It started with me trying to find a new phone for my father. Currently he's on an old Nokia feature phone, and the phone is starting to show hardware issues (eg. earpiece volume being fairly low). I thought an updated phone would be prompt. Alas, the only way to get a 3G phone nowadays is to opt for a smartphone. All the feature phones available are stuck with old 2G radios, and the voice quality on 2G is just horrendous.
I chose Samsung simply because of the brand. It's better giving something that my father recognize (brand wise) vs some random Chinese brands. Samsung's lowest tiers are the Galaxy A01 Core ($70 for 2/32), Galaxy A10s ($100 for 2/32), and Galaxy A11 ($120 for 3/32).
The A01 Core runs Android Go and has an old 28nm mediatek processor. The A11 is actually pretty neat for the price, since it is equipped with USB-C. It would've been my pick personally, but my father's other old gadgets are all micro-USB, so the A10s feels like the better pick. No need to confuse him with a new cable. The A10s has Helio P22, and even a fingerprint scanner. Quite amazing huh for what we can get today for just $100.
I bought it in green color. It's plastic, but the glossy finish makes it feel quite nice and high quality. The notched screen feels modern. And it gets updated to One UI 2.1 with Android 10 and September 2020 security patch (even my A71 is not that up to date yet). Not too shabby for a $100 phone. While waiting for my father's SIM to be exchanged from the standard size to nano size, I have the chance of test drive the phone.
Performance wise, the phone actually is not bad in its blank state. Samsung OneUI is quite smooth. Battery life can last for 2+ days and I still have half left. This bodes well for my father who will only use the phone for basic functions (calls). However, once I add in all my typical apps (Whatsapp, Line, Youtube, Google Assistant, Maps, Messenger, etc), the phone starts to drag down. Single task is still fine, but switching task etc feels heavy, obviously the 2GB of RAM and the low performance cores are showing their limits. Fingerprint sensor works great though.
Anyway, $100 Android phones have gone quite far, and they are actually usable for first time smartphone users who won't have many apps/games. The Galaxy A10s has quite nice build quality for the price, albeit light on RAM. The competitors are not that much different though. Majority are using similar SoCs (octa-core A53), only upping the RAM and/or battery capacity. Moving up the price point a bit will bring in more creature comforts like USB-C and ultrawide lens.
We are all used to only see and discuss the high end phones here in the forum, so it is refreshing to see things from the other side, the lower part of the low end.
Oh yea, it comes with a charger as well. So take that Apple.
