Samsung Galaxy A14 5G Review: A Phenomenal $200 Phone - WIRED

I don't privation to oversell it—it's not a flagship phone. Yes, you volition inactive spot stutters present and determination erstwhile you power betwixt apps. Maybe you'll person to unit adjacent an app from clip to time. But for the astir part, I've had a wholly bully acquisition utilizing the A14 5G not lone for catching up connected Reddit and Twitter, but besides to respond to emails connected the fly, show enactment tasks, and adjacent marque calls. 

That brings maine to the battery. My sister lives successful India, truthful we don't get a accidental to drawback up often. The different day, I spent 4 hours connected a video telephone and the artillery dropped lone to 50 percent—I was expecting it to beryllium lower! On that aforesaid day, I utilized the phone's GPS arsenic I drove to a canine parkland successful Manhattan, and snapped tons of photos of my delicious fried chickenhearted sandwich astatine a section Irish eatery called Bua. By bedtime (which is, er, past midnight for me), the telephone was astatine 11 percent with a fantastic 9 hours of screen-on time. This was an unnaturally engaged day. On days erstwhile I don't walk hours connected video calls, I had 30 percent near aft two afloat days connected a azygous charge. It's beauteous not having to recharge each night. 

That brings maine to the 50-megapixel superior camera. It snaps photos beauteous quickly, and there's adjacent a Night mode you tin usage to instrumentality decently agleam and crisp images successful debased airy (unlike the Moto G Play). Naturally, your nighttime photos volition beryllium a small blurry present and then. There's a small excessively overmuch processing astatine times, smoothening retired definite features connected faces and different details, positive immoderate colors tin beryllium exaggerated. Still, I've inactive been rather blessed with astir of the results for a $200 phone. That includes selfies I snapped with the 13-megapixel beforehand camera (which besides supports Night mode). There's a macro camera if that's your fancy, and it works OK for utmost close-up shots, but lone if you person a bully magnitude of light. 

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The lone large gripe I person with this telephone successful day-to-day usage is the mono speaker. It conscionable doesn't get excessively loud, doesn't dependable great, and it's casual to artifact successful scenery mode erstwhile you're playing video games. The casual solution is to conscionable usage headphones—wireless oregon wired because, yes, there's a headphone jack. 

There's adjacent a microSD paper slot to grow connected the 64 GB of interior retention (which is much than what you'll find connected likewise priced peers), positive the quality to marque contactless payments with the near-field connection (NFC) sensor truthful you tin permission the wallet astatine home. I astir exclusively wage with my telephone these days erstwhile I'm retired and about, truthful this is simply a immense triumph for me. 

The Galaxy A14 5G besides supports … 5G, arsenic the sanction implies, which is yet different rarity astatine this terms arsenic astir sub-$200 phones trust connected 4G LTE. It's supported by each large US carrier, from AT&T and T-Mobile to Verizon. Best of all, Samsung is promising 2 Android OS updates, which means that since it's already moving the latest Android 13, it'll inactive person Android 15 successful 2024. It volition besides get 4 years of information updates, which is practically unheard of for a telephone truthful cheap. 

It's near-impossible to not marvel astatine the worth of the Galaxy A14. It does astir everything truthful good for truthful little, and that's precisely what we should beryllium asking much of from our gadgets.