Samsung Galaxy A15 5G - TMobile Blue/Black + 25w power adapter

Model name: SM-A156U

Serial number: R5CX100R2YL

Operating System: Android 14

CPU: Mediatek 6835

Dimensions: 6.30 by 3.02 by 0.33 inches

Screen Size: 6.5 inches

Screen Resolution: 2,340 by 1,080 pixels

Camera Resolution (Rear; Front-Facing): 50MP, 5MP, 2MP; 13MP

Battery Life (As Tested): 14 hours, 3 minutes

Launched: end of 2023

Thanks to reliable performance, good battery life, and Samsung's generous software upgrade policy, the Galaxy A15 5G is one of the best Android phones you can get for a great price. If you are looking for an affordable smartphone with 5G capabilities, then you may have encountered the Galaxy A15 5G. Samsung has tried to keep its phone up-to-date by giving it lots of new features.

With a large, sharp display, above-average battery life, expandable storage, and competitive performance, Samsung's Galaxy A15 5G is hard to beat for the price. The phone is also eligible for four years of system updates, meaning you won't need to replace it for a while. Though some aspects of its build quality could be better, the Galaxy A15 5G is a step ahead of the similarly priced competition, earning it our PC Mag’s Editors' Choice award for budget-friendy Android phones.

The most distinct design element has got to be the raised edge on the right side of the phone (Samsung calls it "Key Island"), which makes it a bit easier to find the buttons by tactile feel. Speaking of buttons, the power button doubles as a fingerprint reader and it is flush with the side of the phone, and then right above it you can find the volume rocker.

On the bottom of the phone, you have a USB-C charging port, the only speaker on the phone and a 3.5mm headset jack, which you can only find on budget phones these days.

The Galaxy A15 5G has one configuration, and it features 128GB of storage and 4GB of memory. However, it has an included microSD card slot, so you can add up to 1TB of additional storage.

The Galaxy A15 5G supports WiFi 5 as its fastest WLAN standard and in doing so, it achieves the usual speeds around 300 - 350 MBit/s. This means you can't take advantage of a Gigabit internet connection but these differences will only make themselves known during large downloads in particular. As the Galaxy A15 5G's name already suggests, you can make use of the most up-to-date cellular standard, namely 5G. This makes this smartphone one of the cheapest that supports this feature. It covers quite a few LTE and 5G frequencies, so you can use the phone internationally. Before travelling long distances, you should be sure to check which frequencies are supported, as the Galaxy phone can't be used across the entire globe.

Samsung uses its own telephone app which places its keypad more into the foreground than the app from Google which is set as standard on Android devices. The Samsung app can be operated easily, too, offering lots of functions including blocking unwanted calls. For desired calls, the speech quality is good for the price range. Via the loudspeaker and hands-free microphone, calls work just as well—owners of the Galaxy A15 5G just need to make sure to not speak too quietly, otherwise the microphone won't pick up your voice.

Samsung has installed its own keyboard app onto the smartphone with which you can type reliably. If you would rather use a different display keyboard, then you can easily download lots of different ones from the Google Play Store.

Its touchscreen is scanned for touches up to 90 times per second and can be operated reactively and reliably. The touchscreen also works perfectly right into the corners and along the edges.

A fingerprint sensor is integrated into the standby button on the right-hand side of the case. It unlocks the device after a very short waiting time, usually on the first attempt.

You can also use facial recognition to unlock the device. This is a 2D method using the front-facing camera, so it isn't quite as protected against manipulation. Nevertheless, it works quickly and reliably.