Samsung Galaxy A50 Review: A classy Mid-Ranger

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Samsung seems to be in the mood to hit back hard this year. The South Korean behemoth began 2019 with the launch of India centric Galaxy M20 and M10, which it claims have done overwhelmingly well. More recently, Samsung unpacked its 2019 flagships – Galaxy Fold and Galaxy S10-series – right before MWC 2019. Now, the company has once again turned the heat up in the budget and mid-range segment with three new editions – Galaxy M30, Galaxy A50 and Galaxy A30. (Samsung Galaxy A50 review हिंदी में पढ़िए)

Of these, the A50 leads the pack and offers an interesting string of premium features without burning a hole in your pocket. In recent few weeks, we used this A-series phone as our daily driver, and based on our experience, here’s our Samsung Galaxy A50 review:

Page Contents:

Samsung Galaxy A50 Price and Specification

Model Samsung Galaxy A50
Display 6.4 FHD+ Infinity-U display, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Processor 2.3GHz Octa-core Exynos 9610 chipset
RAM 4GB/6GB
Internal Storage 64GB, expandable up to 512GB (Dedicated card slot)
Software Android 9 One UI
Primary Camera 25MP (F1.7) + 5MP (F2.2) + 8MP (Ultra-Wide)
Secondary Camera 25MP (f/2.0)
Others In-display, 4G Dual VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, USB Type-C port, 3.5 mm audio jack, proximity sensor, light sensor, and accelerometer
Battery 4000mAh, 15W fast charging support
Price in India
  • 4GB + 64GB – Rs. 19,990
  • 6GB + 64GB – Rs. 22,990

Samsung Galaxy A50 Unboxing: What’s in the package

Samsung hasn’t done anything really fancy with the packaging of its latest affordable offering. The packaging is neat and appears to be made of bio-degradable material. Inside the box, Samsung has bundled almost everything that is essential for a new buyer. The Galaxy A50 box contents are as follows:

  • Samsung A50 mobile phone unit
  • Travel Adapter
  • USB Type-C Data cable
  • Earphones
  • Ejection Pin
  • TPU Soft Case Cover
  • User Manual and documentation

ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy A51 Review

Samsung Galaxy A50 Review: Design and Build Quality

Samsung Galaxy A50 carry forwards the set legacy of A-series. The phone casts a positive spell as soon as you take it out of the box. Thanks to its curved back and light build, it offers excellent in-hand feel. The facia is dominated by a stunning, nearly edge-to-edge display with a u-shaped notch on top and a slight chin at the bottom.

Looking at it from the rear side, it reminds me of Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2 with its 3D Glasstic (as Samsung calls it) back panel. The rear panel has a glossy glass finish but it is actually made of polycarbonate. Samsung has cleverly tapered the edges ensuring good ergonomics and easy single-hand operation.

The slim side rail is also made of polycarbonate with power and volume rocker stacked on the right edge – both of which offer a gratifying tactile response. All ports and the loudspeaker find a place on the bottom edge, while the SIM tray goes in a slit on the left edge.

As for the build quality, we didn’t see any bending or hear any creaking when we applied pressure on the back with our thumbs. All in all, the Galaxy A50 is thoroughly premium and solid.

ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy S10+ Review

Samsung Galaxy A50 Review: Display and fingerprint sensor

In true sense, it’s that display of Galaxy A50 which is the real star here. The phone comes with Infinity-U SuperAMOLED screen that just looks fabulous. It has a full HD+ resolution with 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The screen is bright, vibrant and seems well-calibrated. With deep blacks and good viewing angles. Everything looks good on the screen, be it indoors or outdoors.

The Galaxy A50 display also comes embedded with a fingerprint sensor. Apart from the Galaxy S10-series, this is the only other Samsung phone to feature an in-display fingerprint sensor at the time of writing. It’s an optical sensor and not an ultrasonic one as on high-end Samsung phones.

Setting up the Galaxy A50 fingerprint scanner is a fairly easy process. It’s not anything as fast as the one you’d get on the OnePlus 6T, but it’s still quite consistent.

The Galaxy A50 also has a fast Face Unlock you could use instead. 

ALSO READ: OnePlus 7 Pro Review

Samsung Galaxy A50 Performance Review

The Samsung Galaxy A50 is driven by an Exynos 9610 chipset. Samsung’s in-house developed chip is based on 10nm FinFET process and comprises octa-cores divided into two quad-core clusters. While one cluster has Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.3GHz, the other cluster has all Cortex-A53 CPUs ticking at 1.7GHz. The chipset is coupled with Mali G72MP3 GPU to meet your graphics requirement. The Galaxy A50 review unit that we have comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.

On the software front, the Galaxy A50 has Android Pie-based Samsung’s new One UI. The new interface has been designed for taller phones that we have now transitioned to. If you have used a Samsung phone previously, you will notice that the interface has been completely overhauled. It’s easier to use with one hand, has colorful iconography and nifty animations.

Samsung has also added a ‘night mode’ which certainly looks great on AMOLED panel. It comes with both on-screen navigation button and full-screen gestures. Unlike the Galaxy S10 series, it doesn’t have a Bixby button. However, if you often use Bixby, you could configure the power button as a Bixby key. The new interface is also easy on resources. Samsung has also integrated ‘lock screen stories’ that we saw on the Galaxy M-series phones.

In terms of performance, the Exynos 9610 backed Galaxy A50 is consistent and snappy with day-to-day usage. Our Galaxy A50 unit featured 4GB RAM and we did experience some minor frame drops while playing PUBG on high settings. The game ran fine on ‘balanced’ graphics at medium frame-rates.

In case you are wondering how powerful the Exynos 9610 is, we’d say it’s one step below  Snapdragon 660 – which is good enough for our usage.

Unlike most other phones that we have come across in this price segment, the Galaxy A50 RAM management is well optimized and it can hold multiple apps in the background.

Samsung Galaxy A50 Benchmark Test

Benchmark Standard Galaxy A50 Benchmark Scores
AnTuTu 143166
Geekbench Single Core 1716
Geekbench Multiple Core 5504
3D Mark Sling Shot Extreme OpenGL ES 3.1
Sling Shot Extreme – Vulkan
1282;
1344

ALSO READ: Redmi Note 7 Pro Review – Xiaomi Declares A War!

Samsung Galaxy A50 Camera Review

The Galaxy A50 boasts of a triple camera system as one of its major highlights. Samsung has once again opted for a 25MP primary sensor (f/1.7 aperture ) which is coupled with a 5MP sensor (f/2.2 aperture) and an 8MP wide-angle sensor (f/2.2 aperture). For selfie lovers, there is also a 25MP camera (f/2.0 aperture) placed right inside the u-shaped notch.

The Galaxy A50 camera app offers features like Pro mode, Live Focus, Panorama, Slow motion, Hyperlase, AR emojis and a few more. Samsung has also added an AI-based intelligent scene optimization option. Of late, Samsung has started adding support for high-efficiency HEIF and HEVC format and can be enabled from the setting.

Portrait mode works fine. Edge detection is very good.

How is Galaxy A50 camera performance? Well, it managed to deliver crisp and vibrant images in daylight conditions. Like most Samsung cameras, the Galaxy A50 too tend to keep exposure on the higher side to ensure photos look good without compromising on shadows.

Dynamic range and contrast are great in outdoor settings. 

The camera can lock focus on close objects easily. 

Lowlight camera performance is reasonable.

Details aren’t as crisp as on Note 7 Pro, but the metering is more consistent, especially in tricky lighting.

Samsung has added a wide-angle camera that’s fun and also lets you fit a lot more in a frame. Images clicked from wide-angle lens don’t really match shots from the primary sensor and there’s a lot of distortion on the edges.

Unlike most phones in this budget, there is no dedicated night mode. The Galaxy A50 camera manages to shot decent photos in low light but doesn’t hold up well when scrutinized on a bigger screen.

On the selfie front, the Galaxy A50’s 25MP front camera manages to capture self-portraits with good details in proper lighting. It also comes with Live Focus option for bokeh effect which you can also adjust afterward.

Samsung Galaxy A50 Review Verdict With Pros And Cons

The Galaxy A50 seems to be a well thought out mid-range offering. The phone seems to be ticking a lot of right boxes. The design is cool, AMOLED display is good quality, One UI software is better than what most other Android brands have to offer, and battery backup is excellent. The day-to-day performance should be good enough for average users over a longer period of time. Overall, the Galaxy A50 practical experience is much better than what its spec-sheet implies.

The Galaxy A50 will face a stiff challenge from Xiaomi’s Poco F1 (review)  and Redmi K20, which offer more raw power. Having said that, If you are not an avid gamer, the Galaxy A50 should serve you better.

Pros

  • Excellent display
  • Premium look and feel
  • Good battery mileage
  • One UI interface
  • Supports HD streaming on Netflix and Prime

Cons

  • Average low light photography
  • Average gaming performance
  • Fingerprint sensor is not the snappiest

Where can I buy the Samsung Galaxy A50 in India?

For the Galaxy A50, Samsung has partnered with Samsung Stores, Amazon India, Flipkart, Tatacliq and a few other online and offline stores.

Deepak RajawatDeepak Rajawat
Experienced technology journalist with over 7-years of experience. Before embracing online journalism, he has worked with several legacy publications including print editions at Hindustan Times and The Statesman. He also has a keen interest in Sports, which he used to cover with equal enthusiasm in his early career.

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33 Comments
User
RONALD G CLARK
Anonymous
2 years ago

Have had my SAMSUNG A-50 for 2 years have dropped it several times and it still works great.Paid $350 for it ,thats alot better than $1200 U.S. for an Apple IPHONE that does the same thing.

Reply
User
JON ERREK
Anonymous
3 years ago

Has anyone had a problem with material this phone is made of? I have gotten a bad rash on my left hand and can only trace it to using this phone???

Reply
User
Suman
Anonymous
3 years ago

I don’t know what’s the problem with your Devices but I’m truly say that the device I bought(GALAXY A50) was really a good one. Except the problem you guys mentioned above I.e poor Fingerprint sensor beyond that everything is perfect. To be fact I dropped my phone unfortunately in a water stream. It was taken approximately 5 min to find my mobile, yet it is working like normal mobile without any complaints. Camera : Good quality Battery : Approximate battery With best enhanced performance after updating the system.

Reply
User
Gabriel Cullens
Anonymous
3 years ago

A great read. I will certainly be back.

Reply
User
sebastian
Anonymous
3 years ago

Worst phone. The A50 factory resets on its own constantly. The store guy said ‘I never heard of this’ and I got a new one. Guess what? New phone did the same thing.

Reply
User
Jerry Culbreth
Anonymous
3 years ago

What are these people in India talking about. I am very pleased with my A50. Although this is my first Smart Phone it does a good job for me. FYI you’ll never find the perfect phone. I guess living in the US network issues aren’t that prevalent. Jerry

Reply
Show Replies (1)
User
Abhiroop Dutta
Anonymous
4 years ago

Samsung A50:- (6gb,64gb) Worthless phone. Samsung are making people fool with those mother fucking technology. They provide nothing in phone except there words. Even Samsung also provide money to bench mark platform’s so that there phones can have higher ratings. Don’t ever buy any samsung products all are rubbish they are continuously making us fool. Even the customer help points are also rubbish all son of bitch there.

Reply
User
Gen Mohan Bhandari
Anonymous
4 years ago

I too have a similar story. After using it for about 6 months plus,one fine morning,as I picked it up,I saw the display weakening.Rushed to the Dealer.He tol me that he would have it fixed. Since my contacts,air tickets & some other important info was stored,I requested the Tech to retrieve these.He promptly did it.After handing over the Handset & the invoice to the Dealer,I moved out of town -hoping that the Handset would be set right. It kept on lying with the Dealer for 2 months & nothing happened. I searched Google & was able to contact the SAMSUNG Service Head by email.Promptly came the reply. I was advised to deposit the Handset at the nearest Repair Centre.I have done it & hope that it shall be set right. I have been advised to wait till I get their reply. SAMSUNG is a Brandname & the Company MUST honour its words to provide Customers-BEST SERVICE to escape trust deficit & credibility.

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