itel A50: Price in India
itel A50 has been launched in India in two configurations. Its base 3GB RAM and 64GB storage variant is priced at Rs 6,099 and the 4GB RAM and 64GB storage (reviewed by us) was launched at Rs 6,499. The phone is offered in Mist Black, Lime Green, Cyan Blue and Shimmer Gold colour options. The company claims that those who buy it will also get free screen replacement for the first 100 days of purchase.
itel A50: Design and display
As we mentioned, the smartphone has been introduced in the entry-level segment. However, I liked its design considering the low price. The phone has an iPhone-inspired camera island, which houses two camera sensors and an LED flash within three large rings. With a thickness of 8.7mm, it is relatively thick, but the display is slightly raised while keeping its plastic frame thin, due to which it did not feel too thick to look at. At the same time, it does not feel heavy in terms of weight. I had the Cyan Blue color for review, which has a glossy back panel. A texture with wavy lines is found on the panel, which shines when light falls on it. At the same time, there are thick bezels around the display, but they cannot be called too thick considering it is an entry-level offering. The power budget and volume rockers are present on the right side of the frame, whose placement is also good. There is a fingerprint sensor on the power button, which is accurate and unlocks the phone quickly without any hassle. Below there is a Type-C port with a single speaker as well as a 3.5mm audio port.
The itel A50 gets a 6.56-inch (1612×720 pixels) IPS LCD screen, which supports a standard 60Hz refresh rate, 267 PPI pixel density and a peak brightness level of 480 nits. It has a waterdrop-style notch, in which the selfie camera is fitted. Being a budget phone, the display quality is also above average. Colors appeared vivid and details sharp in videos at HD resolution. Even in bright sunlight outdoors, I did not find it difficult to read the text on the display. However, you may need to find shade in case of direct light.
itel A50: Performance
The itel A50 is a 4G smartphone that gets an octa-core Unisoc T603 budget chipset. This is a 12nm chipset that comes with Mali G57 MP1 GPU. Gaming level performance cannot be expected from the chipset, but it handled my everyday tasks comfortably. I had its 4GB RAM variant, which I used without virtual RAM throughout my review. RAM management was average and two to three apps were loaded in the background at some time. I felt lag at times while switching between heavy social media apps, but scrolling and app loading remained smooth.
In the Geekbench test, itel A50 scored 219 in single-core test and 857 in multi-core test. At the same time, it scored 151565 in AnTuTu benchmark testing. Certainly, a big score cannot be expected from a smartphone in the entry-level segment. A50 is not made for heavy gaming. Graphics intensive games like Call of Duty: Mobile and BGMI ran on base graphics settings and a lot of lag was seen during gaming. Virtual RAM also did not help me much here. However, the phone handled low-graphics demanding games like Ludo, Candy Crush Saga, Clash of Clans comfortably. The good thing is that the phone did not heat up even after about 30 to 40 minutes of continuous gaming.
itel A50: Software and Battery
The itel A50 runs on Android 14 (Go Edition), which is a lightweight system. However, here too I found a lot of bloatware on first boot, most of which could have been removed. Within a short time of use, I was spammed with notifications by native apps. However, disabling some apps also eliminated this problem. Being an entry-level smartphone, I was expecting this to happen. The UI of the Go Edition is clean and simple and easy to understand. Even after a full update, my review unit was running on the June 5 security patch, which was about to be three months old at the time of writing the review.
The itel A50 packs a 5000mAh battery unit. The phone comfortably lasted for about a day and a half with everyday tasks including social media scrolling, calling and content streaming. Android Go Edition doesn’t record screen time, so I was unable to do an HD video loop test with it. It has 10W charging support and you also get a charging brick of the same capacity in the box. With this, the phone charged from zero to 19 percent in 30 minutes, 38 percent in one hour and 100 percent in 3 hours 30 minutes.
itel A50: Camera
The itel A50 gets a dual rear camera setup, which includes an AI-backed 8-megapixel primary sensor. An LED flash is also provided in the camera island. For selfies and video calling, the front includes a 5-megapixel sensor with screen flash feature.
Primary lenses
Primary lens (2x zoom)
In daylight, the main rear sensor captures average quality photos. The sample photos had good colors, but there was a lack of sharpness. Details were present on the subject in focus, but other parts were dull. The camera was not that consistent, but one out of two to three shots was worth sharing on social media with some light editing. There is also a portrait mode here, which tries to give a bokeh effect by separating the subject and the background and is successful to some extent. However, the edge detection here did not do its job properly. Being an entry-level smartphone, it would not be right to expect too much from the camera setup. Overall, the rear camera of the itel A50 can give you some good shots in daylight.
The primary camera performed average in low light as well. Noise is visible in the viewfinder when taking pictures indoors, but the software processing removed the noise after capturing the shot. However, this sometimes washed out the details from the picture. Just like daylight, here too you may have to try more than once to get a good shot. However, the good thing is that some shots were worth sharing on social media with good contrast and natural colours.
Selfies taken in daylight were fine. There was a natural tone on the face, but some shots lacked details. Edge detection in portrait mode was also not accurate. At the same time, shots taken with artificial light at night were also average. If there is a lack of light, then the screen flash feature present in it can be useful to compensate for it. The good thing was that with the screen flash, the skin tone of the subject was natural and details were also captured in the picture.
Both the front and rear camera sensors can record videos at a maximum of 1080p 30fps. Videos captured with daylight and indoor light were below average. Videos were quite shaky with a lack of details. Jitter was also seen in the viewfinder as well as the captured videos. As I mentioned above, expecting too much from a camera system in this price range would be unfair to the itel A50.
itel A50: Should you buy it?
There is not much competition in this price segment. itel A50 It gives you good value at a starting price of Rs 6,099. It has a large and capable display and sound output for the content experience. The phone has a long-lasting battery, which can easily last you a day on a single charge. However, the performance here could have been a little better, and not much can be expected from the camera system. Still, if your budget is tight or you are switching from a feature phone to a smartphone, then itel A50 is a good option for you. If you think of increasing the budget a little more, you can get a phone with slightly better display and processing performance. Poco C65 and better camera performance Moto G04s You can also take a look at the .