Samsung Galaxy A05s review
One UI Core 5.1 on top of Android 13
Expecting the latest Android 14 from the Galaxy A05s is a bit ambitious, and we can't complain about getting Android 13 instead. What is a bit more disappointing but not unexpected is that the Galaxy A05s gets Samsung's "Core" version of One UI. One UI Core 5.1, to be exact. It is missing some more advanced features compared to the regular One UI.
In case you were wondering, some notable omissions include Easy Mode, Edge Panels, Good Lock, Link to Windows, Samsung Knox Security, Samsung Pay and Secure Folder. This non-exhaustive list used to be longer, but thankfully more and more features have been trickling down to "Core".
Despite running one One UI "Core", the Galaxy A05s gets most of the feature set and the look and feel of the main One UI branch.
For most, the side-mounted fingerprint reader will likely be the primary unlocking method, but you can still use face unlock either instead of or alongside it. It can be more convenient in certain situations, but it is generally less secure since it uses the selfie camera. You can disable the always-on function of the fingerprint scanner if you experience too many accidental scans while you are merely holding the phone in hand.
Security options • Biometrics • Fingerprint settings • Fingerprint enrollment
The experience when dealing with the UI fundamentals is straightforward and familiar. The app drawer, notification shade, recent apps, lock screen, and home screen are all business as usual, as is the general Settings menu.
The accent color palette is automatically generated based on your wallpaper, and the system gives you a wide choice of color combinations that palette can also be applied to app icons.
The task switcher is the usual affair, supporting both pop-up and split-screen multitasking.
One UI 5.1 basics: Lockscreen • Homescreen • App drawer • Notifications • Quick settings • Task switcher
Widgets can now be stacked, and you can switch between stacked widgets with a simple swipe. Not all widgets support stacking.
Stacked widgets
Modes and routines, a feature similar to Apple's Focus, are present too. It used to be missing from One UI Core a while back. You can choose a mode based on what you are doing right now and execute certain actions, change sound profiles, display settings, notifications, etc. For instance, the driving Routines profile can be set up to turn on DnD mode and launch Spotify automatically. You can even trigger certain Routines with actions of your choice, such as turning on the hotspot or airplane mode.
Modes and routines
Gaming Hub (formerly Game Launcher) - the hub for all your games, also provides options for limiting distraction when gaming is here to stay as well.
An in-house Gallery app and a proprietary file manager are both present, as well as Samsung's Internet web browser. Split-screen multitasking is also an option.
Gaming Hub • Gallery • File manager • Split-screen
The Samsung Edge Panels feature is nowhere to be found, but some omissions are still expected from the Core version of One UI.
Performance and benchmarks
The Samsung Galaxy A05s is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G chipset. That is a fairly old chip from Q4 2021. It was never a particularly powerful chip and has started showing its age by now. On the plus side, it is a notable upgrade over the Exynos 850 powering last year's Galaxy A04s both in terms of raw power as well as its smaller and more efficient 6nm manufacturing process.
The Snapdragon 680 4G has an octa-core CPU setup consisting of four Kryo 265 Gold (Cortex-A73) cores, clocked at up to 2.4 GHz and another four Kryo 265 Silver (Cortex-A53) cores, operating at up to 1.9 GHz speeds. These are paired with an Adreno 610 GPU, clocked at 1,114 MHz. We also have a Spectra 346 ISP, an X11 LTE modem capable of Cat.13 download speeds, and a dual-channel LPDDR4X 2133 MHz RAM controller. As we already mentioned, the Galaxy A05s is available with 6GB or 4GB of LPDDR4X RAM. We have the latter, smaller configuration on our review unit.
Onboard storage is fixed at 128GB on both RAM variants but is expandable via microSD card. We have seen info on an existing 64GB variant, but it doesn't seem to be selling anywhere. It is rather unfortunate that Samsung is using eMMC 5.1 storage chips instead of some form of faster UFS storage. That, by itself, definitely takes a toll on overall system performance and fluidity.
The Snapdragon 680 doesn't have a particularly potent CPU setup, even for its price range. It doesn't do terribly in the all-core test scenario, but its single-core performance really lets it down. Even the MediaTek Helio G88 and G85 have it beat in this department. The ARM Cortex cores inside the Snapdragon 680 are simply getting long in the tooth.
GeekBench 6
- Multi-core
- Single-core
Moto G54 Power
Tecno Pova 5 Pro
Redmi Note 12 5G
Galaxy A24 4G
Galaxy A14 5G
Galaxy A05s
Realme C55
AnTuTu is a bit more kind towards the Galaxy A05s overall, but look hard enough, and you will still notice that its hardware is holding it back. The comparison with the older Realme 9, based on the same Snapdragon 680 chipset, is particularly interesting. The Realme 9 has a bit more RAM at its disposal, which might be helping it score higher, but there is also the equally valid possibility that the eMMC storage of the Galaxy A05s is holding it back.
AnTuTu
- v9
- v10
Moto G54 Power
Redmi Note 12 4G
Galaxy A14 5G
Realme 9
Galaxy A23
Galaxy A05s
Redmi 12
The Adreno 610 GPU is no prize horse, either. And sure, one could make the argument that the upgraded FullHD display resolution is somewhat of a hindrance in the GPU performance department. Still, the fact is that the Adreno 610 simply doesn't have a lot of horsepower. Still, on a more positive note, looking at the offscreen rendering tests, we can see that there is a nice uptick in GPU performance compared to the Galaxy A04s. Also, this is about what we can expect from the Snapdragon 680, and the numbers are about on par with those from a MediaTek Helio G88.
GFXBench (onscreen)
- Car Chase ES 3.1
- Manhattan ES 3.1
- Manhattan ES 3.0
Moto G54 Power
Redmi 12 5G
Tecno Spark 10 Pro
Redmi Note 12 4G
Realme 9
Galaxy A05s
Redmi Note 11
GFXBench (offscreen)
- Car Chase ES 3.1 1080p
- Manhattan ES 3.1 1080p
- Manhattan ES 3.0 1080p
Moto G54 Power
Realme C55
Redmi 12 5G
Redmi Note 12 4G
Galaxy A23
Galaxy A05s
Realme 9
That being said, 3Dmark, which, in our experience, tends to offer better and more comparable results across chipsets, does place the MediaTek Helio G88 squarely ahead of the Galaxy A05s and its Snapdragon 680. Not by much, but still, we take what we can get in this price segment.
3DMark (offscreen 1440p)
- Wild Life Vulkan 1.1
- Wild Life Extreme
Tecno Pova 5 Pro
Redmi 12
Realme C55
Redmi 12 5G
Redmi Note 12 4G
Galaxy A05s
Redmi Note 11
On a more positive note, the Snapdragon 680 is a pretty cool-running chipset that is not difficult to tame with a modern cooling solution, even a budget one. The Galaxy A05s never got even moderately hot on its surface. The chip behaved quite well with gradual and minimal throttling for most of our prolonged stress test. Around the forty-minute mark, however, it did develop a rather odd and worrying "stutter" behavior, suddenly and briefly dropping its performance. That's not ideal for a scenario like long gaming sessions, since it could result in in-game stutters.
Thermal-throttling
Overall, we can't say that the Galaxy A05s impressed us with anything close to what we would call smooth performance. Sure, it never outright stuttered during our casual use tests, but the animations and transitions are still quite slow. While kind of expected from a budget device, there is more powerful hardware to be had in this price range.
Reader comments
- Sky
- 14 May 2024
- F0G
What do you mean when you say it was not good idea to upgrade it to a full high definition resolution, what exactly does that affect and do you mean the A05 sumsung is better than the A05s?
- Anonymous
- 11 May 2024
- vaa
Using the AO5s and genuinely difficult to hear callers - volume turned up full. Very bad on speaker, too.
- Anonymous
- 08 May 2024
- M30
I hate this ph, i just bought it 3 days ago, it freezes, space bar fails, camera is crap and sometimes it just does not ring when i got a caller calling me Thisph is a disgrase, for a cheaper ph, still a waste of my pension money,now im stuck with ...