Samsung Galaxy F42 5G review: A valuable budget choice

Samsung Galaxy F42 5G is a big display smartphone that comes with a matte finish design on the rear. The handset is offered in two colour variants — Black and Blue. We received the Blue variant as our review unit and liked this light aqua shade.

The smartphone features textured lines running diagonally on the rear side. The design looks good and gives a different look to the phone. With the Galaxy F42 5G, Samsung has moved the fingerprint sensor on the right side of the phone. The scanner is mounted on the power button making it more accessible to the users. The fingerprint scanner is quick in response and can unlock the phone in seconds.

At the front, the handset has a water drop notch display. Bezels are thin on the sides. But the chin is comparatively thick. The SIM card tray is placed on the left side of the phone. At the bottom, the device has a USB Type-C charging port paired with a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microphone. The speaker grille is also placed at the bottom edge.

Samsung Galaxy F42 5G has a waterdrop notch that houses the front camera. The screen is 6.6-inch large and has FHD+ resolution. However, it is not an AMOLED screen. Instead, it's an LCD display. Nevertheless, the screen is good for consuming videos and OTT content. The handset offers a refresh rate of 90Hz that definitely improves the scrolling much smoother and faster on Galaxy F42 5G. The phone offers enough brightness and can be used outdoors without facing any display issue.

Samsung Galaxy F42 5G has an 8MP camera at the front. The phone manages to click decent photos. Though they may not be the best in its segment, we liked the fact that the smartphone does not alter or change the colour tone. Photos clicked using the device show true colour tone and there is no artificial layer added to them. Selfies come out good when clicked in daylight. However, the quality and details in the images are not the same for low light conditions.

On the rear, the Galaxy F42 5G features a triple camera setup. There is a 64MP primary camera paired with a 5MP ultra-wide camera and a 2MP depth sensor. Photos clicked during the day — outdoor as well as indoors — have good quality with sufficient details and colour reproduction.

There is noticeable background noise in the low-light photos though. The Night mode does brighten up the photos to some extent. The ultra-wide sensor is not that great either and you will find photos lacking in details.

Samsung Galaxy F42 smartphone is a 5G device and comes with support for 12 5G bands. This means as and when the 5G network is rolled out in India, the Galaxy F42 will support 5G connectivity. The handset is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 700 processor which is a good processor. It can take care of your daily smartphone needs without any major hiccups. The handset offers up to 8GB RAM and up to 128GB storage.

The phone's performance is smooth. It can handle multi tasking and will not stutter when switching from one application to another. We did not face any call drop issues on the phone during our usage. Samsung Galaxy F42 5G can also handle casual gaming. Playing light games like Candy Crush is smooth. There is no heating or lag while playing these games. We do not recommend the phone for other heavy games though.

Audio performance of the phone is decent. The audio output is loud enough for a small room. Quality of the audio is not cheap either. Samsung Galaxy F42 5G runs on the company's own One UI 3 based on Android 11 operating system. Running a custom OS, the device comes with its own share of bloatware. There are some pre-installed apps on the phone which if you want can be uninstalled. Samsung Galaxy F42 5G offers system-wide dark modes and can be customised using themes as per one's choice.

Samsung Galaxy F42 5G is powered by a 5000mAh battery. The phone comes with a 15-watt charging adapter. Samsung says that the phone offers fast charging, but it's not that really fast. You may have to wait for over two hours before the phone gets completely charged.

Once fully charged, the device can last easily for a day and more. This is for an average user with 4-5 hours of online video streaming, calls and day-to-day performance.

Samsung Galaxy F42 5G comes with a starting price of Rs 17,999. The handset does lag behind in terms of camera performance and quick charging. But a smooth colourful display, a long battery life cover up and a decent performing chipset make it a compatible budget choice.