Samsung’s Galaxy A52 was a huge success and building upon it, the company just launched the Galaxy A52s 5G. It brings a significant upgrade in the performance department besides a couple of other touch-ups. And this is our initial impressions of the Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G.

Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G Specifications:

• Body: 75.1 x 159.9 x 8.4mm, 189 gm, IP67 dust/water resistant
• Display: 6.5-inches “Infinity-O” Super AMOLED panel, 120Hz refresh rate
• Resolution: FHD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels), 20:9 aspect ratio
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G (6nm Mobile Platform)
• Memory: 6/8GB LPDDR4X RAM, 128/256GB storage (expandable)
• Software & UI: Android 11 with Samsung’s One UI 3.1 on top
• Rear Camera: Quad (with LED flash);– 64MP f/1.8 primary lens, AF, OIS– 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide lens, 123º FOV– 5MP f/2.4 macro sensor– 5MP f/2.4 depth sensor
• Front Camera: 32MP f/2.2 sensor (punch-hole cutout)
• Audio: Stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos audio, 3.5mm headphone jack
• Security: Optical in-display fingerprint sensor, Face unlock
• Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyro, Geomagnetic, Hall, Light, Virtual Proximity
• Connectivity: Dual-SIM (Nano), WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (Dual-band), Bluetooth 5.0, GPS / AGPS / Glonass / Galileo / Beidou, NFC, USB Type-C
• Battery: 4500mAh with 25W fast charging (15W adapter provided)
• Color Options: Awesome – Black, Green, Violet
  • Awesome White not available in Nepal
• Price in Nepal: Rs. 53,999 (6/128GB) | Rs. 55,999 (8/128GB)

Buy Now

Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G Impressions:

Usually, we know that Samsung’s A series of devices compromise on the performance aspect, but not this time. Samsung has offered quite the powerful Snapdragon 778G 5G chipset, which competes directly against MediaTek’s flagship Dimensity 1200, and is only ever-so-slightly less powerful than the Snapdragon 870.

And as you can see, the benchmark scores reveal the same.

Even during my brief time with the phone, I have found the performance on this thing to be quite good, which is all thanks to Samsung’s excellent One UI optimization. This, paired with the powerful hardware underneath delivers fluid UI transitions, fast app opening times, and smooth performance—that is further complemented by the 120Hz refresh rate.

How's gaming on this phone?

With the new processor, gaming is another aspect that has seen a significant improvement. Now, games like PUBG mobile run at HDR graphics and Ultra frame rates at max while it can hit Extreme frame rate when setting the graphics to Smooth as well.

Similarly, COD caps out at Very High graphics and Very High Frame rates, although you can push it to Max frame rates at the expense of visual fidelity under High graphics.

Thus, compared to the standard Galaxy A52, the A52s 5G definitely looks more promising for the gamers out there. Still and all, it would have been better if Samsung had offered a 360Hz or higher touch sampling rate. As things stand, the Galaxy A52s 5G only has a 240Hz touch sampling rate, which is nothing exceptional.

Also, if you are thinking of getting this phone, I would suggest you go for the 8GB variant since I feel like 6GB of RAM isn’t quite enough. Regardless, the company has taken comparatively big strides in terms of 5G bands as the phone supports 12 of them in total.

The only other brand that provides that many 5G bands in a similar price range is Realme. Except for these two, most other companies settle with 1 or 2 5G bands only, so that’s a job well done by Samsung in terms of future-proofing the phone.

Tried and tested design

Okay, moving on, its design remains the same as that of the last-gen Galaxy A52. Wow, labeling A52 as “last-gen” feels quite weird seeing how the phone launched like 5-6 months ago only. Then again, the smartphone industry is so fast-paced these days, what can you do?

Anyway, to be honest, I don’t mind this design consistency at all. I absolutely loved Galaxy A52’s looks and Samsung deciding to continue with that is the right move, in my opinion. The A52s is lightweight, compact, and feels good—if not premium—on the hands.

In terms of color options, you get 4 choices for the Galaxy A52s 5G that includes, Awesome Black, Awesome Violet, Awesome Green, and Awesome White—the latter of which isn’t available in the Nepalese market for now.

Regardless, the phone sports Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the front and Samsung is also offering IP67 dust-and-water resistance here. It’s important to note that no other brand in this very price segment offers this level of ingress protection. Also, Samsung has been thoughtful enough to keep the headphone jack alive with the A52s 5G.

Fluid 120Hz smoothness

Upfront, you get a 6.5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED Infinity-O display with a 120Hz refresh rate, which is a significant upgrade over the 90Hz panel on the standard A52. As expected, this is an excellent display with great colors and balanced contrast.

And just like its predecessor, this display is complemented by a set of stereo speakers too. But unfortunately, there’s no HDR playback support on Netflix as of yet.

When getting into aspects like the cameras, this is where you can expect really good performance from this phone. We’ve seen how similarly priced devices like the OnePlus Nord 2, Poco F3 GT, and Realme X7 Max don’t quite offer a half-decent, reliable camera experience. On the contrary, with my brief time with Samsung’s latest mid-ranger, I can confidently vouch for the cameras on this phone.

Class-leading cameras

A52s comes with a familiar quad-camera setup that consists of a 64MP primary camera with OIS, a 12MP ultra-wide lens, and a couple of 5MP sensors for macro and portrait shots.

I managed to go around with the phone for a couple of camera samples and as you can see from these photos, they have that classic Samsung touch with vibrant and punchy colors.

Additionally, thanks to OIS, the images are able to maintain good sharpness even under low lighting conditions. I also found that the A52s can process human subjects better than say the OnePlus Nord 2.

Even the ultrawide shots from the phone are wider, with better dynamic range and details than the Nord 2.

In the videography department, Samsung is offering up to 4k 30 fps recording, aided by gyro EIS for stabilization here. Even the front camera shoots at up to 4k 30 fps videos on this thing.

Moving to the battery side of things, there’s no upgrade this time around. You get a modest 4,500 battery and since this is an early impressions video, I haven’t gotten around to do a thorough endurance test yet. But I will extensively test it out and let you guys know the final result in my full review which should be out pretty soon.

Furthermore, the phone supports 25W fast charging. And while initial reports suggested that a compatible 25W power adapter would be available in the box itself, turns out Samsung ships the good ol' 15W charger instead.

Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G Impressions: Conclusion

Okay, so that was all for my hands-on impressions of the all-new Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G. It is definitely an exciting piece of smartphone although it could’ve seen some aggressive pricing. But still, A52s 5G is an exciting device.

First and foremost, it offers a superior camera performance than the likes of the Nord 2 or the Poco F3 GT. Then there are other unparalleled features like an IP67 rating, Samsung’s One UI experience, and 3 years of guaranteed software updates.

• Watch our video impressions of the Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G.