Samsung Galaxy A42 5G Hands-On

Samsung has always been in the game when it comes to providing its customers with mid-range smartphones, Its latest 5G smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy A42 5G offers a massive 6.6-inch AMOLED panel and quad-rear camera setup at an affordable price. Check out some features that you should look forward to on this smartphone. Know more about this device below. 

Right from the get-go, the Galaxy A42 5G offers a premium feel to it. It’s got a stripe pattern at the back in a combination of plastic and glass finish that looks pretty chic.  At the back, you’ll see a square rear-camera module and Samsung branding. However, the Galaxy A42 5G can be slippery and may attract fingerprints pretty quickly due to the material of its back panel. Using it with a case is highly recommend. The unit we have is in the Prism Dot Gray, but it is also available in Prism Dot Black.

Upfront, we get a huge display at 6.6-inch. Situated in the upper-middle part is a dew-drop notch that houses the 20MP front camera.

Situated on the right side are the power button and volume rockers.

Meanwhile, you’ll see the SIM card tray on the left.

The microphone can be seen on top of the smartphone.

Below are the 3.5mm audio jack, USB-C port, call microphone, and speaker grille.

Checking out the display, it has a sizable 6.6-inch Super AMOLED panel with a resolution of 720 x 1600. Even though it only got a 720p display, colors still look vibrant and crisp and have a pixel density of 266 PPI. However, we wish that Samsung at least made it into a 1080p display for better media consumption.

For cameras, we get a quad-rear camera setup consisting of a 48MP main, 8MP ultra-wide, 5MP macro, and 5MP depth. For selfies, we have a 20MP F2.2 sensor. We will reserve our full thoughts on our full review.

For performance, the Samsung Galaxy A42 5G is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 750 5G coupled with an Adreno 619 GPU, up to 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. So far, this smartphone is capable of running multiple apps, including graphically-intensive games.

For biometrics, there’s an in-display fingerprint scanner and facial recognition that unlocks pretty fast. 

Powering this device is a massive 5,000mAh with support for 15W fast charging. I’ve been using this device as my daily driver, and so far, it can last the whole day for me without needing to be plugged in. In terms of OS, this one runs on OneUI 2.5 based on Android 10.  

The Samsung Galaxy A42 5G is exclusively available through postpaid plans of Globe and Smart. IFor Smart Signature, it is available across Plan S (PHP 999USD 17INR 1,443EUR 16CNY 124/month) up to Plan XL (PHP 2,999USD 51INR 4,332EUR 49CNY 372/month) good for 24 months. Meanwhile, Globe offers the smartphone ThePlan599 (cashout fee of PHP 12,000USD 204INR 17,335EUR 195CNY 1,489) to ThePlatinumPlan7,999 (no cashout fee).  Stay tuned to our page for our full thoughts about this device. 

Samsung Galaxy A42 5G specs:
6.6-inch HD+ (720 x 1600) Super AMOLED Plus Infinity-U display
Octa-core 2.2GHz  CPU
6GB RAM
128GB storage
microSD up to 1TB (dedicated slot)
Quad rear cameras:
48MP F1.8 (main)
8MP F2.2 (ultrawide)
5MP F2.4 (depth)
5MP F2.4 (macro)
20MP F2.2 front camera
5G, 4G LTE
Dual-SIM
WiFi
Bluetooth
GPS, A-GPS
3.5mm audio jack
Fingerprint scanner (on-screen)
Face Recognition
5,000mAh battery w/ 15W Super-Fast Charging
164.4 x 75.9 x 8.6 mm
190 g
Prism Dot Black, Prism Dot Gray