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Introduction
It's the year 2021, and we already had the S21 trio of Samsung high-end phones over for review. On the opposite end of the Galaxy spectrum is the Galaxy A12 (12, not 21) - an entry-level handset designed to offer the Samsung experience, on a budget.
Announced late last year and available since January, the Galaxy A12 is not the absolute most affordable phone Samsung sells - the Galaxy M02 gets that title. Samsung's naming is a bit iffy in the lower tier and it can get confusing what's what between the A and M series but the A12 sits just below the M12, and above the M02s. Not all of these models are available globally so you may or may not be able to snatch the most affordable Samsung in your particular neck of the woods.
The Galaxy A12 we have here is equipped with a 6.5-inch display and the consequences of the budget constraints are easy to spot. It's one of few LCDs in the OLED-dominated Galaxy lineup, and the 720p resolution is also on the low side of average for the diagonal. It's a fairly standard combo of size, technology and resolution for the segment, so the A12 isn't ill-equipped, in fact.
The Mediatek Helio P35 is doing the math inside the A12 and that too isn't a particularly exciting bit of hardware on its own. Again, however, it's perfectly adequate for the price point - you're getting an octa-core CPU and the chip is built on a 12nm fabrication process, so it should be decently powerful and frugal at the same time.
The quad camera setup on the back actually makes a strong case for the Galaxy A12 in its market context. While the usefulness of the two 2MP modules is debatable (one for depth data, the other for 'macro'), the 48MP main camera and a 5MP ultrawide make for nice tandem that's hard to find. An 8MP selfie camera completes the picture in the imaging department.
Samsung Galaxy A12 specs at a glance:
- Body: 164.0x75.8x8.9mm, 205g; Glass front, plastic back.
- Display: 6.50" PLS IPS, 720x1600px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 264ppi.
- Chipset: Mediatek MT6765 Helio P35 (12nm): Octa-core (4x2.35 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4x1.8 GHz Cortex-A53); PowerVR GE8320.
- Memory: 32GB 3GB RAM, 64GB 4GB RAM, 128GB 4GB RAM, 128GB 6GB RAM; eMMC 5.1; microSDXC (dedicated slot).
- OS/Software: Android 10, OneUI 2.5.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 48 MP, f/2.0, 26mm, AF; Ultra wide angle: 5 MP, f/2.2, 123˚; Macro: 2 MP, f/2.4; Depth: 2 MP, f/2.4.
- Front camera: 8 MP, f/2.2.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 1080p@30fps; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
- Battery: 5000mAh; Fast charging 15W.
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); FM radio; 3.5mm jack.
One last important bit - the Galaxy A12 is powered by a 5,000mAh battery and that's a lot of battery for a 12nm entry-level chipset and a 720p display, 6.5-inch as it may be. We're expecting solid numbers for battery life.
Samsung Galaxy A12 unboxing
The Galaxy A12 arrives in a simple package that has the plain cardboard box inside a sleeve, a likeness of the phone printed on top. You get a couple of essentials - a 15W adaptor and USB-C cable and that's it.
Taking out the phone reveals a nicely textured back - more on that on the next page.
Design
The Galaxy A12 is made mostly out of plastic - a very good-looking and nice feeling plastic. It's not really a rear panel and frame type of build - there's no exposed 'frame'. Rather, it's a unibody construction where the back cover also envelops the periphery of the handset.
The back is split three-to-one with the larger top portion treated to a diagonal stripe texture. We wouldn't say it improves grip, but it's not detrimental to it either. It is pleasing to the eye, though, and that's a win.
Down in the bottom quarter, Samsung's logo is joined by some regulatory markings, the latter in a less contrasting print, thankfully.
Going back to the top, there's a quad-camera island that wasn't enough to fit a flash - that's been placed below the camera cluster. We're not saying 2MP macro and depth modules are a poor use of space, but 2MP macro and depth modules are a poor use of space. We get how marketing departments might disagree, however.
The front is home to the Infinity-V display, a small notch up top making way for the selfie camera. A almost invisible slit above it is where the earpiece's sound comes out of.
Surrounding the display are reasonably-sized bezels. It's not a premium phone, so a bit of extra black frame all around is to be expected. The chin, in particular, is a bit chunkier, but it's well in line with competitors in the class, like a Poco M3 or a Realme 7i. In any case, we'd say the Galaxy A12 isn't looking dated or cheap on account of its bezels.
We're not huge fans of the display's coating; however - it's among the more prone to grease accumulation ones we've handled lately. Granted, we mostly handle flagship phones, and there is nothing a glass screen protector with oleophobic coating can't fix.
As for the glass itself, Samsung doesn't say anything about the type used on the A12, and Corning doesn't mention it in its database either.
Touring the sides of the phone, we find the fingerprint reader/power button combo on the right. Positioned a bit above the midpoint, it's ever so slightly too high for an 'average' left index finger to reach, but a minor adjustment of grip gets you there. No issues for the same average-handed person's right thumb either.
The volume rocker above the fingerprint reader is a bit harder to reach but hardly a dealbreaker.
High up on the opposite side of the A12 is where you'll find the SIM slot. It's our favorite type, letting you use two nano SIMs and a microSD card for storage expansion all at the same time.
Hardware controls on the right • SIM slot • Triple-card tray
Down on the bottom of the Galaxy A12, you'll find the USB-C port - thankfully, microUSB has been replaced on all Samsung models, but the absolute least expensive A02 and M02 ones.
The other bits that belong in this region are around as well - the 3.5mm headphone jack, loudspeaker and primary mic.
A lone pinhole up top reveals where the secondary mic is.
Crowded bottom • Secondary mic pinhole up top
The Galaxy A12 measures 164x75.8x8.9mm and weighs 205g. It's about the same size as most major competitors, and while they're all in a similar weight ballpark, the A12 is a few grams heavier.
Overall, we like the build of the Galaxy A12. The textured back is a breath of fresh air, the plastic is pleasing to the touch, and the triple card slot wins points for versatility. The screen's coating leaves a bit to be desired, but that's about it.
Adequate 6.5-inch LCD
The Galaxy A12 remains one of few phones in Samsung's lineup to not use an OLED display. It's a PLS panel or Samsung's take on the IPS LCD. At 6.5 inches in diagonal, it's anything but small, so if you're looking for screen estate, the A12 delivers. The 1600x720px resolution stretches a bit thin on this size - pixel density works out to 264ppi, though if you're not deliberately looking at fine texts from up close, you should be okay.
In our tests, the Galaxy A12 put out just under 400nits of brightness when we operated the slider manually. The phone doesn't have a dedicated ambient light sensor, but it gets a reading from the selfie cam for adaptive brightness purposes and with that toggle enabled, we got a minor boost to 472nits. Boost or no boost, contrast hovered around 1:1300 - a good if unremarkable number as phone LCDs go.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0.292 | 398 | 1363:1 | |
| 0.349 | 472 | 1352:1 | |
| 0.337 | 413 | 1226:1 | |
| 0.412 | 471 | 1143:1 | |
| 0.259 | 435 | 1680:1 | |
| 0.325 | 521 | 1603:1 | |
| 0.252 | 395 | 1567:1 | |
| 0.277 | 439 | 1585:1 | |
| 0.353 | 442 | 1252:1 | |
| 0.31 | 457 | 1474:1 | |
| 0.374 | 526 | 1406:1 | |
| 0.315 | 427 | 1356:1 | |
| 0.39 | 522 | 1338:1 | |
| 0.211 | 400 | 1896:1 | |
| 0.354 | 460 | 1299:1 | |
| 0.515 | 631 | 1225:1 | |
| 0.217 | 364 | 1677:1 | |
Unlike most other Samsung's, the Galaxy A12 has no color modes - it is what it is. And what it is is a panel that can somewhat faithfully reproduce the sRGB color space. We measured an average dE2000 of 4.9, though there was a noticeable blue shift and the white point was some 8 units off-target.
Samsung Galaxy A12 battery life
The Galaxy A12 is powered by a 5,000mAh battery - ample capacity for its relatively modest hardware. Indeed, the combination makes for some pretty respectable endurance figures.
We clocked over 16 hours of web browsing over Wi-Fi and an hour less of looping videos offline. The A12 managed over 31 hours on a voice call, pretty great, and topped it all off with a low standby power draw. In the end, the Galaxy A12's Endurance score worked out to 123h.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSer App. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Samsung Galaxy A12 for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Charging speed
The included charger is the old and trusty Samsung Adaptive Fast Charging unit (QuickCharge 2.0 compliant) that we've seen for years. It's unclear what charging standard the phone supports, but in our experiments, it maxes out the 15W adaptor only with the screen on. With the screen off, it hovers around the 11W mark.
With this included adaptor, it took the Galaxy A12 3:03h to get from flat to 100%, which is quite slow. The 20% you get after plugging it in for 30 minutes is pretty disappointing too. Overnight charging sounds like the default way to go with this Galaxy. Good thing that its battery life is good enough that you shouldn't typically be worried about making it through the day.
30min charging test (from 0%)
- TECNO Camon 16 Premier
59% - Realme 7
58% - Motorola Moto G9 Plus
54% - Huawei P Smart 2021
42% - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
33% - Infinix S5 Pro
30% - Poco M3
25% - Motorola Moto G9 Power
20% - Samsung Galaxy A12
20%
Time to full charge (from 0%)
- Realme 7
1:05h - Motorola Moto G9 Plus
1:15h - TECNO Camon 16 Premier
1:25h - Huawei P Smart 2021
1:42h - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
1:50h - Motorola Moto G9 Power
2:19h - Poco M3
2:30h - Samsung Galaxy A12
3:03h
Speaker test
The Galaxy A12 has a single bottom-firing speaker. It's one of the quieter handsets in the class, posting a 'Below average' score for loudness in our 7-track test. It doesn't stand out with quality either, with absent lows and muted treble response. There's no distortion to speak of at max volume, so that's nice.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
Android 10 and OneUI 2.5
Our Galaxy A12 review unit is running Android 10 with Samsung's One UI 2.5 on top. It's a bit of a bummer that there's no Android 11 with One UI 3.0 on the A12 just yet, but we're hopeful it will get updated eventually.
One UI has been very consistent from phone to phone and between releases, so there's not a whole lot missing on the A12 to begin with, v2.5 or otherwise. The lockscreen is a familiar sight with a couple of shortcuts in the bottom corners and notification icons under a clock. This being an LCD-equipped phone, it doesn't support Always-On Display.
For unlocking, the side-mounted fingerprint sensor is the most obvious choice. It takes a reasonable number of taps to set up and works well for both left index finger and right thumb operation.
As with other such implementations, you run the risk of triggering the sensor by any skin contact by simply holding the phone in your pocket, resulting in a locked phone and an inoperable sensor once you do pull it out to use it. If you happen to suffer from that more often than you'd like, you can have the sensor only engage with a press on the button - otherwise, a click isn't required.
Alternatively, there's face recognition. It's just camera-based, no 3D face scanning, but it still offers a convenient (if not as secure) way to access your homescreen.
Lockscreen • Biometrics
The UI fundamentals are the same as on virtually any other Samsung phone from the past couple of years.
Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer • Notification shade • Quick toggles • Task switcher
Gesture navigation is available, and you can choose that in the initial setup process or later on. A system-wide dark mode is par for the course, too.
Navigation options • Navigation options • Dark mode
What is missing on the M12, in a similar fashion to other lower-end Galaxies, is Edge panels. Otherwise, the software package is similar to other Samsung phones, with an in-house Gallery app, file manager, and Samsung browser. An FM radio app is also included, though it does require plugging in headphones to serve as the antenna - some phones have a built-in FM antenna.
Gallery • Files • Browser • FM radio
Synthetic benchmarks
Inside the Galaxy A12, there's an unassuming Mediatek Helio P35 chipset. Its octa-core CPU uses Cortex-A53 cores only, four of them clocked at up to 2.35GHz, the other four - capped at 1.8GHz. It's better than the Snapdragon 450-equipped lesser Galaxies like the A02s/M02s, which get a 1.8GHz cap across all 8 cores.
The PowerVR GE8320 GPU used in the Helio P35 can be found in other Helios - for example, the G25 and G35 - and consequently in quite a lot budget-focused devices.
The Galaxy A12 comes in several RAM/storage configurations, spanning a wide range - from 3GB/32GB, all the way to 6GB/128GB. Our review unit is in 4GB/128GB trim.
The modest nature of the Galaxy A12's chips reveals itself quickly in GeekBench, where it's trailing in the charts. We added a Nokia 2.4 for context to make the A12 look a little better. Potential competitors like the Realme 7 or Redmi 9/9T are vastly more powerful, and even the Realme 7i and Poco M3 are comfortably ahead.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
1775 - Motorola Moto G9 Plus
1695 - Realme 7
1681 - TECNO Camon 16 Premier
1672 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
1402 - Poco M3
1398 - Motorola Moto G9 Power
1374 - Xiaomi Redmi 9 (Prime)
1325 - Huawei Y7a / P smart 2021
1321 - Samsung Galaxy M21
1319 - Realme 7i
1318 - Redmi Note 9
1292 - Fairphone 3+
1240 - Infinix S5 Pro
1039 - Samsung Galaxy A12
1034 - Nokia 2.4
468
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
595 - Realme 7
536 - TECNO Camon 16 Premier
532 - Motorola Moto G9 Plus
525 - Xiaomi Redmi 9 (Prime)
362 - Redmi Note 9
361 - Samsung Galaxy M21
346 - Motorola Moto G9 Power
315 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
314 - Realme 7i
312 - Poco M3
308 - Huawei Y7a / P smart 2021
299 - Fairphone 3+
272 - Infinix S5 Pro
187 - Samsung Galaxy A12
169 - Nokia 2.4
132
That remains the case in Antutu, where the Poco M3 and the Realme 7i are posting numbers 70% higher than the A12's.
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Realme 7
292828 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
288732 - TECNO Camon 16 Premier
283847 - Motorola Moto G9 Plus
253105 - Xiaomi Redmi 9 (Prime)
201829 - Redmi Note 9
200414 - Motorola Moto G9 Power
182875 - Samsung Galaxy M21
180711 - Poco M3
177904 - Realme 7i
172933 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
170064 - Huawei Y7a / P smart 2021
161106 - Fairphone 3+
143378 - Infinix S5 Pro
117533 - Samsung Galaxy A12
107189
The GPU makes for somewhat of a comeback, aided by the forgiving 720p resolution of the display. In on-screen tests in GFXBench, the Galaxy A12 manages to climb to the middle of the charts and even beat the Poco M3 for fps count - not the Realme 7i, though.
GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Realme 7
54 - TECNO Camon 16 Premier
49 - Motorola Moto G9 Plus
42 - Motorola Moto G9 Power
33 - Samsung Galaxy M21
26 - Huawei Y7a / P smart 2021
21 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
19 - Realme 7i
19 - Poco M3
19 - Infinix S5 Pro
12 - Samsung Galaxy A12
12 - Nokia 2.4
11 - Realme 2
9.3
GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- TECNO Camon 16 Premier
42 - Realme 7
42 - Motorola Moto G9 Plus
37 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
33 - Realme 7i
32 - Samsung Galaxy M21
24 - Samsung Galaxy A12
19 - Motorola Moto G9 Power
19 - Nokia 2.4
19 - Huawei Y7a / P smart 2021
18 - Poco M3
17 - Realme 2
16 - Infinix S5 Pro
11
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Realme 7
34 - TECNO Camon 16 Premier
30 - Motorola Moto G9 Plus
30 - Samsung Galaxy M21
16 - Huawei Y7a / P smart 2021
15 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
13 - Motorola Moto G9 Power
13 - Realme 7i
13 - Poco M3
13 - Infinix S5 Pro
8.2 - Samsung Galaxy A12
7.7 - Nokia 2.4
7.1 - Fairphone 3+
7 - Realme 2
6.1
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Realme 7
28 - TECNO Camon 16 Premier
26 - Motorola Moto G9 Play
26 - Motorola Moto G9 Power
26 - Motorola Moto G9 Plus
25 - Realme 7i
25 - Samsung Galaxy M21
14 - Samsung Galaxy A12
13 - Huawei Y7a / P smart 2021
13 - Nokia 2.4
13 - Realme 2
12 - Poco M3
11 - Infinix S5 Pro
7.3 - Fairphone 3+
6.6
Looking at the Galaxy A12 specsheet, we knew not to expect much from it in benchmarks, so the lackluster results here are hardly surprising. It's not only benchmarks either. We experienced the occasional hiccup in regular use as well. Ultimately, if you're looking for high performance or better futureproofing, the Galaxy A12 may not be a great option.
Quad-camera system of the 2+2 variety
The Galaxy A12 has four cameras on its back, in a somewhat typical for the class 2+2 arrangement - there are two 'real' cameras and two more to make it look better in promo materials.
The primary camera uses a Samsung GM2 48MP sensor. With a Tetracell (or Quad Bayer) color filter array, it groups four 0.8µm pixels into one, and the default image resolution is 12MP. The lens has a 25mm equivalent focal length and an f/2.0 aperture.
Then there's the ultra wide-angle camera. A modest 5MP sensor is coupled with an extremely wide lens covering a 123-degree field of view. Unlike ultra wides on phones higher up the portfolio, there's no software distortion correction on this one.
The other two cameras employ 2MP sensors. One of the units is labeled 'macro' and is used for close-ups with a subject distance in the 3.5cm range. The other is for gathering depth data and isn't accessible directly to take pictures with.
For selfies, there's an 8MP camera in the notch of the display. This one, too, reports a 25mm equivalent focal length and has an f/2.2 aperture.
The camera app on the A12 is the same as on any other Samsung, which is a good thing since it's straightforward and easy to use. The basics are as usual - swiping left and right will switch between available modes, and there's an option to re-arrange, add or remove some of the modes from the viewfinder. Vertical swipes in either direction will switch between front and rear cameras.
The familiar tree designation for zoom control is here too, and with no telephoto on board, you get three trees for ultra-wide and two trees for the main cam. You could zoom in with a pinch gesture, at which point additional preset zoom levels appear at 2x, 4x, and 10x.
The viewfinder has the standard set of icons with the settings cog wheel located in the upper left corner of the screen. The usual stuff like video resolution, grid lines, location data, etc., can be found in the menu. There is no Scene optimizer on the A12 - Samsung's AI-powered scene-based processing enhancement feature.
There's a Pro mode, but it's the very basic implementation that only lets you pick ISO (100-800) and white balance (by light temperature with icons for common light sources), as well as dial in exposure compensation (-2EV to +2EV in 0.1EV increments). A metering mode selector also made the cut (center-weighted, matrix and spot). There's no manual focusing option, sadly.
Camera UI
Daylight image quality
Daylight photos from the Galaxy A12's main camera are sharp and capture relatively high levels of detail while keeping noise to a minimum. The dynamic range is quite wide, particularly for a phone of this caliber. We'd appreciate some more color pop, but maybe that's just us being conditioned by Samsung's typically livelier output - we'd say the A12's colors are too accurate for its own good.
Daylight samples, main cam (1x)
The native resolution 48MP mode does, in fact, reveal a tiny bit more detail, but it comes at the expense of a drop in dynamic range and an increase in noise. The trade-off isn't worth it.
Daylight samples, main cam (1x), 48MP
There's no telephoto camera on the A12, and Samsung doesn't mislead you with zoom levels immediately in the viewfinder, which it can't back up with hardware. You can pinch in to zoom digitally, though and then presets appear - up to 10x. That much digital zoom would obviously be a stretch for a phone of any price range, even more so for the modest A12, but we did shoot a few 2x samples.
Viewed at 1:1 magnification, these are on the soft side and have visibly heavy sharpening applied as well as some pixelation along slanted straight lines. Still, at fit-to-screen levels, the photos look very much usable, easily good enough for social media.
Daylight samples, main cam (2x)
The unassuming 5MP ultra-wide camera doesn't miraculously produce excellent images - they are quite noisy, and 5MP isn't a lot for a 123-degree field of view, so detail is limited. It does manage to capture a wide dynamic range, and the extreme perspective is appreciated. Some distortion correction would have been appreciated too, but it's missing.
Daylight samples, ultra wide cam
Low-light image quality
The A12's low-light performance isn't spectacular. Dynamic range is pretty narrow on the main cam at high ISOs, pronounced in the blown highlights around light sources, but equally noticeable in the dark shadows. Images are quite noisy, though they're reasonably detailed for the hardware. Color saturation is decently well preserved, too, despite the cranked-up ISOs.
Low-light samples, main cam (1x)
The ultra-wide struggles even more in the dark. With a max of ISO 1600, it can't expose bright enough in darker scenes, but even when there's more light, it's still not doing great. Expect to see softness and plenty of noise, as well as blown highlights deep black shadows. None of this is unusual for the class, mind you.
Low-light samples, ultra wide cam
There is no night mode for either cam on the Galaxy A12.
Once you're done with the real-world samples, head over to our Photo compare tool to see how the Samsung Galaxy A12 stacks up against the competition.
Samsung Galaxy A12 against the Redmi Note 9 and the Poco M3 in our Photo compare tool
Portrait mode
Live focus mode captures good portraits. Subject detection is fairly competent, and we didn't experience blunders with clipped ears or missing jawlines, though the phone did often show imperfections around bits of the subject that aren't their face. It's worth noting that HDR doesn't work in Live focus mode, so expect to get your highlights blown as the phone exposes for the face - which it does quite well, we might add.
Live focus (Portrait mode) samples
Live focus also works with non-human subjects, and it does a very good job with those too, admittedly with our mostly simple-shaped subjects. If it weren't for the unnaturally sharp outline of the building behind the street sign, we'd almost be ecstatic about the A12's portrait mode for shooting stuff.
Live focus (Portrait mode) samples, non-human subjects
Close-ups
The Galaxy A12's 'macro' cam isn't overly 'macro', but it does shoot close-ups. Place your subject in the 3-5cm sweet spot, and you'll get photos that look moderately impressive in the viewfinder and in the phone's gallery, but ultimately nothing special on a computer screen. The 2MP size doesn't really hold all that much detail.
Close-up samples
Selfies
The A12's selfie camera, on the other hand, isn't too bad. The 8MP sensor delivers good detail in abundant light, and it doesn't fall apart completely indoors in dimmer conditions. We'd have liked a bit more saturation overall and warmer skin tones, but this Galaxy is more conservative with color pop.
Dynamic range is average to good, and HDR will help greatly in backlit scenes where the phone will expose your mug correctly and not completely obliterate the highlights in the process.
Selfie samples, wide mode
Highlights, however, get clipped in Live focus mode, where the blurry background processing leaves no resources for HDR. Subject detection is a bit sketchy with messy hairlines but is mostly good otherwise.
Selfie samples, Live focus (Portrait) mode
Video recording
The Galaxy A12 isn't a very impressive video-recording device. In fact, it's a rather basic one - it tops out at 1080p/30fps for both its main and ultra-wide cameras. There's no stabilization of any sort either.
Video quality from the main cam in 1080p is about average for a phone in this class. The image is both soft and heavily sharpened at the same time, so there's not much fine detail, but on a positive note, there's hardly any noise either. Dynamic range is decent, and colors are more accurate than punchy but, all-in-all, pleasing.
The ultra-wide continues along the same lines of delivering 'conditionally okay' output. It's not super sharp but it's easily sharp enough for a budget ultra-wide, and noise has been thoroughly removed. Dynamic range is fairly wide, and colors are likable too.
Here's a glimpse of how the Samsung Galaxy A12 compares to rivals in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete picture.
Samsung Galaxy A12 against the Redmi Note 9 and the Poco M3 in our Video compare tool
Competition
The Galaxy A12 is Samsung's answer to the Redmis and the Realmes of the world - a budget-minded offering that tries to fit as much phone as possible into a low price tag. So how does it stack up to the competition?
The Redmi Note 9 is the first one that comes to mind, and it's very closely matched in terms of price. You'll get slightly better battery life out of the Redmi and slightly quicker charging, plus a higher-res display - though these don't seem to be deciders all on their own. The camera performance is very similar overall, so that's not going to help settle it either. However, the Redmi Note 9 does have a more powerful chipset, and that fact alone is enough to score a victory for the Redmi.
Not quite Xiaomi, but sort of Xiaomi, the Poco M3 is another viable option, and that comes even cheaper than the A12. You'll get a FullHD display and more RAM for your dollar, plus stereo speakers, longer battery life and better performance. The Galaxy is one ultra-wide camera ahead, however.
The Realme 7 (non 5G) is about 15% more expensive than the Galaxy A12, but we reckon it can justify the premium with its 90Hz FullHD display, vastly more powerful chipset, and much quicker charging (with comparably great battery life to begin with).
The Moto G9 Power is in about the same price ballpark as the Galaxy in some places, and the Power moniker does indeed mean something - it's in our all-time Top3 for battery life. It comfortably outlasts the A12, with a brawnier chipset too. A higher-res and overall better main camera is in the Moto's favor as well, but the Galaxy counters with the ultra-wide, missing on the Moto.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 • Xiaomi Poco M3 • Realme 7 (Global) • Motorola Moto G9 Power
Verdict
Samsung often struggles to compete with the value-oriented brands in the lower market segments, and that's the case with the Galaxy A12 we have here. It's not a bad phone, and it excels in endurance, it takes decent pictures, and it looks good in the process. It's also a Samsung, and the brand itself could make it more appealing than its actual merits.
But if you're on a limited budget, is it really all that important what badge is on the back of your phone? Opting for one of the competitors will likely get you a superior overall package, and you might even save a little. If, however, you must absolutely get a Galaxy, the A12 is a reasonable compromise. It wouldn't be our top choice for the money, though.
Pros
- Standout textured back, nice-feeling plastics.
- Excellent battery life.
- Relatively capable camera setup, ultra-wide is not all that common in the price range.
Cons
- Slow charging.
- Underpowered chipset.
- No night mode, no video stabilization.
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