items 3: articleHeading: Samsung Galaxy A16 Review: Better Than You Think!
articleLink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJwKrHzAmQo
articleSummary: Mentions the single bottom-firing speaker as a cost-cutting measure, noting it's not very loud.
articleTitle: TechRight
articleType: youtube
favicon: https://www.youtube.com/favicon.ico
snippets: So, the design of the Samsung Galaxy A16 is actually quite interesting., So, this is actually one of the places where this phone cut costs., And the left side of the phone is similar., And as I've already mentioned, the edges of this device are made out of plastic, but don't worry, it doesn't feel particularly cheap., Moving over to the front of the device, we have a 6.7 in AMOLED 90 Hz display., It's up22 in from last year's A15, and it's pretty good display comparing it to the iPhone 16 Pro Max's display., It also has a camera notch, which is a feature that was sort of present about 10 years ago on smartphones, so it can make the front of the device look a little bit dated, but it's not an issue., So, when this phone first came out in 2024 in the UK, you could pick it up for £170., A year on 2025, I managed to pick this up brand new on eBay for only £90., So, the camera is arguably one of the most important factors people consider when picking a smartphone in 2025., So, how good is the camera quality of the A16?, So, in terms of hardware, if you can see, we've got three rear cameras, but it's not the typical arrangement., They've cheaped out a little bit on this A16., So, what we actually have is a 50 megapixel main shooter, which is fairly decent, and they've decided to go with an ultrawide., So, it's got a 5 megapixel ultrawide and a 2 megapixel macro shooter., So, instead of equipping this phone with a telephoto lens, which arguably would be much more useful, uh, they've decided to add the cheapest camera they probably could get their hands on, a 2 megapixel macro camera., Don't know why they've done it., Anyway, how does this camera perform?, So, as expected, the main shooter produces the best images of the three cameras., I would compare it to a Samsung S phone from about 10 years ago, something like an S5., And in good lighting, it can produce some fairly decent images., I'd say they look very Samsung., They're saturated, quite contrasty, with a massive sharpening filter applied to them., But if you zoom in a bit, it's quite obvious that the iPhone has better dynamic range, more detail, and even though the A16 technically has a 50 megapixel sensor, the files that it produces are only 12 megapixels., Moving on to the Achilles heel of this camera system, and that's low light photography., So, I went outside yesterday evening and took some photos, and as you can see, the iPhone produces significantly better quality images., This is likely down to a load of different factors., The fact that this has a smaller sensor, worse image processing, and this doesn't have optical image stabilization, which always helps in low light situation., Although this phone does come with a night mode, it doesn't really help that much., The next camera along is the ultrawide, and this is only a 5 megapixel sensor., And in terms of ultrawides, it's pretty basic., It gets the job done, but the quality is pretty terrible., This is a live demonstration of what it looks like., Bear in mind the lighting conditions are pretty good., Here we go., So, it looks fine, but as soon as you start trying to zoom in, it just falls apart., And don't try taking photos in low light conditions., It just can't deal with it., The macro camera is where Samsung cheaped out., It's only 2 megapixels and it looks like crap., Here are some examples on screen., You're better off standing a little bit further away and just using the main camera, but I understand why Samsung did it., You see, it makes this phone look a little bit like the Samsung S25, and it's probably one of the reasons why it was the second bestselling phone of 2025., So, I can't fault Samsung., One feature I was actually surprisingly impressed with was the autofocus., It definitely seems to be reliable enough., Video quality is an interesting one., I'm going to have some examples on screen., I think the overall quality is fine., Uh, it doesn't look amazing., It's not something I would shoot YouTube videos with, but it's probably fine for social media., But the one thing that does make the video look noticeably worse than the iPhone is the lack of optical image stabilization., It's just really shaky., Uh, yeah, that's all I have to say about the video., It also shoots in slow motion, which I tested out either 1080p 120 fps or 720p 240 fps., I'm going to put some examples on screen., The one thing that is probably immediately noticeable is the compression., So, even though I am shooting at 1080p, 120 frames per second, doesn't really look like 1080p., It looks more like 480p., Um, but I'm not complaining., It's 100 pound phone., And the fact that it has slow motion is impressive., In terms of performance, this European version of the Samsung Galaxy A16 comes with a Helios G99, which is an octa-core processor with two performance cores and four efficiency cores., Now, in terms of the Geekbench 6 score, the Helios G99 scores about 700 single core and 1,800 multi-core., But if you compare that to something like the iPhone 16, that's about 3,000 single core and 8,000 multiore., So, it's quite a big difference., So, we've established in terms of benchmarks, this thing definitely isn't a flagship., But how does it perform in the real world?, Surprisingly well., So, scrolling through YouTube is seamless., This has a 90 Hz display, so it feels smooth., And for a lot of lighter tasks like texting, browsing the web, scrolling YouTube shorts, this phone's absolutely fine., Easily able to multitask, this European version comes with 4 GB of RAM, which isn't a lot, but I think it's probably enough for this device, as well as 128 GB of storage, which, as I said, can be expanded using the micro SD card slot., So, for day-to-day usage and lighter tasks, the performance is more than enough., But the question is, how good is the performance for gaming?, Let's take a look., The first game that we're going to be testing on this Samsung A16 is Minecraft Pocket Edition., We've got an FPS counter in the corner., I don't think it's loading in that many chunks, but it is running really smooth., About 80 fps, which is uh very playable, especially on a mobile phone., I've just realized we're in creative mode., Let's start flying and see if we can stress out the system., It's holding up pretty well., We're getting around 70 80 FPS., The next game that we're going to be testing is Call of Duty Mobile., We're in a game on Nuke Town., I'm trying to play this through the camera, so I don't know how it's going to turn out., Anyway, we're getting between 50 and 60 FPS, which is uh very playable., Oh, I think I got killed there., One thing I have noticed playing this game is the fact that this phone only has one speaker, and I'm covering it up., I don't know if you can hear the difference., So, that's the speaker there., That's what the game should sound like., That's what happens when I accidentally cover the speaker., Yeah., Anyway, if you are looking to play Call of Duty Mobile, absolutely possible on this phone., Runs really well., It's not even overheating., It's fairly cool on the back, which is good., The next game that we're going to be testing out is PUBG Mobile., Uh, this is a game that I actually used to play back in the day., I remember when this was on Xbox One and it ran at like 20 FPS, but here on this 80 phone, we're getting about 40 FPS., This is definitely playable., And yeah, again, this is definitely very playable., I have a feeling it's locked to 40 FPS., I'm going to see if I can unlock the frame rate., We can see how high we can actually get the frames., Yeah, I'm not really sure how to change that., Anyway, 40 on a mobile device is very playable., Next, we're going to test out a game I haven't played in about 10 years., Hungry Shark Evolution., This can be quite an addictive game., Oh no, I died., Anyway, the verdict is this budget Samsung device can run games very well., I am actually very impressed., So, I've come to my car because it's become more rainy and windy outside., But I finally just want to discuss the battery life of the A16 because this phone comes with a 5,000 mAh battery, which is pretty decent for a 100 pound phone, especially for a phone with a lower powered chip., So, I've had about 2 or 3 days to test out the battery life., I've charged it to 100% both days, taken it out for the day to test out the phone, and I've come back with like 50% battery., So, this is definitely a six to seven hour screen time device, which is pretty good., So yeah, don't worry about the battery., It's definitely all day battery life., Battery life feels very comparable to my uh 16 Pro Max, which so definitely don't worry about battery life., It's got good battery life.
type: ARTICLE