Samsung Galaxy A71 SM-A715F/DS (Open Box)

5/11/2020 A little backstory: I've been a more frugal phone user for the past 10 years. I often found phones second-hand on craigslist, ebay, or letgo. I used to go after last year's model and try to stick around $2-300 range, and lately that's meant going after 2-year-old models. Since the vast majority of phones have gone to not easily replaceable batteries requiring the entire phone to be disassembled and risk breaking the tiny boards or connections, I had to look for something new since batteries on a 2 year old phone are pretty much shot. I've had my eye on the Samsung A-line of phones and ended up with this one. I started looking at the A11 and upsold myself all the way to the A71. Since I wasn't able to handle any of the phones in person, I can only assume that I got caught up in the specifications and I could have been perfectly satisfied with any of the other ones I was looking at (A11, A21[not released yet], and A51). But, boy am I glad I upsold myself, I missed Samsung and their AMOLED screens. I originally planned on using this device on Verizon, as it states in another review that it does work with Verizon. There are a couple of caveats to that: You must have a pre-activated SIM card from them either from a BYOD prepaid, or buy a cheap phone on their pre- or post-paid plans and swap it into the phone. However, since the IMEI doesn't match their records, wifi-calling and texting to not work because they cannot verify the device. Trying to register a SIM with them on their BYOD will not work as of 5/2/2020, but that may change because Verizon is going CDMA-less. This phone also lacks 2G/3G service bands for Verizon so it's 4G or bust. That may work depending on where you use your phone the most, but for me it was better to transition to T-Mobile. On T-Mobile, this device works as it should and it does shine. I'm a new customer to them so I didn't know what to expect, but for $25/mo for 5GB on their prepaid plan, I'd be silly not to try it. Tethering, wifi calling and texting, and the hotspot all work. Battery life so far is 3.5 days, but that's with little use as it's my second test line as of right now. I do fully expect to get 1.5 days of normal use between charges. (Also please note I checked the IMEI with T-Mobile and they told me this phone isn't 100% compatible with their network too, but I didn't run into any issues during normal use like I did with Verizon. Also this is technically a "South American market" phone, so it's doubtful that any US carrier would certify it as 100% compatible) The phone itself was a little too slippery for me, as most of them are. I usually get cases for my phones and I did for this one too (see below). It's pretty light considering the plastic back and frame, also the 4500mAH capacity battery. Charging is nice and fast, it took about 1.5 hours to go from 8% to full charging it today with the supplied charger. USB-C is the norm these days for android, so it was nice to see that included. I haven't tried the FM radio, but the wireless range seems to be nice. Using Wifiman, an app from Ubiquiti I use during wireless troubleshooting and some basic wifi surveying, it reports a higher dBm than my previous LG V30, so the antenna design must be better in some respects. The stock camera app is nice, it lacks some of the frilly AR filters and silly doodads you see in the phone stores when they're set to that demo mode or whatever. There is a gcam mod for this, just google it, that really brings the low-light pictures to life. I guess I'm addicted to NovaLauncher so I don't really have anything to say about the stock UI experience, except the settings page is nicely re-worked and I like the layout. I missed the notification LED of the old Notes I used to have so I got aodNotify to serve as a replacement, I get a lot of use out of that. It doesn't look like there is a whole lot of development going on with the A71 on XDA, however there is a root method already if you're into that type of thing. It looks pretty straightforward but I did not try it myself. I don't really know what you'd do with that beyond the normal apps that require root, as there doesn't seem to be any other ROMs being actively developed for this phone. I paired this with some screen protectors (copy & paste ASIN to see on amazon) B082TY2VMN and B07Z8LXW6Y however I wouldn't recommend the screen protectors for the screen because they are very very thick and impede the use of the in-screen fingerprint reader. I also picked up this case B07ZG3MZ6Y which seems to do the job well. I might spring for a traditional Commuter Otterbox if they make something other than the goofy one they have now. I never liked the thinner versions of their 2-piece designs, the rubber part always stretches out and distorts. Anyway, for this being the first actual new phone I've owned, I'm really happy with it. If you're used to new phones it probably won't dazzle you like it did me. But, I think it's hard to come close on the actual value you get with this phone vs the flagships and their bloated prices. I briefly looked into the iPhone SE 2 or whatever, and to it's credit it has a lot of power, but I'm not that into Apple and the battery life is abysmal. I read a bunch of articles trying to crown the A21 or A51 as the budget king, and I guess it is a matter of pricepoint, but this is like an S20 with a plastic body and an instant $500 rebate. BEWARE: I have come across some threads about this phone having some issues with the screen and low backlight settings on a gray background. I've also read a few threads about those problems being fixed. I DID NOT have any of those issues with my particular phone. I may be lucky, or I may have gotten a newer revision that fixed this issue. I wouldn't feel right about writing this review without mentioning that, but given Amazon's return policy I still purchased this with confidence that I could return it if it did come with a screen defect. Thanks for reading my long reflection on this phone.