Samsung Galaxy A52 5G review: A serious mid-range 5G contender Review

There are a good deal of phones in Samsung’s Galaxy A selection, all with a aim on mid-selection pricing. The Galaxy A52 5G is the product of the present crop — a 5G handset with IP67 certification in opposition to dust and h2o ingress. Then you will find the six.5-inch screen’s 120Hz refresh price, and twin speakers for stereo audio. All of this will come in at a SIM-totally free selling price of £349, or $349.ninety nine in the US. 

The Galaxy A52 5G has an attention-grabbing chassis layout. Its back again is produced from plastic, and the virtually opaque, matte end is visually interesting. Importantly it will not gather fingerprints and is not slippery. Despite this, the handset just failed my ‘chair test’: it slid off the arm of my sofa a few of periods, but was greater at clinging on than several. The edges are a shiny chrome, and glance a bit out of location in opposition to the backplate’s matte. Samsung has made a decision all 4 backplate colours are ‘awesome’, so your choices are Magnificent Black, Magnificent White, Magnificent Blue and Magnificent Violet. As observed, the Galaxy A52 5G has an IP67 rating for dust and h2o resistance. 

The back again is punctured by a raised digital camera housing. This is shallower than several, but its location on the leading proper edge when the handset is sitting on a desk suggests that prodding the screen on all but the extremely bottom of the still left side helps make the phone rock all-around. 

Samsung has geared up the Galaxy A52 5G with a three.5mm headset jack on the bottom edge, which several will welcome.  

The Galaxy A52 5G actions 75.1mm wide by 159.9mm deep by 8.4mm thick and weighs 189g. The screen is a six.5-inch super AMOLED pane that sits in noticeable, but not massive, bezels. The leading and bottom bezels are a few of millimetres deeper than these on the extensive edges, and the screen-to-human body ratio is 84.8{36a394957233d72e39ae9c6059652940c987f134ee85c6741bc5f1e7246491e6}. The tiny slash-out in the leading centre of the screen that accommodates the entrance digital camera is scarcely noticeable when the phone is in use. The fingerprint sensor is an effective and reputable in-screen variety.  

The six.5-inch screen delivers apparent, vibrant and sharp content material at FHD+ resolution (2400 x 1080, 405ppi), with a few of screen method options — Vivid and Pure — out there. If you decide for Vivid you can change the white stability, even controlling red, environmentally friendly and blue values separately in ‘Advanced settings’ if you desire. There is also Samsung’s usual Eye Comfort method, which reduces blue light and can be always on, or scheduled to kick in possibly at established periods or to toggle at sunrise/sunset. Yet again, you can customise this setting’s color temperature. 

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As on extra high-priced handsets, the screen’s refresh price can be established to 120Hz or 60Hz, even though there will not feel to be a facility for the phone to switch amongst the two options dynamically depending on what you might be executing. My assessment was completed fully with the 120Hz environment, and if I were a standard user I in all probability would ignore 60Hz absolutely. 

The fantastic screen is complemented by a potent stereo speaker setup, sending audio out of the leading and bottom of the phone. Gamers will take pleasure in the prosperous audio top quality, as will anybody listening to songs or looking at movie devoid of headphones. 

You can’t expect a £/$350 handset to run on a flagship chipset, but the Galaxy A52 5G’s Snapdragon 750G 5G cell system, supported by 6GB of RAM, shipped decent Geekbench 5 CPU scores of 642 (single main) and 1659 (multi main). For comparison, the £329 OnePlus Nord N10 5G, which is primarily based on the Snapdragon 690 platform, scored 608 and 1866 respectively. 

This 5G handset can accommodate two SIMs, but if you want to augment the interior storage, just one SIM will need to have to make way for a MicroSD card. There is 128GB on-board, of which 26GB is used out of the box, leaving 102GB totally free. That 26GB is occupied by Android 11, the Samsung Just one UI three.1 overlay and a bevy of extra apps. 

Samsung’s overlay provides some valuable characteristics to the options location, but you also get various apps that duplicate these provided with Android. If it is way too much, a tough reset will permit you simply just not to install whichever of the Samsung apps you don’t want. There is certainly also a bunch of third-occasion apps, together with Spotify, Netflix, Facebook and TikTok, as well as Microsoft Office environment, OneDrive, Outlook and LinkedIn. You can always uninstall any you don’t want if you have not ignored them during setup. 

SEE: 5G smartphones: A cheat sheet (totally free PDF) (TechRepublic)

There are 4 rear cameras, with the major just one owning a 64MP sensor, an f/1.8 wide-angle lens and optical picture stabilisation (OIS). This is complemented by a 12MP f/two.two ultra-wide-angle (123°) digital camera, a 5MP f/two.four depth sensor and a 5MP f/two.four macro digital camera. The entrance-experiencing digital camera is a 32MP f/two.two device. 

Place-and-click shooting with the major and entrance cameras was fine: colours were precise and pictures were satisfying. But stage-and-click is actually about the restrict. 

Zooming is electronic (you will find no telephoto digital camera), and so fidelity disappears somewhat speedily as you head toward the highest 10x. The macro lens is frustrating as it lacks autofocus and have to be held three-5cm from the matter — you are going to need to have a continual hand, and it will not get close in enough to pass as a fantastic macro digital camera. The depth sensing digital camera is restricted in use and may possibly as well not be existing. So, two of the 4 rear cameras are fantastic, but zooming is electronic only whilst the macro and depth cameras are mostly superfluous. 

The Galaxy A52 5G’s 4500mAh battery simply stored the handset likely for a day below usual use, long lasting for 11 hours fifty eight minutes below the PCMark for Android Work two. battery lifetime examination. It also has very fantastic endurance for movie viewing, offering 3 hours of YouTube movie from a totally billed battery with a loss of eighteen{36a394957233d72e39ae9c6059652940c987f134ee85c6741bc5f1e7246491e6}. Speedy charging (25W, 50{36a394957233d72e39ae9c6059652940c987f134ee85c6741bc5f1e7246491e6} in thirty minutes) is supported, but you will find no wireless charging. 

Conclusions 

Samsung’s Galaxy A52 5G gives a fantastic established of characteristics at a mid-selection (£/$350) selling price stage. A unique chassis layout with a awesome matte end to the backplate, IP67 dust/h2o resistance, a three.5mm headset jack and 6GB of RAM as well as 128GB of interior storage give it broad attractiveness, with dual SIM, 5G and MicroSD help incorporating to the combine. Increase in the Tremendous AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh price and decent functionality from the Snapdragon 750G chipset, and you might be on the lookout at an beautiful deal. 

But don’t be fooled by the quad-digital camera array at the back again. There are two decent cameras (64MP wide angle, 12MP ultra-wide-angle), a disappointing macro digital camera and a depth sensor that may possibly as well not be there. Place-and-shoot snappers will be fine, but extra demanding photographers may possibly want to glance elsewhere. 

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