Samsung Galaxy A03 Unboxing and Review

Samsung recently introduced the new Galaxy A03 to bridge the gap with preference for students and first-time job-seekers who are having difficulty selecting the best budget smartphone available on the market as they are still expensive.

The Galaxy A03 introduces new and improved features that might fuel the creativity, passion, and productivity of students and first-time job-seekers to achieve their goals in life, whether in school or at work.

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 A03

The front portion of the packaging indicates the Galaxy A03 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 A03 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 and details about Samsung Care+, a repair service program exclusively for Samsung customers who have purchased a new Samsung smartphone.

Underneath the pack is the Galaxy A03 smartphone wrapped in clear plastic. Beneath is Samsung’s Travel Adaptor, micro-USB to USB-A charging cable, and SIM card ejector tool. The Galaxy A03 does not come with an earphone nor a protective case – you have to provide your own.

Design and Walk Around

The Samsung Galaxy A03 combines streamlined design aesthetics with a cross-hatched light pattern and soft matte finish on the back. I like this kind of texture because it protects the phone from scratches, and is less susceptible to fingerprint smudges. The Galaxy A03 is available in three colors: Black, Blue, and Red.

The Galaxy A03 measures 9.1mm thick and is lightweight at 196g. The refined curves make it comfortable to hold and provide easy screen navigation. Even though the device uses polycarbonate plastic for the frame and back panel, the phone feels solidly built, and sturdy.

On the front, the Galaxy A03 is equipped with a large 6.5-inch HD+ (1600 x 720) PLS 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 dual-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 power button.

The top is clean with only the secondary noise-canceling microphone present; while at the bottom of the Galaxy A03, you can find the micro-USB charging port, a single downward-firing speaker, a primary microphone, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

Display and Multimedia

The display panel of the Galaxy A03 produces good colors; viewing angles are also decent and the screen can get bright even outdoors. 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 A03 rear cameras feature a 48MP F1.8 main camera and a 2MP F2.4 depth camera with a Live Focus that adjusts the background and foreground focus to portrait shots.

Students and first-time job-seekers can also experiment for more creative content with its built-in filters, which make all shots have more vibrant colors and effects. The Galaxy A03 also includes a background blur effect feature for achieving a bokeh effect, which is ideal for high-quality portrait shots that truly stand out.

Quality from the rear cameras under bright lighting conditions is pretty decent, though dynamic range and sharpness can be better.

For low light, the Galaxy A03 is a poor performer even with the Night Mode feature turned on.

Front Selfie Camera

The Galaxy A03 uses a 5MP front camera with an F2.2 aperture. The camera also supports different features such as Live Focus effect, 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 A03 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 A03 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, it is equipped with facial recognition for unlocking the device. The facial recognition of the device works very well. However, it can slow down in situations where there isn’t much light.

Hardware and Performance

The Galaxy A03 comes with a UNISOC Tiger T606 octa-core processor. This processor is made using a 12nm process and is equipped with two Cortex-A75 cores at up to 1.6GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores at up to 1.6GHz, along with 650MHz Mali G57 MP1 GPU.

The performance of Galaxy A03 performs smoothly in casual and light tasks; gaming experience in graphics-intensive games is okay 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.

My unit comes in a 4GB RAM variant, but there’s also a 3GB RAM variant. The Galaxy A03 is available in the Philippines in three storage variants - 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB 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 v9.3.1 – 164,884
• AnTuTu Storage Test v9.3.1 – 11,737 (265.3 MB/s Seq. Read, 197.5 MB/s Seq. Write)
• Geekbench 5.4.4 – 304 (Single-core), 1,174 (Multi-core)
• PCMark – 6,784 (Work 3.0)
• 3DMark – 966 (SSE – OpenGL ES 3.1) 948 (SSE – Vulkan)

Battery Life, Charging, and Connectivity

The Samsung Galaxy A03 has a large 5,000mAh battery perfect to accompany the busy schedule of every student and first-time job-seekers. The 5,000mAh battery 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 14 hours and 43 minutes.

Charging is slow with the included charger, 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 A03 has your usual connectivity features, including dual SIM (nano-SIM, dual stand-by), 4G LTE, dual-band WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

Samsung Galaxy A03 Specifications

6.5-inch HD+ (1600 x 720) PLS LCD display, 270ppi
1.6GHz UNISOC Tiger T606 octa-core CPU, 12nm
650MHz ARM Mali G57 MP1 GPU
3GB/4GB RAM
32GB/64GB/128GB of internal storage
microSD card support (dedicated slot)
Dual rear cameras (48MP F1.8 main + 2MP F2.4 depth)
5MP F2.2 front camera
Dual-SIM / 4G LTE
WiFi 802.11ac / Bluetooth 5.0
GPS, Glonass, Galileo, QZSS
micro-USB 2.0 / 3.5mm headphone jack
Android 11 (OneUI 3.1 Core)
5,000mAh battery charging
164.2 x 75.9 x 9.1mm (dimension)
196g (weight)
Colors: Black, Blue, and Red

Price and Availability

The Samsung Galaxy A03 is available nationwide and retails for:

• Php5,490 SRP (3+32GB)
• Php6,490 SRP (4+64GB)
• Php7,490 SRP (4+128GB)

The Galaxy A03 is also available for as low as Php660/month for up to 6 months at 0% interest via Home Credit until March 31. Those who purchase the Galaxy A03 until March 31 will also receive a 1-year free subscription to VIU Premium worth Php999.

Verdict

Is the Samsung Galaxy A03 the smartphone for you? I recommend that you shortlist the Galaxy A03. With the Galaxy A03, you’re getting a very good and affordable phone that checks all the essential features - excellent battery life, decent cameras, and surprisingly good performance, given its price. The cheaper 3GB+32GB variant does look tempting but spending an extra to get more RAM and storage is a bit worthy.