Samsung’s Galaxy A06 sits at the bottom of the A-series lineup, offering a simple smartphone experience for those on a tight budget. While Samsung is known for delivering premium and mid-range phones with solid features, the A06 strips things back to the essentials, making it a potential option as a backup phone or for users who don’t need much power.
At first glance, the Galaxy A06 follows a familiar budget-friendly design, featuring a plastic build with a textured finish that adds some grip. The phone also sticks with a basic 6.7-inch LCD, a low 720p resolution, and a 60Hz refresh rate, making it clear that this device isn’t built for premium visuals.
Performance-wise, the MediaTek Helio G85 chipset is far from impressive, and its slower storage technology adds to an overall laggy user experience. Even routine tasks like browsing and opening apps can feel sluggish, and 5G support is missing, which could be a dealbreaker for some.
One area where the Galaxy A06 does deliver is battery life. The 5,000mAh battery allows for decent longevity, but charging speeds are underwhelming, and there’s no charger in the box.
As for cameras, the 50MP main shooter seems promising on paper, but actual results are average at best, with soft details and washed-out colors. The selfie camera also disappoints, making this a poor choice for users who care about photography.
So, does the Samsung Galaxy A06 offer enough to make it worth buying? Or are there better alternatives in the same price range? Let’s dive into the full review and find out.
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Design And Build Quality
The Samsung Galaxy A06 sits at the bottom of the Galaxy A-series lineup, offering a basic but functional design. While it lacks the premium materials and sleek aesthetics of more expensive Samsung models, it still manages to feel sturdy and reliable in the hand.
The plastic back and frame are complemented by rounded corners, making the device easy to grip. The ribbed texture on the back isn’t just for looks—it adds a subtle tactile feel that helps improve grip. Despite being made of plastic, the A06 doesn’t feel cheap or flimsy. It has a solid build, and there’s no noticeable creaking or flexing when applying pressure.
One drawback is the lack of official water or dust resistance, meaning you’ll need to be careful around spills and dusty environments. Many budget phones skip an IP rating, so this isn’t surprising, but it’s still something to keep in mind.
On the right side of the frame, you’ll find the power button with an integrated fingerprint sensor. This side-mounted fingerprint scanner is snappy and highly accurate, allowing for quick unlocking. It’s a convenient placement, especially for one-handed use.
At the bottom, you get a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is becoming increasingly rare on modern smartphones. There’s also a single bottom-firing speaker, which delivers decent audio output. While mids and highs are clear, there’s little to no bass, and at higher volumes, distortion is noticeable. The speaker is fine for casual use, but for a better experience, it’s best to use wired headphones or Bluetooth audio devices.
Overall, the Galaxy A06’s design is simple but functional. It doesn’t offer premium materials or high-end features, but it feels solid, comfortable to hold, and provides a practical user experience.
Display Specs And Features
The Samsung Galaxy A06 comes with a 6.7-inch LCD display, which is quite basic by modern smartphone standards. Unlike the AMOLED panels found on Samsung’s higher-end devices, this LCD screen lacks deep contrast levels and vibrant colors, making visuals appear less punchy overall.
With a resolution of just 720p, the Galaxy A06’s display is not particularly sharp. The 262 PPI pixel density is noticeably lower than what you’d find on mid-range and flagship phones, meaning that text and images may not appear as crisp. If you’re used to higher-resolution screens, you might find the A06’s display a little grainy.
Another limitation is the 60Hz refresh rate, which is standard for budget devices but feels outdated compared to the 90Hz and 120Hz displays available on similarly priced competitors. The sluggish pixel response time means that scrolling and swiping don’t feel as smooth or fluid, especially when browsing through social media or navigating menus.
Brightness levels are decent but not exceptional. We measured a maximum brightness of around 560 nits, which is fine for indoor use but can struggle under direct sunlight. There is an auto-brightness feature, but it doesn’t boost brightness beyond its manual maximum, which means outdoor visibility remains limited in bright conditions.
Another downside is that there’s no support for HDR video playback, meaning streaming content from Netflix or YouTube won’t look as dynamic as on higher-end Samsung devices. Additionally, colors tend to appear more muted, and blacks look more grayish, which is a common issue with LCD panels.
Overall, the display on the Galaxy A06 is functional but unimpressive. It’s good enough for casual use, such as browsing the web or watching videos, but lacks the sharpness, contrast, and smoothness of more premium screens.
Software & Updates
The Samsung Galaxy A06 runs on One UI 6.1 based on Android 14, delivering a user-friendly experience with many of the same features found on Samsung’s more premium devices. While it lacks the fancy Galaxy AI features seen in Samsung’s flagship models, it still provides a clean and intuitive interface for everyday use.
Samsung’s One UI is known for its customization options and ease of use, allowing users to personalize themes, home screen layouts, and quick settings. The notification shade and app drawer are similar to what you’ll find on higher-end Galaxy phones, giving a familiar feel even on this budget device.
Samsung has also committed to two years of major Android OS updates and four years of security patches. While this isn’t as long as what Samsung offers on its flagship and mid-range phones, it’s still a decent software support period for an entry-level device. Many budget competitors don’t offer the same level of update longevity, so the Galaxy A06 has an advantage in this regard.
Performance & Chipset
The Samsung Galaxy A06 is powered by the MediaTek Helio G85 chipset, a budget processor that has been used in many entry-level and lower mid-range devices. While it is fine for basic tasks like web browsing, messaging, and social media, it is far from a powerhouse and doesn’t support 5G connectivity.
In benchmark tests, the Galaxy A06 ranks at the bottom of the charts, showing its limited performance capabilities. The combination of a modest chipset, minimal RAM, and slower storage speeds means that the user experience isn’t entirely smooth.
Even in day-to-day use, we encountered stutters and lag, especially when switching between apps or navigating through the interface. Animations and transitions aren’t as fluid as you’d find on higher-end devices, and apps sometimes take a moment to load.
When it comes to gaming, lighter titles like Subway Surfers and Clash Royale run fine, but more demanding games like Call of Duty Mobile and PUBG Mobile struggle. You’ll need to drop graphics settings to low or medium to achieve playable frame rates, and even then, occasional frame drops and lag spikes can occur.
Multitasking is another area of weakness, as the limited RAM (depending on the variant) struggles to keep multiple apps running smoothly in the background. If you open too many apps at once, the phone will often reload them, slowing down the overall experience.
For a basic user who mainly uses their phone for calling, texting, and light social media browsing, the Galaxy A06 is adequate. However, power users or those who frequently play games or edit media may find its performance frustrating.
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Storage Options
The Galaxy A06 is available in two storage variants: 64GB or 128GB. Thankfully, it supports microSD card expansion, allowing you to increase storage capacity if needed.
However, it’s important to note that the internal storage uses eMMC 5.1 technology, which is significantly slower than UFS storage found on more premium devices. This contributes to longer loading times, slower app installations, and a generally less responsive experience when compared to phones with faster storage solutions.
Battery Life & Charging Speed
One of the stronger aspects of the Samsung Galaxy A06 is its battery life. The device is equipped with a 5,000mAh battery, which is fairly standard for budget smartphones but still impressive in terms of endurance. In our battery tests, the phone achieved an active use score of 13 hours and 50 minutes, making it a reliable option for users who need a phone that can last all day on a single charge.
With moderate usage, including web browsing, social media, and some video streaming, the Galaxy A06 can easily last a full day, and lighter users may even stretch it to two days before needing to recharge. Even with gaming and heavier tasks, the battery holds up well, making it a dependable choice for long-lasting use.
In terms of charging speed, the Galaxy A06 supports 25W wired charging, which is respectable for a budget phone. However, Samsung has not included a charger in the box, meaning users will need to purchase one separately.
Unfortunately, during our testing, we encountered charging issues, where the device would not charge beyond 2W regardless of the adapter used. We believe this to be a defect with our review unit, but under normal conditions, the charging performance should be similar to the Galaxy A05s, which reached 43% charge in 30 minutes and a full charge in around 90 minutes.
Wireless charging is not supported, which is expected at this price point. While the charging speeds aren’t the fastest, the battery endurance makes up for it, ensuring that users won’t need to charge frequently throughout the day.
Camera Specs & Performance
The Samsung Galaxy A06 has a very simple camera setup, consisting of a 50MP main camera accompanied by a depth sensor. While this might sound impressive on paper, the real-world performance reveals the limitations of a budget smartphone camera.
Main Camera:
The main camera captures 12.5MP photos by default through pixel binning, but the results are underwhelming. In daylight, photos turn out decent but not particularly impressive. The contrast is rather flat, and the dynamic range is lacking, often resulting in overexposed highlights and shadows with little detail. Color reproduction is inconsistent, especially in indoor environments where tones may appear inaccurate. There is a 2x zoom toggle, but without a dedicated telephoto lens, zooming relies entirely on digital cropping. This results in noticeably soft and blurry images, making it difficult to capture fine details beyond 2x zoom.
Low-light performance is one of the weakest aspects of this camera. Photos tend to be grainy and noisy, and the dynamic range struggles even further, leading to washed-out highlights and dark, shadowy areas that lack clarity. Enabling Night Mode helps reduce noise and slightly improves brightness, but at the cost of sharpness. The photos appear overprocessed, with excessive smoothing that removes finer details.
Video Quality:
Video recording on the Galaxy A06 is far from impressive. The main camera can capture 1080p footage, but the quality is subpar. Colors look washed out, and the sharpness is lacking. A major drawback is the absence of any video stabilization, which means that recordings can turn out quite shaky unless the phone is held perfectly still. Over-sharpening is another issue, causing footage to appear artificial and grainy. Recording video in low-light conditions further highlights the phone’s limitations, as the clips turn out noisy, soft, and with poor visibility.
Selfie Camera:
The front-facing camera features an 8MP sensor, but the results are disappointing. Selfies tend to be soft and lacking in detail, even in well-lit conditions. Colors often appear unnatural, and dynamic range is limited, meaning that backgrounds can easily become overexposed or too dark. In lower-light settings, the front camera struggles even more, producing images with significant noise and a lack of clarity. Video recording on the selfie camera is also limited to 1080p resolution, but the footage lacks detail and appears dull.
Overall, the camera system on the Samsung Galaxy A06 is quite basic and may not satisfy users who prioritize photography. The main camera is usable in good lighting, but it struggles in most other scenarios. With no ultra-wide or telephoto lens, poor low-light performance, and shaky video recording, the camera setup feels very limited. For casual users who only take occasional photos and videos, it may be enough, but for those looking for a reliable camera phone, there are better budget options available.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy A06 is the most basic model in the A-series lineup, and it shows in both its hardware and performance. The low-resolution 720p LCD display with a 60Hz refresh rate feels outdated compared to competitors, while the MediaTek Helio G85 chipset struggles with lag and stutters, even during daily tasks. The lack of 5G connectivity and NFC support further limits its appeal, making it feel less future-proof than other budget phones in the same price range.
That said, the Galaxy A06 still has a few redeeming qualities. The solid build, side-mounted fingerprint scanner, and long-lasting 5,000mAh battery make it a practical choice for those who only need a phone for basic communication and light browsing. The 50MP camera can deliver decent photos in ideal lighting, but low-light performance and video recording are major weaknesses.
For those considering this phone, it might be a good option as a backup device or for users who are simply looking for a Samsung-branded budget phone. However, with better alternatives available, such as the Samsung Galaxy A16 (4G or 5G versions), it’s worth exploring other options before making a final decision.
