In recent years, the Galaxy A series has dominated the line of best budget smartphones. They are among Samsung’s most popular devices which is no surprising news. The Galaxy A series is a good combination between price and features, and it carries the Samsung name. This year’s Galaxy A52 is the perfect balance between the right set of features and price. It is being praised by many, as far as calling it the best Galaxy A phone ever.
With all the good things being said about it, one may wonder what is so special about this phone that it stands out from the rest? We have the answer to all of your questions, and a whole lot more in this comprehensive review of the Samsung Galaxy A52.
Specifications
The specifications are the things that people are most keen about. The Galaxy A52 has very promising specifications.
- Samsung Galaxy A52 features a 6.5 inches Super AMOLED Display, 90 Hz (120 Hz in 5G), and 800 nits brightness.
- The phone operates on Android 11, One UI 3.1, and a Snapdragon 720G processor.
- This phone comes with a 4 & 6GB RAM version and an 8GB RAM version. And has the internal storage of 128GB 4GB & 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM.
- The camera rig on the back features 4 cameras and a flash. The camera lenses consist of a 64 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 12 MP, f/2.2, (ultrawide), 5 MP, f/2.4, (macro), 5 MP, f/2.4, (depth).
- The front-facing camera consists of a 32MP lens, supports HDR.
- The smartphone is fueled by Li-Po 4500 mAh, non-removable, and fast charging 25W, 50% in 30 minutes.
- It is available in awesome colors (literally) such as Awesome Black, Awesome White, Awesome Violet, Awesome Blue.
These are the awesome specifications of the Galaxy A52. Honestly, they might be all one needs. On paper, these specs beat even some of the most high-end flagship smartphones on the market.
Design
The Galaxy A52 has a unique new design. It has a high-quality plastic back and frame. Needless to say, it does not feel cheap. The matte finish gives a nice touch to the phone. It has IP 67 dust & water resistance, and the front of the phone is gorilla glass 5. The front of the phone has some pretty thick bezels, which is one of the reasons it’s a mid-range phone.
The top of the phone has a hole-punch cutout for the front-facing selfie camera. And under the display, there is a fingerprint reader which is reliable and consistent, but just a bit slow for today’s standards.
Display
The screen is a 6.5 inches Super AMOLED panel with a 1080p resolution and a refresh rate of 90Hz. This is the first time a higher refresh rate screen is included in a Galaxy A series smartphone. As 120 Hz is becoming more common, 90 Hz is considered as the beginner level of higher refresh rate screens. The scrolling on this phone is a very smooth experience.
The screen is brighter than the previous model with a max brightness of 800 nits. Colors are also very vibrant in this display, and you get to choose from the default vivid mode and natural mode. And they can be considered perfectly color-accurate too. The screen doesn’t support HDR though it does have widevine l1 support.
Performance: Snapdragon 720 G
The smartphone has a Snapdragon 720G Chip as its processor in all 4GB, 6GB, and 8GB RAM versions. And more importantly, this chip is more than capable of doing heavy tasks and offers more than enough performance for users.
Software
Galaxy A52 operates on Android 11 and One UI 3.1 on top of it. Samsung has promised three major operating system upgrades and security patches, which speaks volumes about the phone’s longevity.
RAM & Storage
This phone comes with 3 different versions of RAM: 4GB, 6GB, and 8GB respectively. Depending on your workload you may choose the model best suited for you. The 4 & 6GB RAM versions both come with 128 GB of internal storage, and the 8GB RAM one comes in a 128 GB version and a 256 GB version. In the end, it all comes down to your usage and whichever model you like.
Camera
The camera UI is the same as other galaxy phones, but Samsung has a new fun mode in which they have included some AR filters in the camera app in collaboration with Snapchat. On paper, the phone has 64 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 12 MP, f/2.2, (ultrawide), 5 MP, f/2.4, (macro), 5 MP, f/2.4, (depth) sensors.
Photos
The pictures from this phone are quite surprising with plenty of detail. The dynamic range is wide enough, and the photos come out with perfect saturation and pretty accurate colors. The output of the photos is 16 MP by default, but you can also capture them at the max 64MP. The A52 64MP photos capture a lot of detail and are very pleasing to look at, although it’s a bit slow when capturing these higher resolution stills.
Zoom
The Galaxy A52 lacks a telephoto lens, so instead of zoom, you should know you’ll be getting upscaled crop shots instead. There’s a little softness visible in the zoom shots and the higher zoom shots. There’s a lot more softness visible along with the sharpening artifacts.
Low Light
Nighttime photos are very high definition, and this phone performs very well for a mid-ranger. There’s very little noise, colors are very well retained and the dynamic range is amazing.
Front-Facing Camera
The 32MP front camera takes 8MP still on the regular, though the quality can be maximized. The image quality from the front camera is solid as well, with decent noise performance. Skin tones are consistent too. Portraits are excellent, and it separates the background from the subject quite nicely.
Videos
Both rear and front cameras can record 4k video at 30 fps. 4K Video processing is fairly natural from the main camera and the detail is excellent. As a whole, videos from different cameras have a better consistency than the photos.
Video stabilization is available in both cameras but only at full HD, and there’s also an option of the super steady mode which gets videos from the ultrawide camera. The electronic video stabilization can get wonky at times, and it is not very reliable for that matter.
Speakers
Watching videos or listening to music with this phone is a nice experience, thanks to the stereo speaker setup. It uses a regular bottom speaker along with the earpiece as a second channel. Although it is not the loudest speaker out there by any means, yet it does rank pretty fairly.
The phone also has a Dolby atmos implementation which optimizes certain sounds, depending on the media you are enjoying. The phone also includes a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is very rare for new smartphones nowadays, but it is loved nonetheless.
Battery
Samsung Galaxy A52 is powered by a 4500 mAh battery. It’s a very large battery. Even most of the higher-end flagship phones do not have a battery this size. The battery life seems to have no issues. Samsung claims a 2-day battery life and it is accurate depending on how you use your phone. This battery gives you 6 – 7 hours of screen-on time. It is not impossible to kill the battery in a day. However, it would be a hard task.
Conclusion
The Galaxy A52 is the only phone in its price range that offers a higher refresh rate and an ip67 water and dust resistance rating. And just like the S21, A52 can use both on-screen fingerprints unlock and face unlock, though the face unlock is a bit slower. The phone does not support wireless charging, which is a bit of a bummer but considering the price and other features, it’s a sacrifice Samsung was willing to make.
The A52 is not a perfect phone. It does make a few compromises,but the compromises it makes are the ones most users won’t even notice. And Samsung is good with that. Galaxy A52 does pretty well among its competitors and the price range.
This is our review of the Samsung Galaxy A52. Hope you liked it, and if there are any questions and queries, let us know!