Samsung Galaxy A50s hands-on review

Software

The Galaxy A50s comes with version 1.5 of Samsung One UI, which is currently based on Android 9 Pie. Our test unit had the August security patch.

The One UI was a new addition to Samsung devices this year and is easily the best software experience Samsung has delivered to date. The core UI design is consistent, intuitive, and generally well-designed. If Samsung had left it alone, this would have been one of the best software experiences on the Android platform.

Samsung One UI

Unfortunately, the Galaxy A50s comes with a bunch of bloatware installed and also constantly nags you to install more. While this isn't something you see on the company's premium flagship devices, Samsung's budget and mid-range offerings often come with multiple promoted apps pre-installed along with suggestions to install more. This isn't exactly advertising per se, such as the ones you see on MIUI devices, but it's close. It is possible to uninstall most of the bloatware and also not install any of the suggested apps. But you are still stuck with apps from Microsoft and Facebook, which cannot be installed. Facebook also has other hidden apps installed on the device, designed to silently update the apps in the background even if you don't update through the Google or Samsung app stores and you need to go to system apps to find them and disable them.

Bloatware galore

Of course, some of this behavior is market dependent but it's unfortunate that Samsung indulges in these practices at all. With rising privacy and security concerns, we need to be more careful of the sort of apps we are installing on our devices. This is not the time to load your devices with a bunch of apps, many of which are largely unknown and aren't necessarily upfront about what they do with your data. We expect Samsung to do better in this regard.

Performance

The Galaxy A50s runs on the Exynos 9611, a slightly updated version of the Exynos 9610 found on the Galaxy A50. It still comes with the same memory options, consisting of 4GB RAM and 64 or 128GB storage with microSD expansion.

In terms of performance, the Galaxy A50s was disappointing. The phone constantly felt sluggish, even when doing basic tasks like doing a search in the Google app on the phone. Apps also exhibit stuttering while scrolling, which is somewhat typical of mid-range Exynos devices as the apps are usually optimized for Snapdragon devices. The Twitter app, for instance, is smooth even on budget Snapdragon devices but constantly stutters while scrolling on the Galaxy A50s.

The Exynos 9611 on the Galaxy A50s is not particularly suitable for a device in this price range and we expect something a bit more powerful to compete against the likes of the Snapdragon 730 or even the Snapdragon 712, both of which are faster. The One UI software on this device also seems unoptimized for this hardware and constantly feels a bit too heavy for the hardware running it.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  10684
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  9003
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  6863
• Realme XT
  6102
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  5396
• Samsung Galaxy A50s
  5295

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  3000
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  2537
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  2438
• Realme XT
  1899
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  1715
• Samsung Galaxy A50s
  1686

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  368846
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  265314
• Redmi K20/Xiaomi Mi 9T
  211915
• Realme XT
  185193
• Samsung Galaxy A50s
  154761
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  144574

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  101
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  82
• Redmi K20/Xiaomi Mi 9T
  38
• Realme XT
  37
• Samsung Galaxy A50s
  26
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  24

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  60
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  59
• Redmi K20/Xiaomi Mi 9T
  34
• Realme XT
  33
• Samsung Galaxy A50s
  24
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  21

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  42
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  35
• Redmi K20/Xiaomi Mi 9T
  16
• Realme XT
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A50s
  10
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  9.2

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  36
• Xiaomi Pocophone F1
  31
• Redmi K20/Xiaomi Mi 9T
  13
• Realme XT
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A50s
  9.2
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  8

3DMark SSE 3.1 Unlimited

Higher is better

• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  4850
• Redmi K20/Xiaomi Mi 9T
  2329
• Realme XT
  2284
• Samsung Galaxy A50s
  1461
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  1353

In gaming, the Galaxy A50s was okay. Games like PUBG Mobile were playable but even at the lowest setting we couldn't get the game to run at a constant 60fps on the device. Still, for casual gaming, the hardware is more than capable and the display looks really nice.

In terms of audio performance, the Galaxy A50s fortunately has a headphone jack. Samsung bundles a cheap pair of earphones with the phone, which don't sound very good but you can always get a better one for not a lot of money. Unfortunately, the single loudspeaker on the bottom of the phone has very poor audio quality. It has a thin, tinny sound that sounds annoying regardless of volume and it fires straight out the bottom of the phone, which makes it sound extremely unbalanced while watching videos and playing games. This is why we are really glad that the phone has a headphone jack.