Right out of the box, the phone feels sluggish with stuttery animations and apps that take a couple of seconds to open. Granted, it does catch up with itself after a period of use, but it’s certainly not ideal for multitasking, despite the relatively generous 4GB of RAM it’s endowed with. Charging is done at a respectable 15W. That’s classed as fast charging, and while many pricier phones have double the charging power or more, you still won’t be waiting around all day for this to juice up. Of course, there’s no wireless charging here. Battery Capacity: Typical value tested under third-party laboratory condition. Typical value is the estimated average value considering the deviation in battery capacity among the battery samples tested under IEC 61960 standard. Rated (minimum) capacity is 4,900mAh. Actual battery life may vary depending on network environment, usage patterns and other factors. The Samsung Galaxy A12 captures video at 30fps in 1080p or 720p – there’s no 60fps option for either and, clearly from the footage I captured, no attempt at stabilisation either. Video of me walking through a park was just too bumpy to be usable, and swift pans also temporarily turned the footage into a blur fest. In short, this isn’t one for wannabe filmmakers. Samsung Galaxy A12 review: Verdict But of course at this price there are some compromises too – and whether you can live with them or not will depend on what you need from your phone. Below we’ll dive into all of that, so read on to see if the Samsung Galaxy A12 is the smartphone for you. Screen

For any content that you submit, you grant SAMSUNG a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully transferable right and license to use, copy, modify, delete in its entirety, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from and/or sell and/or distribute such content and/or incorporate such content into any form, medium or technology throughout the world without compensation to you. Much of that is down to the outstanding things other manufacturers are doing on a budget, but Samsung’s entry-level handsets have been able to hold their own in the past. It’s hard not to pin the disappointment entirely on the MediaTek Helios MT6765. Exynos and Qualcomm handsets never felt this sluggish.

Out of Bundle Charges

The Samsung Galaxy A12 is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio P35 chipset coupled with 4GB of RAM. That’s a fairly low-end spec but one that’s in line with the money this phone costs. that violates any law, statute, ordinance or regulation (including, but not limited to, those governing export control, consumer protection, unfair competition, anti-discrimination or false advertising); In practice, it’s reasonably sharp, so you’re unlikely to miss the extra pixels too much, and it’s a slight upgrade in both size and resolution on the 6.2-inch 720 x 1520 Samsung Galaxy A10. Of course, the sizeable screen here does mean that the Samsung Galaxy A12 isn’t as compact or easy to use with one hand as some phones, so it won’t suit everyone. Design That’s not the only reason to consider it though, as the Samsung Galaxy A12 also has a big screen, a quad-lens camera, and other features that are worth knowing about.

Being a basic phone there’s not much to talk about on the features front for the Samsung Galaxy A12. It runs Android 10 at the time of writing, so its software is one generation behind, but Android has reached the point where the new versions don’t typically add a lot, so that’s not a huge problem.

Plan Benefits

That said, the Galaxy A12 does suffer from the same problem plenty of budget handsets do, which I assume is exacerbated by the poor performance of its MediaTek processor. It’s what I euphemistically call ‘the cat problem’: If you need more power on a similar budget, look to something like the Moto G9 Power or the Nokia 5.3. There’s also of course no 5G with this phone, but nor is there with any similarly priced rivals. Camera The Galaxy A12 is outfitted with a massive 5,000 mAh battery that lasts around a full day with daily use. It doesn't support wireless charging, but with wired fast charging it fills up in around 2 hours when depleted. The most underwhelming aspect of the phone is its MediaTek MT6765 Helio P35 processor. Unfortunately, combined with the entry-level configuration that features 3GB of RAM, the phone can get stuttery even with relatively demanding applications. Of course, one shouldn't expect a high level of performance from a cheap smartphone like this, but it should be noted regardless. Although for simple daily tasks it's acceptable. Cameras

Network: The bandwidths supported by the device may vary depending on the region or service provider. The Samsung Galaxy A12 is designed as a phone for anyone who puts price and battery life first, because it excels on both fronts – it’s one of the cheaper smartphones you’ll find, and also has a bigger battery than most at 5,000mAh. The 6.5-inch edge-to-edge screen featured on the Galaxy A12 makes it an appropriate model for users that prefer big screens but don't like dishing out high prices that are usually associated with these models. Combined with the four lenses on the rear side, the phone gives off a relatively premium feel at the first impression. However, this feeling goes away as soon as you touch its plastic body, operate its slow processor and interact with its 720 x 1,600-pixel resolution LCD display during your daily tasks. Battery Life and Performance Connectivity options meanwhile include 4G, Bluetooth 5.0, and NFC – there’s no 5G, but that tech is yet to make its way into any phones this cheap. VerdictThis basic performance is mirrored in the graphical tests with GFXBench, where the Samsung Galaxy A12 managed a paltry 19fps in the native 720p resolution, and just 12fps when output to 1080p. Given the Realme 7 and Poco X3 NFC manage around four times the frames at that resolution, I think we can say that’s simply not good enough for the price. The Redmi Note 9T is sadly missing here as GFXBench refused to run, but it would be surprising if it ran worse, given its Geekbench 5 score. In practice this large size means you can get up to around 20 hours of web browsing or 21 hours of video on a single charge, which in real terms means the Galaxy A12 will comfortably last a day and may even stretch to two for lighter users, which is well above average for battery life. The Samsung Galaxy A12 has a 6.5-inch screen, which while smaller than, say, the 6.76-inch Huawei Mate 40 Pro or the 6.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, is still an above average size for a smartphone screen. As you might guess from the narrow aperture and the low price of entry, photography on the Galaxy A12 is a mixed bag. In bright conditions, photos are quite good, with a decent composition and enough detail to be worthwhile. Yes, you can certainly do better by spending more money, but the pictures are clear enough for sharing, and you can get good results in the right conditions.

Virtual Proximity Sensing : Sensing proximity information by using software without proximity sensor. For memory, you get 64GB built in. There are other storage capacities, but they don’t seem to be widely available in the UK. Still, 64GB is decent at this end of the market, and what’s even better is that there’s a microSD card slot with support for cards of up to 1TB, so you can massively build on the included storage.It’s not all bad in the performance charts, though: the one area where the hardware really shines is in efficiency, with the 5,000mAh battery managing a whopping 25hrs 58mins in our looped video battery test. The front of the Samsung Galaxy A12 is rather more ordinary though, with a slightly dated (though small) notch at the top of the screen, housing the selfie camera, and slim bezels around the display, with a slightly larger one at the bottom. There’s also a 5MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera, which probably isn’t something you’ll use much given the low megapixel count, but it’s nice to have for when you want to fit more in a scene. Finally, there’s an 8MP f/2.2 camera on the front for your selfie needs, and the ability to record 1080p video at 30 frames per second – both of which are fairly standard at this end of the market. Features You also shouldn’t expect miracles of composition as soon as the light levels drop. As these pictures of my garden at sunset show, as soon as the light goes, so does the image quality, with plenty of noise and blur replacing the crisp detail of the daylight shots. This is a problem that all phone cameras face, to be clear, and the Samsung Galaxy A12 isn’t the worst offender by a long shot. The Samsung Galaxy A12 has a huge 5,000mAh battery. That’s one of the biggest you’ll find in a mainstream phone – a few have now pushed their way to 6,000mAh, but most don’t go above around 4,500mAh, and many still hover around 4,000mAh or even less.