Samsung Galaxy A06 review

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Introduction

While everyone marvels at Samsung's latest and greatest Galaxy S series, for many people, these high-end devices are either unattainable or downright unnecessary. When you look at the sales figures, it quickly becomes clear that Samsung's A series has higher sales volumes than the S series, so it deserves our attention as reviewers. Today, we have the cheapest smartphone of the A series - the new Galaxy A06.

Not a lot has changed compared to last year's Galaxy A05. Not to be confused with the Galaxy A05s, which is an ever so slightly higher-end device.

With the Galaxy A06, you still get a basic plastic build with no official ingress protection, a modest 6.7-inch, 60Hz LCD display, a single loudspeaker, a rather meager MediaTek Helio G85 chipset and only 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable eMMC 5.1 storage in the base tier.

The camera setup hasn't changed either, with a 50MP main cam and 2MP depth sensor on the back and a basic 8MP selfie up front. You still get a 5,000 mAh battery and 25W charging like last year as well.

Samsung Galaxy A06 specs at a glance:

• Body: 167.3x77.3x8.0mm, 189g; Glass front, plastic back, plastic frame.
• Display: 6.70" PLS LCD, 720x1600px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 262ppi.
• Chipset: Mediatek Helio G85 (12 nm): Octa-core (2x2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 & 6x1.8 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G52 MC2.
• Memory: 64GB 4GB RAM, 128GB 4GB RAM, 128GB 6GB RAM; eMMC 5.1; microSDXC (dedicated slot).
• OS/Software: Android 14, up to 2 major Android upgrades.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.8, AF; Depth: 2 MP, f/2.4.
• Front camera: 8 MP, f/2.0.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 1080p@30/60fps; Front camera: Yes.
• Battery: 5000mAh; 25W wired.
• Connectivity: LTE; Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 5; BT 5.3; 3.5mm jack.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted).

Honestly, the only things that seem to have really changed from last year's Galaxy A05 to this year's Galaxy A06 are the color options and the inclusion of a side-mounted fingerprint reader in the power button. Well that and the intrinsic fact that you are getting a newer device that starts out its life on Android 14 and is expected to get two more major software updates. Other than that, well, the Galaxy A05 is kind of the same phone for less money.

That said, we can't just make a blanket statement like that based on specs alone and call it a day. We will dive deeper into what the Galaxy A06 offers on the following pages. Besides, seeing how the Galaxy A05 never made it to our office last year, this is a great opportunity to see how far along Samsung's entry-level hardware has come.

Unboxing

The Galaxy A06 ships in a two-piece slide-out cardboard box. The insides are all cardboard, and the printing is done using soy ink. While we definitely appreciate the eco-friendly approach, this is probably the flimsiest case we've encountered in a while. The cardboard is just way too thin for shipping. Our review unit arrived with an absolutely demolished box. To be fair, the actual phone itself was fine and undamaged, but that just seems like a little miracle, given the state of the box.

The Galaxy A06 accessory package doesn't earn any extra points for the unboxing experience either. Besides the phone itself, you only get a passive USB Type-C to Type-C cable, a SIM ejector tool and some documentation. That's it. No charger, no case, nothing. It's not like this is a new development, but compared to some of the competition, we feel a bit let down by Samsung.