Samsung Galaxy A50 review: A mid-range phone done right

The premium flagship smartphone market is where the most action happens, but the budget smartphone space is where the money is. Most companies are investing in the affordable segment to win consumers who cannot spend too much on a high-end smartphone. As a result, the mid-range and affordable smartphone category have gotten highly competitive and Samsung is a respected name here in India.

Brand loyalty goes a long way and Samsung is highly respected for it and has a vast series of affordable and mid-range phones. Samsung Galaxy A-series phones are well received and the recent Galaxy A50 is worth checking out for its competitive specs and pricing.

Launched at Rs 21,000, the Galaxy A50 has since been dropped to Rs 18,490, which adds to the value factor. It comes in 4GB or 6GB RAM options, where the latter is priced at Rs 21,490. The higher RAM is recommended for heavy users and gamers, otherwise, the 4GB RAM is sufficed for most tasks.

Here's how Samsung Galaxy A50 fares in the market.

Samsung Galaxy A50 looks more premium than its price tag. The glossy back made out of plastic but it doesn't give that away easily. The feel factor is also great and the phone is designed in a compact manner to easily fit into hands. I felt the phone a bit slippery, but it's nothing a silicone case can't fix.

The Infinity-U display with a U-shaped notch up top is not bothersome anymore. Seeing so many phones with notches, it doesn't feel odd anymore. But Samsung makes up with its superbright Super AMOLED display spread across the 6.4-inch diagonal area with Full HD+ resolution. It is the best display you'll get in this price range, after all, it is from Samsung Display, which makes displays for most phones out there, including the iPhones.

The blacks are dark and the colours are natural. I found the Galaxy A50 to be best suited for gaming and more for multimedia use. Streaming content on Netflix and Amazon in high-resolution feels too good. The options to switch between adaptive, cinema, photo and basic, as well as night mode and blue filter mode, is simply impressive.

The overall build quality and display of the Galaxy A50 is an absolute winner for me.

In some cases, you'll notice phones that look great have poor cameras or performance. But Samsung Galaxy A50 doesn't compromise in those areas. In fact, the cameras are quite good for a smartphone in its price range. Featuring a 25-megapixel camera with f/1.7 aperture, 5-megapixel Depth sensor for Live Focus and an 8-megapixel Ultra Wide lens on the back delivered great results in daylight and well-lit areas.

The Galaxy A50 cameras capture great details with true colours, balanced contrast and saturation, and excellent dynamic range. The portraits, thanks to Live Focus, were handled pretty well. The wide-angle shots were surprisingly good and the edge corrections were on point.

In low-light, however, the Galaxy A50 seemed to struggle retaining details and edge detection while shooting with live focus, but the images produced were not bad at all.

On the front, the handset features a 25MP snapper with f/2.0 aperture. The results are simply great, better than most phones can offer in the price range. If you take a lot of selfies, Samsung Galaxy A50 is the way to go.

Here are a few samples straight out of Galaxy A50 camera roll:

Samsung Galaxy A50 is powered by Exynos 9610 octa-core chipset paired with 4GB or 6GB RAM. If you're a heavy user or an avid gamer, the 6GB RAM is recommended, even if it costs a few extra bucks. This is mainly to maintain consistent performance during intense gaming sessions. For most uses, like day-to-day tasks, communication, streaming and browsing, the 4GB RAM model suffices.

I ran PUBG Mobile on the Galaxy A50 and it seemed to handle pretty well, except I felt some heat during extended gaming sessions. But the handset didn't get too hot to handle, partly thankful for that plastic body.

For most tasks, multi-tasking with at least two apps at a time, and browsing the net didn't strain the processor much. The OneUI seems pretty good on the Galaxy A50, but it's nothing like the fluidic Galaxy S10. But that's asking a bit too much from a sub-Rs 20,000 smartphone. There were some occasional lags that could tick some users, but that's just the way it is with this UI.

Then, there's the question of battery life. The 4,000mAh battery with 15W fast charging is a solid offering. There's no doubt that the Galaxy A50 can last most people a full day as long as you stick to casual use. With heavy usage, the battery percentage will drop sooner. But on an average, you'll get the best battery life experience with the Galaxy A50 as it consistently gave me about 16+ hours of runtime.

There's also a 15W USB Type-C charger in the box, which takes 1 hour and 15 minutes to charge the phone from 0-65 percent, which is pretty good in my opinion. Going to about 100 will take nearly two hours. Not so bad at all.

Samsung Galaxy A50 offers more than it can handle. That's what I felt when I was using the in-display fingerprint scanner. Samsung could have simply given the sensor on the back and it would have been fine. The fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy A50 is not quite accurate and most times it required me to place my finger on the dedicated area twice just to unlock. Face Unlock seemed to work faster, but it only does so when there's light. In a dark room, I had to fiddle with the in-display scanner.

I liked other aspects like the inclusion of 3.5mm headphone jack, dual SIM card slots with a dedicated slot for microSD card, FM Radio and Digital Wellbeing. The calls work perfectly fine and the audio quality is great. There's just one stereo at the bottom, which posed some issues while gaming, but a pair of wired headphones can do wonders there.

Verdict

Samsung Galaxy A50 is dealing in a dangerous territory where popular rivals like Poco F1, Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro, and Realme 3 Pro exist. It's a hard sell, but all those Samsung loyalists aren't going to regret this choice. The cameras are excellent, so is the battery. The overall design and display quality is the marquee feature for the Galaxy A50. If had to be rated, the Galaxy A50 easily scores a 3.5 out of 5 stars and with the recent price cut, it can go as high as 4 stars.