Samsung Galaxy A50 review

Design

Samsung has invented a whole new word for the design of the new Galaxy A phones - 3D Glasstic. While it may sound pretentious, it's actually a clever combination of words as the A50 has both glass and plastic on its body and the latter looks more like glass than plastic.

But what's also important is that the Galaxy A50 looks stunning courtesy of its dazzling paint job. In fact, the back is so shiny and has so much light reflection and refraction that it was almost impossible to get a proper shot of it. All color options - Black, White, Blue (ours), and Coral - display massive flares when exposed to a bit of light.

And this is for what the whole 3D Glasstic term was invented for. It's not Gorilla Glass, sure, but it made us talk about it, so we can consider it a success.

And while we are at the back, the Galaxy A50 has a triple-camera setup here. Don't get too excited yet, as it's far away from Huawei's trifecta. The A50 has a main 25MP camera, a secondary 8MP snapper with fixed-focus and 13mm ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 5MP sensor for depth information. There is also a LED flash around. The camera is humping just a tiny little bit and thankfully, it doesn't wobble when put on a flat surface.

The whole front of the A50 is taken by the large 6.4" Infinity-U Super AMOLED screen. It has a U-shaped notch at the top for the 25MP selfie camera, while the earpiece so thin that's it is almost invisible above it.

The screen has minimal bezels on its top and longer sides, but there is a noticeable chin at the bottom for the screen controller. The flagship models are currently the only ones not having that chin but the jury is still out whether this is good in usability terms or not.

There is an under-display fingerprint scanner on the A50 and the experience is similar to what we saw on the Galaxy S10 phones. It is positioned around the bottom and is easy to set up, but the experience is equally unreliable. One day it works just fine, the next day it's a hit and miss between considering our presses too short or too light, or just the opposite. Hopefully, a software fix is on the way for the A50 as well.

Update: June, 2019: Samsung has already released a firmware update that improves the fingerprint scanner experience. Indeed, the sensor is now more responsive and accurate. The while unlocking routine seems to be quicker, as well. And this is also the reason, why the fingerprint scanner was removed from the Cons list at the end of this review.

With a diagonal of 6.4 inches, the screen is a pretty close match to the one on the S10+ size-wise, of course. It also supports HDR10+ and has fancy curved sides. It is 1080p in resolution and has a different aspect with 19.5:9 ratio.

The Galaxy A50 measures 158.5 x 74.7 x 7.7 mm, which makes it almost identical to the S10+ footprint. It weighs 9g less though at 166g.

The frame is made if plastic, just like the back of the A50, and is as glossy and shiny. It's also very thin on its longer sides. There is a triple-card slot on the left, while power and volume keys are on the right. The essentials are at the bottom - the USB-C and audio ports, as well as the single loudspeaker.

At the end of the day we didn't really mind the plastic frame on the Galaxy A50. As long as it is reasonably durable, it's a perfectly fine alternative to the popular "glass sandwich" design.

Handling the Galaxy A50 is a pretty familiar feeling if you have any experience with a recent Samsung phone. The sides taper in a very familiar way and make for a fairly slim edge. It is super prone to fingerprints and smudges, but in spite of all that glossiness, the phone didn't feel as slippery as it looks and that's probably a first.