It’s not a good signal if you’ve thought of throwing your smartphone out the window. Not due to—nicely, *gestures at all the pieces*— however as a result of it’s simply so irritating to make use of. I went out to dinner lately, and a colleague—who was utilizing a six-year-old iPhone SE—identified how sluggish my brand-new telephone was. I used to be able to toss the factor. 

The offender was Samsung’s new Galaxy A23 5G, a $300 Android telephone. You could be considering that I’m being too harsh on a cheap phone, which is truthful. These finances telephones need to make sacrifices someplace. But even sub-$200 telephones carry out higher than this one. You produce other choices on this worth vary, and it’s best to discover them. 

What Works

What’s unhappy is that the Galaxy A23 5G has a number of issues going for it. First and foremost, Samsung guarantees to assist this telephone for 4 years for safety updates and it’ll get three OS upgrades (as much as Android 15). That’s much better than another sub-$400 Android telephone, interval. You’ll be capable of get new options, have a tool freed from bugs, and never have to fret about safety flaws for an excellent size of time. 

It has a 6.6-inch LCD display with a 120-Hz refresh rate, the latter of which isn’t widespread to see at this worth. The display feels responsive, it’s fairly spacious (nice when you want huge telephones), and it will get shiny sufficient to see clearly on sunny days. I don’t have any qualms right here. The subsequent greatest characteristic? The A23 5G has a 5,000-mAh battery, so it should final two full days on a single cost with common use. I didn’t trouble plugging it in each night time as a result of it normally hit round 50 p.c. It’s good not having to fret a few lifeless telephone!

There’s sub-6 5G assist throughout all main carriers, so that you gained’t be caught on 4G LTE alone, plus this smartphone has different perks which are more and more lacking on high-end flagships. That features a headphone jack for anybody who nonetheless prefers to plug in, in addition to an NFC sensor so you can also make tap-to-pay contactless funds at retailers that assist it. There’s even a microSD card slot, which you’ll need to use as a result of the telephone solely comes with 64 gigabytes of storage. 

What Doesn’t

My woes with the Galaxy A23 5G begin with its processor: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 695. It’s odd as a result of the Moto G Stylus 5G 2022 I examined earlier this yr makes use of the identical chip and I didn’t have any efficiency points there. It would possibly come all the way down to the truth that the Motorola phone has 8 gigabytes of RAM and this Samsung is caught with a paltry 4 gigs.

You gained’t discover too many points if you’re simply utilizing a single app. I’ve been in a position to make use of this as my major gadget simply high-quality for greater than per week. I can ship emails, browse Twitter (welp), and reply to messages. It’s if you begin utilizing a number of apps concurrently that issues go awry. There are lengthy pauses as you look forward to an app to totally open and cargo, however it’s the bodily act of switching apps that pissed off me essentially the most.

I exploit the gesture navigation system on Android telephones. I instantly change to it if the gadget I’m testing depends on Android’s previous three-button backside navigation system by default. I’ve by no means had an issue utilizing gestures to navigate a tool, besides on the A23 5G. For some motive, swiping up from the underside of an app wouldn’t all the time take me to the house display, not to mention change to the prior app. Apps would typically get caught, and I’d need to hold swiping up from the underside—with various ranges of anger—ready for the house display to look.