Review on Samsung SM-A715F-DS Android Cameras by Matt Buchanan

05/11/2020 A little background: I've been a frugal phone user for 10 years. I have often found used phones on craigslist, ebay or letgo. I used to pick last year's model and try to stay in the $2-$300 range, and lately that has meant picking two-year-old models. Since the vast majority of phones have switched to batteries that are not easily replaceable, requiring the entire phone to be disassembled and risking damaging tiny circuit boards or connections, I had to look for something new like the batteries in a 2nd generation Year old phones are almost dead. I looked closely at the Samsung A range of phones and settled on this one. I started looking at the A11 and sold myself to the A71. Having not had the opportunity to personally handle both phones, I can only assume that I was intrigued by the specs and would have been perfectly happy with any of the other phones I've looked at (A11, A21 [unreleased] and A51). But boy am I glad I sold out, I missed Samsung and their AMOLED screens. I originally intended to use this device with Verizon as another review says it works with Verizon. There are a few caveats: you must have a pre-activated SIM card from them, either with BYOD prepaid, or buy a cheap phone with their prepaid or postpaid plans and plug it into your phone. However, since the IMEI doesn't match their records, WiFi calling and texting won't work as they can't verify the device. Attempting to register a SIM card with them in their BYOD will not work as of 5/2/2020, but this may change as Verizon is phasing out CDMA. This phone also lacks Verizon's 2G/3G service bands, so it's either 4G or it's over. This might work depending on where you use your phone most, but for me it was better to switch to T-Mobile. At T-Mobile, this device performs as it should and really shines. I'm their new customer so didn't know what to expect but at $25/month for 5GB on their prepaid plan it would be foolish not to try. Tethering, Wi-Fi calling and texting, and hotspot all work. Battery life is currently 3.5 days, but that's short as this is my second line of testing at the moment. I fully expect 1.5 days of normal use between charges. (Also note that I checked the IMEI with T-Mobile and they told me that this phone is not 100% compatible with their network, but I haven't encountered any problems like Verizon with normal use. Again, this is technical I've seen a "phone for the South American market, so it's doubtful any carrier in the US would certify it as 100% compatible.) The phone itself was too slippery for me, like most of them. I usually buy cases for my phones and also for it (see below). Considering the plastic back and body and the 4500mah battery, it's quite light. Charging is good and fast, it took about 1.5 hours today to charge with the supplied one Charger going from 8% to a full charge USB-C is the norm on Android these days so it was nice to see it included I haven't tried the FM radio but the wireless range seems good good to be With Wifiman, an app by Ubiquiti that I use for wireless network troubleshooting and some basic Wi-Fi research, it reports higher dBm than my previous LG V30, so the antenna design must be better in some ways. The default camera app is nice, lacking some of the frilly AR filters and silly bells and whistles you see in phone stores when they're set to demo mode or whatever. There is a Gcam mod for that, just google it, it really brings low light photos to life. I guess I'm addicted to NovaLauncher so I don't have much to say about the default UI other than that the settings page is well redesigned and I like the layout. I missed the notification LED from the old Notes I had before so I got aodNotify as a replacement, I have plenty of it. A71 on XDA, but there's already a root method if that's what you're into. It looks easy, but I haven't tried it myself. I don't really know what you're going to do with it other than the normal apps that require root as no other ROMs seem to be actively developed for this phone. ASIN seen on Amazon) B082TY2VMN and B07Z8LXW6Y, however I would not recommend screen protectors as they are very, very thick and interfere with using the in-screen fingerprint reader. I also picked up this B07ZG3MZ6Y case which seems to be doing its job well. I might go for a traditional commuter otter box if they make something different than the crazy ones they have now. I never liked the thinner versions of their two piece construction, the rubber piece was always stretched and deformed. Anyway, since this is my first real new phone, I'm very happy with it. If you're used to new phones, they probably won't blind you like they did to me. But I think it's difficult to get close to the actual value you're getting from this phone compared to flagships and their inflated prices. I briefly reviewed the iPhone SE 2 or something, and to its credit it has plenty of power, but I'm not with Apple and the battery life is terrible. I've read a number of articles trying to call the A21 or A51 the king of the budget and I think it's a matter of price but it's like an S20 with a plastic body and an instant discount of $500. WARNING: I came across some threads about this phone having some issues with the screen and low backlight settings on a gray background. I've also read several threads about these issues being fixed. I had NONE of these issues with my particular phone. Maybe I got lucky or got a newer version that fixed this problem. It would be wrong to write this review without mentioning it, but given Revain's return policy, I bought it anyway knowing that if it had a screen defect I could return it. Thank you for reading my long reflection on this phone.