As a Pixel owner, this budget Samsung phone is my best life hack

As a smartphone power user, I naturally tend to gravitate towards picking a flagship as my daily driver. High-end smartphones offer displays that compete with the best TVs, excellent camera systems, and enough processing power to play console-quality games — what’s not to like? But even though I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the company of my Pixel 8 Pro over the past year, I’ve come to realize that there are many scenarios where owning a flagship smartphone just doesn’t make sense.

Carrying two phones was once the hallmark of business executives juggling work and personal lives — BlackBerry in one pocket and a fashionable personal phone in the other. While that may no longer be true these days, I still think there’s a case to be made for owning a phone that’s inexpensive, reliable, and versatile enough to handle situations where taking out a thousand-dollar flagship feels like overkill or downright risky.

That’s where the Samsung Galaxy A15 enters the picture for me — it’s an unassuming device that gets the basics right and could serve as a valuable addition to just about anyone’s life. Here’s why.

Based on the Galaxy A15’s spec sheet alone, you’d be hard-pressed to tell that you’re looking at a budget smartphone. It has a massive battery, a 3.5mm headphone jack (remember those?), and even a 90Hz display AMOLED that manages to one-up the iPhone 16. But the best part might just be the price point — the Galaxy A15 is almost laughably cheap compared to what you’d pay for a flagship smartphone.

The Galaxy A15’s budget price point also means it doesn’t chase trends in the same way as its premium and flagship counterparts. Take the 3.5mm headphone jack, for instance — a rare find in 2024. While I’m forced to reach for a pair of Bluetooth buds on my Pixel 8 Pro, the Galaxy A15 lets me plug in wired audio gear like the good old days.

Buying a second phone for listening to music or podcasts certainly doesn’t save me much money versus a pair of Bluetooth buds, but I greatly value the comfort of wired earphones. Seriously, dig up some earbuds and give them a try — the difference in comfort might surprise you. I simply haven’t found a pair of true wireless earbuds that I can enjoy for long periods of time. Plus, it’s a great way to give myself a digital detox when I go out for a walk since I can leave my flagship phone and its notifications at home.

Of course, I could’ve just bought a cheap dongle for my Pixel 8 Pro and called it a day. But the Galaxy A15 offers so much more than just a headphone jack. Take battery life, for instance — the massive 5,000mAh cell paired with a modest chip means that the Galaxy A15 comfortably outlasts even some of the best Android phones. So when I anticipate a busy day of being out and about, I typically relegate GPS duties and music streaming to it instead of my main phone.

Living in a warmer climate, I’ve lost track of the number of times my phones have thrown up overheating warnings while navigating under direct sunlight. High screen brightness and continuous GPS usage are also a recipe for rapid battery drain. And if your first thought is to simply plug in a portable power source, that’s an even worse idea. Charging with an intensive app running and the screen brightness cranked amplifies the heat problem and actively accelerates battery degradation. I tend to upgrade every few years, so I value the long-term battery health of my flagship smartphone

For those reasons, I would much rather use the Galaxy A15 for long Google Maps sessions — it weighs as much as a power bank while delivering much more utility. I don’t care if it gets hot to the point of damaging its internals, nor am I worried about strapping it to a motorcycle handlebar on long highway rides.

The same utility holds for many other use cases, too. My action camera, for example, lacks a screen but I can use any smartphone as a wireless display. And on that note, the Galaxy A15 also retains expandable storage support via a microSD card slot, unlike virtually any mainstream flagship smartphone. This means I can wirelessly offload footage from my cameras and drones and then have the phone upload it to cloud storage. Buying an entire Galaxy A15 costs just a smidge more than what Google and other brands charge for a higher-storage capacity flagship.

Even when I’m at home and don’t strictly need a second phone, I’ve found ways to make the Galaxy A15 useful while eliminating single-use appliances or gadgets that take up valuable real estate. With a few inexpensive magnetic wall mounts and adapters I picked up online (think of it as a poor man’s Qi2 or MagSafe), I’ve turned the phone into a mini smart display that I can take around my home.

In the kitchen, it’s perfect for pulling up recipes or streaming music while I cook. Unlike a smart speaker or display, it offers full interactivity — because, let’s face it, using Google Assistant for anything more complex than setting a timer is borderline painful in 2024. Meanwhile, the Galaxy A15 supports Gemini like any other Android phone, which makes the virtual assistant experience far more tolerable (but definitely not perfect).

At my bedside, I use another magnetic mount where the phone serves as my secondary alarm clock and smart home dashboard similar to the one pictured above that lives in my living room. I use an app called Fully Kiosk, which boots automatically when the phone is plugged in and connected to my home Wi-Fi. It brings up my Home Assistant dashboard, giving me instant access to lights and climate controls even if I’m doing something else on my main phone. The AMOLED display is easy on the eyes in the dark, and because it’s a secondary device, I’m not too concerned about burn-in.

Now, I’m not saying the Galaxy A15 doesn’t have compromises. Look a little closer and you’ll find plenty of them, like its lackluster chip and cameras. And while the Galaxy A15 makes for a great companion phone in my home city, I can’t say the same for when I’m traveling abroad.

The lack of eSIM support is the first major hurdle given the sheer convenience of buying a plan while taxiing to the runway. For that feature, you’ll have to shell out a sizable premium to get the Galaxy A35 instead. If you can score a physical SIM at your destinations or deal with roaming, though, the 5,000mAh battery will last you through a day of hotspot use.

However, most of my other complaints, like performance and image quality, don’t really matter when you consider the Galaxy A15’s price point. It’s unrealistic to expect flagship-level results from a phone that costs a fraction as much. Ultimately, then, the Galaxy A15 plays to its strengths and punches well above its weight for the many use cases you may not have even considered.