Samsung Galaxy A52 review

Samsung is very popular in the mid-range. All thanks to the Galaxy A series, the new representative of which I had a chance to try out. The Galaxy A52 is going to be a hit, I have no doubt about it. But not everything in it is perfect. I will say in advance that this is a  more budgetary version of the Samsung Galaxy A52 5G smartphone.

Galaxy A52 appearance and characteristics

Visually, the  Galaxy A52  is the most charming in this blue color. I also like that the camera island is covered with the same paint, so it does not stand out at all from the back side and gives the impression of a single whole. In addition,  the workmanship is standard to a good level, with rounded edges on the sides that are nice to the hands. That said, you don’t really feel the premium workmanship here at all, it’s just solid construction for this price range. And plastic at the first touch. There is a 3.5 mm mini-jack, there is a charger that differs from the flagship S series. The IP67 standard assumes that the smartphone is waterproof.

The smartphone is not small, you probably won’t reach the top bar, but it lies pleasantly in your hand. 189 grams is a reasonable weight for a device of this size.

Unfortunately, I am very concerned about the durability of this plastic case. I wore and used this smartphone carefully and yet there were abrasions on the back of the case that could not be cleaned, which is certainly more or less noticeable in the photo. It’s a pity, because it spoils the appearance of the smartphone. I absolutely hate to hide it in a case, but this will be my first advice if you decide to buy it.

Galaxy A52 screen

The screen is an Infinity O panel. These are Samsung screens without a notch, with a center hole for the front camera. Display  6.5 inch Super AMOLED with a resolution of 1080 2400 pixels and a visible frame on each side. Since Samsung offered a 120Hz refresh in flagships, some improvements have also been made to the lower series, leading to a  90Hz refresh in the  Galaxy A52.

The difference is clearly visible to the naked eye, and when combined with Samsung’s Super AMOLED, it gives a great experience. Great color reproduction, viewing angles, maximum brightness up to 800 nits, and smooth 90Hz refresh. However, I must mention that there is no adaptive refresh function here, and we can only select the hard one, 60 or 90 Hz. Always On Display, Eye Protection Mode, Night Mode, and I only have one complaint about this display, basically what’s underneath. Yes, the fingerprint scanner is better than the previous model, but it’s not impressive in its speed, so I would prefer Samsung to place the reader on the power button this year. Of course, you can get used to such speed, but it is very different from the current flagships.

The Galaxy A52  sounds good in the headphones, the sound from the phone itself has also improved, but mainly due to the use of stereo speakers. So I don’t recommend listening to music.

Components and performance

Inside there is room for a  Snapdragon 720G, an Adreno 618 chip, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage for UFS 2.1g data. It’s not a speed demon, and with components like this, it’s hard to expect more performance from a smartphone, for example in games. For the price, however,  it is a robust configuration that will perform well in day-to-day use. Framing or slowing down was sporadic, and the feeling of smoother operation is certainly due to the 90Hz screen refresh (3D Mark mistakenly assumed it was a  stronger 5G model, so the caption on the test is not correct and the numbers are correct).

The smartphone runs  Android 11 and One UI 3.1 overlay. I just love the Samsung overlay and I love the way it looks. You can quickly get used to it, it has several useful functions that make the use more pleasant,  it is stable and does not load the components of the smartphone. I also liked the side tab on the right side of the screen. There you will find shortcut icons, the panel can of course be customized yourself.

Battery and battery life.

The battery in the new Galaxy A52 has a capacity of  4500 mAh, but I would like 500 mAh more. The smartphone supports fast charging at 25 W, so that in both cases a little less than the  Redmi Note 10 Pro,  which I tested recently, but overall everything was a little bit better – bigger battery, faster charging, higher refresh rate. The operating time of the screen in my case was about 5-6 hours – this is good,  one and a half days of work from one charge is within the permissible range. So that’s okay, but nothing special.

There is NFC, Bluetooth 5.0, expansion of internal memory with microSD cards, there is even an FM radio with RDS function. By default, it only works when wired headphones are connected.

Galaxy A52 cameras

The Galaxy A52 cameras do not make an electrified impression, but at a price of 26 thousand rubles. Of course,  standard cameras do best in good lighting conditions where even the difference in color between individual lenses will be negligible. The darker and less preferred, the worse, especially at a wide angle. However, in general, the smartphone selects the white balance and color well, the photos are not too saturated with colors, they have very good sharpness.

With optical stabilization, everything is fine, which can also be seen in the videos. However, if you decide to use additional stabilization, the camera will only go to FullHD mode. After turning on additional stabilization using the icon in the camera application, the image was really smooth, but it lost a lot of quality, a lot of grain appeared.

So that’s solid, but it’s hard to say that the  Samsung Galaxy A52  will cut the competition in this price range. But for the sake of clarity, I’ve seen worse photos and videos in the same price range. So the cameras are generally a plus.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy A52

It’s hard to talk about disappointment, but it’s also hard to talk about delight. The Galaxy A52  is a solid smartphone for a reasonable price, and if you decide to buy it, you will be satisfied. Moreover, improvements are visible compared to last year’s model. However, it can hardly be called a king in its price range, and competition at a similar and often lower price can give you more. Even faster screen refresh rates and faster loading times. The A52 proves once again that the Galaxy A series are fairly safe smartphones that do not revolutionize the market, but offer reliable devices that people are happy to buy. This is exactly how it will be this time. A good, sometimes very good smartphone,  but for the money you can hunt for something better. And yes I am looking at Redmi Note 10 Pro.

pros

• Excellent Super AMOLED screen with 90Hz refresh rate
• IP67 standard
• Excellent body colors

Minuses

• Body fragility to scratches
• “Fast” charging only 25 watts.
• Plastic case