• Phones
• Reviews

Samsung Galaxy A70 Review

Samsung Galaxy A70 Review (Forget the Galaxy S10)

Henreeneo

So I reviewed the Samsung Galaxy A20 a few weeks back and in my review, I said it had some things going for it. An AMOLED screen, Dolby Atmos and a long battery life and some of you in the comments and on social media were like I should review the A50 and A30 but I thought to myself why not give you a honest review on its much bigger brother instead.

So I got the Samsung Galaxy A70 with my own money and everything you’re going to hear on this review are my own opinion and it’s going to be the truth not influenced in anyway by any brand or corporation so sit back, relax and let’s get into my review.

So first things first this device will set you back in the region of about N120k that’s about $330. It’s got the same design language as the A20, 30 and 50. Sporting a Glastic back that looks and feels like glass. I got the white variant and it looks quite with the contrast between the white back, silver sides and black screen. The device feels good without the case and just look dam nice. Design wise, Samsung did a very good job here. The bezels are very thin and uniform on three sides on the screen with it being just a tad bit bigger at the bottom.

This thing looks gorgeous, and I wish I didn’t have to use a case on it. Thankfully the case Included by Samsung is transparent and allows the beauty of the device shine through.

Samsung’s One UI skin on Android 9 Pie run very smoothly on this device. Although like I’ve always said there’s something about the One UI skin that I don’t enjoy aesthetically. It’s fluid and there are rounded corners but there are lines where you shouldn’t have lines, YouTube notifications are white even when you have dark mode turned on and overall the UI design just bothers me. Look, I will always say this Xiaomi has nailed what android should look like and feel like. Everything in Xiaomi’s MIUI is clean and smooth. I don’t know what the MIUI team did but that android skin just works. MIUI is the only Android skin that I haven’t had to install a third party launcher over. I’ve had my MI 8 for more than a year now and I have not once installed a new icon set or launcher over it. It just works just the way Apples iOS works. Sammy should take a cue from Xiaomi.

Moving on, the Galaxy A70 is in my opinion a better deal than the Galaxy S10 family.

Why? Well, let me expound.

First

You’re getting almost everything the Galaxy S10 family has functionality wise. I mean practically everything. You get an Always on Display, an in-display fingerprint scanner: although it’s a different tech from the one in the S10, but who the heck cares. They do basically the same thing. No regular person cares about the engineering behind it. And oh I just have to speak my mind on this in-display fingerprint thingy.

I thought I was going to love it, but it turns out its more inconvenient than the rear placed fingerprint scanner. I believe one of the main goals of a smartphone is to be very comfortable and usage should be very convenient, moving the fingerprint scanner to the display has made phones with that feature less convenient to use. You get three lenses behind: A wide angle, telephoto and regular camera sensor (same as the S10). And there are other things you can find out on your own.

Secondly 

you’ve got a bigger AMOLED screen and a much bigger and better battery life on the A70. Look when it comes to phones we use on a daily, the fact that it’s a 2 or 4k screen doesn’t flipping matter. The A70 has got a 6.7 inch 1080p Super AMOLED screen that’s friggin amazing. Images look very good and paired with that 4500mah battery this phone has got the best screen on time I’ve ever had on a smartphone. A friggin 10 hours of screen on time and approximately a day and half of battery life. Some of you may want to attack me and say hey the Galaxy S10 has got a better screen.

Puleeeze!!!! What else do you use your phone for asides watching video content and browsing the same apps that you’ve got on every single phone in the world? You’re basically going to be using Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, twitter etcetera etcetera. I mean does seeing those apps on a 2k screen make any difference over viewing them on a 1080p screen. Nope. It doesn’t.

What I’m trying to say here is that you’ve got a big beautiful Super AMOLED Screen with great viewing angles and impressive color representations. It’s great.

Thirdly

This phone has got a plastic build. Yeah I know, bring it on. Glass this, glass that. Um…… what happens when glass falls? Yeah….. It shatters. Um… What happens when plastic falls. Yeah that’s right it’s safe. Just clean the device and move on.

So let me throw a question out there and please answer honestly (in the comment section), would you pay $330 (that’s N120k) for the Galaxy A70 that won’t shatter when it drops on its back or would you pay $990 for the Galaxy S10 that would shatter to smitherings if it makes the mistake of dropping to the cold hard floor? Your guess is as good as mine.

As for specs, you’re quite safe here. You’ve got a device with very decent specs. It packs a snapdragon 675 chipset with an Adreno 612 GPU, you’ve got 6 Gigs of RAM and 128GB of storage which is expandable to 512GB via a micro SD card. There’s a 6.7″ Super AMOLED Display with 393 PPI for those who care. Powering things here is a 4500mah battery which support fast charging and luckily we have included in the box a 25watt fast charger. Even the S10 doesn’t have this. There’s a 32MP selfie camera that supports 1080p@30fps video, behind we have a triple camera setup with a primary 32MP f1.7 camera, a secondary 8MP f/2.2 12mm ultra-wide fixed focus sensor and a third 5MP depth sensing camera. There’s a 3.5mm earphone port, a USB C Charging port, down firing loud speakers and an in-display fingerprint scanner.

Now I was able to go from 20 to 100% in about 50minutes, I haven’t had a chance to deplete the battery so I can approximate that it’ll take about an hour 20 minutes to fully charge this devices huge battery.

Conclusion

Although I’m still not a fan of Samsung’s One UI, I’ve been generally impressed by this device and absolutely believe that this is a smartphone you can be comfortable with for the next two years. Build quality is good, phone is smooth and every works just fine.

Should you buy this device? Well, yes if you’re on a budget and yes if you’re not on a budget, because it’s an absolutely good deal for you either way.

Get the Galaxy A70 and use the saved cash for a weekend to one of the many getaway resorts in Lagos. Heck even buy two Galaxy A70s, one for you and one for your partner or use that extra cash and visit a Thai or Chinese restaurant for those of you who have never had to do that.

This phone gives you a flagship touch for a fraction of the flagship price.

I’ll always still use flagship devices mostly because I need the speed, but for most of you who watch these review videos and who change their smartphones every two years or more this is an absolute steal.

I hope this review was worth your time and I hope this review helps you make a decision on if this phone is for you or not. Samsung makes really good phones and this is one of them. And with the A Series line of smartphones for 2019 they’re quite impressive.