Samsung Galaxy A50, A30, Tab S5e hands-on review

Introduction

We're going to assume that we've all collectively taken-in Samsung's new Galaxy S10 line by now and enjoyed it in full. After all, that's one of the industry's current yearly obsession. Just in case you haven't had your fill yet, might we direct you to our pretty in-depth hands-on review.

That's all fine and dandy, we never say no to some great tech eye-candy. But what if you don't really need the most bleeding-edge the Korean giant has to offer? This fancy new Dynamic AMOLED panel and its sophisticated fingerprint reader and HDR10+ support. Or that front-facing TOF sensor. Intriguing for sure, but hardly essential. What if all you want is a solid upper-end smartphone and you happen to like Samsung's way of doing things in the Android realm?

Well, the "A"-series is traditionally where you should look. However, that particular lineup has been undergoing some soul-searching for some time now. From an insistence on a metal build, through IP ratings and a few other inconsistent trends, in recent months Samsung has mostly been using the "A" line as a testing ground for new features, like the quad-camera setup on the Galaxy A9 (2018) or the Infinity-O display on the Galaxy A8s.

Samsung Galaxy A50 specs

• Body: Front glass, plastic body; 158.5 x 74.7 x 7.7 mm; Color options: Black, White, Blue and Coral
• Screen: 6.4" Super AMOLED; 19.5:9 aspect ratio; FullHD+ (1080 x 2340 px)
• Rear cameras: 25 MP, f/1.7, PDAF; 8 MP, f/2.2, (ultrawide); 5 MP, f/2.2, depth sensor
• Video capture: 1080p@30fps
• Front camera: 25 MP, f/2.0, fixed-focus
• Chipset: Exynos 9610 Octa (10nm), octa-core processor (4xCortex-A73 + 4xCortex-A53), Mali-G72MP3 GPU.
• Memory: 4GB of RAM + 64GB storage / 6GB of RAM + 128GB storage; Up to 512GB microSD card support
• OS: Android 9.0 Pie; Samsung One UI on top
• Battery: 4,000mAh Li-Ion; Samsung quick charge
• Connectivity: Dual-SIM/ Single-SIM options available; LTE; USB 2.0 Type-C; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; GPS + GLONASS + BDS; Bluetooth 5.0; NFC
• Misc: Single bottom-firing speaker, Under-display fingerprint reader

Well, that crazy chapter might thankfully be drawing to a close if the Galaxy A50 and A30 are of any indication. Both are a lot tamer and traditional Samsung offers. Instead of experimental features for the sake of marketing, we see a return to the well-proven philosophy of simply offering a step-down in feature set from the Galaxy S line.

Samsung Galaxy A30 specs

• Body: Front glass, plastic body; 158.5 x 74.7 x 7.7 mm; Color options: Black, White, Blue
• Screen: 6.4" Super AMOLED; 19.5:9 aspect ratio; FullHD+ (1080 x 2340 px)
• Rear cameras: 16 MP, f/1.7, PDAF; 5 MP, f/2.2, depth sensor
• Video capture: 1080p@30fps
• Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.0, fixed-focus
• Chipset: Exynos 7885 Octa (14nm), octa-core processor (2x2.2 GHz Cortex-A73 & 6x1.6 GHz Cortex-A53), Mali-G71 GPU.
• Memory: 3GB of RAM + 32GB storage / 4GB of RAM + 64GB storage; Up to 512GB microSD card support
• OS: Android 9.0 Pie; Samsung One UI on top
• Battery: 4,000mAh Li-Ion; Samsung quick charge
• Connectivity: Dual-SIM/ Single-SIM options available; LTE; USB 2.0 Type-C; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; GPS + GLONASS + BDS; Bluetooth 5.0
• Misc: Single bottom-firing speaker, Rear-mounted fingerprint reader

That being said, there is still clearly a lot going on behind the scenes in terms of product strategy. If nothing else, there's the revamped naming scheme, clearly borrowed from the company's new Galaxy M line. We're still not sure whether it's indicative of some sort of beneficial move towards naming unification and better segmentation.

And speaking of potentially sound and beneficial decisions, we definitely have to classify the new Galaxy Tab S5e under that category. Sure, we are perfectly aware that for many the tablet class of device is pretty much irrelevant with the average phone screen size on the constant rise.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e specs

• Body: Front glass, metal frame; 245 x 160 x 5.5 mm; Color options: Black, Gold, Silver
• Screen: 10.5" Super AMOLED; 16:10 aspect ratio; 1600 x 2560 px
• Rear cameras: 13 MP, f/2.0, 26mm, 1/3.4", 1.0µm, AF
• Video capture: 2160p@30fps
• Front camera: 8 MP, f/2.0, 26mm, 1/4.0", 1.12µm, fixed-focus
• Chipset: Qualcomm SDM670 Snapdragon 670 (10 nm), octa-core processor (2x2.0 GHz 360 Gold & 6x1.7 GHz Kryo 360 Silver), Adreno 615 GPU.
• Memory: 4GB of RAM + 64GB storage / 6GB of RAM + 128GB storage; Up to 512GB microSD card support
• OS: Android 9.0 Pie; Samsung One UI on top
• Battery: 7,040mAh Li-Ion; Samsung quick charge
• Connectivity: Single-SIM (Nano-SIM); LTE; USB 3.1 Type-C; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; GPS + GLONASS + BDS + GALILEO; Bluetooth 5.0
• Misc: 4 speakers (Top: 2, Bottom: 2), Sound by AKG, Cinematic sound with Dolby Atmos technology, POGO charging

Still, tablets might have its place in out lives and they excel in certain use cases. There is still a potential market for them given that the right balance of features and price is actually met. That's what the Tab S5e seems to be going for - bring down pricing on a relatively premium feature set to appeal to a broader public. We can definitely get behind that approach.

Join us on the following pages as we take a closer look at the rest of Samsung's MWC portfolio, out-staged by the Galaxy S10 launch.