Samsung Galaxy M33 5G Review: A mid-ranger that lasts for days

Samsung Galaxy M33 5G smartphone recently made its debut in India at a very competitive price in the sub-20k segment. The smartphone is powered by Exynos 1280 and has up to 8GB of RAM. It boasts of a powerful 6000mAh battery and quad-camera setup on the rear. The device aims to compete with smartphones from brands like Oppo, Realme, Poco, and Redmi but will it be able to make a place for itself in this cutthroat segment? Read on to find out.

Samsung Galaxy M33 5G review: Design

Samsung Galaxy M33 5G has a very typical ‘Samsung’ like design. At first look, the phone would look like many other regular Samsung smartphones. The smartphone has rounded corners and very less bezels for the front display. It comes in 2 colors and the one I have is Deep Ocean Blue. The color looks elegant and the back panel doesn’t catch smudges easily.

However, the phone feels bulky (215 grams) in hand (due to the 6000mAh battery) and does not have a striking appearance that might attract one to it. The front has a 6.6-inch display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 which makes the device look rigid.

The right edge of the smartphone house has a power button cum fingerprint scanner and volume rockers, whereas the left edge of the smartphone houses a SIM tray. The bottom has USB Type-C charging port, speaker grille, and 3.5mm headphone jack. The top edge is left idle whereas the back has a simple-looking square camera module that houses quad-camera lenses. LED flash is just outside the camera module and there is Samsung branding too at the back of the smartphone.

The phone fits in one’s hand but it is slightly difficult to operate it with one hand which is a bummer. The device doesn’t come with a charger or a protective case inside the box which means you will have to purchase it by paying extra bucks. Overall, the design of the Samsung Galaxy M33 5G has nothing unique and is very ordinary.

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Samsung Galaxy M33 5G review: Display

The Samsung Galaxy M33 5G comes with a 6.6-inch FHD+ Infinity-V display panel which is an LCD pane offering decent quality visuals. The colors are bright and the scenes appear detailed and crisp. It can do a 120Hz refresh rate ensuring everything feels smooth be it scrolling social media feed, browsing the web, or reading an e-book.

Content consumption experiences from apps such as YouTube, Netflix, or other OTT apps were above average in quality. You can switch between the Dark or Light mode theme as per your convenience. There are options like eye comfort shield, screen timeout, and touch sensitivity as well which you can adjust how you want them. Overall, Galaxy M33 has a better LCD display than many others for a 5G phone with under a 20k budget.

Samsung Galaxy M33 5G review: Battery

The battery is one department where Samsung Galaxy M33 5G scores some brownie points over other smartphones. It packs a powerful 6000mAh battery which lasts for 1-2 days on moderate to low light usage. Even if you are a gamer and love to stream hours of content, the battery will easily last for above a day. I watched content on Netflix, played games, listened to music, and browsed social media sites and the battery easily lasted for about 2 days. There are options to save battery power and limit background usage too, which can be enabled from the settings menu.

The device comes with 25W fast charging support which charges the devices from 0 to 100% in about 1.5 hours. Though the charger doesn’t come with the device and you will have to purchase it separately which can be frustrating for some, if you are living in an area where power outages are common or you are someone who doesn’t have time for charging the device frequently, Galaxy M33 5G can be a good choice for your because of its strong battery and quick charging capability.

Samsung Galaxy M33 5G review: Camera

Samsung Galaxy M33 5G comes with a quad-camera setup at the back. It includes a 50MP main camera, a 5MP ultrawide camera with 120-degree FOV, a 2MP depth, and a 2MP macro sensor.

The device has a simple Camera UI with various options available like taking burst shots, video stabilization, auto HDR, adding watermark, and more. Pictures can be clicked using volume keys, floating shutter button, or showing your palm to the camera. Modes like slow-motion, super slow motion, panorama, single take, and Pro allow you to tweak your photos or videos however you like.

The main 50MP camera clicks good images in daylight. They are bright, detailed, and social media-worthy. The greens, reds, and browns look beautiful when captured with this lens. The problem lies when the pictures are clicked in bright artificial lights. Too much lighting seems to disperse making the pictures hazy. Pictures in a room with a normal LED which gives softer light were better.

The 5MP ultrawide camera takes ok shots even in artificial light conditions. It covers a good FOV and pictures are not as hazy as they are with the main lens.

Aesthetic shots taken in close-up with macro and depth sensors are decent but the focus is not that accurate. The detailing is strictly average in these shots though the colors look accurate.

There is a new kind of mode called the ‘Food Mode’ which is really fun to play with. I took pictures of my normal everyday lunch as well as desserts at a restaurant and both looked even more delicious when clicked with Food Mode. It does highlight the colors of the food and makes it look yummy.

There is an 8MP selfie camera that gives good selfies even in indoor settings with artificial lights. The subject as well as the background both are kept in focus in the selfie and neither looks like it’s stealing the other’s thunder. There are selfie cameras that don’t give good selfies if they don’t highlight the subject specifically and highlight it from the background. However, that is not the case here as the background as well we looked just fine.

Samsung Galaxy M33 5G review: Performance

Samsung Galaxy M33 5G is powered by Exynos 1280 chipset. The processor doesn’t disappoint as it delivers a Snapdragon 778G chipset-level performance. Coupled with 6GB RAM, the processor makes sure apps load quickly and multitasking is seamless. Though when you run 2-3 games along with other apps, the apps do crash sometimes and the phone hangs for a few seconds, which is a downer. The 128GB storage gives ample space to store photos, videos, audio, documents, and important apps without any hassles.

As for gaming performance, it is strictly average as games like Free Fire and BGMI could only be played in medium graphics, and that too for short sessions. After playing a game for about 20 minutes, the device started warming up, and sometimes the game slowed down as well. Thermal performance has to be worked upon because the device heated up badly quite a lot after long gaming sessions and even during the benchmark tests. Some benchmark tests were performed, the results of which are given below.

The device supports 5G connectivity which will come in handy when the 5G network rolls out in India in the future. If you are someone who doesn’t like to change their phone frequently, then you would be satisfied knowing that you can continue with this one even after 5G comes in. For now, the call quality was decent even in the basement as there was no breakage of voice or call drops even in the low network area.

The Galaxy M33 5G has a stereo speaker which gives immersive loud audio while you watch content on social media, listen to music or stream content on OTT. For security, the device comes with an option for fingerprint lock and face recognition. You can also select the type of notifications you want to see on the main screen- whether they be brief or detailed. There is an option called ‘Temporary Mute’ which is useful if you want to mute your phone for a certain period of time, post which it will automatically shift to sound mode.

Let’s talk about the software part now. Samsung gives Android 12 OS with One UI 4 skin on top. One UI is a simple and colorful Android experience as it comes with various customizations and personalization. The main problem is loads of bloatware in the form of a large number of pre-installed third-party apps. These apps can be uninstalled if you don’t want them but there is adware as well, which is even more annoying. The app icons are big in size and neatly placed with ample distance between them. All in all OS experience on Galaxy M33 5G could have been better.

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Review verdict: Should you buy Samsung Galaxy M33 5G?

Samsung Galaxy M33 5G is a budget smartphone with some good features like a strong battery, quick charging support, good audio-visuals, and 5G connectivity. It does miss out on some aspects like a unique design, AMOLED display, and in-the-box charger but it does give you 128GB storage and up to 8GB RAM which is laud worthy for a smartphone under 20k. Though it has bloatware and the camera setup is not up to the mark, if you want a 5G-ready phone with all the basic specs, the Galaxy M33 5G can be your choice.