I bought this phone recently as part of a deal on Very. I had been wanting this phone for while, as I had been looking to use 5G networks for a while now for faster download speeds, if not now, then certainly in the future when my area is fully 5G enabled.

I previously had a Huawei Mate 20 Pro, which wasn't exactly a slouch, and I got the A90 to replace it due to the fact that the Mate 20 Pro wasn't 5G compatible. The Mate 20 Pro was a great phone, but it is outclassed by the A90 (certainly for my uses anyway).

Even on the same network and on 4G+ speed, (5G is a bit patchy in my area), the A90 moved at least a good 30mbps faster for downloads than the Mate 20 Pro. I use my phones as mobile hotspots and even at 4G+ speed, the A90 is a ripper. Big downloads do not take long at all.

The phone itself is also really fast, it has 6GB RAM and plenty of storage with 128 GB internal storage (approx), you can also use to boost the storage capacity, which was also a step up from my Mate 20 Pro as Huawei were using a proprietary Nano-SD storage system that was more expensive and less available than Micro SD. Is it as blazing fast as a top of the range phone such as a Galaxy S20, Huawei P40 Pro etc, probably not, but you shouldn't expect such things from what is a mid-range phone. However, it does hold it's own really well when installing and using apps and restarting/powering up and for general usage.

I'll be honest and admit that I haven't actually really tested the speaker sound yet as I almost always use my bluetooth headphones when listening to things, but the sound coming through my headphones is good quality and there are no complaints in that regard.

The same goes with the camera, I generally don't use the phone on a camera unless it is for quick selfies or general photos, I'm not a photography buff, so I can't really comment on just how good these cameras are on the A90, but again folks, it's a mid-range phone, it's not a Huawei P40 Pro and therefore doesn't have top of the range lenses. But for general photo taking and Messenger video calls, it does the job.

Now, as far as I'm aware, there is no official dust and water protection rating for this phone. Also, the phone is a bit on the heavy side and due to its glass backing it is quite a slippy phone to hold onto. So, do yourself a favour and (a) insure the thing as soon as you get it and (b) get a sturdy case with a screen protector built-in with a dust cap. Yes, it costs a bit of money, but it's better to spend money on a case to protect the phone from damage, dust and splashes of water, than to have to claim on your insurance or pay a fortune to get it fixed because you dropped it due to the glass back being too slippy to hold onto.

All in all, this is a good mid-range phone and is of good quality and will surprise you, especially if you keep your expectations in check i.e. remember it's not a top of the range phone and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Great phone even in 2022.

BATTERY 10/10
Battery lasts very long and doesn't get hot while gaming in normal room temperatures. Ran 720p YouTube videos at around 25% brightness for 2 hours and only lost 10% charge. Very good.
The battery lasts a good amount of time while gaming too. I get around 6-7 hours of Brawl Stars with no heat issues at all (at normal room temperatures, the battery temperature was always below 35 degrees Celsius and rarely went above 30 on most days). Genshin Impact drains the battery faster. On Genshin Impact lowest settings, I get around 4-5 hours of battery life. Haven't tested battery life on highest, but the battery gets warm on highest which is expected on any phone without an external cooler. Great battery life overall.

PERFORMANCE 8/10
Haven't had any lag issues at all on this phone with normal use such as web browsing, productivity and YouTube. Samsung DeX works with no lag or stutters and provides an excellent desktop experience when connected to an external display. Many apps can be opened simultaneously with no lag thanks to the 6/8GB RAM. Games run very smoothly even on high settings. The Snapdragon 855 is strong even in 2022 and can run demanding games well. Alien Isolation, a AAA PC/Console title that was ported to Android is extremely demanding, but the A90 runs this game very well (40-60fps) and I did not experience any stutters while playing. This game is more demanding than Genshin Impact, and yes, Genshin Impact runs without issues on this device, so it can run any game you throw at it.
This phone is great for emulation too. PS2 emulation using AetherSX2 runs smoothly and 3DS emulation on Citra MMJ runs very well. At the time of writing this, this device didn't perform very well in Skyline (Nintendo Switch emulator) when playing 3D titles such as Super Mario Odyssey, but the emulator is still in development and even the latest flagships like the S22 can't run all 3D games on Skyline too well at the time of writing this.
As the phone has a 60Hz display, the hardware doesn't get pushed very hard unlike if it had a high refresh rate such as 90hz or 120hz. As a result, most games are limited to 60fps, so games can be played on the Power Saving mode which can reduce heat, improve battery life and also prevent/reduce throttling as Power Saving itself throttles the hardware. If this mode is disabled, throttling can be observed when putting it through sustained loads such as 60fps Genshin Impact on high settings, but the throttling isn't bad. Using the CPU Throttling Test app, the phone throttled to 86% of the peak performance after 60 minutes of sustained CPU stress.

CAMERAS 6/10
The cameras are a downside for this phone. The image quality of the cameras, both front and rear, is not up very good, but not terrible either. Night photos with the rear camera are not very clear and are quite noisy. If you want a great camera, this phone is not the best choice.

SPEAKER AND MIC 4/10
The phone only has one speaker (other than the call speaker) located at the bottom right. The speaker is very quiet and is not very suitable for music or watching videos. I tolerate it because I almost never use the speaker, but if you want to use the speaker often, this is not a good choice.
The microphone quality isn't great either. Voices are audible, but don't expect very good quality. It works and that is it.

WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY 7/10
This phone does support 5G, but only 1 band of 5G, so I have been unable to use 5G at all where I live. 4G is very fast where I live, so this is not an issue for me, but if you want to use 5G, check what 5G bands your area uses before buying if you want to use 5G. Haven't had any issues with cellular connectivity other than that. It is fast and stable on 4G and I haven't had issues with calling either.
Haven't had any issues with WiFi or Bluetooth either. WiFi is fast
Using the mobile hotspot feature works well and is fast and low latency. I've used it to connect my PC to the Internet when my home Internet connection went down many times and used it for FPS games. Using the hotspot feature doesn't heat up the phone too much unlike some other phones I have tried.

DISPLAY 7.5/10
This phone has a 6.7 inch (similar to the iPhone 14 Pro Max size) 60Hz 1080x2400 Super AMOLED display which is fluid and looks great for almost any use such as watching videos, web browsing and gaming. The screen is suitable for 1080p FHD video as it is 1080 pixels in height when held in landscape. If you want to watch higher resolution videos such as 2K 1440p or higher, consider an S series or a different phone with a higher resolution AMOLED display. For most people, this display should be more than enough. 60Hz is fine, but for gaming I would prefer 90Hz or higher, but this is an A series with a flagship chipset so it is reasonable for my use. There are many newer and more recent midrange phones with high refresh rate displays such as 90Hz and 120Hz if high refresh rate is important to you.

STORAGE 7/10
This phone only comes with 128GB storage, which is sufficient if you don't take photos often and aren't a heavy user or if you use a cloud photo service such as Google Photos. The storage is fast as it is UFS 3.0. Haven't had any issues with the speed of the storage. I use emulators and some game ROMs can be large. I also run Linux through Termux and this uses a fair bit of my storage so for this kind of use, 128GB may not be enough for some. I am currently at 122GB out of 128GB with around 500 items in my photos, some games, emulator ROMs and Linux things.
If you need more space, you can expand it with a microSDXC card (only on the 6GB RAM variant as stated on GSMArena).

OVERALL
I give this phone an 8/10. If you want a phone with great battery life and great performance but don't mind a subpar speaker and cameras, this phone is great. I really like this phone and for my use, I would take it over an S10.

FAQ
Does it support Samsung DeX?
Yes it does.

What is the latest One UI and Android version available for it?
At the time of writing, One UI 4.1 and Android 12.

Does it have a Snapdragon or Exynos SoC?
It only comes with a Snapdragon 855.

How much RAM does it come with?
There is a 6GB variant and an 8GB variant. My review was based on my 6GB one.

Where do you get one from in 2022/2023?
This phone is a 2019 model, so if you want one you can look at preowned ones such as on Facebook Marketplace. As always, be careful when buying a preowned phone.

Thanks for reading.

Also, it'd be cool you give us One UI 5 for this phone. The A90 is special as it is has no successor. :)

I looked around for a great mid level Android, that has a long upgrade life cycle, good spec, and 5g. I've been in IT for 25 years, and all the phone options still boggle the mind! But this has Android 11, and will keep getting upgrades till 2023. That's particularly important because I use it for work, so it needs to be current. 5g is good too, because that'll just keep rolling out. Screen is big too, as I'm sick of tiny screens! The downside is probably the camera. To me it's fine, but if you don't care as much about upgrades or 5g, and photos are your thing, then there would be better choices at the same price point. No 3.5mm headphones jack either, but Bluetooth is the future here, or a cheap USB C to 3.5mm converter cable does the trick also. Fantastic phone at a great price.

nice screen and the phone itself feels really good but needs a cover or it will slip out of your hands. battery very energy efficient if unnecessary functions like 5G where there is no 5G available are switched off. battery lasts around 4 days on a single charge if you don't use it constantly for 3h straight. it is a bit pricey but worth it. the screen is very bright, i always keep it close to the minimum, like 15-20% max. there is a possibility to use 2 different accounts on the same phone for messengers like whatsapp if this is needed. 128gb memory are plenty. straight out of the box around 100GB are usable which should take a while to fill. the phone is a bit on the heavy side. a negative point is that there is no 3.5mm headphone jack but in times of bluetooth head- and earphones no problem and usb cable earphones are in the box.