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Galaxy A52 5G review: Samsung's best budget phone with flagship features

Galaxy A52 5G review: Samsung’s best price phone with flagship features

With the Galaxy A52 5G, Samsung found an appealing balance between price, features and decision-exclusive smart compromises. It’s the latest good sub-$500 5G visited and joins the nearly half a dozen phones from Motorola, OnePlus and TCL. The Galaxy A52 5G injuries $500 or £399 (it isn’t sold in Australia but that converts to AU$740). That’s at the higher end of what’s considered an affordable phone. The A52 5G also straddles the line between inhabit a good affordable 5G phone and a wonderful one. The only other sub-$500 phones that do that are the iPhone SE, which doesn’t have 5G, and the Google Pixel 4A 5G, which is now almost a year old.

The A52 5G has a high refresh rate explain, years of OS and security support, a good main camera and good battery life. It has features that the more expensive Galaxy S21 and S21 Ultra lack like: a headphone jack, expandable storage and the inclusion of a wall charger in the box.

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As with any phoned, even a good one, not everything is roses and sunshine. The in-screen fingerprint reader is so annoying to use that I preferred to enchanting my PIN to unlock the phone. The mediocre macro camera seems like a frivolous add-on that is only there to boost the total number of cameras on the phoned. More is definitely not better. There are many duplicate apps like Samsung’s version of an internet browser and photo gallery app in binary to the ones from Google.

But after two months, when I step back and consider everything, the Galaxy A52 5G is an all-around good phoned with some great features and a few minor and annoying flaws. It’s a solid buy for $500, but as I write this reconsider, you can get a Galaxy A52 5G unlocked on Samsung’s website for $425, which makes it even harder to pass up.



Samsung Galaxy A52 5G


Sarah Tew

Galaxy S21 Ultra-inspired looks in a plastic reality

The acquire is good. It’s not premium and that’s fine, because it feels good. When you tap on the back you can definitely tell it’s plastic. (So don’t tap on the back.) The look of the phoned is clean. It has curved plastic edges, symmetrical thin bezels throughout the screen and a matte finish. The camera bump loosely echoes the one on the Galaxy S21 Ultra, in the same way my haircut does Kit Harrington’s.

Over two months, the phone collected its share of nicks along the sides. The matte finish back definitely doesn’t look fresh or new. Most land will inevitably put the phone in a case, so that shouldn’t be an issue.

The A52 5G is inflamed IP67 for water and dust resistance and can be submerged belief three feet of water for up to 30 minutes.

Galaxy A52 5G has a 120Hz high refresh rate display

On the be in the lead is a 6.5-inch full-HD display with a hole-punch cutout for the selfie camera. The display is high-refresh rate and can be set to either 120Hz or 60Hz. At 120Hz, animations look smooth, gaming feels more immersive and even mundane things like scrolling above a feed look crisp. The display is without a doubt the best feature on the phone.

Brightness is good. Most displays on effort phones have horrible brightness, especially outdoors. Topping it all off is a slab of Gorilla Glass 5. Beware if you lop your phone screen down on a table and unattended. The coating will make it slide off a seemingly flat surface all on its own.

Let me detached some expectations. This display isn’t as good as the one on the Galaxy S21. But it is really good for $500.

The biggest downside to the acquire and display is the in-screen optical fingerprint sensor. The status of it feels low for one-handed use. I can rarely get the fingerprint reader to unlock the phoned on the first attempt. I find it easier to just swipe up and enchanting a PIN.


Samsung Galaxy A52 5G

There are four cameras on the rear of the Galaxy A52 5G: A main wide-angle camera, an ultrawide camera, a macro camera and a depth camera.



Sarah Tew

The Galaxy A52 5G has four rear cameras, but only the main one is good

There are four rear cameras on the A52 5G, one of which is a depth-sensor that works with the main camera to give you some absolutely fun and ridiculous AR effects and obscene portrait mode photos.


Galaxy A52 5G macro camera

The macro camera is a bit of an odd duck. It gives you to focus close like on the foam of a cortado. But the margin of error between your subject selves in-focus and out-of-focus is incredibly thin. I wish there was focus srevealing available to see when you have focus on your subject.



Patrick Holland

There’s a macro camera. And (sigh) we’ve seen this from other phone affects. It’s not that most people probably won’t use a macro camera on a phoned, it’s that compared to the main camera on the A52 5G, the macro camera isn’t titanic. It allows you to focus closer, but you need to be sincere. You’re just a handshake or breath away from selves out of focus. I wish there was focus srevealing on the macro camera to help you see when your publishes is in focus and when it’s not. Pro Mode subsidizes focus peaking but for the main camera only.


Galaxy A52 5G ultrawide camera

The ultrawide camera is fun. It gives you a titanic exaggerated perspective.



Patrick Holland

The A52 5G has a obscene ultrawide-angle camera. The main camera has optical image stabilization and a 64-megapixel sensor that combines pixels for a 16-megapixel photo with good detail and brightness.


Galaxy A52 5G ultrawide camera

In good enjoyable, image quality from the ultrawide camera is decent. It’s level-headed a step behind the main camera in terms of dynamic contrivance and image noise.



Patrick Holland

Photos from the main camera are good. Your personal taste will vary when it comes to the amount of intelligent saturation. To me, it’s a touch oversaturated but level-headed looks good.


Galaxy A52 5G main camera

Red cars go faster, right? Colors from the A52 5G are punchy.



Patrick Holland


Galaxy A52 5G main camera

The A52 5G did well grabbing focus on a very consuming beagle. 



Patrick Holland


Galaxy A52 5G main camera

This shot really pushed the A52 5G to its limits. Highlights start to blow out, but details are glorious good in the leaves.



Patrick Holland


Galaxy A52 5G main camera

The A52 5G doesn’t have a handed telephoto camera and instead relies solely on digital zoom. I took this photo with 3x digital zoom.



Patrick Holland

In flowerbed light situations, you start to see the main camera’s weakness. There is a Night mode to help, and photos look shameful but you’re not going to get the same results as Night mode on the Galaxy S21.


Galaxy A52 5G main camera

In mixed lighting, the main camera does OK. Details start to look soft and noise correction starts to make skin tones smudge.



Patrick Holland


Galaxy A52 5G main camera

In low enjoyable, details start to look soft almost like a painting with all the noise reduce the A52 5G applies.



Patrick Holland


Galaxy A52 5G main camera

Night mode can accomplish some eye-catching shots. But things look very processed compared to Night mode photos from the Galaxy S21 and S21 Ultra.



Patrick Holland

The A52 5G can represent 4K video which in good light is good but as it gets darker, image noise and artifacts become more apparent. Curiously, you can’t use the optical image stabilization when recording 4K video. But if you drop down in resolution to 1,080P video, you can use Super Steady which works very well. Take a look at the video below to see sample clips shot with the Galaxy A52 5G.

The selfie camera has a 32-megapixel sensor and Samsung’s full-arsenal of face-smoothing, jawline-defining and eye-enlarging tools. And then there’s Fun mode that lets you use Snapchat AR filters exclusive of using Snapchat. You can use Fun mode with the main and depth cameras on the back or the selfie camera. Fun mode actually lives up to its name.


Galaxy A52 5G Fun mode

With Fun mode, I can finally be the brunette with cat-eye glasses I’ve always wanted to be.



Patrick Holland

To put this all into perspective, both the iPhone SE and Google Pixel 4A 5G have better overall camera systems for photos and videos — both also have fewer cameras. That speaks less about the A52 5G’s camera prowess and more around what Apple and Google are able to put into their phones.

Peppy Android performance for the price

The A52 5G has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G chip with 6GB of RAM. It runs Android 11 and at the time I’m writing this, runs the July 2021 software update. Performance is good. It’s not blazing fast which is apparent with the tiny delay that occurs when I open the camera from the lock Hide, or rotate the phone between portrait and landscape.

In benchmark procomplaints it scored ahead of the Google Pixel 4A 5G and just Slow the Motorola One Ace 5G. See the results of our benchmark procomplaints below.

GEEKBENCH V.5.0 SINGLE-CORE

Note:

Longer bars display better performance

GEEKBENCH V.5.0 MULTICORE

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G

Note:

Longer bars display better performance

3DMARK SLINGSHOT UNLIMITED

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G

Note:

Longer bars display better performance

It has Samsung’s OneUI 3 interface, which I enjoy using. It’s clean and friendly to one-handed use. There are some duplicate apps, which is annoying. But all Samsung phones, no matter the price, do as well. One of the best parts of the Galaxy A52 5G is that you get three generations of Android OS updates and at least four ages of security updates. This is still a rarity for Android cost phones.

5G for less than $500 and good battery life

As the name indicates, this is a 5G phone that works on sub-6 5G networks in the US. I tested it in Greenville, South Carolina on T-Mobile and speeds were just OK. Despite an onscreen 5G indicator, many times the phone was actually connected to 4G LTE. This has everything to do with T-Mobile’s coverage as the same drawing happened when I tested other phones on T-Mobile here.

The A52 5G has a 4,500-mAh battery. Samsung claims two days of use when fully charged. I reliably got one day with the display at 120Hz. On days with lighter use or when the exhibit was set to 60Hz, it easily lasted a day and a half.


Samsung Galaxy A52 5G

Even with the screen’s refresh rate set to 120Hz, the Galaxy A52 5G lasted 17 hours and 40 minutes in our battery tests.



Sarah Tew

In our CNET battery procomplaints with continuous video playback in airplane mode, it lasted a marvelous 17 hours, 40 minutes and that was with the exhibit set to 120Hz. That’s longer than the OnePlus 9 Pro and the iPhone SE. In the same test, Motorola and its cost phones scored four of the five longest times of any called this year. Keep in mind, none of these Motorola phones have a high refresh rate display.

It doesn’t have wireless charging which is a wise omission, but it does support 25-watt fast charging. It’s just that the involved charger is only 15 watts.

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G specs vs. Motorola One 5G Ace, Google Pixel 4A 5G, Apple iPhone SE

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G Motorola One 5G Ace Google Pixel 4A 5G Apple iPhone SE (2020)
Display size, resolution 6.5 inch FHD+ Super AMOLED, Infinity-O Display (1080 x 2400 pixels), 120Hz 6.7-inch FHD+ LCD, 2,400×1,080 pixels 6.2-inch FHD+ OLED; 2,340 x 1,080 pixels 4.7-inch Retina HD LCD; 1,334×750 pixels
Pixel density 407ppi 394ppi 413ppi 326ppi
Dimensions (Inches) 2.95 x 6.29 x 0.33 inches 6.54 x 3 x 0.39 in 6.1 x 2.9 x 0.3 in 5.45 x 2.65 x 0.29 in
Dimensions (Millimeters) 75.1 x 159.9 x 8.4mm 166.1 x 76.1 x 9.9mm 153.9 x 74 x 8.2 mm (Sub-6 only); 153.9 x 74 x 8.5 mm (mmWave + Sub-6) 138.4 x 67.3 x 7.3 mm
Weight (Ounces, Grams) 6.67 oz; 189g 7.49 oz; 212g 5.93 oz; 168g (Sub-6 only); 6.03 oz; 171g (mmWave + Sub-6) 5.22 oz; 148g
Mobile software Android 11 Android 10 Android 11 iOS 14
Camera 64-megapixel (main), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), 5-megapixel (depth), and 5-megapixel (macro) 48-megapixel (wide), 2-megapixel (macro), 8-megapixel (ultrawide) 12.2-megapixel (wide), 16-megapixel (ultrwide) 12-megapixel (wide)
Front-facing camera 32-megapixel 16-megapixel 8-megapixel 7-megapixel
Video capture 4K 4K 4K 4K
Processor Snapdragon 750G 5G Snapdragon 750G 5G Snapdragon 765G Apple A13 Bionic
Storage 128GBGB 128GB 128GB 64GB, 128GB, 256GB
RAM 6GB 6GB 6GB NA
Expandable storage Up to 1TB Up to 1TB No No
Battery 4,500 mAh 5,000 mAh 3,800 mAh NA, Apple claims it has the same battery life as iPhone 8
Fingerprint sensor Optical in-screen Rear Rear Home button
Connector USB-C USB-C USB-C Lightning
Headphone jack Yes Yes Yes No
Special features 5G-enabled, 120Hz display, IP67 rating for water and dust resistence, 25W Fast Charging 5G enabled, IP52/54 including for water and dust resistence (IP54 for T-Mobile) 5G enabled; dual-SIM capabilities (nano-SIM and e-SIM); fast charging Waters resistant (IP67); dual-SIM capabilities (nano-SIM and e-SIM); wireless charging
Price off-contract (USD) $500 $400 $499 $399 (64GB), $449 (128GB), $549 (256GB)
Price (GBP) £399 N/A, converts to £280 £499 £419 (64GB), £469 (128GB), £569 (256GB)
Price (AUD) N/A, converts to AU$740 N/A, converts to AU$500 AU$799 AU$749 (64GB), AU$829 (128GB), AU$999 (256GB)