My iPhone have officially retired from service due to a very very very bloated battery. I see no point in spending money to replace the battery although it's still pretty functional. It does lags here and there but still able to meet the basic usage.
When my friend saw my phone's battery condition (with the screen bulging), she bought me a new phone. And it happened to be a Samsung A14 with 4GB Ram and 128GB memory.
While I am soo grateful for that! I have to admit that my first impression of the phone is:
"If you want to train your patience, get a phone that is slower than your previous."
The Built and Design
I have to say that I love the phone's design. It's nice to hold but I feel the fingerprint sensor (also the power on button) can be better placed. It is also quite small so it is not able to pick up enough of the fingerprint needed to unlock your phone. The unlocking is a hit and miss and quite slow at times.
I kinda like the 3 cameras design at the back and the matte back cover with vertical lines running through. This makes the phone have more grip.
The dedicated miscroSD card slot makes it possible to expand storage for a smaller price and dual SIM function is a plus.
Display and Brightness
The PLS LCD display of the A14 has a resolution of 1080 x 2408 pixels, 20:9 ratio (~400 ppi density).
It's bright even at 50% brightness in indoors situations. It's not so much under the sun/outdoors.
The PLS LCD really have an obvious advantage over the IPS LCD of the Poco X3 pro, it's brighter and more vibrant.
Videos and Music
Surprisingly, the A14 have pretty decent audio and video quality. It's more vibrant display really gives video a more stunning appeal.
I was able o pick up more details - like a more crisp strum of the guitar from the A14 as compared to the Poco x3 pro.
However, it seems that the Poco x3 pro gives slightly more punch overall. The A14 gives a slightly more hollow bass.
Battery
I was out with it for a whole 7 hours and it only went down by 20%. I wasn't using it much though, just some YouTube viewing (less than an hour) and texting.
During gaming, the battery drain relatively faster, at about 1% every 3-5 minutes.
Functionality and Gaming
Well, I have already made my views very clear at the start of the review. It's quite unstable and laggy when it comes to day to day usage. Multitasking is highly NOT recommended while app killing is!
Sometimes it takes more than a second to respond to my clicks and sometimes it loads app so slowly, I thought it hanged. Basically, there is a short lag whenever you click on something and it's especially with the appearance of the keyboard. It's much slower to appear compared to any phone I have used so far, even the Poco M3.
It surprisingly work ok with games like Clash of Clans and Hayday. Leisure games like Candy Crush are very much playable too.
For demanding games like Call of Duty and Mobile Legend, they are playable, but prepare for lags and stutters! And I won't recommend long playing sessions - the phone is gonna heat up and start slowing down.
Camera
The 50MP main camera is decent but some colours get a little too bright and overexposed. The macro and ultrawide cameras are usable but not impressive. Zooming even slightly into macro photos and you'll see it becomes pixelated.
On the left (or top), 50MP camera. On the right (or bottom), macro.
Ultra wide (2x)
1.0x
0.5x
Honestly, the camera are very very basic and photos can be a little dull.
Conclusion
I know I have been complaining a lot about this phone but at the price point is of SG$160-175, it's a decent phone in it's range. There are sacrifice made for the brighter PLS LCD and brand name which made the phone a little less stable in terms of functionality.
You can get a better deal if it's NOT a Samsung phone. Meaning, most of the cost goes into the actually functionality than the branding. But the upside is that Samsung promises more updates than other budget phones.
I think the Poco M3 is a good alternative of similar price range, it does better in many areas when compared to the A14. The M3 is less laggy and runs games better. M3 have slightly better cameras too.
If you're willing to top up a little more, you can get a better budget phone with more RAM and performance!
Pros |
Cons |
|---|---|
| Large battery (5,000mAh) | Slow responding |
| SD Card slot | Doesn't comes with much accessories |
| PLS LCD | Bass in loud speaker is lacking |
| Dual SIM | Quite impossible to game for long session |
| 3.5MM audio jack | Insensitive fingerprint sensor |
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