Samsung - Galaxy A42 5G 128GB (Unlocked) - Black

I bought this phone September 2021, hardly used it for months, this phone shipped from my hand and broke it screen while i had good screen protector on it and case. Im very disappointed with this product. And its speed is aswell.

I would say I’m very happy with this phone that I have as a hand me down from my daughter…guess that’s a hand me up. She didn’t like it because it was not working well with FB messenger or google chat but it’s fine for me because I only use it for texting and calls and occasionally use it to set up a mobile hotspot. I rarely use it to go on the internet. Works great for my needs. I leave my phone on 24 hours a day but don’t use it very much and this stays charged for at least a week. That is a huge positive for me. I would have given five stars if it wasn’t for my daughter’s negative experience. My only negative is it seems to chime for notifications of everything including when YouTube is suggesting a video and I haven’t been able to find the time to figure out how to shut it off. Haha. I don’t even watch YouTube videos on it.

Let me first get what angers me out of the way. Bestbuy is selling the USA version of this phone. It has the flash as part of the camera arrangement in the square part of the back of the phone. The international version has the flash below the camera just underneath the square of the camera. That said, they sell cases that are for the international version but they display the picture of the case that pertains to the USA version of the phone. Not good and frankly deceitful. I reached out to the company of the case and they gave me a credit toward their products. Big deal. As for the phone, it is perfect - EXCEPT that you cannot use hey google when the screen is off. That is ridiculous. But as for speed it is more than sufficient. Calls are clear and perfect. 5G is fast when fully connected to it with zero distortion unlike what you sometimes get when indoors, depending where one lives. And as far as the screen goes, Samsung makes the best screens on the planet. At just 50% brightness, it is wonderfully bright. Again, the worst part, in my opinion is the lack of activating google with the screen off, and no cases for the USA version of the phone.

Decent phone. Lacking some features such as wireless charging, and screen and camera is just ok. The design on the back is holographic and really nice. The phone feels substantial, and the operation is smooth. Detected no real lag and was quite impressed by the price point, sub $300.00. It is 5g and works well with Verizon and TMobile.

Powerful phone at a reasonable price. Initially, I had a lot of confusion about buying this phone but took it to try and if not worthy would have definitely returned back. The reality is this phone is astonishing. The wider screen is definitely great to view any videos/movies. I don't download much, so 64 GB is really a lot of space for me. The standard Apps don't take too much space and hence I'm left out with a lot of space. No heating issues like other phones which I had in the past. Absoultely worth the price for budget lovers.

Battery life=Great! Even after several months it still holds a charge for several days. Probably the best thing about this phone. Performance=Poor. Camera=Simlar to a $100 phone. It works decently out of the box, but after a few months, it has degraded to where it's almost unusable at times. It constantly dials numbers in your pocket even if you change the settings to help that it doesn't help at all, and apparently, this is a well-known issue. The thumbprint reader takes several attempts or doesn't read at all. Pulling up apps can takes minutes to do or have to reboot the phone entirely. This is all just shortly a few months after being purchased. I would not recommend this phone for this price range.

This phone was amazing for a few month's but after almost a year of use the phone no longer vibrates. I keep my phone mainly on vibrate so that it doesn't interrupt me when taking a class but now it won't even do that.

The moto z3 play (cheaper than this), I got for free through my phone plan, was leaps and bounds ahead of this thing. I never thought I'd be the type to have an opinion on a phone, but the experience I've had with this phone over the past month has left a somewhat sour taste. From issues with a less responsive touch screen to not being able to set multiple timers, this phone has me cursing at it all day long. I'm in my early thirties, I'm not an octogenarian, but this phone sure makes me feel like one with my constant issues attempting to do basic things. Maybe I'm spoiled and got used to the seemingly basic ammenities the Moto Z3 play offered, but having actually paid for this one (opposed to receiving it as a free upgrade valued at about half the price of this phone) I was expecting more out of it. Other than a few oversights and difficulties navigating the device it operates as intended. I gave it three stars because, to be fair, I'm sure some of the difficulties I'm having with using this phone this is my fault, but small design issues (such as having an annoyingly small space bar during browser navigation thats taken up by a useless ".com" button) leave me missing my cheap moto z3 play; which would let me set multiple timers from the stock app, wouldn't bombard me with junk on the weather app, had a variety of useful gesture controls, and other basic customizations that are lacking on the Galaxy a42. The nicest thing about this is the fresh battery that I don't have to charge for two or three days (with my low level of usage). But, I'm sure that would be the case for most new phones that haven't had their batteries abused yet. Was looking for something basic, but maybe not this basic. Oh, well. Will do more research next time.