Samsung Galaxy A53 5G Review

Awesome on the youth design

Introduction

About a week back, we did an unboxing of the Galaxy A53 which you can check it out HERE. Our unboxing and first experience has been an exciting one which we have more to talk about in this review and of course how it performs.

As a start, this year’s Galaxy A series comes in 4 models, the Galaxy A23, A33 5G, A53 5G and A73 5G, all of the mentioned models does come with mid range equipped Samsung’s Exynos 1280 or Qualcomm Snapdragon series of SOC, the notable difference are the screen sizes, memory configurations and the SOC used. So no matter with model variant that you choose, you will still get the same upgraded Awesome experience from the previous 2021 A Series. Certain region may also get the 4G variant of the device in certain developing market to cater a much broader audience.

Design

The Galaxy A53 design carry on from last year’s A Series which the overall back portion of the material is build from hard plastic but much improved with chromed color matching on the sides and buttons. This gives and overall impression of a young and youthful colors while retaining its smooth material which makes holding it really grippy and feels safe at all times. Being plastic does not mean you are neglected as the design is still symmetric all round with sturdy build to it. The phone is also IP67 rated for dust and water resistant up to 1metre for 30 minutes which gives ample of time if you accidently dropped it into the water, as in freshwater.

The bottom of the phone you will spot the speaker, one USB C port and a Hybrid Dual SIM/MicroSD card slot. Over the top you will spot the noise cancelling microphone while towards the right you will have the power button and a pair of volume buttons. I find it simple and nice on the overall placements, and being simple on it is good and well all along. Weigh at 189 grams, its not too heavy in my opinion and well pocketable in my jeans or bag.

Display & Audio

Over the display department, the Galaxy A53 5G is powered by a 6.5 Inch rounded flat edge FHD+ 120Hz screen SUPER AMOLED with Gorilla Glass 5 that supports HDR10, blue light filter and peaked at 800nits making it quite suitable for interacting outdoors under bright sunlight . Display is vibrant, clear, colors were display at a fairly accurate level with minimal color washed out when viewing in different angles. It does not have adaptive refresh rate however given the screen quality and its refresh rate speed, it is completely acceptable since turning it on will not impact much on battery life. Such refresh rate will benefit over usage such as scrolling on a document, web browser and especially gaming which in return giving faster touch sentitivity and responses. This also fits with growing number of Android games that supports high refresh rates yet you will get to enjoy it with a mid tiered device.

Specifically on the speaker, when playing music, streaming or games, both bottom firing speakers and the front earpiece will work together, giving it a total audio experience surrounding it powered by Dolby Atmos.

Camera

The Galaxy A53 5G continues to give more to the camera performance and features , some carried over from their iconic S Series. The selfie images are well bright and good, and night shots works very well with its 32MP wide lens with HDR. Over the rear camera you have one 64MP wide lens, one 12MP ultra wide lens and a pair of 5MP macro and depth lens accompanied with a flash. This makes the Galaxy A53 rear camera touted as the multi-role quad camera setup.

A few sample shots were taken with a mix of 10x zoom, normal, 64MP and automatic shots taken came out on par with good aperture, colors and contrast, both front and rear camera. Close up photo and portrait photo shots are well represented with good foreground and background differentiations. During hazy or darker environment shots also came out quite well with shadows and good amount of light captured.

On video recording you get support up to UHD 30FPS or FHD at 60FPS, which considering powered by the SOC and coupled with the camera capability, it is performing fine without issues. FHD video is awesome with stabilization features and the included hardware OIS.

Performance

Under the hood, the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G is powered by the new Samsung Exynos 1280 5G 5nm Octa Core Processor, 256GB of internal storage and 8GB RAM with Android 12 and One UI 4.1. For such configuration, it is considerably very generous specially on the internal storage, which is also expandable via MicroSD card. Call quality whether its a 2G call or even via VOLTE, WoWIFI option is available as well when enabled, delivering crystal clear voice quality. This is the first which Samsung finally introduces its mid tiered SOC with embedded 5G connectivity that further expands more users in adopting it. If you really need 5G but at a slightly lower specification and budget level, the Galaxy A33 5G is a good option also. the Galaxy A53 5G comes with dual band AC WiFi ensuring stable connectivity on all your work and entertainment needs.

Over to the gaming side, this phone performs great on mobile esports title such as PUBG and Mobile Legends, which also support the phone’s 120Hz refresh rates. Much intensive titles like Call Of Duty Mobile and Genshin Impact might need to lower down the graphical settings while maintaining the 60FPS refresh rates to keep things smooth. But no matter what games you throw it on, the Galaxy A53 5G will be able to run it and as app and game developer also playing it’s role in optimizing this new SOC to further improve the experience.

Benchmarks

Benchmark performance meets expectation, delivering higher mid tier range performance as shown above. Such score is great as a work life balance device. While it is just a synthetic score, if you are currently using an older Snapdragon by 2 to 3 generations, or coming from the older Snapdragon 600 series, this phone is absolutely recommended.

Battery performance wise, you will get around 12 hours of it, a mix of calls, surfing, email, streaming, and a few Mobile Legends matches and Genshin Impact . Turn on the battery saving mode under 20% will get you around extra 2.5 hours of conservative usage. While it is known that the Galaxy A53 5G does not come with a charger, you can always get any third party compatible PD charger. A typical 15w fast charger will fill up from 10% to 100% in less than 2 hours (depending on background applications running)

Specifications

Conclusion 

The Samsung Galaxy A53 5G is a fun, youthful device that packs quite powerful processor and memory configurations that goes along with it, not to mention it has fast 120Hz refresh rate display which is perfect for those looking for an upgrade from an older generation SOC phones, and it is also suitable for casual entertainment, social media, and daily work use. With Samsung’s reliable commitment, you will at least get 2 generations of OS upgrade and to the very least, 4 years of security upgrade. At RM1849, its budget mid tier pricing is well suitable for most users that needed a modern smartphone quad camera setup with Super AMOLED display also.

Pros

• 120Hz Refresh Rate Display
• Very bright Super AMOLED display
• IP67 Water and Dust Resistance
• Dolby Atmos tuned stereo speakers

Cons

• Visible performance lag on certain apps, games

The Samsung Galaxy A53 5G is now widely available at RM1849 that comes in 4 colors, Awesome Blue, Black, White and Peach. For more information, click HERE to find out more.