Samsung’s new Galaxy A series smartphone is out to give its competitors a run for their money. I’m talking about the Samsung Galaxy A14, which is the most affordable 5G offering in the company’s A-series lineup to date. It is a decent smartphone that many users would like in this price range. I have used the phone for over a week and put it through its paces. Read our Samsung Galaxy A14 5G review to find out how the smartphone, with its mid-range Exynos chipset, 5000mAh battery, 90Hz refresh rate screen, 50MP primary camera, and more, performs in real life.
to rule
Samsung Galaxy A14 5G is a good value for money smartphone. The phone makes most things right for the price, including performance, cameras, and battery life. If only the device had a fast charging solution and slimmer bezels, the Galaxy A14 5G would be the device to beat it in this segment.
The lowdown
- Samsung Galaxy A14 5G looks good with its clean and simple design approach. It doesn’t use a glass back or bulky camera module, which has become an industry standard. Instead, the phone features a flat, textured back and three independent camera rings. Design offers some benefits. It helps the phone stand out among the sea of similar-looking smartphones, and ensures a smooth typing experience if you place the phone on a flat surface because the device doesn’t wobble too much. Samsung uses a similar design language on its flagship Galaxy S23 series.
- Apart from that, the Galaxy A14 5G has rounded edges for easy grip. The phone is made entirely of plastic, of course, but it’s well built and doesn’t creak or bend. The phone comes in three interesting colours: dark red, light green and black. The dark red color variant has been submitted for review. The color builds on you over time and does a decent job of hiding fingerprints and smudges. Coming to I/O, the A14 5G packs a speaker grille, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a USB Type-C port on the bottom edge. The power button and volume rocker are located on the right spine of the phone. As with many affordable phones, the fingerprint scanner is built into the power button. The scanner takes a split second to unlock the device, but the bottom line is that it’s reliable. There is no IP rating on the phone, so make sure it is not near water.
- Moving on, the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G packs a 6.6-inch FHD+ multi-touch LCD display with a 90Hz refresh rate and 440ppi pixel density. The screen has a water drop notch for the selfie camera on top and some chunky edges on the sides. Samsung has also added raised bezels around the front to protect the screen from scratches when lying on a flat surface. The elevated surface will not disturb you much while scrolling or playing games. As for the screen, it is decent for what you pay. Colors appear vibrant, while details are sharp and crisp. The screen’s 90Hz refresh rate works well across the user interface and supported apps. External visibility is also good. I had no trouble reading messages, emails, and texts on a smartphone in direct sunlight. The phone is Widevine L1 certified as well, which means it can stream HD content from Netflix, Hotstar, and other streaming platforms. However, watching movies and web series for hours may not be enjoyable for many as the smartphone weighs a bit on the heavier side – 201 grams, to be exact.
- Coming to the meat of the matter, performance. The Samsung Galaxy A14 5G has the internal Exynos 1330 SoC at its core. It is a 5G-capable mid-range chipset with a 5nm manufacturing process and a clock speed of 2.4GHz. The phone did not stutter or lag no matter what was happening on the screen. I was comfortably able to play a game or two of Subway Surfer and switch between apps seamlessly. However, the performance of the phone can drop slightly under extreme loads such as running many apps simultaneously. The CPU Throttle benchmark test can attest to how much the Galaxy A14’s performance drops to 70 percent. Be that as it may, the phone’s AnTuTu and Geekbench scores are better than the Redmi Note 12 (Review) Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 smartphone. The A14 scored 2,123 points on Geekbench’s multi-core test and 408,771 points on AnTuTu.
- Along with the chipset, the phone is equipped with 4GB RAM + 64GB storage, 6GB RAM + 128GB storage, or 8GB RAM + 128GB storage. Going for the 6GB RAM option would be a balanced approach, but that would of course push the price up a bit. Storage is further expandable with a microSD card in a dedicated slot. The phone also comes with RAM Plus, which allows you to add up to 8GB of virtual memory by using the phone’s storage to keep more apps open in the background.
- The 50MP primary lens + 2MP depth lens + 2MP macro lens in the triple camera setup on the back will amaze you with its daylight performance. The 50MP primary sensor clicks some crisp shots with good color reproduction and ample detail at sunset. The sensor is also fast at focusing and processing images. The 2MP depth sensor works in conjunction with the primary shooter and gets nice portrait shots every time. There may be slight issues with edge detection, but for the price, you can let them pass. The camera’s viewfinder helps you focus on the subject and adjust the bokeh effect to your liking. Portrait mode of the phone also provides a “Colourpoint” filter that preserves the color of the subject and converts the background black and white. Coming to the 2MP macro sensor, it takes good close-ups. However, due to the small size of the sensor, the images will lose a bit in detail.
- Like many other mid-rangers, the Samsung Galaxy A14’s low-light performance isn’t all that impressive. However, you can still get a good shot from the phone’s primary camera with night mode. The latter does its best to capture highlights and reduce graininess in images. For selfies and video calls, the phone relies on a 13MP front camera, which produces images with clear details and accurate skin tones under natural light.
- In terms of software, the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G comes with OneUI 5.0 on top of Android 13 out of the box. The interface is clean and not too different from the previous iteration of the software, but Android’s Material UI design looks great. There are now more color palettes for the background than ever before and a new gradient color scheme for calls. The phone also comes with some new features, such as stacked widgets, a custom call wallpaper option for different callers, multi-window gestures, and new watermark tools. However, the program is not without bloatware. The Galaxy A14 5G has a bunch of pre-installed third-party apps that you can get rid of, but they are important. Whatever the case, the phone is future-proof with two years of major OS upgrades and four years of security updates.
- Samsung Galaxy A14 5G offers solid battery life and can comfortably last at least a day. The phone’s 5,000mAh battery pack didn’t make me search for the charger before going to bed. I’ve primarily used the phone for gaming, reading emails, slack checking, and streaming web series/movies, however there will be 20-30 percent battery left in the tank by the end of the day. While Samsung claims the phone can last up to two days, it scored 13 hours and 8 minutes on the PC Mark battery test. Galaxy A14 5G only supports 15W charging solution, which takes some time to charge the battery from zero to 100 percent. Moreover, the phone does not come with a charger. The latter must be purchased separately, and while you’re at it, make sure it’s a Type-C charger. The regular USB Type-A adapter will not work with the charging cable that came with the smartphone, since it’s a Type-C to C cable.
- While I wasn’t able to test 5G on the Galaxy A14 due to network availability, the phone supports all major bands except the n77 high-frequency band. The latter is generally missing in budget/affordable smartphones. Whatever the case, the A14 5G is compatible with both Airtel and Jio 5G sims.
Final verdict
Buyers are spoiled for choice in the affordable segment, and now, there is the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G smartphone. Without getting around the bush, you shouldn’t buy the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G if fast charging and a good viewing experience are your priority. similarly priced phones, including Redmi Note 12 5G phone (review) ، Moto G62 5G phone (review), And Realme 10 Pro 5G (review) ، You will do a better job with that. The phones offer faster charging speeds and superior display quality with narrow bezels compared to the Galaxy A14 5G. In addition to this, it also comes with an included charger.
So, who should buy the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G? Anyone looking for a performance-focused 5G smartphone, with good camera capabilities and battery life, under Rs 20,000 will find the phone right up their alley. And long software support makes this smartphone a futuristic device. At the time of writing this review, Samsung Galaxy A14 5G is priced in India at Rs 16,499 for the 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant, while the 6GB + 128GB and 8GB + 128GB options are selling for Rs 18,999 and 20,999 rupees, respectively.
Editor’s rating: 3.5 / 5
Positives
- Look well
- Smooth performance
- Good main camera
- Decent battery life
cons
- There is no charger in the box
- Slow charging speeds
- mono amplifier