Samsung is showering the low and mid-range budget smartphone market with the M series and A series. As of that, the all-new Samsung Galaxy A60 or Samsung Galaxy M40 (In India) is yet another mid-budget smartphone in the market. Samsung A60 AKA M40 has promised the market some big statements. However, it is missing some of the promises already. This smartphone has a main attraction of the punch-hole display, and people do get tempted when they see a tiny punch hole as the Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10 plus.
Samsung A60 has been launched in mid-April of the year 2019 and hit the market by the end of June 2019. It has been considered as the successor of the A50, which was realized earlier and was a big hit for the outlook and the performance. But this phone is promising some high benchmarks, but let us see what it is made off. To know more, do stick with us in the full review.
Samsung A60 Review: The Punch Hole delight?
Many of us would be excited like, “Yes! It’s the all-new Samsung a60. That means it’s gonna be better than A50!” But hold it right there, don’t get too excited too soon. Let us do a test run at first and see what the phone is really about.
As you guys know, we will be focusing on some clinical categories that can give us a clear view of the smartphone. The categories are:
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Design
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Display
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Performance
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Camera
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Battery
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Sensors and Other Features
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Water Resistance
Let us talk about the categories real quick. I do remind you that this review is as per the review unit as we got from the company. Final versions may differ as they progress to the market.
Samsung A60 Design: The Sleek and Smooth Finishing
After holding the phone for the first time, I do have to admit that the phone is really a compelling one. The color combination is pretty good as it has a cute color combination and some cool gradient. The main Camera of the triple camera setup has a matching outline ring with the back color as well.
The phone looks and feels a bit plastic-y as it is made out of plastic to reduce the costs a little bit. The Dimensions of the phone are 6.11 inches in length, 2.91 inches in width, and 0.31 inches in the breadth. It weighs around 163 grams. Comparing the dimensions with the phone’s weight, it is a very light phone because it is made out of plastic.
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This phone has a sleek design and body to screen ratio altogether. The volume rocker and the power button is placed on the right side of the phone. To be honest, I expected better feedback of the buttons, but that does not mean they are bad, it is just not the right type for me. (www.dynamicslr.com) But you will be enjoying it, though. On the left, there is a SIM slot. Unfortunately, there is no headphone jack, but Samsung was generous enough to include a type C to 3.55 jack dongle inside the box. I do remind you that you will have to sacrifice the charging or the headphone if you want to use the headphone and charge your phone at the same time unless you buy yourself a Bluetooth or wireless headphones.
The design is pretty sleek, decent marks on that. Perhaps the main attraction would be the Punch Hole display. But we will get to that later.
Overall I am satisfied with the design perspective. The bit in this price range, I would like to have a glass body or an aluminum or metal frame on the phone. Samsung should think of this in its upcoming editions.
Samsung Galaxy A60 Display: The Punch Hole wonder!
Now we have come to the most awaited category for this smartphone. So let us dig into the display and see what it is made of.
From the very first look, we will be sure that it is an LCD display. But when you try to have a closer look at the specs, you will see that *drum rolls* it is a TFT Screen! Yes, Guys! You have heard it right! It is a PLS TFT Screen. This 6.3 inches PLS TFT Screen comes with the protection of Corning Gorilla Glass 3. So, there is some certified protection for the display. This display is the full high definition; that means it has a resolution of 1080 pixels into 2340 pixels. The aspect ratio is 19:5:9. The PPI density us around 409 and the screen to body ratio is about 84.9%.
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The main attraction, the punch hole, is in the far left and well in place. But there are some drawbacks to this display or screen. As it is a PLS TFT display, so it is likely to see some distortions and color saturations around the edges. It is not an exception in this particular smartphone as well. There is a visible shadow around the punch hole and the home buttons as well. So it might not be the perfect screen type for a punch-hole display. Samsung would have used AMOLED, and the result would have been right on the other side of the coin.
As far as the experience is concerned, as it is a TFT screen, it does not provide you any real power saving. The blacks are okay, but it won’t reduce the power consumption whatsoever. However, the colors are pretty bright and vivid, and people will face no real problems in outdoors or specifically in the sunlight.
Overall the display is okay to work with. But as I said before, the display should have been AMOLED. If you are okay to make this tiny sacrifice (or big sacrifices for the technical users like me) for the trendy pinch hole display, then this is a pretty good deal for you.
And for the people who think that this device is just a decoy, then you are the wrong dude. It is doing some wonders with ancient tech like TFTs.
Samsung Galaxy A60 Full Specifications
General
| Brand | Samsung |
| Model | Galaxy A60 |
| Release date | April 2019 |
| Launched in India | No |
| Form factor | Touchscreen |
| Dimensions (mm) | 155.20 x 73.90 x 7.90 |
| Weight (g) | 162.00 |
| Battery capacity (mAh) | 3500 |
| Colors | Magical Orange, Phantom Black |
Display
| Screen size (inches) | 6.30 |
| Touchscreen | Yes |
| Resolution | 1080×2340 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 19.5:9 |
Hardware
| Processor | octa-core |
| Processor make | Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 |
| RAM | 6GB |
| Internal storage | 64GB |
| Expandable storage | Yes |
| Expandable storage type | microSD |
| Expandable storage up to (GB) | 512 |
Camera
| Rear Camera | 32-megapixel (f/1.7) + 8-megapixel (f/2.2) + 5-megapixel (f/2.2) |
| Rear autofocus | Yes |
| Rear flash | Yes |
| Front Camera | 32-megapixel (f/2.0) |
Software
| Operating system | Android 9.0 Pie |
| Skin | One UI |
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi | Yes |
| Wi-Fi standards supported | 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac |
| GPS | Yes |
| Bluetooth | Yes, v 5.00 |
| USB Type-C | Yes |
| Number of SIMs | 2 |
| Active 4G on both SIM cards | Yes |
SIM 1
| SIM Type | Nano-SIM |
| GSM/CDMA | GSM |
| 3G | Yes |
| 4G/ LTE | Yes |
| Supports 4G in India (Band 40) | Ye |
SIM 2
| SIM Type | Nano-SIM |
| GSM/CDMA | GSM |
| 3G | Yes |
| 4G/ LTE | Yes |
| Supports 4G in India (Band 40) | Yes |
Sensors
| Face unlock | Yes |
| Fingerprint sensor | Yes |
| Compass/ Magnetometer | Yes |
| Proximity sensor | Yes |
| Accelerometer | Yes |
| Ambient light sensor | Yes |
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Samsung Galaxy A60 Performance: The Snapdragon Chipset
Galaxy Samsung A60 has started with a mixed reaction as we have covered the design and display category as of now. Now we would like to go through the details about the performance now. As of now, the performance can be measured if we get to have a closer look inside the hood and see what the phone is operated by; that means the software. So without wasting any time, let us get into it and see what this phone has to offer.
Hardware
This phone comes with a chipset designed by Qualcomm. The chipset is Qualcomm Snapdragon 675. It might not be the fastest of the line as there are more exciting chipsets by Qualcomm, but it is fairly workable with seamless multitasking but will jitter a bit if you are into heavy gaming. Having said that, this 11 nm chipset runs in 8 cores and is pretty smooth overall. The GPU is of Adreno 612.
The RAM is 6 GB, and the storage has two variants; 64 GB and 128 GB. This is pretty decent as a smartphone perspective.
The speakers are not the loudest but were decent, but it will give you a hard time if you are in a crowded area.
Software
The phone runs in Android 9.0 PIE but is upgradable to Android 10. It runs smoothly in ONE UI 2.0, and I must tell you despite some occasional jitters and lagging, the phone did a pretty good job.
The phone was put into some real test as of the performance. I must tell you that the smartphone is very swift for casual or multitasking users, but when you switch to heavy tasks and performance consuming tasks like gaming, the phone does give some hiccups; though it is occasional.
The Camera of Samsung Galaxy A60
The camera modules are promising as far as the hardware is concerned. But when it comes to real-life applications, it is heartbreaking to some extend.
The Rear Camera has the main Camera of 0.8 micrometers 32 Mega Pixels with a ban aperture count of f/1.7. The Ultra-wide Camera AKA, the second Camera of this smartphone is a 12 mm 8 Mega Pixels camera with an aperture count of f/2.2. The last one is not actually a camera. Rather it is a depth sensor as it is of 5 Mega Pixels with an aperture count of f/2.2.
For the front-facing Camera, it is placed on the far right of the screen in the Infinity O display or in the punch hole. It is a wide camera of 16 Mega Pixels with an aperture count of f/2.0.
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The cameras are very decent, as a hardware perspective, but it is not too good as the results are. In broad daylight, the pictures are good, but when we take a closer look, then we will see the visible loss of detail. A 32 Mega Pixel main camera does not mean that they will be producing good pictures.
As far as the videography is concerned the main Camera supports up to 4k video recording with a frame rate of 30 frames per second and the front-facing Camera AKA the selfie camera supports up to 1080p with a frame rate of 30 frames per second.
Battery of A60
The battery is a 3500 mAh Lithium-Ion Battery with a fast charge 2.0 capability. It might not be the fast of the fastest, but it can charge your phone up t0 40% in 30 minutes. The USB Type C cable and 15-watt power brick are included in the box.
Sensors and Other features
The Sensors are all included, including a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, proximity, gyro, light, and compass. Bixby language detection is a great inclusion.
Water Resistance
None that I know of. Unfortunate though.
FAQs of A60/M40
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Does Samsung Galaxy A60/M40 support dual SIM?
Yes, it has a hybrid SIM slot; that means you will have the luxury to use two SIM if you don’t need an SD Card.
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Does it have an IR blaster?
No, it does not.
A60/M40 at a Glance and the Pricing in India
Samsung Galaxy M40 AKA Samsung Galaxy A60 is the last phone of the 1st Generation Samsung M Series. This time Samsung intended to spice things up a little bit. The went to give a signature Punch hole display factor in this product, but as we said before that the display is a TFT display. This display factor was first introduced in the all-new Samsung Galaxy S 10 and S 10 Plus. The 6.3 Inches Full HD+ PLS TFT display was named as Infinity O Display. It had a resolution of 1080 into 2340 pixels. The latest Android 9.0 was running with ONE UI. This time Samsung opted a Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 as their processor. Six hundred seventy-five chipsets was a fairly popular and powerful processor.
As far as the Camera is concerned, 32 Mega Pixels, 8 Mega Pixels, and 5 Mega Pixels were the rear camera setup, and the front-facing Camera was 16 Mega Pixels. The pictures are okay, but was expecting a bit more punch to be honest. It had a battery of 3500 MAh, and fast charging enabled, providing that it had a 15 Watt Fast charging power brick included in the package.
As the pricing is concerned, it is around 17,990 INR for the 64 GB and 19,900 INR for the 128 GB version.
Conclusion
Honestly speaking, I am not that much satisfied with this unit. The Camera, the display, and the performance are not that impactful as of the competitors in the market. It failed to be the worthy successor of A 50. Having said that, it is not that bad, and people would still buy it. So that was all for today, guys. Please stay home and stay safe in this pandemic.
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