Samsung has just launched new Galaxy A series line-up devices – the Galaxy A32, Galaxy A32 5G, Galaxy A52, Galaxy A52 5G, and Galaxy A72. In the past week, I’ve been playing around with the Samsung Galaxy A52, and it has been an eye-opening experience. If you’re in on team Android, it can be challenging to decide which smartphone to go for when it comes time for an upgrade or, dare I say it, replacement. There are so many devices on the market now, and it’s hard to know which are the best value for money – especially when some of the most popular mobile devices on the market retail for more than $1000. The Samsung Galaxy A52, at least, aims to be the option that’s better on the budget while still providing many features you’d expect on a premium smartphone.
The Samsung Galaxy A52 comes in three colors – awesome blue, excellent black, and fabulous violet (also awesome white in other countries). Sharing a name, I’m pretty pleased with the branding here. I’ve had my hands on the violet, and I can confirm (unbiased) the color is indeed pretty awesome. The device’s front is also stunning – with a 6.5″ near bezel-less FHD+ Super AMOLED Display and 90Hz refresh rate. This means you’ve got ultra-smooth scrolling at your fingertips and a well-equipped screen for gaming. There’s also 128GB of in-built storage (which is expandable up to 1TB with a micro SD card), so you can download tons of content or capture plenty of photos and videos.
The phonehash cameras boast a 32MP front camera and four back cameras, including a 12mp F2.2 Ultra-wide, 64MP F1.8 (Main camera), 5MP F2.4 Depth camera, and 5MP F2.4 Macro lens. From my initial tests, I can say that the cameras are impressive, and the optical image stabilization allows for much smoother video recordings than expected. When playing back video footage, you’ll also notice the loud volumes the speakers can produce. With stereo speakers, I was impressed and felt I’d never have an issue watching YouTube videos or playing music aloud when I forgot my speaker. The speaker quality also comes in handy when gaming on the device, which is a pleasure as the phone has an octa-core processor and 8GB of ram.
Overall, the phone is surprisingly feature-packed for the price. Where Samsung seems to have made a compromise to keep costs down is the body of the phone. The colorful back-plate is made of a plasticky material that, although it looks and feels excellent, seems cheaper than what you get on many devices. Though I must admit, sometimes I think the upside of the plastic back (compared to premium phones often made from glass) is durability.
