Samsung Galaxy M10 ,Review) And Samsung Galaxy M20 ,Review) impressed us. These handsets come with bigger screens, waterdrop notches, more RAM and storage, and bigger batteries.
Talking about the Galaxy A series, the starting price of this series is Rs 8,490. If we look at it Galaxy A10, Galaxy A30 and Galaxy A50 To a large extent, the Galaxy M10, Galaxy M20 and Galaxy M30 of the company’s M series challenge each other. But the handsets of both the series are different from each other in many ways.
In this article, we will tell you about the most premium handset of Samsung Galaxy A series Samsung Galaxy A50 We will tell you about it. This phone comes with attractive features like in-display fingerprint sensor and three rear cameras. But due to these reasons, it is also a bit more expensive than the existing models of the Galaxy M series. Let us tell you about it in detail.
Samsung Galaxy A50 design
The most important feature of the Samsung Galaxy A50 is its 6.4-inch Super AMOLED screen. Samsung has done a good job of trimming the borders on the sides of the screen. The curved edges are in line with the current trend. Considering the price, it looks like a very sleek handset.
Galaxy A50 comes with an in-display fingerprint sensor. Unfortunately, the company has not provided the ultrasonic sensor in it which is a part of the flagship Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+. By the way, this demand would be too much for Samsung.
Samsung has not clarified what material the back panel of the phone is made of. But it appears to be plastic or polycarbonate.
The phone will be available in black, white and blue colors. Its coral pink variant was also shown when it was introduced at the Mobile World Congress 2019, but it has not been launched in the Indian market.
The triple rear camera setup is in a vertical position, near the left edge. There is an LED flash just below the camera. If you look closely, you will see the Samsung logo.
The power and volume buttons are placed on the right side. The handset is equipped with a USB Type-C port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The speaker grill is at the bottom. There is a dual SIM tray on the left. Some users will be disappointed that the notification LED has not been placed on this phone. But the Super AMOLED panel supports Always On mode. In such a situation, you will be able to easily keep an eye on notifications and alerts.
Talking about convenience, the Galaxy A50 is easy to use. It never feels wide or bulky. It fits easily in one hand and does not slip either. We believe that its buyers will be happy with the look of the phone.
In the retail box of the Galaxy A50, you will get a headset, a plastic slip case, SIM eject pin, 15 watt charger and USP Type-C cable.
Samsung Galaxy A50 specifications and features
It is a bit difficult to differentiate between the Galaxy M series and Galaxy S series models. The Galaxy A50 has a 6.4-inch full-HD+ 1080×2340 pixel Super AMOLED display, like the Galaxy A30. But it has an octa-core Samsung Exynos 9610 processor which is more powerful than the Exynos 7904.
Two variants of Galaxy A50 have been launched. The difference between the variants is of RAM. One is a 4 GB RAM variant and the other is a 6 GB one. But the storage capacity of both the variants is only 64 GB. This seems a bit surprising because the cheaper Galaxy M30 handset also has a 128 GB storage variant.
The 4000 mAh battery brings life to the handset. But the cheaper Galaxy M30 has a 5000 mAh battery. This decision of the company can confuse the customers a bit. You will get Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, FM radio and LTE and VoLTE support.
The Galaxy A50 runs on the new One UI based on Android 9. During the review, this phone received the update of February 2019 Android security patch.
One UI is much better in terms of design. It looks modern. Samsung says that it has taken care of the usability of the phone’s large screen. But in doing so, the company has reduced the information density. Because of this, text and icons have become very big everywhere.
Some of Samsung’s wallpapers seem to be designed to deliberately hide the top camera notch. The Galaxy A50 also has complaints of spammy notifications and ads on the lock screen. However, you do get the option to disable lockscreen stories in the initial setup process.
Samsung Galaxy A50 performance, battery life and camera
Samsung has heavily promoted the Galaxy A50’s Super AMOLED screen. It’s crisp, bright and vibrant. Blacks are deep and colours pop. Everything looks great.
The phone’s single speaker produces loud sound, but it is not very clear. You can use it to watch video clips occasionally. But the experience of watching a full movie is not great.
The in-display fingerprint sensor will attract the attention of many people. But it also has some drawbacks. It is slow to recognize. Sometimes it takes two seconds or more to unlock the phone. This delay will disappoint you. If you want, you can unlock the phone even in standby mode. But only after trial and error will you know where to place your finger. There is also face recognition, which sometimes works faster.
We never noticed any lag or slowdown in normal use. We got the 4GB RAM variant for review. And we were happy with it. If you think you will use this phone for many years, you can also buy the 6GB RAM variant by spending Rs 3,000 extra.
We played PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legends on the phone at high settings. We were not disappointed.
In normal use, the battery will easily last for about a day and a half. Starting the day, we shot photos and videos, streamed movies, played games for a while and also did web browsing. After this, about 30 percent battery was left at night. In our HD video loop test, the battery gave up in 14 hours and 59 minutes, which is considered excellent. The charger provided in the retail box charges the battery from zero to 11 percent in about 10 minutes. And 30 percent in 30 minutes.
Samsung Galaxy A50 will also be known for its camera feature. It has a triple camera setup on the back. The primary sensor is 25 megapixels. The secondary camera is for wide shots. It is an 8 megapixel sensor, with 123 degree field of view. Finally a 5 megapixel depth sensor. A 25 megapixel sensor with F/2.0 aperture has been provided on the front panel.
Samsung has touted camera features like Live Focus mode for portraits, 480fps 720p slow-mo video mode, Hyper-lapse mode for timelapse videos, AR emojis, Pro mode, and Intelligent scene optimization. You can switch between the standard and wide-angle cameras before you start shooting a video. It is not possible to do so in the middle of a video recording.
The Samsung Galaxy A50’s standard camera (top) and wide-angle camera (bottom). Tap to see full-sized image
The front and rear camera setup will allow you to record videos in full-HD+ resolution.
You will also be able to change the background blur in portrait shots. You have options like the standard bokeh, assorted filter effects and the dolly zoom effect. Edge detection was excellent.
We were satisfied with the pictures taken with the camera of Galaxy A50. At times, there were complaints of overexposure and burn out in brightly lit parts of the frame in daylight. There was a lack of detail at night. But overall the pictures came out good, with a lot of detail. The wide angle camera gives you a lot of flexibility. You will be surprised to see how much you can fit in a frame from the same place with a wide angle lens. But the quality decreases and distortion is also visible.
Tap to see full-sized Samsung Galaxy A50 camera samples
Night performance was good, not great. Photos may look good on the phone’s screen. But the shortcomings get exposed in full size. Motion blurring occurs at times due to the shutter being open for too long. Closeup shots taken at night are usable even if there is not enough light.
Videos recorded from a standstill look great. Motion was crisp in daylight. Details were also captured. The wide-angle camera gives a fisheye effect to everything. The video is a bit dark, but remains smooth. The company has not mentioned about video stabilization. But we found usable footage recorded. Videos at night lacked details. The secondary camera gave a dark and blotchy video output.
The front camera has a live focus mode, but without any effects. You can adjust the level of blur after taking a shot, but edge detection is not good. The default beautification makes shots look artificial.
Our verdict
Unfortunately, with a starting price of Rs 19,990, the Galaxy A50 competes with Xiaomi’s Poco F1 which comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor. If you like gaming or want a smoother experience, Xiaomi’s Poco F1 is a better option. But it doesn’t have three rear cameras and it doesn’t come with an all-screen design either.
Even though Samsung has adopted an aggressive strategy with this phone, Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro is one step ahead of it. It comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 processor, 48 megapixel primary camera, Gorilla Glass 5 and other powerful specifications. The starting price of Redmi Note 7 Pro is Rs 13,999 and its expensive variant is Rs 16,999 (with 128 GB storage).
This phone will also face competition from Samsung’s Galaxy M30. It has the same screen as the Galaxy A50. It comes with twice the storage and a bigger battery. But its processor is weaker and it is equipped with a standard fingerprint sensor. If camera quality is not your priority then remember that the starting price of the Galaxy M30 is Rs 5,000 less.
We think the Galaxy A50 will appeal to a lot of people. It has all the features that are in vogue these days. And there are no major shortcomings either. We think there is still room for improvement in the camera and software. But Samsung has made it clear that it is ready to take on the challenge with full force.