Samsung Galaxy A10

What is it?

A budget smartphone from Samsung.
The A10 has a massive 6.2-inch HD+ 'Infinity-V' display (1,520 x 720 pixels), only interrupted by a 'V' shaped incision in the screen for the single-lens front camera. Samsung’s step towards incorporating full-view displays on its cheaper models is a big design change from the previous Galaxy A9, which had a bezel wrapped around the display.

It's got Samsung's Exynos 7884 Octa-Core processor and uses the brand’s One UI software that's packed with software optimisations for Samsung's smartphones. The A10 has only one configuration with a small 2GB of Ram and 32GB of storage.

Like many of its A series devices, Samsung has kept it simple on the camera front: it has a 13Mp rear camera lens with 4x digital zoom and a 5Mp front camera lens.

What’s it like to use?

The phone itself is quite large and some of the controls, such as the on-screen home, back and recent keys are low on the screen, so you may feel more comfortable using it with two hands.

The overall sentiment following testing is that the A10 is slow. Its display is responsive but not as spry as other smartphones we’ve tested. The same goes for the phone’s processor, which is a tad slow. The main issue is that the 2GB of Ram, which has to power all the phone’s activity, isn’t sufficient.

As well as being a bit slow on the uptake, the A10’s display isn’t the best quality. Brightness is only just about sufficient in bright lighting and it's clear that the screen is of low resolution in darker settings.

Oddly, a feature this phone skips out on is a fingerprint scanner. It does have a face scanner, but we found this can be easily fooled with a photograph, so isn’t very robust. Other than these issues, the A10 is generally easy to use. Settings are arranged clearly and we were able to get around apps without any major problems.

There are various operating system quirks that make this phone easier to use. Samsung's Easy Mode is accessible on the A10, allowing you to simplify your phone with a less cluttered home screen, making your interaction with apps more straightforward. There is also the classic One UI shortcut menu, which you can access by swiping down from the top of the screen, giving you quick access to 20 settings including brightness and Bluetooth.

How long does the battery last?

We were able to get pretty good battery life out of the A10 when it was fully charged. It certainly kept us waiting, taking three hours to charge fully, but from that we got 30.5 hours of use at full brightness.

Annoyingly, it doesn’t last nearly as well after 15 minutes of charging. That quick burst of power will only get it to 11%, which will only give you three hours of use.

How good are the cameras?

The A10’s 13Mp rear camera does a good job of capturing colours and contrast when there’s good lighting on its side. In low lighting, pictures come out dark with a hint of graininess.

It’s a shame that the A10 doesn’t have image stabilisation because you’ll notice shaking in your videos when you’re watching them back. In general, videos taken on both sides of the phone look flat and you can visibly see the brightness changing in your footage.

Is there anything I should watch out for?

Although the phone comes with 32GB of storage, there is in fact only 22GB of available storage. That’s not ideal but don’t fear, the phone comes with a micro-SD card slot which is expandable up to 512GB.

Is there anything else I should know?

The A10’s speaker is dire. Music sounds underwhelmingly thin and unless you position the phone perfectly, its audio is too quiet so you’ll be stuck whispering along to your favourite tracks.

Should I buy it?

With so many top-notch budget smartphones on the market, You’d be selling yourself short if you buy the Samsung Galaxy A10. Also, unfortunately, due to the age of this phone and the brand’s update policies, we suspect it will stop receiving important security updates in less than a year, so we can’t recommend that you buy. Find out more in our guide to mobile phone security.