Getting Real With The Samsung Galaxy A70s
The Samsung Galaxy A70s was a mid-range device that tried to do too many things at once. Released in 2020, it had a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display, a 4500 mAh battery, and a Snapdragon 675 processor. That combination was fine for most users. It was also flawed in ways Samsung didn't advertise much. Portability with this phone is a mixed bag. The 6.7-inch screen sounds like a positive on paper, but the phone measures about 163.7 by 76.4 millimeters and weighs 185 grams. That's heavy for a single-handed device. I've carried it in my pocket for months and my thigh got tired. It doesn't fit comfortably in most jacket pockets unless you're wearing them open. The screen real estate is genuinely useful though. Reading, watching videos, and editing photos on that display is better than most competitors at the time. The battery is where this phone actually earns its keep. The 4500 mAh cell gives you easily a full day and a half of moderate use. I routinely go from 7 AM to around 11 PM without plugging in, and that includes about four hours of screen-on time with mixed social media, navigation, and some gaming. The charging situation is where things get awkward. It supports 25W fast charging, but the adapter isn't included in the box. If you still have an older Samsung charger lying around, check the specs. You need a USB Power Delivery or PPS capable adapter at 25W to get the full speed. Without that, you're looking at maybe 15W at best, which means a full charge takes roughly two hours instead of the advertised one and fifteen minutes.
Here's something nobody really talks about: the Snapdragon 675 in this phone thermal throttles noticeably under sustained load. I ran Genshin Impact at high settings for about twenty minutes and the frame rate dropped from 30 down to around 22. The phone gets warm, the display dims slightly as a protection measure, and then performance settles at a lower level. If you're gaming, drop the graphics to medium and the game stays much more stable. It's not a dealbreaker, but it's worth knowing before you buy used. The camera system is a triple setup: 64 megapixels main, 8 megapixels ultrawide, and 5 megapixels depth sensor. The main sensor does pixel binning to output 16MP images, which is standard practice. The ultrawide is the weak link. At 8MP it struggles in low light and the color accuracy drifts noticeably compared to the main camera. I've found that sticking to the main lens for anything beyond bright daylight produces consistently better results. The depth sensor is basically useless for portrait mode calculation on most shots and adds very little over what the main camera can do on its own with software processing. If you're trying to extend the life of this phone beyond the typical upgrade cycle, there are a few things that help. The One UI software on Android 10 has aged reasonably well. Samsung pushed updates for about three years, so you can reasonably get to Android 13 if you're on the latest supported version. The phone may feel sluggish after a major OS update on the third year. Clearing the cache partition through recovery mode every few months helps with general responsiveness. Also, removing unused bloatware through ADB commands rather than trying to uninstall it through the settings app frees up storage and background resources. It's a bit technical but there are guides online for ADB debloating that are straightforward to follow.
The display is Samsung's Super AMOLED, which means perfect blacks and good contrast, but the refresh rate is locked at 60Hz. In 2020 that was acceptable. By 2024 it feels noticeably behind even budget phones. Scrolling through feeds or gaming with touch response matters, and you'll feel that difference if you switch from a 90Hz or 120Hz phone. There's no software fix for this. It's hardware. One specific issue I ran into that took me a while to figure out: the in-display fingerprint sensor sometimes fails to register after the phone wakes from deep sleep. The screen turns on but the sensor hasn't fully initialized yet. The workaround is simple enough once you know it. Don't tap the sensor area immediately after the screen lights up. Wait about half a second longer than feels natural, then press. It also helps to register the same fingerprint with slightly different angles in the settings menu. Two or three variations increase the capture success rate noticeably. If portability is your main concern and you're considering this phone used, I'd suggest also looking at the Samsung Galaxy A51 or the A52. They're lighter, have higher refresh rate displays, and the camera situation is comparable if not better. The A70s is still a capable device if you're not pushing it hard, but it's not the standout value it once was. The battery health on used units is also something to check. These phones are old enough now that a degraded battery will cut your already good runtime significantly. Ask the seller for battery health stats or test it yourself before buying.
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