The Non-5G variant–Samsung Galaxy A52–is another addition to their awesome screen, camera, and long-lasting battery life–A series. It is the successor of the Galaxy A51, but it gets a new revamp design which is now more aesthetically pleasing to look at and a bit sweet on the Awesome White color. It also uses the Snapdragon chipset instead of the Exynos. The question is, under the P20K price range does it offer more value than before?
Pros
- 90Hz refresh rate
- amazing design
- Quality Display
- up to 4 years Android Support
Cons
- less charging time
- weak plastic cover
- unoptimized camera processing
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Table of Contents
Design
The Samsung Galaxy A52 has a very sleek and compact design, and it is also lightweight at 189 grams. The back is still plastic like its predecessor, but they removed the prism effect and glossy finish. They added a touch of a matte finish this time, and the colors are quite flashy as well–Awesome Black, Awesome Violet, Awesome Blue, and our review unit–the Awesome White. This will easily catch the attention of most teens as it has a simple and aesthetic design with the white feels sweet with a creamy glazed texture like the ones you see on creamy donuts.
What makes it aesthetically pleasing is having the same color in the camera bump, making it looks like there is no protruding camera module. Speaking of, inside the module, there are 3 main camera lenses, one small lens beside, and an LED flash, wrap around a black circle, and this was to maintain the look on each lens and add aesthetic. The Samsung logo and IMEI number are located in the middle below the back.
The design is great and eye-catching. However, I would like to point out the build has a lesser impact after you hold it. The back feels like it can pop off from its body, and if you press the center, you can feel the plastic back hitting the device’s battery. I’m in doubt that the IP67 certification here will really save you from heavy water splashes. But all in all, maybe it’s on our review unit only.
Around the frame, the volume rocker and power button are located on the right side, while on the left is nothing but the metallic-looking plastic frame. Up top are the secondary microphone and the sim tray with a hybrid dual sim slot or an expandable storage slot that expands up to 1TB via microSD.
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Display
The Samsung Galaxy A52 boasts a 6.5″ FHD+, Super AMOLED with a 90hz refresh rate. It has an advantage of a smoother 90hz screen plus the Super AMOLED, making it one of the best displays in the price category. However, the Galaxy A52 has larger bezels with a small punch hole cutout in the upper middle. Despite this, it is built with a Gorilla Glass 5 already, which makes it more durable.
For the display quality, it has a vibrant screen and one of the most color-boosted panels in the midrange segment. The viewing angle, however, has a color shift when looking at a narrower angle. The contrast is okay and quite sharp, and I didn’t encounter any issues the day I started using the device as a daily driver. It is also bright with 800nits of peak brightness, making it useful even outdoors with no distraction.
Some smartphones offer a 120Hz display at a lower price but good the thing, you can still opt to get a 120Hz display by purchasing the 5G variant of the Samsung Galaxy A52.
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Camera
The Galaxy A52 is equipped with a quad-camera set up for its cameras, consisting of a 64MP main camera, 12MP on Ultrawide with a 123Ëš viewing angle. The two lenses are both 5MP for macro and depth sensors.
The main cam has great sharpness and details, which surpassed our expectations, but it’s not perfect as it outputs a little off to the color accuracy which tends to have a warmer or yellowish tone. Turning on HDR mode, Galaxy A52 looks like it has color leaks. It has a contrasty look, losing the depth of the image. The 64MP primary sensor outputs good quality photos, and details are preserved thanks to the high and wide dynamic range.
Shooting with night mode, it has a decent quality output but is not that impressive. It has increased exposure but results look soft due to noise reduction and the white balance is not accurate. I am not sure if this is because of my light source or part of Samsung post-processing.
The 12MP ultrawide sensor is quite better in terms of color reproduction than the main cam. Although outputs tend to have distortions on the edge of the frame but compared to other smartphones, the Galaxy A52 is one of the widest and has more details in terms of ultrawide images.
The macro lens output impressive qualities, it has true to life colors, there are no visible grains and it is sharp as well. The only downside is it doesn’t offer an autofocus system which means you have to nail the focus at 3-5cm every time.
Switching to selfies, the 32MP selfie camera outputs decent sharpness and colors, however, the skin tone is inconsistent due to different white balance detection. We can clearly see that the post-processing and white balance detection on all cameras are quite off, and it needs to be fixed after a software update. Meanwhile, it has decent quality at night time and the blacks still have nice details.
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For video recording, the Samsung Galaxy A52 can shoot up to 4K@30fps for both selfie and rear cameras. It can also shoot FHD or 1080P@60 frames and 30 frames. I noticed that every video resolution has a steady video; however, you need to enable the super steady mode to get the best result.
For the camera features, the Galaxy A52 has a single take feature that captures every file in one shot. It also has a 32MP hi-res selfie and 64MP hi-res rear camera for detailed and sharp output. It also has a pro mode with a 10-second shutter and 3200 ISO and Pro Video Mode for versatility. The gimmicky features are Fun Snapchat filters, Bixby vision, Food Mode, super slow-mo, slow-mo, hyper-lapse, and AR Zone.
Overall, the camera performance is pretty impressive and the features have nice personal and gimmicky attributes. We have some complaints about the output due to inaccurate colors in every scene, but I haven’t encountered other issues so far.
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy A52 is equipped with a 1-year old processor, Snapdragon 720G with 8nm architecture, and operates with 8GB of ram and 128GB of internal storage. Even the phone’s chipset isn’t the latest, it is efficient and optimized to run in midrange devices and almost all midrange devices uses the same chipset and they have the same great performance.
While on the Galaxy A52, its gaming performance is not the best in a mid-range smartphone this year, but it gets the job done. The Snapdragon 720G is still a good chipset for gaming, especially since it is power efficient because it is built in a small 8nm architecture. However, it is not better than other gaming chipsets nowadays with the capability for 5G connectivity. For non-gamers, if you will use this phone as an overall chipset, its performance is satisfactory not just in gaming but on the entire OS.
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Speaking of, it is running on Android 11 out of the box on top of the One UI 3.1. What’s great is, Samsung has promised four years of software support means it will offer 3 years of Android updates and 4 years of security updates on this device. They also include the promised three major Android OS updates on the Galaxy A52, Galaxy A52 5G, and Galaxy A72. My only complaint about this is that the 5G variant gets monthly security updates, while we get it quarterly.
Now One UI is one of the best UI’s out there, and it offers a Samsung ecosystem with Bixby, Game Launcher, and other Samsung apps and stock Google Apps. The UI looks optimized in the device with responsive and flawless navigation throughout the entire OS. The 90Hz fast refresh rate adds a seamless animation as well. Multi-tasking is great, I have been scrolling back to back with all the installed apps, and so far, I haven’t encountered any delays and noticeable stuttering.
The in-display fingerprint scanner is not that fast when unlocking the phone, but my fix for that is to head to its settings and turn off the unlocking animation. It also has face unlock which is reliable even in low light situations, but the brightness should be at least 70% and it is enough to brighten your face.
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Battery
Moving on to the battery, the Samsung Galaxy A52 is backed with a 4500mAh battery paired with a 25W fast charging. I haven’t encountered any issues regarding the stamina of its battery. I still get to the same 6 hours and 10 minutes of screentime every day with no heating issues. While at daily usage, it can endure up to 2 days of use before running out of juice.
Meanwhile, filling up the 4500mAh battery took 1 hour and 22 minutes. The standard of today’s charging time is still behind other competitors with the same or even lesser price. But it is still not bad considering the optimization and power distribution of its 25W fast charging.
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Verdict
For us, the Samsung Galaxy A52 is a good all-rounder smartphone. It has a decent quality on its camera and it just needs optimization. It also has average gaming performance even though the chipset isn’t capable of connecting to 5G. But the best offering is the display and the aesthetic and pleasing look which is great for entertainment use.
100 Days Review: We haven’t encountered any issues for around 3 months of use, and the device is stable and working fine as a daily driver. I won’t recommend the device if you are aiming for a mid-range gaming-focused smartphone, but if you are looking for a long-term device with the promise of android support for more than a couple of years, this will be a great option.
Samsung Galaxy A52 is priced at P18,990 for the same 8GB + 128GB configuration. For the price, it really offers value with a couple of drawbacks but with strong upsides. The increments compared to its predecessor is very notable and worthy.
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Samsung Galaxy A52 5G specs, price, availability in the Philippines
- Display: 6.5 inches
- Design: –
- Dimension and Weight: 159.9 x 75.1 x 8.4 mm, 189 grams
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM7125 Snapdragon 720G (8nm)
- CPU: Octa-core (2×2.3 GHz Kryo 465 Gold & 6×1.8 GHz Kryo 465 Silver
- GPU: Adreno 618
- RAM: 8GB
- Storage: 128/256 GB, microSDXC (dedicated slot)
- Main Camera: 64MP, f/1.8 Main, 12MP Ultrawide, 5MP Macro and Depth
| video up to 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/120fps, gyro-EIS - Selfie Camera: 32MP f/2.2 Front | video up to 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps
- Connectivity & Ports: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot, Bluetooth 5.0, A2DP, LE, GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, NFC, USB Type C 2.0, USB On-The-Go,
- Security: Fingerprint (under display, optical) face-recognition unlock
- Features: gyro, proximity, compass, ANT+
- Battery: Li-Po 4500 mAh, non-removable, 25W fast charging
- Audio: mono speaker
- OS: Android 11
- Colors: Awesome Black, Awesome White, Awesome Blue, Awesome Violet
- Price: PHP 18,990
- Release date: March 26, 2021 (Philippines)
