| Pros | Cons |
| Quad-lens camera | Plastic build |
| Good screen | No telephoto lens |
| Solid battery life | No wireless charging |
The Samsung Galaxy A51 impresses in almost every way from a specs perspective. The only major disappointment is its plastic build, but for the price that's not a huge issue.
The Samsung Galaxy A51 is a mid-range phone with some of the style and even features of the new Samsung Galaxy S20 range.
It’s less than half the cost of the cheapest model in that range, yet it has a big FHD+ screen, a quad-lens camera, a large battery, an in-screen fingerprint scanner, and more.
So is this the phone Samsung fans on a budget should be buying? Very possibly, but the Galaxy A51 isn’t without its flaws.
Below we’ll go through everything it does right, and those areas where there is room for improvement, so you can get a clear picture of the Samsung Galaxy A51.
The Samsung Galaxy A51 has a 6.5-inch 1080 x 2400 screen with a pixel density of 405 pixels per inch. So it’s very big and quite high resolution. It also uses Super AMOLED, which is typically superior to LCD and allows for great contrast and vibrant colours. It’s also bright, and has a wide 20:9 aspect ratio.
The bezels are small and there’s a punch-hole camera in the top centre of the display, giving the phone a look that’s reminiscent of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 range and the aforementioned Galaxy S20 series.
It’s worth noting though that unlike most of Samsung’s premium phones, the screen here is flat rather than curved.
Flip the Samsung Galaxy A51 over and it continues to look a lot like the Samsung Galaxy S20 range, thanks largely to a rectangular camera block in the top left corner.
The actual materials used here are far less premium though, as the Samsung Galaxy A51 has a plastic back and sides, while higher-end handsets tend to have glass backs and metal sides.
This is somewhat forgivable considering the price, but still not entirely given that the likes of the Honor 20 can be had for similar money and that has a glass back.
Still, the Samsung Galaxy A51 is a decent looking phone overall, and some of the colours really impress, as for example the Prism Crush Black shade creates a rainbow of colours through reflected light.
The Galaxy A51 comes in at 158.5 x 73.6 x 7.9mm and 172g, making it large, but not unsurprisingly so given its 6.5-inch screen. One thing to note is that – as with most phones at this price – there’s no water resistance here. You typically have to pay more for that.
With the Galaxy A51 you get an octa-core Exynos 9611 chipset and 4GB or 6GB of RAM. That’s a mid-range chipset and a middling amount of RAM, as you might expect for the money.
This – particularly the 6GB model – should be enough for most buyers. Performance is generally solid, even when gaming, but there will be instances of slowdown.
It’s a substantial step up from, say, the Samsung Galaxy A10 or Samsung Galaxy A40, but nowhere close to something like the Samsung Galaxy S10e.
The Samsung Galaxy A51 has a quad-lens camera, which is rare at this end of the market. Of course, its lenses aren’t a match for the best around, but its main 48MP lens is fairly impressive.
Don’t let that number fool you though, as like many 48MP camera phones this actually takes 12MP photos, but it combines pixels to make them larger than normal for more detailed images and improved low light performance.
It is also possible to take photos in full 48MP resolution, but less is often more here, with the 12MP shots tending to be preferable.
This lens is joined by a 12MP ultra-wide one, a 5MP depth sensor and, unusually, a 5MP macro lens, designed specifically for close up shots.
The obvious omission is a telephoto lens, but at this price and with four other lenses to play with we can’t be too hard on it for that. The Samsung Galaxy A51 also has a capable 32MP front-facing camera.
The Samsung Galaxy A51 isn’t loaded with extra features, but one thing it does have is an in-screen fingerprint scanner. This is fairly fast and accurate, though not as good as the best physical fingerprint scanners. But it sure looks a lot fancier.
The Samsung Galaxy A51 also runs Android 10, so its software is on the latest main version at the time of writing. This is overlaid with Samsung’s One UI 2.0, which changes the look and feel somewhat, but it’s a polished interface and certainly one of the best manufacturer overlays.
As with most Samsung phones, the company’s AI assistant Bixby is built-in. This has got better over time but we still generally prefer Google Assistant. Fortunately Bixby is easy enough to ignore here.
There’s a 4,000mAh battery in the Samsung Galaxy A51, which is a fairly decent size, although this phone has a big screen, so more juice wouldn’t have hurt.
It still manages above average life though and you should comfortably get over a day of use out of it. It also supports 15W fast charging, which – while nowhere near as fast as some phones, which are now reaching around 50W – still matches the Samsung Galaxy S10, and will juice it up fairly quickly. Note though that there’s no wireless charging here.
As for memory, there’s either 64GB or 128GB of storage built-in, and the Galaxy A51 also has a microSD card slot, so no complaints there. Connectivity options meanwhile include Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC (so you can make contactless payments). You probably won’t be surprised to hear that 5G isn’t supported.
The Samsung Galaxy A51 is one of a growing range of competent mid-rangers from the brand. While it isn’t the most exciting of phones and is arguably topped by the likes of the Honor 20, it’s a solid all-rounder, with the headline features being its big screen and quad-lens camera.
Battery life is decent too, and power is respectable. The plastic build is a disappointment, and there are some unsurprising omissions such as waterproofing and wireless charging, but these are small complaints. Ultimately, if you want a big name phone at mid-range price, then the Samsung Galaxy A51 is definitely one of the better options right now.
