Possibly their flagships notwithstanding, Samsung tends to release smartphones that offer comparatively good value for money. The Galaxy M30s that we reviewed recently underlined this, with its extraordinary battery life putting its competitors to shame. The A30s is a different proposition, though. While it looks and is built like a premium smartphone, its performance and battery life did not meet our expectations. Likewise, while its SuperAMOLED display is bright and vibrant, its 720p resolution falls short of the 1080p panels that many of its competitors have.
Moreover, our review unit has comparatively slow Wi-Fi performance, and its cameras are nothing noteworthy even for an entry-level smartphone. The A30s does do well in other areas, though. We like that Samsung has included dedicated card slots for microSD expansion and two nano-SIMs, something that not all OEMs do. Moreover, the inclusion of an in-screen fingerprint scanner is novel, albeit our experiences with it were mixed.
One UI looks more refined than many custom Android skins too, even if Samsung is slow on rolling out new security patch updates. Please see our Galaxy A30s review for our full thoughts on Samsung's latest entry-level smartphone and what it has to offer.