Samsung makes a big song and dance about its top-end phones like the new Galaxy S22, showing off all the fun and useful features that these devices have. However if you can’t afford one of these premium mobiles, you might assume that you don’t get to enjoy these tools.
That’s not the case though, as plenty of the more affordable Samsung phones also bring lots of the great features shown off on the Galaxy S devices. So if you buy a Galaxy A mobile, like the mid-range Samsung Galaxy A53 or even the budget Galaxy A13, you can use lots of these functions.
To give you an idea of some of the great Samsung Galaxy S22 features you can use on cheaper Samsung phones, we’ll run you through six of our favorites right now.
1. Single Take mode
With the Samsung Galaxy S20 series, we saw the launch of Single Take, a mode that makes photography much easier, and it’s remained a big feature of subsequent Galaxy S devices.
With the mode, you record a video of your subject, moving around and recording from different angles, and then AI will pick out the best stills from it and edit them for you.
This lets you take an amazing picture whether or not you know much about photography.
Although it’s been a major selling point of Samsung Galaxy S phones, it’s actually also available on Galaxy A phones. This lets you take these super-simple snaps whether or not you’ve paid for the top-end Samsung phone.
Admittedly the AI isn’t quite as smart on the budget phones, so pictures won’t match those on the S-series phones, but it’s still a great feature that you don’t need to pay much for.
2. Device care
If you’re spending loads of money on an expensive phone, you want it to last a good long while – but depending on how you use it, that might not always be easy to achieve.
Thankfully, Samsung phones offer a way to help with this. In the Battery section of your Settings mode, you can find the Device Care menu. Here, you can see how healthy your device is, with a simple score letting you know how well-optimized the phone is for longevity, and you can also try to increase that score too.
The menu gives you options to optimize the storage, memory and battery, all to make sure your phone is running as healthily as possible.
Even if you haven’t paid top dollar for a Samsung phone this mode might be helpful though – after all, you’ll want your device to last a few years whether you’ve paid $400 or $1,400. This menu appears for all Galaxy devices, not just S-series ones, letting you improve the way your phone runs.
3. The 120Hz display
Samsung was one of the first companies to adopt high-refresh-rate displays on its smartphones, with some Galaxy S phones using 120Hz screens before rivals.
High refresh rate screens make motion look smoother, so whether you’re scrolling through social media or playing games, you get a more enjoyable viewing experience.
It’s a feature we initially saw exclusively in top-end phones – the aforementioned S20 was one of the first to use it – but now, you don’t need to pay loads for a premium device to enjoy it.
Now that the feature has been around for a while, we’ve seen more and more mid-range and budget phones embrace it. In Samsung’s case that’s partly true, as some of its budget devices now have 120Hz displays.
This includes the Samsung Galaxy A52 5G and A73 – these have 120Hz screens yet don’t cost you as much as the top-end Galaxy S alternatives. So if you like smooth-motion screens, you can get one without paying loads.
4. Adaptive charging
A great example of a feature first introduced in Samsung’s top-end phones is Adaptive Charging – this mode protects your battery’s longevity by using AI to work out when to charge quickly and when to slow the power. With this, you can keep your phone plugged in for ages without it completely ruining the battery.
Originally, this was only available on top-end phones in the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note ranges, but recently, it’s started showing up in more affordable phones too.
You do have to be using a Samsung charger for this feature to work which, we should point out, you won’t get with certain newer Galaxy A mobiles. You’ll need to buy one online if you don’t own one – and it’s worth it, because in the long run, this could keep your phone lasting longer.
5. Food mode
While Single Take is the mode that Samsung shows off most often, it’s not the brand’s only useful way of taking pictures if you don’t want to use the standard photo mode.
Another of these is Food mode which, despite the name, doesn’t need to be used simply on food. It lets you pick an area of focus, with the rest of the shot having some depth blur – you can select an animal, a pattern or, of course food, and have it stand out from the shot. The mode also edits the snap with a healthy (or unhealthy) dose of saturation to make it pop more.
This mode isn’t just useful on Samsung Galaxy S phones, but also shows up on A-series devices. Since the cheaper phones don’t have as powerful cameras, it’s arguably even more handy on these devices, to ensure you’re getting the best snaps possible.
6. Spot color
Once you’ve taken a photo, it can be fun to edit it so that it’s truly social media ready, and Samsung’s top-end phones offer you the scope to do that.
The key feature here is Spot Color – when used in Samsung’s Gallery app, you can select a color and it’ll immediately be changed to monochrome in the photo. This lets you create some rather artistic masterpieces if you play around with it.
As you can probably gather given the headline of this article, this is another feature that’s available on Galaxy A devices as well as Galaxy S ones. We’ve used it before to take some pretty artistic shots, especially when used to make the background of a selfie black and white (but leaving the subject, us, as colored).
Thanks to this, as well as the camera modes we’ve already looked at, a Galaxy A phone is just as good as a Galaxy S one if you’re a prolific Insta poster.