S24 or an iPhone 15, there is a noticeable difference, and anyone looking to save money while enjoying 2024 performance would be disappointed.
It also implies that high-end gaming is nearly impossible on the A15, while less sophisticated games will experience slowdown. Still, conducting daily activities and accessing the web is typically fine after the appropriate applications have been launched, so less ambitious users will not have too many problems.
The A15 also has 128GB of internal storage, which is plenty for a ‘normal’ user who is unlikely to use it for anything other than calling/messaging, social networking, and shooting photographs. There is a microSDXC slot, so if you capture a lot of images and movies, you can expand on what comes out of the box.
Finally, the benchmarks below confirm that the A15 5G is one of the least-powered phones released by a major manufacturer this year. With only 4GB of RAM, it’s outperformed by several of its budget rivals.
Samsung Galaxy A15 5G benchmarks
Cameras
- 50Mp main rear camera
- 5Mp ultrawide
- 2Mp macro lens
- 13Mp selfie camera
Samsung manufactures some of the best camera phones available, and while the A15 5G isn’t one of them, it does give adequate photo performance for the price.
The primary 50Mp wide lens is the highlight – the only true highlight – and it can do a fantastic job in the correct hands and lighting conditions. It lacks optical image stabilization (OIS) like most smartphones nowadays, but its use of focusing makes it easy to operate and create beautiful photos.
In my view, the camera’s palette is well-balanced and lifelike, with less of the oversaturation that plagued previous generations of Galaxy phones. The skies are not overexposed, the colors are vivid without being overly brilliant, and the Portrait mode delivers sufficient information while being pleasing.
it provides enough camera prowess for the price
The good news ends here, though, because the two new lenses feel more like box-ticking exercises than true enhancements to the phone’s arsenal.
The ultrawide lens may capture quite useful panoramic photographs if used steadily, although a number of our photos ended out with fuzzy edges or lines, at least when zoomed in a little. Similar to the 2Mp macro lens, photographs normally appear acceptable at first glance, but closer scrutiny exposes a touch too much rawness and blur.
As a result, users must exercise caution in order to get the most of the phone’s extra cameras, which also applies to its night mode. The latter can be effective in certain situations and scenarios, but it is hit-and-miss, so photographers must be patient.
The 13MP front-facing lens outperforms the two additional rear lenses in terms of forgivingness and ability to capture attractive selfies in most lighting conditions. It isn’t ideal and can lack some vibrancy, but it will undoubtedly give enough useful photos for social media and sharing.
Battery Life & Charging
- 5000mAh battery
- 25W wired charging
- No wireless charging
With a 5000mAh battery and very little resource drains, the Galaxy A15 5G is designed to last users all day, if not longer.
The PCMark for Android battery test yielded an amazing score of just over 15 hours, while my day-to-day use of the device allowed me to comfortably go through a second day without having to recharge.
Yes, if you keep the 90Hz mode on all the time and use the phone during the afternoon or evening, the level will drop faster. However, considering that the A15 isn’t really cut out to be a dedicated gaming phone, for example, the average user may find themselves using it for only essential functions, extending its battery life into a second day.
Despite its large battery, the A15 does not come with a charger. And it’s only compatible with chargers with a maximum power of 25W, so charging the battery isn’t especially quick, though 55% in half an hour isn’t awful, matching the 33W Redmi Note 13 5G with the same capacity.
my day-to-day use of the device found me easily making it through to a second day without needing to recharge
This does not significantly reduce the value for money provided by the A15 battery. Most users will find the phone to be a trustworthy companion, preventing them from worrying about running out of battery before returning home.
Software & Apps
- Android 14
- One UI 6
- Three years of core updates
- No AI features
The Galaxy A15 5G runs Android 14 with Samsung’s One UI 6.0 on top, which retains the majority of the features seen on more premium Galaxy phones.
The only notable exclusions are an always-on display and DeX mode, which is unsurprising considering that the A15 isn’t promoted as a productivity phone and Samsung is free to save features for more costly models.
Otherwise, the A15 provides a usually seamless One UI experience, albeit the phone’s poor speed may cause you to wait a second longer than normal for apps to load. Menus, such as the Quick Settings panel, are straightforward to use and simply put out, with bigger icons making tasks easier.
The A15, like previous Galaxy phones, has several customization options, letting users to alter backgrounds, home, and app screens to their liking. It also includes the Modes and Routines features introduced with One UI 5, which allow you to change settings based on the time of day, what you’re doing, and/or where you are.
One minor, if fully predictable, drawback is that the A15 lacks any of the useful AI-based capabilities seen in the Samsung Galaxy S24 series. This is unfortunate, but considering that these enhancements don’t provide anything genuinely game-changing (yet), most people will probably not notice.
Unlike the similarly priced Galaxy A25 5G, which will receive four years of core Android upgrades, the A15 5G will get three. This may disappoint some, but considering how weak the A15 is currently, it may be unrealistic to expect Samsung to prolong its software life much further, as is customary for phones at this price.
Price & Availability
The Samsung Galaxy A15 5G launched with a price of £199. UK customers can also buy it from Amazon, Very and Currys.
The A15 5G comes with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of memory as normal, although select areas may purchase the phone with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
Sadly that’s not the case in the US where the phone is $199.99 and only available in two colours from the official store. You can also get it from Amazon.
Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy A15 5G?
The Samsung Galaxy A15 5G is a very good all-around low-cost phone; its lack of processing power is really its sole drawback.
Because of this, don’t purchase it for demanding tasks like gaming; nonetheless, other from this, it has excellent appearance, a large, smooth display, a respectable primary camera, and an amazing battery life.
While the extra camera lenses aren’t really helpful and the three years of core Android upgrades aren’t very noteworthy, they are little flaws in an otherwise excellent low-cost phone.
Specs
- Android 14, One UI 6
- 6.5in Super AMOLED (2340×1080) 19.5:9, 90Hz
- Mediatek Dimensity 6100+ processor
- 4GB LPDDR4X RAM
- 128GB RAM UFS 2.2 internal storage
- Cameras:
- 50Mp main/wide sensor
- 2Mp macro
- 5Mp ultrawide
- 13Mp front facing
- Side-mounted fingerprint scanner
- Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2.4GHz+5GHz, VHT80
- Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
- Bluetooth 5.3
- 5,000mAh battery
- 25W wired charging
- 160.1 x 76.8 x 8.4mm
- 200g
