Samsung Galaxy A50 review

Competition

This year Samsung has completely revamped its Galaxy A-series and once again shifted their position on the market. The Galaxy A50 is a rather obvious offer meant to keep the budget low yet bring some cool features from the higher-tier devices - like a large Super AMOLED, snappy chip and a multi-camera setup.

And things did turn out for the better - the Galaxy A50 has the looks to impress, a very colorful AMOLED screen with an under-screen fingerprint scanner, a very capable camera on both ends, a gaming-friendly chipset, and a beefy battery that will keep the lights on for quite some time. But the best part - the price of €280 is quite reasonable and competitive.

Compromises had to be made for making such a good deal - the A50 isn't water-resistant - something the old Galaxy A series has been known for. But that's probably the only beef a long-time Samsung fan may have with the A50.

Let's take a peek at the competition. Motorola is selling the Moto G7 Plus at about the same price, but it's an inferior phone in every way - the screen is an LCD, the chipset is feeble, the camera - less impressive although it can do 4K, and the battery life was disappointing.

The Redmi Note 7 is at least €60 cheaper, and it is ready to fight back big time. The Xiaomi's most popular mid-ranger is as stunning and as fast as the A50, while it's 6.3" display is of the same resolution, but it's the IPS LCD kind. It has no wide-angle camera, but it can still excel in photos, and it even offers a Night Mode. If you aren't all about OLEDs and One UI, you may want to give it a try.

The Honor 10 Lite also impresses with a dazzling body and a large IPS LCD screen, while its Kirin 710 chip is of the same league as the Exynos 9610. The Honor omits a wide-angle snapper but makes up for that with a Night Mode by Huawei. Finally, the Honor 10 Lite costs about €80 less than the Galaxy A50 - probably the biggest reason to check this one out.

And back to Samsung - if the A50 is too large for you, then the A40 is a very good option. It is a very compact and lightweight smartphone, with a 5.9" nearly bezel-less 1080p AMOLED, a good enough Exynos 7885 chip, and a solid 3,100 mAh battery for that size. The A40 has a dual-camera on the back with a 16MP main snapper and a 5MP ultra-wide cam, it lacks a depth sensor and thus the not-so-accurate portraits. The A40 is a bit cheaper (€40), so there is that.

Motorola Moto G7 Plus • Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 • Honor 10 Lite • Samsung Galaxy A40

The Verdict

Samsung got a lot of things right in the Galaxy A50 - the design and color options, the screen, the performance, and the battery life. The still images, while not impressive in detail, are of high-resolution and dependable as long as there's sufficient light. Nighttime photos turn out with poor dynamic range, fuzzy and noisy. Most of the competitors perform much better in low-light situations. The 1080p videos, on the other hand, are impressive.

The addition of the One UI is welcome on a midranger, and we like the direction where it is going. Yes, the Galaxy A50 isn't water-resistant as its predecessors, but it excels elsewhere and makes up for all omissions with a very competitive price. We liked it for sure, and we'd recommend checking it out if it fits your budget bracket.

Pros

• Solid build and stunning paintjob
• Excellent 6.4" AMOLED
• Gaming-friendly Exynos 9610 chip
• Versatile camera that does the job well during the day
• Great portraits, nice selfies, excellent 1080p videos with stabilization
• Dependable battery life

Cons

• Lacks water-resistance
• The speaker quality is poor
• Unsatisfactory low-light camera performance
• The detail in the daylight photos could have been higher
• You need a third-party app for 4K video capturing