The Samsung A50: Premium features in a midrange phone

When power, price and performance meet, you know you’ve got a great phone. One that I recently got to test was the Samsung A50. The Samsung A50 will come as a surprise to the budget-conscious. For the price of a midrange phone, the Samsung A50 comes with features you normally find in a premium phone.

Let’s check them out, one by one. First, the externals.

A 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display – I’ve had Samsung smartphones before and the biggest wow factor at first glance is its Super AMOLED display. Pair that with a 6.4-inch display and it’s just great for gaming, Netflix-bingeing, or simply reading an ebook. At 1080 x 2340 pixels, the resolution is fairly sharp and bright and due to the screen size. In bright sunlight, the screen is still fairly visible. I am such a Kindle reader. This phone’s size will definitely be a great one for reading ebooks on.

THREE rear cameras!!! – You would imagine that a midrange phone would probably have one, at most two, rear cameras. Not the Samsung A50. It has THREE rear cameras! 1) 25 MP, f/1.7, 26mm (wide); 2) 8 MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide); 3) 5 MP, f/2.2, depth sensor. The selfie front camera is 25 MP, f/2.0, 25mm (wide).

Glasstic back, curved rear panel – The A50 features a glass-like plastic back that Samsung calls “glasstic”. It reflects back a whole spectrum of colors that can be quite mesmerizing when you’re looking at the back. Just one caution: it’s a fingerprint magnet! After a while, the back is already smudged with your prints. I always had to wipe the back free of my prints. The curved plastic rear panel made holding the phone feel good in the hand. Also, as the phone was quite slim, I always felt like I could easily drop it. But those are easy fixes. Buy a case, like I always do with my phone. They give a better grip and save you from a fingerprint-laden rear panel.

Large RAM, huge storage capacity too – You do not always find 6G RAM on a midrange phone but the Samsung A50 has it! Another big plus, 128GB build-in storage. Not baaaad!

Slim bezels on the sides/bottom, curved back form factor, lightweight – To get more screen real estate, the Samsung A50 sports very slim bezels on the sides and bottom plus a notched screen on top. At 166 grams, the A50 is very light

 

One-handed feature available but not for small hands – While the one-hand feature is available, it is better suited to big hands. I found my hands were too small for my thumb to reach icons way across on the other side of the screen. There were times also when, while holding the phone with one hand, I would inadvertently touch the screen due to the slim bezels and activate something I never intended to.

USB-C port – Yes, the A50 already has the USB-C port!

Dual sim + microSD card – The Samsung A50 is a dual sim smartphone so it is really a moneysaver for those who want two mobile numbers but cannot afford to buy two separate phones. The microSD card can go up to 512GB.

Missing: a physical fingerprint scanner! – If there is one thing I wish all Samsung phones had, it’s the rear physical fingerprint scanner which serves to unlock the phone as well as take pictures. It was so much easier for someone like me with small hands to take photos rather than press the power buttons on the phone’s side (difficult when you have a wide phone and often results in blurry shots).

The fingerprint sensor of the Samsung A50 is located under the display. Being a digital sensor, getting it to register even just one fingerprint of mine took over a dozen tries because it was just a bit slow in recognizing my entire thumb even as I moved it around. When I finally got to register a fingerprint and try it to open the phone, the fingerprint recognition software did not always work on first attempt and I’d have to try again. I think this is one that Samsung may want to rethink.

But face recognition works – I was happy at how fast the face recognition worked. I set the phone to unlock, using my face, and go directly to the app menu without me having to swipe the screen. Worked like a charm! If you find the fingerprint unlock feature cumbersome, use face recognition instead.

Now, the internals…

Android 9.0 Pie! – While many midrange phones still run on Android’s Oreo system, the Samsung A50 comes out of the box running Pie! That’s why I had no problems with opening apps because there was almost no lag time. Here’s another plus. Samsung’s One UI (same as on the S10) sits on top of Pie.

Camera Performance, average – The A50’s AMOLED display made most photos under ordinary light look much brighter than my iPhone XR where photos always came out warm. So to that extent, I was very pleased with it.

In strong, bright light, the A50 camera takes very clear pictures. It is also impressive how the A50’s colors are so vibrant. I took several photos.

 

The zoom feature is average. I tried several photos using the zoom feature, like the face of a speaker from several meters away, but it was quite pixelized.

The selfie camera at 25MP is a premium over other selfie cameras in that price range. I took a selfie of myself at a cafe and while the place had a lot of bright lights that sort of oversaturated my photo, 25MP will surely give good selfie photos all the time.

The panorama feature was quite good too. I was inside the Experience Center of Young Living Philippines waiting for my order of essential oils when I decided to take a panorama shot. Look, this is practically the entire width of the place captured in one photo!

 

 

Under low light, the A50 would brighten the subject but the photo would also come out a bit grainy. Still, for a midrange phone, it is considered reasonably okay. For me, it’s really no problem since there are apps that can help adjust the lighting. I took this picture (no filters) of some of my essential oils in a room that was still quite dark as the kids were asleep.

Battery life – The Samsung A50 comes with a 4000mAh battery. That’s larger than other midrange phones that are still somewhere in the 3500mAH category. However, since the battery powers a much larger screen display, I found that a full charge would often last a day and a half before needing recharging, using WiFi and social media apps.

I was unable to test the fast charging capability since my test unit didn’t come with its own charger. I used another phone’s USB-C charger and I got a message on the A50 saying the charging was going to be slower. I suggest then that you use the original fast charger that comes with the phone because it will take so much longer if you use other regular USB-C chargers.

At PhP 17,990 the Samsung A50 gives you more value for your bucks. How can you go wrong with 3 powerful rear cameras and a just-as-powerful selfie camera? This phone will be affordable for most young professionals and the older generation like myself in the market for a second phone . There is some compromise on the zoom and low light photos but that would be about the same performance from other models in this price range. Also, many Android models are still on Android Oreo while the Samsung A50 is already using the latest Pie. If you’re a fan of fingerprint unlock feature, be prepared to settle instead for the better (and faster) face recognition feature on the A50.

I’ve been holding off on replacing my current Android phone but if I were to jump in, the A50 is going to be one of my options.