Samsung Galaxy A03s Unboxing and Review

During the second half of the year, Samsung showcased the Samsung Galaxy A03s, a smartphone that has new and improved features, at an affordable price. It focuses on students and first-time smartphone users who are looking for a budget-friendly phone that could be used as their daily drive.

The Samsung Galaxy A03s comes with a 6.5-inch HD+ display, 4GB of RAM plus 64GB of internal storage, 13MP triple rear camera setup, 5,000mAh battery with 15W charging, and runs on the MediaTek Helio P35 processor.

I was able to get my hands on one and this review will further help you in deciding if this smartphone is the one you are looking for. So, let's deal first with the unboxing.

Unboxing the Samsung Galaxy A03s

The front portion of the packaging indicates the Galaxy A03s branding with the phone itself; while the phone details—model number, IMEI number, and color, are imprinted on the bottom portion of the box.

You can also find the Galaxy A03s print on the left. There is nothing to look at from the other portions of the box.

Inside the Box and Accessories

After sliding the cover, the pack contains the quick start guide, warranty card, and details about Samsung Care+. The Galaxy A03s does not come with a protective case – you have to provide your own.

Underneath the pack is the Galaxy A03s smartphone wrapped in clear plastic. Beneath is Samsung’s Travel Adaptor, USB type-C to USB-A charging cable, earphones, and SIM card ejector tool.

Design and Walk Around

The design of the Galaxy A03s comes in a sleek textured matte finish. I like this kind of texture because it protects the phone from scratches, and is less susceptible to fingerprint smudges.

Galaxy A03s is available in three colors: Blue, Black, and White. My unit comes in Blue color.

On the front, the Galaxy A03s is equipped with a large 6.5-inch HD+ (1600 x 720) PLS LCD display. At the top, there’s a V-shaped notch that houses the front-facing camera and the earpiece. Like most smartphones in this segment, the side bezels are relatively slim but with a pretty thick chin. Also, there is no pre-installed screen protector.

At the back, there is a small camera hump that houses the vertical triple-camera set-up along with the single LED flash.

Found on the left side is the card tray with a 3-card slot for two Nano-SIM cards and a dedicated slot for a microSD card capable of up to 1TB of expandable storage, handy for users who want to further improve storage capacity.

On the right side, is your standard volume rocker and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor that is embedded in the power button.

The top is clean with only the secondary noise-canceling microphone present.

At the bottom of the Galaxy A03s, you can find the USB Type-C charging port, a single downward-firing speaker, primary microphone, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

The Galaxy A03s measures 9.1mm and weighs in at about 196g. Even though the device uses polycarbonate plastic for the frame and back panel, the phone feels solidly built, and sturdy.

Display and Multimedia

The PLS LCD panel produces good colors; viewing angles are also decent and the screen can get bright but could use a bit more boost so you can still use it outdoors comfortably. At 270ppi, the display looks sharp even though the display comes with an HD+ resolution.

The audio quality of the loudspeaker is like your typical smartphone at this price range. It can get loud and the audio quality is average. I recommend using headphones or an external speaker using the 3.5mm audio jack for better audio quality.

Camera

Rear Cameras

The Samsung Galaxy A03s rear cameras feature a 13MP F2.2 wide camera, a 2MP F2.4 macro camera that captures the subject in close range, and a 2MP F2.4 depth camera.

Quality from the rear cameras under bright lighting conditions is pretty decent, though dynamic range and sharpness can be better. While the 2MP macro camera, as expected, produces low-quality images.

For low light, the phone lacks a dedicated Night Mode and is generally a poor performer.

Front Selfie Camera

The Galaxy A03s uses a 5MP front camera with an F2.2 aperture. The camera also supports different features such as Portrait Mode, Face Beautification, and Photo Filters.

For selfies, it produces good photos for its price, especially in bright conditions. Background blurring for portrait selfies isn’t that perfect but good enough.

Video

For video, the Galaxy A03s captures videos up to 1080p/720p@30fps with its main and front-facing camera. There is no 60fps shooting, SLO-MO videos, and electronic image stabilization (EIS).

The recorded video from the main camera is shaky since there is no image stabilization, but is usable for casual social media postings.

One UI, Apps, and Security

The Galaxy A03s runs on One UI 3.1 Core, based on Android 11 out of the box, and is a stripped-down version of the One UI. The user interface is easy to navigate and straightforward. Pre-installed are the standard Samsung, Google, and Microsoft suite of apps, as well as some bloatware apps.

In terms of security, the Galaxy A03s is equipped with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor that is embedded in the power button. It is also equipped with facial recognition for unlocking the device.

Both work well---the side-mounted fingerprint sensor is pretty fast and with high accuracy. However, the face recognition feature can slow down in situations where there isn’t much light.

Hardware and Performance

The Galaxy A03s comes with a Mediatek Helio P35 (MT6765) octa-core processor. This processor is made using a 12nm process and is equipped with four Cortex-A53 cores at up to 2.35GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores at up to 1.8GHz, along with PowerVR GE8320 GPU.

My unit comes in a 4GB RAM variant. The performance of Galaxy A03s isn’t the snappiest or the most responsive, there are slight delays when interacting with the phone; the gaming experience in graphics-intensive games is playable and tolerable with slight stutters and lags, even with the use of the lowest available settings. Take note that this isn’t a gaming-focused smartphone so don’t expect too much.

The Galaxy A03s is available in the Philippines in one storage variant - 64GB storage, with 48.1GB of available storage. If you need additional storage, you can further expand the storage up to 1TB via its dedicated microSD card slot.

Below are the benchmark scores from this device:

• AnTuTu v9.2.1 – 104,991
• Geekbench 5.4.2 – 168 (Single-core), 899 (Multi-core)
• PCMark – 5,115 (Work 3.0)
• 3DMark – 432 (SSE – OpenGL ES 3.1) 639 (SSE – Vulkan)
• AndroBench – 274.92 MB/s (Seq. Read), 213.96 MB/s (Seq. Write)

15W Fast Charging, Battery Life, and Connectivity

One of the Galaxy A03s key attributes is its large 5,000mAh which is good enough to last you a full day and a half of moderate usage without an additional charge. In the PCMark Work 3.0 Battery Life Test, the unit yielded a score of around 11 hours and 23 minutes.

Charging is slow with the 15W fast charging, the 5,000mAh battery can be fully charged up to 100% in about 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Aside from the battery and charger, the Galaxy A03s has your usual connectivity features, including dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by), 4G LTE, dual-band WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, a 3.5mm audio jack, and USB Type-C.

Samsung Galaxy A03s Specifications

6.5-inch HD+ (720 x 1600) PLS TFT LCD display
MediaTek Helio P35 chipset
PowerVR GE8320 GPU
4GB of RAM
64GB of internal storage
Expandable to 1TB via microSD
Triple rear cameras (13MP main + 2MP macro + 2MP depth)
5MP front camera
Dual-SIM (nano) / 4G LTE
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n / Bluetooth 5.0
A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS
Fingerprint sensor (side)
USB Type-C / 3.5mm headphone jack
One UI 3.0 (Android 11)
5,000mAh battery w/ 15W charging
164.2 x 75.9 x 9.1mm (dimension)
196g (weight)
Colors: Blue, Black and White

Price and Availability

The Samsung Galaxy A03s (4GB+64GB) retails for Php6,490 SRP and is now available nationwide on both offline and online channels.

Verdict

So, is the Samsung Galaxy A03s the smartphone for you? I recommend that you shortlist the Galaxy A03s. Even though there are other options out there that offer better features and specs at the same budget segment, still, the Galaxy A03s is a good and reliable smartphone for those who are looking for excellent battery life, decent cameras, and a good UI, given its price.