Samsung has already launched a wide range of devices under its Galaxy M and Galaxy A series, making its presence in every price segment to compete against Chinese brands such as Xiaomi and Realme.
Now, the company has launched the Samsung Galaxy A50s smartphone in India which has a starting price of ₹22,999, more than the cost of Galaxy A50 launched earlier this year. The new Galaxy A50s comes just months after the launch of Xiaomi Redmi K20 in the same price range.
So, let’s find out if this new Samsung Galaxy A50s is a worthy contender in the mid-range segment and can it hold its ground against the value-for-money offerings from the like of Xiaomi and Realme?
In the box
- Samsung Galaxy A50s
- Data cable
- Wall adaptor
- Earphones
- SIM ejector tool
- User manuals
Samsung Galaxy A50s Specifications
- Display: 6.4-inch Full HD+ (2340 x 1080 pixels) Super AMOLED Infinity-U display
- CPU: Quad 2.3 GHz + Quad 1.7 GHz
- RAM: 4/6 GB
- Operating System: Android 9 Pie with One UI
- Rear Camera: Triple camera — 48 MP (f/2.0) + 5 MP + 8 MP (Ultra Wide)
- Front Camera: 32 MP with f/2.0 aperture
- Internal Storage: 64/128 GB
- External Storage: Expandable up to 512 GB via microSD card
- Other: In-Display Fingerprint Scanner, Face Unlock
- Colors: Prism Crush Black, Prism Crush White, and Prism Crush Violet
- Battery: 4000 mAh with 15W Fast Charging
Design and Display
The first thing you’d notice about the smartphone is the prism-cut design on the back panel of the device, which is made up of glass. Our unit comes in Prism Cut White color and is a pretty good looking device. It also has a metallic frame which again is a positive point when it comes to build quality.
The power button, as well as the volume rocker keys, are placed on the right side of the frame while the SIM card tray is on the left side. At the bottom, you’ll find the headphone jack, USB Type-C port, and the speaker grille.
The smartphone comes with a 6.4-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED display offering 2340 x 1080 pixels screen resolution. It features a waterdrop notch on top of the display, which the company refers to as the Infinity-U display. The display aspect ratio is 19.5:9 and offers 403 PPI pixel density.
The screen is quite big and it may be difficult to operate it with a single hand and you’ll need to move around a bit to reach all the corners with a single-hand usage. Thanks to the Super AMOLED panel, the colors on the screen appear vivid.
It offers high brightness, deeper blacks, and wide viewing angles. It also features an in-display fingerprint sensor, which isn’t good. It takes too long to recognize the fingerprint and most of the times, it doesn’t work. However, the face unlock feature works pretty good.
Performance and Software
The Samsung Galaxy A50s is powered by the company’s own Exynos 9611 chipset which has four Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.3GHz for heavy tasks and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.7GHz focused on efficiency. It is coupled with Mali-G72 GPU.
In terms of performance, the Exynos 9611 offers marginal boost compared to the Exynos 9610 present in the A50. However, you won’t notice much difference when it comes to gaming performance or using day-to-day apps.
The chipset easily handles juggling apps as well as games and camera. The day-to-day usage with the smartphone was pretty smooth although we experienced some stutter/lag a couple of times, especially after unlocking the phone. But that rarely happened and most of the times the experience was good and smooth.
While playing intensive games such as PUBG Mobile, we faced some issues occasionally, related to frame drops. The issue was resolved when the graphics settings were toned down a bit. So, if you are heavy into gaming, this phone may not be for you.
Coming to the software department, the Samsung Galaxy A50s is running the Android 9 Pie operating system out of the box with the company’s own One UI on top of it. While most of the features as similar to what we’ve already seen in the UI, this one has an addition — NFC for payments.
It comes with several features that come in quite handy such as Dark Mode. There’s also support for gesture-based navigation, which enables you to ditch the on-screen navigation buttons. Thanks to One UI, the A50s also comes with features like Always On Display, Secure Folder, Dual Messenger, One-handed mode, Game Launcher, Blue light filter, etc.
While the phone does come with bloatware, most of the pre-installed applications are those that you are likely going to use. But if you are not going to use them, you can easily uninstall them. As for the benchmark, the smartphone scored 344 points in the single-core test and 1,303 points in the multi-core test. However, do note that the score is from the latest Geekbench 5 platform.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy A50s comes with a triple camera setup on the back which consists of a 48 MP primary sensor. The main sensor is paired with a 5 MP depth sensor and an 8 MP telephoto lens. On the front side, there’s a 32 MP snapper for taking selfies and video calling.
Images captured in daylight have good amount of exposure, details and vibrant colors. The 48 MP mode is also quite good as the image turns out detail-rich. However, at times you may notice some issues related to the dynamic range.
The photos are quite crisp and the colors are bit saturated, making the image pop out with punchy colors. The default mode of taking images is 12 MP and you can switch between different aspect ratios — 4:3 to 4:3H. In the 48 MP mode, you get the scene optimizer feature but loose out on HDR mode.
The portrait mode misses out on edge detection when it comes to hair and beard. Like most mid-range devices, the low-light performance falls short despite the fact that the smartphone has a dedicated night mode. Most of the times, the images are full of noise and grain.
The ultra-wide lens captures pictures at 123-degrees FOV — one of the widest angles out there. It captures a good area under the frame but the images sometimes look a bit dull.
Coming to the front-facing 32 MP camera sensor, it’s performance is impressive in the daylight. However, selfies taking during the night time have soft colors and lacks details. The screen flash tech increases the amount of details and reduces grains but the background gets darkened.
The camera application is also quite easy to use and comes with several extra options and features that are neatly organized.
Camera Sample
Battery and Others
Thanks to the 4000 mAh battery powering the smartphone, the battery life is quite good on the Samsung Galaxy A50s. It also supports 15W fast charging technology which is not bad but the company could have added 18W support. As for the battery life, the phone can last for the entire day on moderate usage.
The smartphone comes with earphones in the box, which let’s just say aren’t great. The phone does come with Dolby Atmos support for wired and Bluetooth audio which results in higher volume and better separation between channels.
As for the network reception and the call quality, it works as expected. It had no issues with 4G LTE on both SIM slots and the reception was also good. Calls made on the device were quite clear but the volume could have been a bit louder.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy A50s is a decent smartphone for the starting price of ₹22,999. It features good-looking design, packs a decent set of internals and offers a good battery life. However, the phone lacks behind in crucial departments for its asking price — camera and performance.
The Galaxy A50s is a good effort from the South Korean giant but it still is not the answer against Chinese offerings. Compared to this, the Realme XT, Xiaomi Redmi K20, and the Vivo Z1x seem better, both in terms of specs and pricing. However, if you are interested in buying Galaxy A50s, you can purchase it through Flipkart.
