Samsung Galaxy A15 5G Review

With a large, sharp display, above-average battery life, expandable storage, and competitive performance, Samsung’s $199.99 Galaxy A15 5G is hard to beat for the price. The phone is also eligible for four years of system updates, meaning you won’t need to replace it for a while. Though some aspects of its build quality could be better, the Galaxy A15 5G is a step ahead of the similarly priced competition, earning it our Editors’ Choice award for budget-friendly Android phones.

Design: Primarily Plastic

The Galaxy A15 bears a strong resemblance to Samsung’s other devices. At 6.30 by 3.02 by 0.33 inches (HWD) and 7.09 ounces, it’s close in size to the midrange $599 Galaxy S23 FE (6.22 by 3.01 by 0.32 inches, 7.37 ounces) and the high-end $999 Samsung Galaxy S24+ (6.24 by 3.0 by 0.30 inches, 6.95 ounces). It also has a similar shape to those phones, with rounded corners and flat sides.

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

In the hand, the A15 feels sturdy but lacks some of the polish of the pricier Galaxy S models. Dragontrail Pro glass protects the display, but the back and frame are plastic. The front glass is slightly raised from the frame while the back plastic is slightly inset.

Like most other phones in this price range, the A15 has no IP rating. That means you should avoid dust and water. Some budget-friendly Motorola phones do better here—the $169.99 Moto G Play can at least handle light splashing, with a rating of IP52.

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

Samsung calls the small bump that houses the volume rocker and power button the Key Island. The volume rocker juts out a bit, while the power button is recessed. The volume rocker is the easier of the two buttons to find and use. This matters because the power button doubles as a fingerprint reader. At first I tended to place my thumb onto the raised frame around the power button instead of the button itself, but was eventually able to adjust and use the fingerprint sensor reliably.

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

The left side features a combined SIM and microSD card tray, while the bottom has a 3.5mm headphone jack, a USB-C port (USB 2.0), and a down-firing speaker. I’m glad to see a headphone jack and microSD slot here, as those features are largely gone from midrange and high-end devices.

Three cameras are positioned vertically on the rear. As is typical for Samsung’s latest phones, there is no bump for the cameras; the individual lenses protrude directly from the rear surface. A selfie camera is visible in a U-shaped notch built into the top of the screen.

As for colors, Samsung sells the A15 in Blue Black or Light Blue. I tested the Blue Black model.

A Brighter Display

A 6.5-inch Super AMOLED screen takes up most of the phone’s face, though there’s a noticeable bezel around it that’s thicker than you usually see on pricier phones. The display has a resolution of 2,340 by 1,080 pixels, a fixed refresh rate of 90Hz, and a maximum brightness of 800 nits.

For comparison, the outgoing A14 has a larger 6.6-inch display, but is significantly dimmer at 500 nits. TCL’s $179.99 40 X 5G also goes bigger with a 6.56-inch panel and has the same 90Hz refresh rate, though it has a much lower resolution of 1,612 by 720 pixels. For more money, the $299.99 OnePlus Nord N30 5G has a 6.7-inch display with 2,400 by 1,080 pixels, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a maximum brightness of 680 nits.

Reflections on the glass can can be easily visible outdoors (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

Indoors, the screen looks bright, sharp, and shows smooth animations. Outside, the display is visible in normal conditions, but reflections can get in the way at off-angles, especially during daylight hours.

Performance: It Does What You Need

Samsung uses a MediaTek 6835 system on a chip (SoC) with 128GB of internal storage and 4GB of RAM in the A15. As mentioned, you can expand the storage by adding a microSD card up to 1TB. The A14 has just 64GB of space, so this is a welcome upgrade.

You shouldn’t expect blazing performance from a $200 phone, but the A15 is quite competent. It easily handles everyday tasks like email, web browsing, and media playback, though you might encounter some lag when you switch between apps.

(Credit: Geekbench/PCMark/GFXBench)

I used benchmarks that simulate typical phone use to get a better handle on the phone’s power. On Geekbench 6, a suite of tests that quantifies raw computing power, the A15 got a single-core score of 704 and a multi-core score of 1,855. The TCL 40 X, which runs on the MediaTek Dimensity 700, did slightly better at 718 and 1,959. By way of comparison, the $599 Galaxy S23 FE scored 1,520 and 3,143, while the $799 Galaxy S24 scored 2,260 and 6,893. These pricier Galaxy models run top chips from Qualcomm.

On the PCMark Work 3.0 test, which evaluates performance for general mobile tasks, the A15 scored 8,734. This is better than the results of the Galaxy A14 and 40 X, which scored 7,886 and 7,428, respectively. The Nord N30, with its more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 processor, beat all of them with a score of 10,245.

To quantify graphics performance, I ran the GFXBench Aztec Ruins test at a resolution of 2,267 by 1,041 pixels. Here, the A15 pushed 8.6 frames per second (fps). The TCL 40 X managed 5.7fps on the same test, while the S23 FE hit 35fps and the S24 hit 85fps. Frame rates directly impact game performance.

In terms of real-world performance, you can play the graphics-intensive Genshin Impact smoothly if you stick with the default options, but ramping up to even medium settings and 60fps leads to lots of choppy animations. The more casual Mario Kart Tour plays well overall, though I occasionally encountered slowdown when a lot of action was happening. The basic Alto’s Odyssey and word-based games ran perfectly.

Battery Life: Better Than the A14

Battery life is far better on the A15 than on the A14. In battery rundown tests, in which I streamed full HD video over Wi-Fi with the screen at maximum brightness, the A15 lasted 14 hours and 3 minutes, a significant jump over the 9 hours and 40 minutes of its predecessor. The TCL 40 X falls between the two at 11 hours and 13 minutes, while the Nord N30 lasted 11 hours and 18 minutes. It’s worth noting that each of these phones packs a 5,000mAh battery.

Wireless charging isn’t available, but the A15 supports 25W wired charging (up from 15W on the A14). Charging from 0% to 100% took around 90 minutes using a 25W charger. Charging the phone for 15 minutes brought the battery to 28%, and charging it for 30 minutes brought it to 49%. Samsung doesn’t include a charging brick, so you need to supply your own.

Average Connectivity and Call Quality

I tested an AT&T variant of the phone, but Samsung also sells versions compatible with T-Mobile, UScellular, and Verizon. The phone supports C-band 5G, which is broadly available around the country, but not the faster mmWave variety that is located in some urban areas. Similar to other low-cost phones, the A15 doesn’t support eSIMs, so you have to use an actual SIM card.

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

On AT&T’s 5G network in New York City, the Galaxy A15 reached peak speeds of 397Mbps down and 72.4Mbps up. For comparison, the $599.99 Motorola Edge reached 401Mbps down and 82.3Mbps up on the same network in the same location.

For additional wireless connecitivty, the A15 supports Wi-Fi 5. When I connected the phone to a Wi-Fi 6 access point, it reached peak speeds of 412Mbps down and 9.71Mbps up. (The slow upload speed is more a function of my internet service provider than the phone.) The Moto Edge, which supports Wi-Fi 6E, reached similar speeds at 462Mbps down and 19.6Mbps up. When I took the A15 as far away as possible from the access point in my apartment, speeds dropped to 162Mbps down and 20.6Mbps up. The Moto Edge performed much worse, getting just 57.8Mbps down and 7.42Mbps up.

Call quality could be better. When I tested the phone’s ability to filter out background music, my voice sounded lightly muffled to the person on the other side of the call. Without background music playing, call clarity was only slightly better.

The earpiece speaker reached a maximum of 75.8dB in testing, so you should be able to hear calls in most situations. The speakerphone volume maxed out at 65.2dB, so you may not be able to hear it above any ambient noise. Generally, volumes higher than 70dB are easiest to hear in moderately noisy areas.

The phone uses the same single down-firing speaker for both speakerphone functionality and media playback. When I played Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” I recorded a maximum volume of 97.5dB. Despite the loudness, the song sounded a bit thin and lacking in bass frequencies. The Knife’s “Silent Shout” is missing low-end power, too. For better audio quality, break out your Bluetooth or wired headphones.

Rounding out your connectivity options, the phone supports Bluetooth 5.3 and NFC is available for mobile payments.

Cameras: Pretty Good for the Price

Samsung changes up the cameras from the A14 to a small degree here. The A15 includes a 50MP f/1.8 main camera, a 5MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera. The A14 has the same main and macro cameras, but a 2MP depth camera instead of the ultra-wide. There is no AI-based trickery here as on the premium Galaxy S24 line.

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

The primary camera produces the best images out of the rear trio. By default, it captures 12MP images via pixel binning, but it can capture full 50MP shots if you wish. Colors look slightly oversaturated compared with reality, but the details are sharp. Minor lens flare was apparent in some photos.

Main camera (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

The ultra-wide camera produces boosted colors as well. That said, fine details in wide-angle shots are blurry, and obvious fish-eye warping is visible along the edges.

Ultra-wide camera (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

Results from the macro camera are grainy unless you have a lot of light.

Macro camera (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

The 13MP selfie camera preserves a fair amount of detail, but leans toward oversaturated colors. Portrait mode is aggressive by default, and the phone had some difficulty finding the edges on busy areas like hair. You can adjust the amount of blur in the Samsung Gallery app.

Left to right: Selfie mode, Portrait mode (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

Video capture tops out at 1080p and 30fps. The system lacks optical image stabilization, so the handheld footage I took while walking looks jittery. The video quality itself is good, with clear details and accurate colors.

When it comes to camera phones, you generally get what you pay for. I’m reasonably satisfied with the image and video quality from the $200 A15, but creative types might want to spend more for a wider array of features and sharper results.

Software: Samsung Is Committed

The Galaxy A15 runs Android 14 with Samsung One UI 6.0 on top of it. Samsung’s software overlay unlocks Edge Panels (a customizable taskbar you can swipe through), lets you stack widgets on your home screen, and enables Multi Control (a way to control other Galaxy devices like laptops or tablets from the phone).

(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)

More importantly, Samsung backs the phone with a promise of four OS upgrades and five years of security updates. That’s a solid commitment for any device, and is particularly good for a budget-friendly phone. For comparison, TCL plans to push security patches to the 40 X for just two years and doesn’t commit to OS upgrades beyond Android 14. OnePlus promises just one Android upgrade for the Nord N30 5G, but three years of security updates.

The Budget Phone to Beat

Samsung’s $199 Galaxy A15 5G offers several advantages over the A14, including double the storage, a brighter screen, and significantly better battery life. It also has a leg up on similarly priced competitors thanks to its solid overall performance, long battery life, and Samsung’s excellent software upgrade commitment. As such, Samsung Galaxy A15 5G replaces the A14 as our Editors’ Choice winner for low-cost Android phones.