Galaxy A6+ first impressions: Samsung’s fresh approach to its mid-range category

Samsung Galaxy A6+ borrows elements from the last year’s phones as well from the current flagship phones.

Samsung Galaxy A6+ sports a combination of 16-megapixel and 5-megapixel rear cameras. (HT File Photo)

At a time when Xiaomi is dominating the budget smartphone segment, rivals are revisiting their strategy to come up with something unique. Just recently Oppo introduced a Realme 1 smartphone under its new online brand that extensively focuses on premium design at a budget price. Samsung, on the other hand, is refreshing its lineup with more contemporary design, improved camera features and specifications that are on par with Xiaomi phones.

With Galaxy A8+, Samsung has delivered a near-excellent phone with right balance of software, hardware and features. With its new Galaxy A6-series, Samsung has been keeping up that tradition.

The newly launched Samsung Galaxy A6+ brings forth the company's fresh approach to design where the screens are bigger without increasing overall phone dimensions and also not including the ugly notch. The phones are now slimmer, curvier and feel more compact. It's not a complete refresh, as certain aspects such as the boat shaped antenna design at the top and bottom and the metal unibody are from the last year's phones.

The front is dominated by the display with camera sensor along with flash on the top. The left edge houses slots for SIM and microSD slots whereas the right edge has the speaker and power/lock/unlock button. The base features USB (no Type-C) and 3.5mm headphone jacks.

A combination of light and slim profile coupled with Infinity Display on the front, makes it look a lot contemporary. Another notable design aspect is the flat dual-camera setup at the centre of the rear panel. The dual-camera module clubbed with the fingerprint scanner is borrowed from Samsung's flagship phones. However, in a Gold colour variant of Samsung Galaxy A6+, the black panel feels a bit odd.

Samsung Galaxy A6+ comes with a 6-inch AMOLED display with full HD+ resolution. The screen is quite vibrant as you'd expect from Samsung phones. The phone delivers pretty decent indoor and outdoor legibility. The auto-bightness feature works fast enough.

Samsung's Android 8.0 Oreo-based TouchWiz UI is quite familiar and easy to get started. The phone comes with a few pre-loaded Samsung applications such as S Bike Mode, Samsung Pay Mini and data and privacy app Samsung Max. It also comes with Facebook and Microsoft's suite of apps including OneDrive, LinkedIn, Word, and Excel. Samsung has also included its Knox security solutions in Galaxy A6+.

Apart from the pre-loaded software, Samsung Galaxy A6+ comes with facial recognition for unlocking the phone. The feature is in addition to the fingerprint scanner and pattern-based tools for accessing the phone.

Talking about the highlight of the smartphone, Samsung Galaxy A6+ comes with a dual-camera setup which features 16-megapixel and 5-megapixel sensors. The dual-camera allows the phone to deliver bokeh effect (via Live focus mode). On the front it has 24-megapixel sensor for selfies. The camera also comes with a few AR stickers and Samsung's AI-based Bixby vision. During our brief usage, the camera seemed pretty much satisfactory if not extraordinary. But wait for our review for the final verdict on the camera.

Samsung Galaxy A6+ looks like a comprehensive phone with everything for a mid-range phone. The only apprehension we have is the Snapdragon 450 chipset which is bit inferior to Snapdragon 636 processor which powers Xiaomi's Redmi Note 5 Pro. We hope Samsung Galaxy A6+ with Snapdragon 450 SoC and 4GB RAM is able to deliver a balanced performance. Until then, stay tuned for our detailed review.