The Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G: A Good Premium Phone, But Is It Worth The Extra Money?

Up top, the Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G is a good phone all around.

Despite this, it is also true that not everything good is worth recommending. Due to this, it can be difficult to explain to a prospective buyer what exactly is wrong with the Galaxy A52s. You see, if you tell buyers not to buy it, you’d be discrediting a genuinely good smartphone. 

Design & Build

Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G SoC powers the Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G. The storage capacity is only 128GB, and it only has 6GB or 8GB of RAM. The display, which boasts a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED FHD+ panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, is paired with a 32MP front camera in a drill hole. Its back design is similar to that of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S21 series, with a quad-camera setup that consists of a 64MP primary sensor, a 12MP ultra-wide sensor, and two 5MP units for macro shots. This Galaxy A52s has clear design cues from Samsung’s S21 series, which has become Samsung’s flagship. 

Nonetheless, it does feel a bit cheap with its steel finish. In terms of the rear camera setup, it seems like the designers opted not to use the design from the S21 lineup because the two lineups look different. The Galaxy A52s has a better build quality. You can easily grip the phone due to the matte rear and there is also an audio jack on the bottom for using IEMs. It feels sleek in the hand and is very light to hold. Although light, it feels like a phone able to withstand a few bumps and not get damaged.

Display & Software

With a 6.5-inch, full HD+ super AMOLED display, the Galaxy S21 offers a comparable display in terms of size, resolution, and 120Hz refresh rate. With the Galaxy A52s and Galaxy S21+ masked, there would little difference in terms of the display quality if they were placed next to each other.

This means that the display is inherently smooth, resulting in a higher level of saturation than most other phones available today. However, you get bright and punchy colors, a high contrast ratio that can produce deep blacks, sufficient brightness to render clean whites, and a good level of touch response. Overall, the Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G is a smartphone with an attractive display.

You should remember, however, that most modern phones have very good to excellent displays, especially in the higher price bracket. Its unique feature, OneUI 3.1, is Samsung’s custom version of Android 11 with decent ergonomics. When you switch from a different OEM’s Android phone to a Samsung one, you will need some time to adjust. 

Performance

The Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G is an outstanding device, not just because of its benchmarks and performance tests, but because of how well it handles everything you do. Snapdragon 778G is making a name for itself in the mid-premium smartphone market, and it’s more than capable of handling the Galaxy A52s with ease and a feeling of uncluttered simplicity.

Consequently, every regular work app runs smoothly, and everyday performance is improved. The chipset is powerful enough for basic multitasking too – for example, I was able to have 8 tabs open in the Brave browser and keep track of Gmail, Drive, Sheets, Outlook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter without the phone struggling. Overall, performance was smooth and the phone did not force kill background apps spontaneously – it has 8GB RAM, so that’s clear enough.

With all of these apps, adding Pokemon Go into the mix didn’t slow things down, and the 120Hz display further contributes to the smooth experience. In terms of graphics, Asphalt 9 is rendered with a great deal of detail, but it’s not a flagship game despite its pretensions.

A Geekbench 5 benchmark test indicates a 30-percent difference between the Galaxy A52s’ performance on single-core tasks, as well as a 20-percent difference on multi-core tasks, as compared to a more expensive, flagship smartphone. When it comes to actions such as using the app drawer search, this phone takes a second longer and stutters a bit compared to the Galaxy S21 Ultra. If such minute things, such as a few temporarily suspended browser tabs when not in use, bother you, the Galaxy S series is what you must consider. In all other respects, though, the Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G is more than sufficient.

Camera & Battery Life

Stability and reliability are two of the biggest factors that determine whether or not a phone is a good one. There’s nothing superlative about the camera on the Galaxy A52s – it’s not a world-beater, but reliable when shooting spontaneous moments. Having a smooth performance means that the camera app itself opens quickly and other features, such as shutter response, are smooth enough owing to a decent ISP (Image Signal Processor).

Its default color balance, which is slightly oversaturated with heightened colors, is typical Samsung in terms of its 64MP main camera. Even so, it has an impressive dynamic range which is evident in better shadow detail and a more balanced sky in contrasting photos. Also, this helps videos look more naturally lit. Depending on lighting conditions, there might be some smearing of fine details, but apart from that, there’s nothing wrong with this.

With the Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G, you will be able to take decent macro pictures and utilize the ultra-wide camera as well. Its 32 MP front camera produces good skin tones for selfies, but the filters should be avoided. In general, built-in filters create selfies that look artificial by over-softening skin textures. 

In the Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G, the battery capacity is 4,500mAh, which isn’t monstrous but is sufficient for users with moderate usage intensity to run the phone for an entire day. The battery life isn’t fantastic – you’ll need to charge your mobile device every single day within about 10 to 11 hours at best if you add an hour of gaming or a couple of episodes of your favorite show.

Thanks to the 25W USB-C fast charger, the battery can charge from 50 percent to full in just over 30 minutes. There are no reverse charging or wireless charging features in this standard, making it far from being the fastest charging standard available. But, like the rest of the phone, it handles its job nicely and steadily.