Samsung Galaxy A16 review: Great battery life, but at what cost?

Samsung’s Galaxy A16 is a minor upgrade over last year’s A15, offering a larger 6.7-inch AMOLED display, basic IP54 water and dust resistance, and a solid battery life.

However, despite these small refinements, the core hardware remains largely unchanged. It still runs on the MediaTek Helio G99 chipset, which struggles when compared to newer budget processors. The cameras remain basic, with a weak 5Mp ultrawide and an unnecessary 2Mp macro sensor.

The lack of stereo speakers, 4K video recording, and proper video stabilisation puts it at a disadvantage against rivals like the Redmi Note 13, Poco X6, and even Samsung’s slightly higher specced Galaxy A16 5G, which are among the best budget phones.

Ultimately, while the A16 offers a polished software experience and great battery life, it feels like a phone from last year that hasn’t kept up with the competition.

Design & Build

• Larger design with IP54-rated splash resistance
• Matt plastic back feels sturdy and resists fingerprints
• No stereo speakers or premium materials

Samsung hasn’t dramatically changed the design from last year’s A15, but the Galaxy A16 is slightly bigger thanks to its larger 6.7-inch screen. The matt plastic back feels well-built and resists fingerprints better than glossy finishes. I particularly liked the Light Green colourway my unit came in. It looks almost like mint, and there’s a slight shimmer when you hold the device under certain lights. There are also darker blue and grey colour options to pick from.

The phone retains Samsung’s signature floating camera design, where the three rear lenses are stacked vertically with no camera island. The frame is flat and minimalistic, with the power and volume buttons raised for easy access. I don’t particularly care for this side notch for the buttons. There’s no real functional reason for it, and it doesn’t look great.

The biggest new addition is IP54 splash resistance, which means the A16 can handle light rain and dust exposure. However, this does not mean it’s waterproof – so don’t expect it to survive a dunk in water.

The matt plastic back feels well-built and resists fingerprints better than glossy finishes

At 200g, the phone is reasonably heavy, but its weight distribution is well-balanced, making it comfortable to hold for extended periods.

However, there’s no stereo speaker set-up – a major omission in 2025. Phones like the Redmi Note 13 and Poco X6 offer dual speakers, making them better for media consumption.

Screen & Sound

• 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display delivers vibrant colours and deep blacks
• 800-nit peak brightness ensures good outdoor visibility
• No HDR support and only a single bottom-firing speaker

The A16’s display is its second strongest feature, behind the excellent battery life. The 6.7-inch Super AMOLED panel offers great colour reproduction, deep blacks, and excellent contrast. With a Full HD+ (1080 x 2340) resolution, the display is crisp and sharp – perfect for streaming, gaming, and reading.

The 90Hz refresh rate makes scrolling feel smooth, but unlike some rivals, there’s no adaptive refresh rate, meaning it stays at 90Hz all the time, slightly impacting battery efficiency.

Brightness is impressive for a budget phone, with a measured 808-nit peak brightness, making it usable outdoors even in bright sunlight. However, HDR support is missing, meaning services like Netflix and YouTube won’t offer the highest-quality playback.

The A16’s display is its second strongest feature, behind the excellent battery life

The biggest letdown is audio. With only a single bottom-firing speaker, the sound lacks depth, bass, and stereo separation. In contrast, similarly priced Xiaomi and Poco rivals offer dual speakers, making them better for watching videos and gaming.

Specs & Performance

• Chipsets are power-efficient and handle basic tasks well, but are old
• Expandable storage via microSD card
• Slower than similarly priced phones like the Poco X6

Samsung has taken an unusual approach with the Galaxy A16, equipping the phone with two different chipsets, depending on the region. Some models come with the MediaTek Helio G99, while others feature Samsung’s in-house Exynos 1280. While both are mid-range processors, their performance varies significantly in real-world use.

Overall, the Galaxy A16’s performance is underwhelming in 2025, especially when compared to similarly priced competitors

The Helio G99 is a 6nm chip with an octa-core CPU (2x Cortex-A76 at 2.2GHz and 6x Cortex-A55 at 2.0GHz), paired with a Mali-G57 MC2 GPU. It performs well for everyday tasks like messaging, web browsing, and social media, but it struggles under heavy multitasking.

The Exynos 1280, on the other hand, is a 5nm processor with a more power-efficient design and a slightly stronger Mali-G68 MP4 GPU, giving it a modest edge in graphics performance and battery efficiency.

In benchmarks, the Exynos 1280 consistently scores higher than the Helio G99 in CPU-heavy tasks but still falls behind modern mid-range processors like the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2. The Mali-G68 GPU also outperforms the Mali-G57 MC2, offering smoother gameplay in some cases. However, both chipsets are not ideal for gaming, with frequent frame drops in demanding titles.

Memory and storage further limit the phone’s potential. The base model ships with 4GB RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage, which feels sluggish compared to UFS 3.1 found in some competitors. There is a 6GB RAM variant, which helps with multitasking, but Samsung’s RAM Plus feature (virtual RAM) does little to improve performance.

Overall, the Galaxy A16’s performance is underwhelming in 2025, especially when compared to similarly priced competitors like the Redmi Note 13 or Poco X6, both of which offer newer and more powerful chipsets. With a Geekbench 6 multi-core result of 1920, the handset sits quite a way below the Poco X6 which uses the Snapdragon 7s Gen chip and has a multi-core score of 3480. The Galaxy A16 even scores around 100 points lower than its 5G counterpart.

Day-to-day performance is usually fine for tasks like web browsing, social media, and streaming, but in more demanding apps, you’ll notice slowdowns. There were some occasions where just even doing the basics felt slow – there’s no other way to put it. Gaming is limited to low-to-medium settings, and the phone struggles with heavy multitasking. Even running something relatively tame like Plants vs. Zombies made this phone start to struggle and really heat up.

If you’re in a region where the Exynos 1280 variant is available, it’s the better choice, but neither version stands out in a crowded budget market. While 4GB RAM is manageable, the 6GB RAM version is the better choice for longevity. Storage is expandable via microSD, which is a welcome feature.

Samsung Galaxy A16 benchmarks

Battery Life & Charging

• 5000mAh battery easily lasts up to two days with moderate use.
• Slow 25W charging puts this phone behind competitors.
• No wireless or reverse charging.

Samsung continues to deliver excellent battery life in its budget phones, and the Galaxy A16 is no exception. Its 5000mAh battery, combined with an energy-efficient chipset, allows for at least two full days of usage on a single charge. For light to moderate use (social media, messaging, and video streaming), it’s possible to stretch battery life beyond 48 hours. Even with heavy use, including gaming and GPS navigation, the phone comfortably lasts a full day.

The Exynos 1280 variant has slightly better power efficiency than the Helio G99 version, thanks to its 5nm architecture, meaning users in regions with this chipset might see longer screen-on times. However, the difference isn’t massive, and both versions of the A16 4G offer some of the best endurance in this price range.

The charging experience is less impressive. Samsung supports 25W wired charging, but no charger is included in the box. Using Samsung’s official 25W charger, the phone reaches around 50% in 30 minutes and takes roughly 80 minutes for a full charge. This isn’t slow, but it lags competitors like the Poco M6 Pro (67W) and OnePlus Nord CE4 (100W), which charge significantly faster.

Samsung continues to deliver excellent battery life in its budget phones, and the Galaxy A16 is no exception

Unlike some competing budget phones, the A16 does not offer wireless charging or reverse wired charging. While wireless charging is rare at this price, some budget Xiaomi and Motorola models offer reverse wired charging, allowing users to share their phone’s battery with accessories or other devices.

Ultimately, battery life is one of the A16’s biggest strengths, but Samsung’s slow charging speeds and lack of an included charger hurt its competitiveness.

Cameras

• Decent main camera, but weak secondary sensors
• Poor low-light performance, even with a dedicated night mode
• Limited video capabilities

The Galaxy A16 retains the same triple-camera setup as its predecessor, featuring a 50Mp primary sensor, a 5Mp ultrawide lens, and a 2Mp macro camera. While the main sensor produces good results in daylight, the secondary cameras feel like afterthoughts.

Daylight shots from the main camera are sharp and vibrant, with Samsung’s usual punchy colour tuning that makes blues and greens stand out. Dynamic range is decent, but not as strong as Samsung’s higher-end devices. In good lighting, details are well-preserved, and noise is minimal. They’re not the sharpest shots you’ll ever see, but they’ll suffice. Zooming in, you get pretty grainy results – even at just 2x. Try to go further than that, and photos are pretty much unusable.

Low-light performance, however, is a weak point. Without optical image stabilisation (OIS), the A16 struggles with motion blur and noise in darker environments. Samsung’s night mode helps brighten images and improve dynamic range, but details remain soft, and highlights often get blown out. Competing phones like the Redmi Note 13 and OnePlus Nord CE4 offer better low-light performance thanks to superior image processing and stabilisation.

The 5Mp ultrawide camera is disappointing, producing soft, low-detail images with poor dynamic range. Colours don’t always match the main camera, and distortion is visible at the edges of shots.

The 2Mp macro camera is even weaker, requiring perfect lighting conditions to capture anything remotely usable. And even then, the shots aren’t anything to brag about. Portrait mode is weaker still, with edge detection so bad I could have done a better job manually drawing around the object.

While the main 50Mp sensor in the triple-camera array produces good results in daylight, the secondary cameras feel like afterthoughts

Video recording is limited to 1080p at 30fps, with no 4K, no 60fps, and no electronic stabilisation. This makes video shaky and lacking in detail, putting it far behind competitors in video performance.

For casual users, the main camera is fine for everyday shots, but the lack of strong secondary cameras, poor night mode, and weak video capabilities make it a poor choice for photography enthusiasts.

Software & Features

• Unmatched software support at this price with six years of Android updates promised
• One UI 6.1 is feature-packed but sluggish
• Lacks premium Samsung features

Another big advantage of the Galaxy A16 is its software support. Samsung is promising six major Android updates, meaning it will receive updates until Android 20, a level of support unmatched by any other budget phone.

While One UI 6.1 is feature-rich, it suffers from occasional lag and comes preloaded with Samsung’s bloatware. It’s a lot less egregious than from other budget phone manufacturers. The lack of premium features like Always-On Display and Samsung DeX also makes the software feel artificially limited compared to pricier Samsung devices.

Another big absence is Galaxy AI, which you may or may not be worried about. Since it’s Samsung’s big software focus at the moment, it is worth mentioning. That means you won’t have access to features like Live Translate, Circle to Search, and the rest. However, you can download apps like Google Gemini to get the chat experience, if you so desire.

Samsung is promising six major Android updates for this handset, meaning it will receive updates until Android 20

Overall, Samsung’s long-term support is fantastic, but the software experience itself isn’t the smoothest in the budget space.

Price & Availability

The Samsung Galaxy A16 is available for £169/$149.99 and comes in three colours: Blue Black, Light Green, and Light Grey. It has two configurations:

• 4GB RAM + 128GB storage
• 6GB RAM + 256GB storage

You can buy it from Samsung and Amazon in the UK, but in the US, official buying options appear limited. However, we did find it available on Amazon from a third-party seller. If it doesn’t seem like the perfect fit for you, check out our top recommendations from among the best budget phones.

Note though that the Galaxy A16 is not the same as the Galaxy A16 5G, which features a different chipset and better connectivity options.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy A16?

The Samsung Galaxy A16 is a solid but uninspiring budget smartphone that does little to shake up the entry-level market.

Its strongest selling points are its battery life and long-term software support, both of which outshine most competitors. The 5000mAh battery ensures at least two days of use, and Samsung’s promise of six years of Android updates is a rarity in this price segment. However, these positives come with major compromises.

Performance is mediocre at best, with both chipset models struggling against newer mid-range competitors. Gaming performance is weak, app load times are slow, and 4GB of RAM on the base model causes frequent refreshes. The display, while a decent AMOLED panel, lacks HDR support and automatic refresh rate switching, making it feel outdated. The cameras are another weak spot, with only the 50MP main sensor delivering decent results.

While it’s not a bad phone, the Galaxy A16 fails to stand out in an increasingly competitive budget segment. Other phones at this price offer stronger performance, better displays, and superior camera systems.

If you prioritise software updates and battery life above all else, the A16 4G is a reasonable option. But for most users, better choices exist for the same money.

Specs

• Screen: 6.7-inch Super AMOLED, 1080×2340 resolution, 90Hz refresh rate
• Processor: MediaTek Helio G99 or Exynos 1280 (region-dependent)
• Memory: 4GB / 6GB RAM
• Storage: 128GB / 256GB, microSD support
• Rear Cameras: 50Mp (f/1.8, PDAF) + 5Mp ultrawide (f/2.2) + 2Mp macro (f/2.4)
• Front Camera: 13Mp (f/2.0)
• Battery: 5000mAh, 25W wired charging
• Software: Android 14 with One UI 6.1, up to 6 major OS upgrades
• Dimensions: 164.6 x 77.9 x 7.9mm, 200g