Only 6 months after the release of the A70 comes the A71. So, is it worth upgrading? Well, let’s start by looking at what hasn’t changed before moving onto the differences.
Firstly, the screen is still a 6.7” super AMOLED Gorilla Glass 3 with a plastic back and frame. The only difference is that the selfie camera rather than being a teardrop notch is a now a centrally placed pinhole. This has increased the screen-to-body ratio from 86% to 87.2%.
The A71 is slightly smaller and I mean slightly <1mm shaved of the height, width and depth. This has also helped the weight to drop by 4g to 179g. The battery remains the same at 4500 mAh with 25W fast charging on tap. It also retains its 3.5mm headphone jack and single, bottom-firing speaker.
Upgraded processor and Android 10
Now the differences. Firstly, the processor has been upgraded from the Snapdragon 675 to the leading mid-range Snapdragon 730. The GPU has also been upgraded from the Adreno 612 to Adreno 618.
Like the A70, the A71 is available with 6 or 8GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage. However, the A71 now ships with the bang up-to-date Android 10, rather than Android 9 as well as Samsung’s new and improved One UI 2 skin.
Improved quad array camera
The camera is where most of the upgrade budget seems to have been spent. Firstly, it is now a quad, rather than triple array setup. The main lens has gone from a 32MP to a 64MP f/1.8 wide, whilst the secondary is now a 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide (up from 8MP). There is still a 5MP f/2.2 depth sensor and there has been added a 5MP f/2.4 macro lens, which seem to be all the rage for 2020. Sadly, it does not have auto focus, so you have to struggle to get your close-ups in focus.
The lens and flash layout are in the new rectangular style, already seen on the S20 and seems to be following the trend set by Apple and Huawei. On the front there is no change to the 32MP f/2.0 wide selfie camera.
Available in more colours than the A70 (Prism, Crush Black, Silver, Blue and Pink) it is on sale SIM free for just over £400.
It is worth the extra money over the A70? Probably, the better camera and processor just about justify the price difference. It all depends on whether those things are important to you. The A70 is a good phone with a great camera (we use one here at RUCK Marketing to take our pictures) so is probably enough for most people’s needs.
