[Samsung Galaxy A71 5G Real Life Review] dboogie2288:
Hey y'all! Man, it's been forrrreevverrrr since I've been around XDA. I was big in the early 2010s hackin' and crackin' my Note 3 and 4 at the time. From there, Note 5 and forward, cant hack em..so I've been stuck with stock. That said, I've been rocking my note 8 from verizon for quite awhile now and really been completely satisfied with it. Ultimately, I want the big display, and the big battery....so I never really cared about the stylus. So, as you can tell I've been a big note lover.

So, how does that relate to an A71? Well since early 2020, verizon launched a crap software update where the GPS was useless. It drove me nuts. So, I've been on the hunt for a new phone. However, I was repulsed by the 1200 dollar price tag of todays premiere phones.

Cue, the moto stylus G. The launch of the stylus G was right on target for my phone restlessness. So 300 bucks later, and.....well.....it was a 300 dollar phone. Dont get me wrong. The camera is adequate at 48MP, the battery life is great, and the AOSP interface is always great. Worked fine, and it sufficed on one of the two core features I *need*. Now, a quick aside, I'm on consumer cellular, on ATTs network. My note 8 was a verizon purchased and branded phone. Back to the stylus. The moto was great in one respect, it allowed data while on a call. This is an absolute must for me. Period. The other key feature was wifi calling. This, did not work. The hidden menu kept saying that it wasn't provisioned, but consumer cellular said it was. Ok. I considered going back to my Note 8, but it did not allow the data+calling. It would go into 3G mode when on a call. So, that was out.

Now, cue the A71. I had some people tell me how good their non-S samsung phones were, and that they recommended them. I started looking at the A71 since, well I'm used to a flagship phone. Amazon prime day came around, and I thought hard on it for about 3 or 4 hours as 409.99 was staring me in the face. I said screw it, and bought in. I got it two days later, and started setting it up immediately.

First, all my woes were cured with an unlocked phone. I have LTE+, I have VoLTE, I have data in a call, and I have wifi calling. All working, right out of the box. I got software and apps setup, and I'm a power user. I have lots of stuff on there, so many email accounts, so many apps, etc etc etc. And the A71 held up perfectly. Now, it doesn't have a perfectly flat display, which was disappointing. I prefer the tempered glass screen protectors.....so that's a bummer. However, the skinomi on my note 8 has been fine for years, so hopefully they release one for the A71. My city claims its on the 5G map, but that may be ATTs fake-5G crap, which is the LTE+...so I'm not sure if we have true 5G here or not. However, the phone has just impressed me and I can't tell any difference from a flagship phone. For less than half of a Note, I'm quite satisfied and I dont have to worry about stupid monthly payments for the next decade. I do hate the fingerprint scanner though. It was most natural on the back as a dedicated sensor.......I hate this on screen thing. Fun gimmick, but works like 25% of the time. I do have a case with a screen protector though.