The Galaxy A52 is a premium mid-ranger with the right things.
Galaxy A series from Samsung is one of the best mid-range smartphones that provide newer designs each year and have some very premium features with decent hardware. The Galaxy A51 launched last year was one of the best-selling mid-range smartphones as it had a very good design, good battery life with faster charging, and a well-deserved set of cameras.
However, it was the only let down by the poor Exynos 9611 chipset. This chipset felt a bit short as it was seen on many M-series smartphones from Samsung that includes the Galaxy M30s, Galaxy M31, and the Galaxy M31s. The Galaxy A52 improves upon the Galaxy A51 in all aspects as now Samsung now offers the Snapdragon 720G chipset, a new 64MP camera with OIS, IP68 rating, and much more.
But there are certain misses like lack of support of 5G and the design is still plastic. So has Samsung put out a good product to meet the customer needs in the market and is it worth buying? Let's find out in the full review.
Samsung Galaxy A52 Design:
In terms of design, the Galaxy A52 is not the most premium smartphone as it has a polycarbonate back which Samsung likes to call Glastic as it looks like a combination of both glass and plastic. It looks much better compared to the satin or rainbow-like finish seen on the Galaxy A51. The back design is plain and has a matte finish which catches fingerprints often.
It is not glossy as some other smartphones and provides a good grip on the hand. The camera module is slightly bigger compared to the Galaxy A51 and the design looks more close to the camera module on the Galaxy S21 Ultra (Review). The came hump is felt when kept flat on the table but is not very much felt. When you look at the camera module from the side, there is a slight shadow of the raised hump.
This back now has an IP68 rating mostly found on premium Samsung smartphones which means it is resistant to dust and can be submerged in freshwater up to 1 meter for around 30 minutes and this feature is rarely found on a smartphone in this price range and the weight is now 188 grams which do make it feel heavier but the weight distribution has been pretty well.
The sides have a plastic frame running, no metallic, and have the power button and the volume button on the right whereas the left side is completely clean. On the top, there is a secondary noise-canceling microphone with a hybrid slot where you can pop in one SIM card and a microSD card or two SIM cards.
To the bottom, lies the USB Type-C port, a loudspeaker grille, a primary microphone, and a 3.5mm headphone jack which most of the manufacturers omit in their smartphones. On the front, there is a punch-hole display with the punch-hole located on the top to the center, and just above that lies an earpiece that doubles up as a stereo speaker that I would discuss in the audio section.
The Galaxy A52 is available in three different colors- Awesome Blue, Awesome Violet, Awesome Black, and Awesome White. Overall, the design feels refreshing but is not the most premium out there since it has that plastic back but simple additions like a 3.5mm headphone jack and IP68 rating make it a much better smartphone if you look at these features.
Samsung Galaxy A52 Display:
On the front, there is a 6.5 inches Full HD+ (1080x2400 pixels) Super AMOLED display with a screen-to-body ratio of 20:9. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 same which is found on the OnePlus Nord (Review) seems to provide better protection compared to the Gorilla Glass 3 on the Galaxy A51. The display has minimum bezels on the sides.
Since this is an AMOLED display, the color reproduction remains excellent and the viewing angles are also great. You can set the color temperature from warmer to cooler tone and two different color profiles - Vivid which is set to default and Natural that produces more realistic colors on the display. This display also supports HDR and HDR10 contents so you can play an HD video on Youtube.
It does miss out on Widevine L1 and as seen the HD playback is not possible on Netflix or other OTT platforms. Samsung will soon release a software update in the future to fix this particular issue. And talking about brightness, the display quite bright and easily viewed under direct sunlight. At night, the display can go very low and the Eye Comfort Shield is present also.
Now Samsung has definitely stepped the game in terms of refresh rate and this time the Galaxy A52 comes with a 90Hz refresh rate which means switching between applications, scrolling through web pages, or playing games felt smoother and there is also a toggle to switch between 90Hz or the standard 60Hz.
Like the Galaxy A51, the display of the Galaxy A52 has an in-display fingerprint scanner which is now quite faster and accurate. There is also the Always-On display which provides all the information from date, time, other notifications and can be customized from the settings. Overall, Samsung has finally made a great display by offering a 90Hz refresh rate in the Galaxy A52 making it perfect for media consumption.
Samsung Galaxy A52 Performance:
The Galaxy A52 sees a massive jump in terms of performance over the Galaxy A51 as you are getting a Snapdragon 720G chipset compared to the older Exynos 9611 chipset. The Snapdragon 720G has 2x2.3 GHz Kryo 570 Cortex A76 cores and another 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 570 Cortex-A55 cores coupled with an Adreno 618 GPU that is built on an 8nm process.
The daily performance feels good on the smartphone and there was no lag as such. Some stutters were noticed occasionally due to the display being pushed at 90Hz but since Qualcomm claims it the most stable chipset when compared to the Snapdragon 730G, the gaming experience was good and no overheating was noticed.
All heavy games like Asphalt 9 Legends, Call Of Duty Mobile ran smoothly on the smartphone in the high graphics settings. There were minor frame drops noticed as this is not the highest-end chipset of Qualcomm and if you want a better gaming performance then the Xiaomi Mi 10i (Review) and the OnePlus Nord are the better choices as they have the powerful Snapdragon 750G and 765G respectively.
Another disappointing factor is that you are not getting support for 5G and the smartphone is available in two variants that include the 6/8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB storage with UFS 2.1 speeds. A 256GB storage variant could have made it a better deal also. But there is support for microSD cards through the hybrid slot.
In terms of benchmarks, the Galaxy A52 scores 308375 in Antutu v8 and 522 and 1616 in single and multi-core tests in Geekbench 5.1 which are good but not the best. Overall, the performance may not be as good as the Snapdragon 765G on the OnePlus Nord but is a big jump over the Galaxy A51 and can do all the day-to-day tasks and gaming without any problem.
Samsung Galaxy A52 Software:
The Galaxy A52 runs on OneUI 3.1 with Android 11 out of the box. It is good to see that Samsung has given the latest Android version. OneUI 3.1 as we know has been providing a great software experience with each of its updates and it is no slouch here. There are a bunch of applications pre-installed from Samsung and other third-party applications like Amazon, PhonePe, MX Takatak, etc.
These do consume some memory but can be uninstalled. There have been some ads noticed in the user interface and these can be disabled from the settings. But it is better not to sign with the Samsung account which does throw in a lot of notifications. Other third-party apps like App Cloud prompt in a lot of notifications and recommends installing some apps which are a bit jarring.
Talking about OneUI, it is not as customizable as OxygenOS but does provide some customizations to the icons, home screen layout, and Always-On Display styles. There is the system-wide dark mode, Digital Wellbeing, and Samsung Pay which makes payments through credit and debit cards easier but lacks MST like we saw on the Galaxy S21 series. Edge Panels, a Secure folder, a recorder are some other features but the video call effects are missing.
Like the Galaxy S21 series, Samsung has the Google integration which means there is the Google Discover when you swipe from the left of the home screen and there are some Google-specific applications but Samsung continues to use its own dialler. Other Android 11 features include media controls, Conversations as Bubbles, etc.
Like the Pixel devices, Samsung now also guarantees three years of Android updates and four years of security updates which makes it a step ahead of other manufacturers which only provide two years of Android and three years of security updates. Overall, the software experience feels good but Samsung needs to work on a software update to get rid of the constant notifications and should not install any further third-party applications.
Samsung Galaxy A52 Cameras:
The Galaxy A52 sports the same 64MP camera with a Sony IMX682 which also is an upgrade over the 48MP Samsung ISOCELL sensor in the Galaxy A51. So here also there is the quad-camera setup that includes a 64MP f/1.8 Sony IMX682 sensor for the main camera, a 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, a 5MP f/2.4 macro camera, and a 5MP depth camera. On the front, there is a 32MP Sony IMX616 sensor for the camera.
The images from the main camera come out with good details and the dynamic range is excellent here. There is some noise present and there is a lot of oversharpening in the images. The colors look saturated but not natural. These images are saved to 16MP by default.
The images taken in the 64MP resolution have plenty of details and the colors look more natural here. The dynamic range is good but these images take around 3-5 seconds to process. The camera is slightly slower when it comes to the shutter speed and there is some focus issue noticed. The Galaxy A52 lacks a telephoto camera, so using the main camera, you can up to 2x digital zoom.
The zoom can go high as 10x at which images have a lot of noise and poor dynamic range. Still, the zoom levels are much better compared to other mid-range smartphones out there. There is some oversharpening that takes place when zoomed at 10x and basically, it is better to use the camera till 4x.
Coming to low-light or at night, the images from the main camera have good details and the dynamic range is also good. But there is a lot of noise present in the background and the details in shadows are crushed. The color looks slightly oversaturated and the contrast is just average.
Turning on the dedicated Night Mode does yield images with better details thus improving the dynamic range and contrast. The noise is slightly reduced to quite a margin but the color saturation remains the same. When you zoom into the images, the details look slightly softer but the highlights in shadows are restored and the exposure in the images is well maintained by the Night Mode.
The 12MP ultrawide camera has a 123-degree field of view so the images have a wider dynamic range and the details though looking slightly softer are better compared to other 8MP ultrawide cameras. The colors look well saturated but there is some amount of noise and Samsung needs to work on edge distortion at the corners.
At night, the images from the ultrawide camera have good details but the dynamic range remains average here. The noise is present but still, it is much lesser than other 8MP ultrawide cameras. There are areas of overexposure and the softness in details is seen when zoomed in. The dedicated Night Mode does restore some blown away highlights and also improves the dynamic range.
The 5MP macro camera takes images with average details that result in washed-out colors and a lot of noise is present. This camera can focus somewhere between 3cm-5cm and due to the lack of autofocus, the results are sometimes blurry. It is always better to use the main camera with 2x digital zoom for better color saturation and details also.
The 5MP depth sensor does a good job in terms of portraits. The dynamic range is good with natural-looking skin tones but the edge detection needs improvement because when you zoom into the portraits, clearly there is noise present but the bokeh effect is spot on with perfect background blur. The contrast is good though.
On the front, the 32MP camera does a good job in terms of dynamic range and these selfies have sharp details with more saturated colors. There are two modes which include the narrow as well as the wide mode. By default, this camera captures 8MP images by default but there is a lot of noise present when you zoom into the selfies.
There is a Scene Optimizer that detects the background automatically and Auto HDR comes into the picture when the camera detects any bright environment and using the wider mode results in 12MP images. In terms of portraits, the edge detection and the background blur remain good with some amount of noise.
In videos, the main camera can record 4K videos at 30fps and the video output remains good with sharper details and good dynamic range. The colors look saturated with good white balance and contrast and since Samsung has equipped the camera with OIS, there is no shakiness and jitteriness observed instead you are getting a much stable video.
Switching to 1080p at 60fps, the videos have good dynamic range and sharper details but here the video feels a little bit shaky here though OIS and EIS are present here. On the ultrawide camera, the 4K videos have a lot of noise and due to distortion around the corners, the dynamic range is just average and the colors look oversaturated at times.
There is an Ultra-Stable Mode for better video stabilization on the ultrawide camera which results in better details but does a heavy crop thus reducing noise in the videos. The 5MP macro camera can also take 1080p videos but with poor details and the colors look washed out here.
On the front, there is support for 4K video recording at 30fps which is great considering its rival, the OnePlus Nord supports 4K video at 60fps. The videos from the front camera have a good dynamic range and the skin tones look natural here. The same goes for the portrait videos that have good edge detection and the background blur needs some improvements.
Other camera features include Single Take 2.0, Hyperlapse, Night Hyperlapse, Slow-Mo, AR Doodle, and many others. For the front camera, there are different Snapchat filters which seem to be just average but considering optics, Samsung has provided one of the best cameras in this price segment.
Samsung Galaxy A52 Battery Life:
The Galaxy A52 has a 4500mAh battery which can easily last for two single days with the display being set to standard 60Hz and when switching to 90Hz with heavy usage, the smartphone easily lasted for one single day with some charge left. Since it has an AMOLED panel and an efficient Snapdragon 720G chipset built on an 8nm process, the battery life was good.
To charge this 4500mAh battery, Samsung has just bundled a 15W fast charger inside the box, though the smartphone supports 25W fast charging. Using the 15W fast charger takes around two hours for a full charge whereas using the 25W charger takes the smartphone from 0 to 100 percent within 1 hour 15 minutes which is quite good but still slow as we are now seeing faster charging solutions at 50/65W.
Though the battery life is good, Samsung could have provided a fast charging solution as with the provided charger it takes a longer amount of time.
Samsung Galaxy A52 Audio Quality:
The Galaxy A52 houses a stereo speaker setup where the top earpiece and the bottom loudspeaker together sound and the audio is very clear and loud. However, it is not as good as on the Galaxy S21 series but does not sound muffled and makes for a great multimedia experience.
There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack which produces the best sound output in this price range and the presence of it is a big thing as many manufacturers are removing it like the OnePlus Nord. There is also Dolby Atmos which provides a richer sound experience as you get different profiles for watching a video or listening to songs, and also while gaming.
Verdict:
The Galaxy A52 is a great mid-range smartphone as it brings a new refreshing design, a 90Hz display, a snappy and powerful Snapdragon 720G chipset, some segment-first features like IP67 rating for dust and water resistance, a good set of cameras with OIS, stereo speakers and a good long-lasting battery with fast charging. The OneUI also provides a good overall software experience.
Talking about the performance of the smartphone it is a mixed result. It is good as the Snapdragon 720G handles everything easily when it comes to all day-to-day activities and also can do light to heavy games. However, this is not the most powerful chipset in this price segment as other smartphones like OnePlus Nord and the Xiaomi Mi 10i have slightly better chipsets.
Samsung has done a lot to provide a premium experience as it is the first smartphone to have an IP67 rating, the 64MP camera has a newer and improved sensor compared to the Galaxy A51 and now comes with OIS. And since Samsung claims to provide three years of Android updates and four years of security updates makes it ahead of other manufacturers.
The 90Hz display makes a big difference on the smartphone something we have not noticed in mid-range smartphones in the past and with that Super AMOLED display, you get an excellent display for streaming media and playing games. The battery life is also good. But there are certain shortcomings also. It lacks support for 5G which is a big miss.
The build is still plastic instead of glass, there is a 15W fast charger included inside the box instead of the 25W fast charger even though the smartphone supports it, and OneUI though being one of the best user interfaces has a lot of bloatware and ads are present in the user interface which ruins the software experience.
If you look past these shortcomings, what you are getting is a great mid-range smartphone with a new design, a good display, good performance, and gaming with good battery life and fast charging. Considering all these Samsung has finally made a perfect smartphone and has shaken the mid-range segment.
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